Bark Scale and Critical Bands

This section helps you to understand what the Bark scale and critical bands are.

The Bark scale is a psychoacoustic scale that ranges from 1 to 24 Barks, and corresponding to the first 24 critical bands of hearing.

The range of audible frequencies is divided into approximately 24 frequency regions based on the Critical Bands (also known as Bark). This range of audible frequencies corresponds to a division in the basilar membrane (inner ear) of 0.9-1.3 mm each, regardless of center frequency.

In the midrange frequencies, the bands are close to Third octave bandwidth.

The Barks band edge frequencies are given in Hertz as follows: 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 510, 630, 770, 920, 1080, 1270, 1480, 1720, 2000, 2320, 2700, 3150, 3700, 4400, 5300, 6400, 7700, 9500, 12000, 15500.

The center frequencies are given in hertz as follows: 50, 150, 250, 350, 450, 570, 700, 840, 1000, 1170, 1370, 1600, 1850, 2150, 2500, 2900, 3400, 4000, 4800, 5800, 7000, 8500, 10500, 13500.