Timbre from Sound Synthesis and High-Level Control Perspectives

Abstract

Exploring the many surprising facets of timbre through sound manipulations has been a common practice among composers and instrument makers of all times. The digital era radically changed the approach to sounds thanks to the unlimited possibilities offered by computers that made it possible to investigate sounds without physical constraints. In this chapter, we describe investigations on timbre based on the analysis-by-synthesis approach that consists of using digital synthesis algorithms to reproduce sounds and further modify the parameters of the algorithms to investigate their perceptual relevance. In the first part of the chapter, timbre is investigated in a musical context. An examination of the sound quality of different wood species for xylophone making is first presented. Then the influence of physical control on instrumental timbre is described in the case of clarinet and cello performances. In the second part of the chapter, environmental sounds have been investigated in order to identify so-called invariant sound structures that can be considered as the backbone, or the bare minimum, of the information contained in a sound that enables the listener to recognize its source both in terms of structure (e.g. size, material) and action (e.g. hitting, scraping). Such invariants are generally composed of combinations of audio descriptors such as decay, attack, spectral density and pitch. Various investigations on perceived sound properties responsible for the evocations of sound sources are here identified and described through both applied and fundamental studies.

The Communication of Timbral Intentions Between Pianists and Listeners and Its Dependence on Auditory-Visual Conditions

“…This study aims to examine the communication of piano timbre between pianists and listeners and the influence of audio-visual presentation modes on the communication outcome. The focus on piano timbre originates from the touch-tone debate in piano performance, corresponds the trend of increasing attention on semantic studies of piano timbre (Bellemare and Traube, 2005 ; Bernays, 2013 ; Kojucharov and Rodà, 2015 ), and sheds light on the understanding of the relationship between timbre and musical expressivity (Barthet et al, 2010 ; Ystad et al, 2019 ). This research expects that, like expressivity and emotions, pianists can express different timbral intentions in their performances and listeners can detect those intentions from either the variations in sound or the visual cues in performative gestures (H1).…”

Cognition and Music Performance

“…This study aims to examine the communication of piano timbre between pianists and listeners and the influence of audio-visual presentation modes on the communication outcome. The focus on piano timbre originates from the touch-tone debate in piano performance, corresponds the trend of increasing attention on semantic studies of piano timbre (Bellemare and Traube, 2005; Bernays, 2013; Kojucharov and Rodà, 2015), and sheds light on the understanding of the relationship between timbre and musical expressivity (Barthet et al, 2010;Ystad et al, 2019). This research expects that, like expressivity and emotions, pianists can express different timbral intentions in their performances and listeners can detect those intentions from either the variations in sound or the visual cues in performative gestures (H1).…”

Machine Learning for Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research: A Practical Case Study

“…Musical Issue. Sonic exploration is a central task in music creation [13]. Specifically, exploration of digital sound synthesis consists in taking multiple steps and iterative actions through a large number of technical parameters to move from an initial idea to a final outcome.…”