This application demonstrates the phenomenon in which smaller sounds (maskee) that occur close in time or frequency to a louder sound (masker) are masked (become harder to hear).
Frequency Masking: A phenomenon where a signal of smaller volume that is close in frequency to a much louder signal becomes inaudible.
Move the maskee frequency slider closer to the masker's frequency to observe how the maskee becomes harder to hear.
Temporal Masking: A phenomenon where a smaller volume signal close in time (just before or just after) to a louder signal becomes inaudible.
We use tone bursts for playback and set the masker and maskee to the same frequency for the experiment. The closer the maskee's playback timing is to the masker’s playback timing (0 ms), the more difficult the maskee is to hear. Also note that it is more strongly masked when it occurs after the masker than when it occurs before.
* To prevent audio clipping, the actual playback level is an additional -6 dB below the displayed level.
* For easier viewing, only the spectral level display (yellow graph) is given a +12 dB offset.
*You can also press the spacebar to toggle Play/Stop
Frequency Spectrum
Time-Axis Sound Pressure Level