Musical Tones Research Articles

British Acoustics and its Transformation from the 1860s to the 1910s

Summary Between the 1860s and the 1910s, British acoustics was transformed from an area of empirical research into a mathematically organized field. Musical motives—improving musical scales and temperaments, making better musical instruments, and understanding the nature of musical tones—were among the major driving forces of acoustical researchers in nineteenth-century Britain. The German acoustician, Helmholtz, had a major impact on British acousticians who also had extensive interactions with American and French acousticians. Rayleigh's acoustics, reflecting all these features, bore remarkable fruit in his treatise The Theory of Sound, which successfully subjected empirical acoustics to analytical mathematics. His accomplishments made British acoustics a subfield of physics, thus distinguishing it from the ‘new acoustics’ in early twentieth-century America.

Generalizing timbre space data across stimulus contexts: The meta-analytic approach

Studies of the multidimensionality of the complex auditory attribute called timbre often represent the perceptual structure in terms of a spatial model in which distance has a monotonic relation to perceived dissimilarity. Acoustical correlates are sought for the dimensions of these timbre spaces in order to quantify them psychophysically. An important question concerns the extent to which the results obtained with one stimulus set generalize to other stimulus sets. A meta-analytic study of data from several timbre spaces using musical tones was performed with the same multidimensional scaling algorithm. The effect of changing a subset of the sounds on the perceptual relations among common sounds was evaluated in conditions where the degree of variation along perceptual dimensions across sets was similar or different (new salient dimensions added). A change in the sounds present in the stimulus set, keeping salient dimensions constant, had little effect on perceptual structure of the common sounds in the two sets. Changing salient acoustical correlates present, while resulting in new dimensions, did not strongly affect the perceptual structure of the common sounds. Results demonstrate that, while a change in stimulus set may introduce new perceptual dimensions, the perceptual structure among sounds common to two sets remains similar.

The neural basis of pitch and harmony in the auditory system

Background in psychophysics Psychophysical experiments have shown that the human brain has a natural preference for harmonic sounds and relationships between musical tones. Even naïve listeners are able to distinguish harmonic from inharmonic musical intervals and, under many conditions, the pitches of octaves are confused even though their fundamental frequency differs by a factor of two. Our psychophysical investigations in Mongolian gerbils have shown that animals can also learn to differentiate musical intervals. Background in neurophysiology In order to understand pitch perception and the neuronal basis of harmonicity, we have to understand how neurons in the central auditory system process acoustic signals. It has been demonstrated that temporal processing mechanisms in the auditory brainstem are essential for these fundamental aspects of musical perception. Neurophysiological experiments have revealed that the periodicity of signal envelopes is crucial for the perception of pitch. Neuronal representations of envelope periods, which reflect the superposition of partials of harmonic sounds in the cochlea, are analysed by temporal correlation mechanisms in the central auditory system. These mechanisms also include processing of resolved partials. Aims In this paper we attempt to explain pitch perception and our preference for harmonic sounds on the basis of the temporal neuronal analysis and the spatial representation of pitch information in the brain. Conclusions As a result of cochlear analysis, frequency is mapped along a tonotopic axis in all auditory brain areas. Similarly, as a result of temporal analysis, periodicity is mapped from the midbrain to the auditory cortex. In each case, tonotopic and periodotopic axes are orthogonal to each other. One may say that spectral information, as an important aspect of timbre, is mapped along a first neural axis, periodicity (pitch) is mapped along the second neural axis of the auditory system. Finally, as a result of temporal analysis, neurons in the auditory midbrain show preferences for harmonically related sounds. The major function of the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL), which seems to have a structure reminiscent of the pitch helix of music psychology, appears to be to control and suppress these harmonic responses.

Music and neuroscience: a multidisciplinary approach to the neurobiological substrates of music related behavior

