the dissensus listening test

click on this link and listen to the 4 pairs of notes:

http://philomel.com/demos/wav/tritone.wav

for each pair of notes, write down whether you think the second note is higher or lower than the first. it should be pretty clear in each case. so you'll end up with four results - up or down for each.

try not to look at everyone else's responses until you have done the test yourself. perhaps just play the .wav and look away from your screen, writing whether each pair goes "up" or "down" on a piece of paper. it's best to try and do it first time if we want to get accurate results.

fingers crossed... the results should be interesting!

yeah - definitely 4 pairs

beep beep
beep beep
beep beep
beep beep

make sure you're catching the first pair - sometimes it gets cut off if you're using quicktime or whatever.

there is no answer luka... that's the point. I;m quite impressed by the variety of answers that have come up on here, cos I was introduced to this same kind of experiment on another board (one for producers) and the first 4 or 5 of us got exactly the same results.

people can listen to exactly the same notes / recording but hear something different. connects to the whole "trained ear" thread.

they are what's called tritones. this particular experiment is not so much a trick as a phenomenon, I suppose. there are theories (if I recall correctly) which point to such things as the pitch of your voice or the pitch / nature of your regional dialect determining which notes you hear as being higher or lower. I get the impression that mms could maybe explain the science a bit better than myself.

just thought I'd put it up as a demonstration that people can and do hear the same piece of music differently, in a very basic sense - some people hear these notes as going up, some going down. doesn't get more simple (but ultimately more confusing) than that, eh? I think it's good to appreciate and celebrate these quirks that affect everyone's listening experiences.

here's something else to check out... phantom words... but that's more related to speech than music. works best with headphones on.

ah, sorry.... what I meant to say was "luka wins".

the tuning fork is in the post.