Audibility of Inharmonicity in String Instrument Sounds, and Implications to Digital Sound Synthesis

Listening tests were conducted in order to find out the audibility of inharmonicity in musical sounds produced by string instruments, such as the piano or the guitar. The threshold of the audibility of inharmonicity was measured as a function of the inharmonicity coefficient at five fundamental frequencies. It was found that the detection of inharmonicity is strongly dependent on the fundamental frequency. A simple model is presented for estimating the threshold as a function of the fundamental frequency. The need to implement inharmonicity in digital sound synthesis is discussed.