Two decades ago, the idea to focus on music-related aspects of behaviour as a methodological tool to study the neural correlates of human complex cognitive functions was a rather uncommon practice within neuroscience. Nowadays, a rapidly evolving field has been formed under the general name The Neuroscience of Music as an attempt to develop a whole new approach to the study of musical abilities, which would enrich the traditional music-theoretic ones. Besides that, and due to the fact that music-related behaviour encompasses many different functions of human cognition, it was recently proven to be a valuable window for neuroscientists onto complex brain functions. A draft map of the related research area could be formulated in terms of the simplicity or complexity of the behavioural aspect under study. That classification scheme might also be influenced by adopting a distinction between peripheral versus more centralized neural processing functions and their underlying neural structures. To begin with the more fundamental auditory perception qualities, which also constitute the main topic of interest within the current symposium, a brief introductory discussion to the talks that follow, will be done as an attempt to reveal the common ground between all different disciplines which focus on the analysis of neural processing of stimulus's characteristics along the auditory pathway up to the cortex. This kind of rather peripheral processing is performed through a series of successive transformations and encodings, by which characteristic spectrotemporal features of acquired individual sounds or musical tones are represented by corresponding sets of elementary perceptual attributes, such as pitch, timbre, subjective timing and duration. Recent studies on brain responses to various aspects of musical structure and syntax revealed the existence of characteristic topologies of brain activity, that correlate to specific macrotemporal aspects of music. Similarities between linguistic and musical structure processing, especially observations about the close interconnection of music and speech as an important factor for language acquisition in early life, are finally discussed through a presentation of a recently developed battery of musical tests (Overy, Ann NY Acad Sci, 2003) in combination with a computer based interface for an early diagnosis of specific learning difficulties in the domain of literacy (Overy and Papadelis, in press).

Perceptual Smoothness of Tempo in Expressively Performed Music

Perceptual Smoothness of Tempo in Expressively Performed Music

Toothbrush assembly with sound generating function

A toothbrush assembly with a sound generating function for providing excitement and entertainment to a user and for encouraging a young child to brush his or her teeth is provided. The toothbrush assembly has a contact-type switch and a sound generator. The contact-type switch has a swingable contact and generates a pulse when a power switch of the assembly is instantaneously closed for every swing of the swingable contact according to the tooth-brushing movement of a user. The sound generator has a counter for counting pulses from the contact-type switch and a sound recording and play back unit for generating a voice message or musical tone when the sum of the pulses counted by the counter reaches a predetermined value. The sound recording and play back unit of the sound generator outputs different voice messages or musical tones according to different predetermined values reached by the sum of the pulses counted by the counter.

Glottic configuration in wind instrument players

SummaryIntroductionKnowledge of occupational voice disorders has gained increased importance as more individuals rely on their voices for their work. Wind instrument players are a specific group of individuals that present intensive use of the vocal tract associated with blowing their instrument. Interestingly, only a small number of reports focus on the laryngeal function of such professionals.AimThe current study evaluated the laryngeal and vocal tract movement of wind instrument players.Materials and MethodsTen adult wind instrument players were studied with flexible videolaryngoscopy while playing their instrument, in order to observe the movements of the glottis, the vocal tract and the base of the tongue.ResultsIn all the participants it was observed that musical tones were played with adducted vocal folds and that the greater the technical difficulty reported by the player, the more it was associated with increased lateral tension in the larynx, as well as constriction in the vocal tract.ConclusionsThe larynx controls the airflow that will reach the mouthpiece of the instrument, directly interfering in blowing. Therefore, wind instrument players should also be considered professional voice users.

Portable telephony apparatus with music tone generator

Portable telephony apparatus with music tone generator

The Psychophysics of Harmony Perception: Harmony is a Three-Tone Phenomenon

In line with musical common sense (but contrary to the century-old tradition of musical psychophysics), we show that harmony is an inherently three-tone phenomenon. Previous attempts at explaining the affective response to major/minor chords and resolved/unresolved chords on the basis of the summation of interval dissonance have been notably unsuccessful, but consideration of the relative size of the intervals contained in triads leads directly to solutions to these historical problems. At the heart of our model is Leonard Meyer's idea from 1956 concerning intervallic equidistance - i.e., the perception of tension inherent to any three-tone combination that has two intervals of equivalent size (e.g., the augmented chord). By including the effects of the upper partials, a psychophysical explanation of the perceived sonority of the triads (major>minor>diminished>augmented) and the affective valence of major and minor chords is easily achieved. We conclude that the perceptual regularities of traditional diatonic harmony are neither due to the summation of interval effects nor simply arbitrary, learned cultural artifacts, but rather that harmony has a psychophysical basis dependent on three-tone combinations. THE psychophysical study of music has an honorable history going back at least to Helmholtz (1877). Particularly since the 1960s and the widespread use of electronic techniques to create and measure musical tones with great precision, the perception of two-tone intervals and the influence of upper partials on the perception of intervals have been rigorously examined, and several important insights gained. Some of the successes of this reductionist scientific approach to the perception of music will be reviewed below, but a discussion of the science of music must begin with a statement of the complete failure thus far to account for the core phenomena of diatonic harmony on psychophysical principles. Most significantly, the fact that some chords sound stable, final and resolved, while others sound unstable, tense and unresolved cannot be explained solely on the basis of the summation of interval dissonance among tones and their upper partials. Moreover, although the positive and negative affective valence of major and minor chords is salient both to young children and to adults from diverse cultures, this also has not been explained. As a consequence of the simultaneous ability to explain the basics of interval perception (and therefore the emergence of diatonic and pentatonic musical scales worldwide) and yet the inability to explain the perception of even the simplest of three-tone harmonies, there is a widespread (if often implicit) acknowledgement that harmony perception may be a result of the learning of the arbitrary tone patterns commonly used within the so-called Western idiom, with little acoustic rationale for these patterns other than the consonance of certain intervals. THREE-TONE PSYCHOPHYSICS

