The Perception of Musical Tones

Rasch, Rudolf; Plomp, R.

doi:10.1016/b978-012213564-4/50005-6

Cited by 46 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Thirdly, debate has been unable to resolve the dimensionality of this perceptual space. Researchers have suggested dimensionalities from 2 to 4 [2 dimensions: Rasch and Plomp (1999) and Wessel (1979); 3 dimensions: Gordon and Grey (1978), Grey (1977), Marozeau et al (2003), McAdams et al (1995), and Plomp (1970);4 dimensions: von Bismarck (1974) and Stepanek (2006)] but have never advanced a rigorous analytical argument for the claim. We solve this thorny issue by developing a novel cross-validation methodology for a recently developed nonclassical MDS procedure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic structure of the five perceptual dimensions of timbre in orchestral instrument tones

Elliott¹,

Hamilton²,

Theunissen³

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Attempts to relate the perceptual dimensions of timbre to quantitative acoustical dimensions have been tenuous, leading to claims that timbre is an emergent property, if measurable at all. Here, a three-pronged analysis shows that the timbre space of sustained instrument tones occupies 5 dimensions and that a specific combination of acoustic properties uniquely determines gestalt perception of timbre. Firstly, multidimensional scaling (MDS) of dissimilarity judgments generated a perceptual timbre space in which 5 dimensions were cross-validated and selected by traditional model comparisons. Secondly, subjects rated tones on semantic scales. A discriminant function analysis (DFA) accounting for variance of these semantic ratings across instruments and between subjects also yielded 5 significant dimensions with similar stimulus ordination. The dimensions of timbre space were then interpreted semantically by rotational and reflectional projection of the MDS solution into two DFA dimensions. Thirdly, to relate this final space to acoustical structure, the perceptual MDS coordinates of each sound were regressed with its joint spectrotemporal modulation power spectrum. Sound structures correlated significantly with distances in perceptual timbre space. Contrary to previous studies, most perceptual timbre dimensions are not the result of purely temporal or spectral features but instead depend on signature spectrotemporal patterns.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic structure of the five perceptual dimensions of timbre in orchestral instrument tones

Elliott¹,

Hamilton²,

Theunissen³

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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show abstract

“…We also assume that only the first order difference tone f 2 − f 1 is perceived. These assumptions are justified based on the empirical evidence regarding perception of combination tones [RP99].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He found that when two notes were played simultaneously, a third note could be perceived, whose frequency was the difference of the frequencies of the two played notes. When listening to two tones of frequencies f 1 < f 2 , more tones may be perceived in addition to Tartini's terzi suoni, whose frequencies are other linear combinations of the frequencies being played [RP99]. Hence, the frequencies mf 1 + nf 2 , are called the combination tones of frequencies f 1 and f 2 , where n, m ∈ Z.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perception of combination tones in humans has been qualitatively studied [RP99], and combination tones have been empirically measured in string instruments [LCC11]. Combination tones are thought to be physically produced by nonlinear resonance in the recieving auditory system, such as the human eardrum [Sch05,LCC11].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical evidence shows that the combination tones f 2 − f 1 , 2f 1 − f 2 , and 3f 1 −2f 2 are the most commonly perceived, and the amplitude of combination tones in general varies depending on the frequencies f 1 and f 2 and their intensities [RP99]. Being the most commonly perceived combination tone, we will focus exclusively on the first order difference tone f 2 − f 1 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Difference tones in “ non-Pythagorean” scales based on logarithms

Morrill

2020

Journal of Mathematics and Music

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In order to explore tonality outside of the "Pythagorean" paradigm of integer ratios, Robert Schneider introduced a musical scale based on the logarithm function. We seek to refine Schneider's scale so that the difference tones generated by different degrees of the scale are themselves octave equivalents of notes in the scale. In doing so, we prove that a scale which contains all its difference tones in this way must consist solely of integer ratios. With this in mind, we present some methods for producing logarithmic scales which contain many, but not all, of the difference tones they generate.

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Multisensory Texture Perception

Klatzky

Lederman

2010

Multisensory Object Perception in the Primate Brain

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The Perception of Musical Tones

Cited by 46 publications

References 51 publications

Acoustic structure of the five perceptual dimensions of timbre in orchestral instrument tones

Acoustic structure of the five perceptual dimensions of timbre in orchestral instrument tones

Difference tones in “ non-Pythagorean” scales based on logarithms

Multisensory Texture Perception

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