Audio Masking Effect – Part 2
The situation is somewhat different with non-simultaneous (temporary) masking ….
This phenomenon occasionally occurs in practice when the sounds that precede or follow after are masked by sufficiently loud sounds. In this case, time shift masking occurs. The degree of such masking can be determined depending on: the time interval between the arrival of the masked and masked sounds; the intensity level of the masking sound; the duration of exposure to the masking signal; The most effectively expressed is inverse time masking, which occurs when the masking sound follows the masking. An increase in effect is also seen if both sound signals are transmitted to one ear (monaural). In the case of temporal masking, the effect weakens as the time interval between the arrival of the original and masking signals increases. Contrary to the expected phenomenon, temporal masking does not show a linear increase in the masking rate due to the increase in the intensity of the masking sound. However, time masking preserves the nature of frequency dependence: the closer the masked and masked sounds are in frequency, the more pronounced this phenomenon is.
The masking examples considered above took place in cases where both signals (masked and masked) arrived monaurally, that is, in one ear. However, if the masking sound signal enters one ear and the masked sound enters the other, the masking effect will still be observed. This masking is called central (binaural) masking …. It is in many ways similar to monaural, although there are significant differences. The amount of threshold change caused by center masking is much less than monaural masking, appearing more for high-frequency sounds than for all others. Sound tones of similar frequency, as in the case of monaural masking, have the greatest audible effect. Increasing the intensity of the masking sound when considering binaural masking is important in the case of a pulsed signal.
The human characteristic of sound perception reveals a number of interesting characteristics, one of which is binaural unmasking. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the fact that thanks to two sound wave receivers, a person can “separate” sounds of a certain frequency from general noise (for example, a conversation). Very often, this effect is observed in a noisy environment, for example, at a party, surrounded by conversation noise, when it suddenly turns out to “hear” the conversation of the interlocutor. The ability to isolate (in this context, acts as the ability to amplify) a certain frequency range from the variety of inconsistent sounds (noise) is a unique natural gift and characteristic of the human perception system.
