Pitch

Pitch is a characteristic property of sound. It is related to sound frequency. When the sound consists of a pure tone without harmonics, pitch is determined by frequency alone. In speech and music, both frequency and intensity decides the pitch. MEL is the unit of pitch. One MEL is a tone with 40 dB intensity and 1000Hz frequency. The dependence of pitch and frequency is not linear. The reason for this is that the ear needs higher intensity at low sound frequencies than at high sound frequencies to give the sensation of equal loudness. Relative phases of component tones of a complex wave do not affect the ear’s perception of quality or timbre. Hence we can conclude that the human ear is insensitive to phase changes.