I hope this is the most appropriate SE site to ask a question about psychoacoustics.
I don't quite understand critical bands. As far as I know, if two pure tones which frequencies are inside the same critical band are heard, a single tone is perceived. But what would be that tone's frequency?
According to the classical rule of thumb, the bandwidth would be the following:
- 100 Hz if f<500 Hz
- 20% of the tone frequency if f>500 Hz
But I really don't know how to apply this. If I have two tones with f1=800Hz and f2=950 Hz, what would be perceived?
Would the critical band be 800-0.2*800=640 Hz to 800+0.2*800=960 Hz and therefore a single tone would be perceived? Or is 0.2*800=160 the real bandwidth (so the band would be from 720 to 880 Hz)? And, if a single tone is perceived, what frequency would it be?
Thank you in advance.