Perception of Timbre and Sound Color

Abstract

This chapter deals with perception of timbre or sound color. Both concepts can be distinguished in regard to terminology as well as to their historical and factual background even though both relate to some common features for which an objective (acoustic) basis exists. Sections of this chapter review in brief developments in (traditional and electronic) musical instruments as well as in research on timbre and sound color. A subchapter on sensation and perception of timbre offers a retrospective on classical concepts of tone color or sound color and reviews some modern approaches from Schaeffer's objet sonore to semantic differentials and multidimensional scaling. Taking a functional approach, acoustical features (such as transients and modulation) and perceptual attributes of timbre as well as interrelations between pitch and timbre are discussed. In a final section, fundamentals of sound segregation and auditory streaming are outlined. For most of the phenomena covered in this chapter, examples are provided including sound analyses obtained with signal processing methods.