Critical band

![Figure 2: ERB related to centre frequency. The diagram shows the ERB versus centre frequency according to the formula of Glasberg and Moore.[6]](/uploads/202501/07/ERB_vs_frequency.svg5245.png)

In audiology and psychoacoustics the concept of critical bands, introduced by Harvey Fletcher in 1933 and refined in 1940, describes the frequency bandwidth of the "auditory filter" created by the cochlea, the sense organ of hearing within the inner ear. Roughly, the critical band is the band of audio frequencies within which a second tone will interfere with the perception of the first tone by auditory masking.