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Acoustics · Hearing

Mel scale

What is mel scale? A clear definition from the acoustics, hearing and psychoacoustics section of our glossary, with 12 related terms, tools to try and further reading.

Definition of Mel scale

The mel scale (after the word melody) is a perceptual scale of pitches judged by listeners to be equal in distance from one another. The reference point between this scale and normal frequency measurement is defined by assigning a perceptual pitch of 1000 mels to a 1000 Hz tone, 40 dB above the listener's threshold. Above about 500 Hz, increasingly large intervals are judged by listeners to produce equal pitch increments.

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What is Mel scale?

The mel scale (after the word melody) is a perceptual scale of pitches judged by listeners to be equal in distance from one another.

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