Subject: Fwd: Re: Loudness of complex tones From: Pamela Goad <PGoad(at)METOLIUS.COCC.EDU> Date: Tue, 22 Nov 1994 10:39:50 PDTRE: Loudness of complex tones, in particular, musical instrument tones. In our lab at the University of Washington, we have completed two studies which deal specifically with loudness of musical instrument tones. My colleague, Daniel Bruck, did an adjustment study where subjects adjusted a second tone of the same pitch and instrument type to be equally loud. The variable was the original musical dynamic of the two tones (eg., piano, forte, mezzo forte, etc.). Thus, the spectral envelopes differed. He also did a comparison between the Stevens and Zwicker methods of calculating loudness using these stimuli. I completed a study where loudness was calculated according to the Zwicker method for a two-octave playing range in two extreme musical dynamics (pianissimo and fortissimo) for twenty-six different musical instruments. One objective was to compare loudnesses across and between instrumental families and voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). Another objective was to make a comparison with spectral measurements of sharpness as defined by Bismarck (1974) which uses psychoacoustical modeling based on the Zwicker method but with an exponential weighting for frequency. Both of these studies dealt with "steady-state" tones. You may get a copy of the technical reports from Douglas Keefe, School of Music, DN-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. They are also in preparation for publication. As alluded to in some of the previous responses, another interesting question is the time-varying aspect of loudness. In music, there are many contextual situations where expression is dependent upon varying loudness on a single note whether it be through articulations, phrasing, or vibrato. Pamela Goad pgoad(at)metolius.cocc.edu