Absolute pitch and pupillary response: Effects of timbre and key color

The pitch identification performance of absolute pitch possessors has previously been shown to depend on pitch range, key color, and timbre of presented tones. In the present study, the dependence of pitch identification performance on key color and timbre of musical tones was examined by analyzing hit rates, reaction times, and pupillary responses of absolute pitch possessors (n = 9) and nonpossessors (n = 12) during a pitch identification task. Results revealed a significant dependence of pitch identification hit rate but not reaction time on timbre and key color in both groups. Among absolute pitch possessors, peak dilation of the pupil was significantly dependent on key color whereas the effect of timbre was marginally significant. Peak dilation of the pupil differed significantly between absolute pitch possessors and nonpossessors. The observed effects point to the importance of learning factors in the acquisition of absolute pitch.

Paleontological Sonification: Letting Music Bring Fossils to Your Ears

Sonification is the process of translating any type of data into sound. In paleontology, it is possible to render various aspects of fossil shapes, such as cephalopod suture patterns or brachiopod commissure lines, as a series of musical tones that can be recognized easily by the human ear. Paleontological applications of sonification might enable auditory perception of morphologic patterns in fossils that may or may not be visually apparent. Some simple classroom demonstrations can help students understand the potential of using sound to identify different types of fossils with their eyes closed (i.e., using their ears alone).

Low-frequency interaural cross correlation discrimination in stereophonic reproduction of musical tones

By industry standard (ITU-R. Recommendation BS.775-1), multichannel stereophonic signals within the frequency range of up to 80 or 120 Hz may be mixed and delivered via a single driver (e.g., a subwoofer) without significant impairment of stereophonic sound quality. The assumption that stereophonic information within such low-frequency content is not significant was tested by measuring discrimination thresholds for changes in interaural cross-correlation (IACC) within spectral bands containing the lowest frequency components of low-pitch musical tones. Performances were recorded for three different musical instruments playing single notes ranging in fundamental frequency from 41 Hz to 110 Hz. The recordings, made using a multichannel microphone array composed of five DPA 4006 pressure microphones, were processed to produce a set of stimuli that varied in interaural cross-correlation (IACC) within a low-frequency band, but were otherwise identical in a higher-frequency band. This correlation processing was designed to have minimal effect upon other psychoacoustic variables such as loudness and timbre. The results show that changes in interaural cross correlation (IACC) within low-frequency bands of low-pitch musical tones are most easily discriminated when decorrelated signals are presented via subwoofers positioned at extreme lateral angles (far from the median plane). [Work supported by VRQ.]

Turning speech into music in a two-dimensional space by varying the bandwidth and rate of tone pulses placed along formant tracks

A two-dimensional space is introduced which changes sounds from speech-like to music-like by varying the rate and the bandwidth (decay-time) of individual tones placed along formant contours. At one extreme of a very fast pulse rate and a long decay time, the sounds are equivalent to sine-wave speech. With a more moderate tone rate and a short decay time, the sounds become monotone (at the tone-rate) speech. For tone rates around 10/s with long decay times, individual musical tones are heard at the formant frequencies. Intelligibility is poor for such sounds because of the low sampling rate of the formant contours. Increasing the tone rate and decreasing tone decay time increases intelligibility and makes the sounds less music like. Intelligibility data together with speech-like and music-like ratings of sounds from this space will be presented.

