Loudness effect on pitch and timbre discrimination; a continuing study

Abstract

Fine discrimination in pitch and timbre is a requisite skill for musicians and audio professionals. While several trade organizations have standardized electronic-acoustic calibration levels for equipment testing and operations, conflicting and often unfounded perceptual theories along with a lack of psychophysical evidence make it difficult to pinpoint the optimal presentation level for best pitch and timbre discrimination. Results from our previous study (Bulla & Chon, FDMC, 2021) revealed higher scores for lower listening levels in conditional 2-AFC pitch and timbre discrimination tasks (15 vs 83 dBA SPL). While outcomes there indicated a consistent negative influence of the larger signal strength on the accuracy of both pitch and timbre discrimination performance, this continuing study examined changes of signal strength in order to establish whether or not observations here may apply across a variety of listening levels. Data collection is ongoing and will provide insight through observed performance metrics and help determine if there is an optimal loudness range for engaging in listening tasks such as identifying differences of pitch, discriminating fine details in timbre, or the blending and balancing of musical instruments.