Theory of Timbre Perception (Kevin Austin )


Subject: Theory of Timbre Perception
From:    Kevin Austin  <kevin.austin@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Mon, 6 Aug 2007 04:04:23 -0400
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

Hi Sorry, I don't understand the question. Perhaps this is because we have different ideas about what 'timbre' is, and maybe, you don't explain what you mean by 'timbre'. A concrete example to explain: a clarinet plays its E below middle C, 4 seconds, mezzopiano, crescendo / diminuendo. Do you call this a single timbre? A second example: I sing the word "See", G below middle C, 4 seconds, mezzoforte. Do you hear a single timbre? As the term psychoacoustics has evolved into perception and cognition, I would place timbre on the 'cognition' side of this process, that is, it doesn't exist except as interpreted by the brain. The first thing I examine is how the sound is segmented. This is in my experience not easy to generalize and (for example) Smalley's spectromorphology, http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/spip.php?rubrique28 , as with Pierre Schaeffer (objet sonore http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/articleBiblio.php3?id_article=124), encounters serious difficulties in many real-world situations. My thinking is that this relates to their attempt to collapse multi-dimensional and hierarchical processes into a single 'flatland' description. Your mileage may vary. Best Kevin >Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 13:15:43 +1000 >From: Chris Share <cshare01@xxxxxxxx> >Subject: Theory of Timbre Perception > >Hi, > >I'm looking for information related to the mechanism of timbre >perception in human listeners. I realise that timbre perception >relies on the perception of loudness and pitch, however I'm having >trouble finding anything that specifically addresses the theory of >timbre perception (am I Googling in the wrong places?). I'm not >interested in articles on how listeners classify timbre. > >Any suggestions would be appreciated. > >Regards, > >Chris >


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