Automatic detection of vibrato in monophonic music

Vibrato is one of the most common techniques in musical performances for enriching the sound. We propose a novel method that automatically detects vibrato in monophonic music. It is based on modeling the probability of vibrato existence using three vibrato parameters, i.e., the vibrato rate, extent, and intonation. Experiments using various musical instrument tones and the solo performance show the effectiveness of the method. The proposed method can be applied to music recognition such as the wav-to-midi conversion.

When coloured sounds taste sweet

Synaesthesia is the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal linkage--for example, hearing a tone (the inducing stimulus) evokes an additional sensation of seeing a colour (concurrent perception). Of the different types of synaesthesia, most have colour as the concurrent perception, with concurrent perceptions of smell or taste being rare. Here we describe the case of a musician who experiences different tastes in response to hearing different musical tone intervals, and who makes use of her synaesthetic sensations in the complex task of tone-interval identification. To our knowledge, this combination of inducing stimulus and concurrent perception has not been described before.

Musical tone generating apparatus, musical tone generating method, and program for implementing the method

There is provided a musical tone generating apparatus that is capable of generating more natural musical tones even when musical tone waveform data is generated at a recording sampling frequency lower than a sampling frequency, by recovering harmonic components missing in the musical tone waveform data. All frequency components included in musical tone waveform data read out from a tone color data memory are shifted in a positive direction by a predetermined frequency lower than half the recording sampling frequency. The lower frequency components of the shifted frequency components than the half the recording sampling frequency are cut off by an HPF. The amplitude of the musical tone waveform data from which the frequency component is cut off is adjusted by a multiplier. Then, the musical tone waveform data adjusted in amplitude and the original musical tone waveform data read out are added together, and a musical tone is generated based on a result of the addition.

Musical tone generating apparatus and method for generating musical tone on the basis of detection of pitch of input vibration signal

A vibration signal (e.g. a human voice) is generated at a desired pitch corresponding to a tone pitch of a musical tone desired to be generated, and is input via a microphone. The pitch of the input vibration signal and an amplitude (volume) level thereof are detected. When an amplitude level equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold level has been detected but the pitch has not been detected yet, an instruction of generation of a noise tone is issued thereby to generate the noise tone. Thereafter, when a certain pitch is detected, a musical tone is generated at a pitch determined according to the detected pitch. In this way, a noise tone is generated during a delay in pitch detection, and a delay in response at the start of sounding is absorbed.

Method for generating rich sound environments using genetic or shaped algorithms

Small, high-quality soundfiles are algorithmically recombined and their behavior altered to create rich, non-looping sound environments. These environments consist of sound effects as well as musical tones; for example, the sound of a single water drop or a single ocean wave can be replicated and regenerated according to algorithmic rules to create a long-running non-looping sound effect. Sonic parameters such as pitch, start time, intensity, and apparent spatial location are given initial values which are then changed in realtime via genetic algorithms to generate new values. When applied in Web-based 3D environments (e.g., VRML, Java3D, etc.), the present invention dramatically reduces the necessity for downloading large soundfiles. The present invention may also be used in real-world systems to produce long-running, interactive, non-looping sound environments. Applications of the present invention include awareness systems, entertainment systems, real/virtual interplay, and long-term auditory monitoring and display.

Music mirrors tone patterns in our speech

Music mirrors tone patterns in our speech

Development of Portable Color Discrimination for the Visually Impaired and Color Blindness

The inability to discriminate color is an ongoing problem for the visually impaired and those with color blindness. We propose a portable color discrimination unit that communicates color information to users in verbal messages and sound. The unit states what color the target is and, by scanning its surface, transmits a continuous musical tone corresponding to color variations in the scanned area. The targetive is to make color patterns and the target layout recognizable, requiring 1) colorimetric stability, 2) translation of colorimetric information into an appropriate color name, and 3) setting of a relationship between color and sound. We propose using automated calibration and developed a colorimetric unit with high environmental robustness. Colorimetric data consists of RGB data, which does not lend itself readily to color discrimination, so we developed a way to convert RGB data to 220 color names. To develop easy-to-remember color-sound correspondence, we propose using the Shepard Tone Method, in which Shepard tones are mapped onto color hues. These are combined so users scan a target and hear a continuous sound and, if necessary, a color name, to recognize the target’s overall color pattern, somewhat akin to how a visually impaired person recognizes a sculpture by touching its surface.