Turning on a tone
William M. Hartmann, Dan C. Sartor · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1991
It is possible to choose the starting phase of a pure tone in a way that minimizes the onset noise when the tone is turned on abruptly. A spectral model shows that when the tone has a low frequency, minimum onset noise is expected for a starting phase of zero (turning on a sine tone) but when the tone has a high frequency, minimum onset noise is expected for a starting phase of +/- 90 deg (turning on a cosine tone). Listening experiments confirm the above expectations and show that the transition between low- and high-frequency domains is sharp and depends upon both the electroacoustical transducer and the individual listener.