Shepard tone illusion

[stucoy]

Hi. I find the Shepard tone illusion interesting, and would like to know whether people with perfect pitch are fooled by it.

[scottmcc]

I don't have perfect pitch, and I'm not fooled by it.  but it's weird, and very unpleasant on my ears, that's for sure. 

here's a link for those that are unfamiliar with the shephard scale:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone

[richard black]

I've got perfect pitch and I'm not 'fooled' by it - that is, I can hear exactly how it works, and it's an interesting effect.

[ongaku_oniko]

I'm not "fooled" by it either and I don't have perfect pitch.

But i can understand how you might be fooled by it. And maybe I would've been if i didn't read about it on wikipedia first.

[birba]

The similarity to a barber's pole is right on the dot!!!  Because I could hear within the sound  descending "scales".  But it remained the same.

[stucoy]

I don't have perfect pitch, and I am completely fooled by it, to the extent that I can't listen to the 'Amazing audio illusion' video on youtube, without hearing the tones going up and up. When I watch it more than once consecutively, the tones to me go up, and up, and up. Then I get this terrible conflict in my head, knowing the tones aren't really going up, but I'm hearing them going up.

[birba]

I could have sworn I heard them going down.   

[littletune]

That sounds cool!  So what are you supposed to hear? I hear one low sound and one high one and the low one sounds kinda like airplane and the higher one sounds kinda like wolves howling or maybe like ghosts or something  So I don't really hear it go just up or just down... I hear it go up and down all the time...

[scottmcc]

I could have sworn I heard them going down.   

if you're talking about the tones on the wikipedia link I sent out (top right side of the page), then yes, they are descending.

I'm sure there are other youtube links where they ascend though. 

[birba]

Then why does stucoy hear them going up??

[littletune]

Maybe he is talking about this:

But this video is boring compared to the one in wikipedia. That one is really cool!  But I still don't know what you're supposed to hear... or what is real and what's an illusion. 

[birba]

No, this is a different one.  I can explain what's happening here.  Each sound is actually an octave.  At the beginning of the scale, the upper sound is predominant.  As it gets higher the lower sound starts to come out more, so that when you play it over, the higher sound takes the place of the lower one.  so it sounds like it's getting higher.   Get it?  

[littletune]

Yes I think I get it