Nature 258, 317 - 318 (27 November 1975); doi:10.1038/258317a0

'1/fnoise' in music and speech

RICHARD F. VOSS & JOHN CLARKE

Department of Physics, University of California and Inorganic Materials Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720

THE power spectrum S(f), of many fluctuating physical variables, V(t), is '1/f-like', varying as f ^- (0.51.5), over many decades of frequency (see ref. 1 for review). We have found that loudness fluctuations in music and speech, and pitch (melody) fluctuations in music exhibit 1/f power spectra.

References

1.	van der Ziel, A., Noise: Sources, Characterization, Measurement, 106 (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1970).
2.	See, for example, Reif, F., Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, 585 (McGraw-Hill, 1965).
3.	van der Ziel, A., Physica, 16, 359 (1950).
4.	Verveen, A. A., and Derkson, H. E., Proc. IEEE, 56, 906 (1968).