Hi Eric B., Thanks for your detailed and informative reply. While drafting a recent Sursound post regarding KEMAR, I did a Google search to make sure I was spelling Zwislocki correctly. One reference that appeared at the top had something to do with inner ear simulation software--I need to go back and check it out. Anyway, I don't know whether the "front end" of available inner-ear simulation software allows the user to study neural coding with an arbitrary source or audio file. Analyzing complex sounds at the neural level (particularly innervation of inner hair cells) would require a lot of data-logging channels or replaying the stimulus over and over while systematically moving the 'logger' to the many virtual receptors. If such a simulation exists, one might be able to measure differences (at neural level) between a wav file and its mp3 counterpart. Considering that neural firing appears to be a lot more complicated than basilar membrane motion alone (which is primarily mechanical except for motile outer hair cell contributions to membrane elasticity), we might expect to use statistical measures to decide what significant differences, if any, exist. This still wouldn't provide conclusive evidence when it comes to perception. I realize there has been a long-standing debate over audio file types and rates, but my guess is that the subjects used in studies consisted of normal-hearing young people with no familial history of hearing loss. Normal hearing generally means thresholds = 10 dB HL or better at the audiometric test frequencies (highest test frequency being 8 kHz). Such screening measures are generally employed to ensure a 'normal' (and homogeneous) population. Perhaps people claiming to possess 'golden ears' have participated in mp3 vs wav studies, too. But this kind-of avoids the subtle issue of outliers or people who have (for example) auditory processing disorders or other abnormalities that are independent of hearing thresholds. We have a reasonable grasp on how mammals hear (the physiological aspect), but we don't know a whole lot about how we listen. Of course, just as with hybrid mixing, the way to avoid potential pitfalls or danger in a research or clinical environment is to avoid the lossy file types altogether. Best, Eric Carmichel (also not to be confused with Eric Carmichael--my last name has an unusual spelling. Cheers!)
________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20130405/1c6d0db1/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
