Über den Einfluβ nichtlinearer Verzerrungen auf die Hörbarkeit des Frequenzvibratos

The threshold of audibility of the frequency modulation of musical intervals is investigated. The investigations are carried out of very low modulation frequency as a function of the loudness level, with nonlinear distortion of the second and third order on the transmission system. The more consonant the musical interval is, the earlier additional beats appear when the nonlinear distortion increases. The nonlinearity of the human ear takes part in this effect. From the measurements it can be concluded that the shares of the quadratic or cubic component of the nonlinearity of the ear are individually markedly different.