Timbre saliency is defined as the attention-capturing quality of timbre. Saliency differences between timbres were measured using a tapping technique in which the stronger beat in ABAB isochronous sequences was reproduced by the listener, the idea being that the more salient timbre would capture listeners' attention and be chosen more often as the strong beat. A timbre saliency space was defined in which the distance between a pair of timbres corresponded to the difference in timbre saliency. Stimuli were generated with 15 orchestral instruments, equalized in pitch, loudness and duration. Data from 40 participants yielded a one-dimensional CLASCAL solution with two latent classes and specificities. Latent class structure shows no relation with gender, musicianship or age. Testing audio descriptors from the Timbre Toolbox [Peeters et al., 2011, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 130, 2902-2916], the odd-even harmonic energy ratio explains 51% of the variance along this dimension. A combination of tristimulus (band 3) and odd-even ratio explains 73% of the variance in the mean saliencies of individual sounds across all other comparison sounds. Mean saliency thus seems to depend on the high-frequency harmonic energy and spectral envelope jaggedness, whereas saliency comparisons between timbres depend more on spectral envelope jaggedness.
Changes in instrument combination patterns in Western classical orchestral music are traced over a three hundred year period from 1701 to 2000. Using a stratified sample of sonorities from 180 orchestral works by 147 composers, various empirical analyses are reported. These include analyses of instrumentation presence, instrument usage, ensemble size, common instrument combinations, instrument clusterings, and their changes over time. In addition, the study reports associations of different instruments with various dynamic levels, different tempos, pitch class doublings, affinities between instruments and chord factors, as well as interactions between pitch, dynamics, and tempo. Results affirm many common intuitions and historical observations regarding orchestration, but also reveal a number of previously unrecognized patterns of instrument use.
Purpose
The overall goal of the current study was to determine whether noise type plays a role in perceptual quality ratings. We compared quality ratings using various noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges using hearing aid simulations to consider the effects of hearing aid processing features.
Method
Ten older adults with bilateral mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss rated the sound quality of sentences processed through a hearing aid simulation and presented in the presence of five different noise types (six-talker babble, three-talker conversation, street traffic, kitchen, and fast-food restaurant) at four SNRs (3, 8, 12, and 20 dB).
Results
Everyday noise types differentially affected sound quality ratings even when presented at the same SNR: Kitchen and three-talker noises were rated significantly higher than restaurant, traffic, and multitalker babble, which were not different from each other. The effects of noise type were most pronounced at poorer SNRs.
Conclusions
The findings of this study showed that noise types differentially affected sound quality ratings. The differences we observed were consistent with the acoustic characteristics of the noise types. Noise types having lower envelope fluctuations yielded lower quality ratings than noise types characterized by sporadic high-intensity events at the same SNR.
We have proposed the notion of timbre saliency as the attention-capturing quality of timbre. The definition of saliency requires an object to stand out with respect to its surroundings, implying dissimilarity between the object and its neighbors. What then might be the relationship between timbre saliency and timbre dissimilarity? A classic timbre dissimilarity experiment and a timbre saliency experiment were carried out with 20 participants on the same set of stimuli. Multidimensional scaling revealed a two-dimensional dissimilarity space. Using the features obtained from the Timbre Toolbox [Peeters et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130, 2902–2916 (2011)], the first dimension shows a high correlation with spectral centroid [r(13) = 0.845, p < 0.0001] and spectral spread [r(13) = 0.855, p < 0.0001], both based on the ERB-FFT model spectrum, and the second with the attack time [r(13) = -0.692, p = 0.004] and power spectral crest [r(13) = 0.732, p < .005]. This confirms spectral centroid and attack time as two major acoustic correlates of timbre dissimilarity. The saliency dimension shows a moderate correlation with the second dimension [r(13) = 0.578, p = 0.0241] but not with the first dimension [r(13) = 0.182, p = 0.517], suggesting that the saliency might be more related to the temporal characteristics of timbre.
This study was a first-step investigation of the efficacy of signal loudness when engaging in listening tasks. Based on physiological principles, pitch and timbre discrimination were hypothesized to be more accurate when stimuli were at low excitation levels. Discrimination tests were carried out at near audible threshold and at a robust somewhat loud listening level. Comparative metrics and non-parametric analyses indicated a consistent negative influence of signal strength on measured performance. While promising, more work is needed to determine the practicality and application of the findings.
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