Quantifying sound colour of musical instruments – precise harmonic timbre coordinates of like instruments

Prislan, Rok (author), Kržič, Urša (author), Svenšek, Daniel (author)

Timbre – sound “colour” – is an abstract, delicate property of sound, especially in a high-value context such as musical instruments. It is a perceptual construct so intangible that it cannot be considered a quantity. Since sound nevertheless reaches our ears as a complete physical reality, we hypothesize that this inherent abstraction of its timbre is primarily due to the lack of a meaningful, musically relevant, and robust quantification that would do justice to the subtlety of human auditory perception. It is therefore not surprising that not a single aspect of timbre is to be found in the specifications of musical instruments. We introduce harmonic timbre coordinates, concrete and robust numbers that quantify a partial aspect of timbre of an instrument’s sound – its harmonic structure – with a precision that allows relevance in the musical context. These numbers could, for example, help a buyer find an instrument whose sound is closer to his or her preferences. Or they could enable precise tracking of harmonic changes in sound, and more.

• Language: English
• Keywords: acoustics, musical instruments, timbre
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 05.02.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 8, art. no. 8
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154308-69db070c-aaa6-fe70-0fc4-f2f766ba0b7b
• UDC: 534
• ISSN on article: 2681-4617
• DOI: 10.1051/aacus/2023071
• COBISS.SI-ID: 183975683
• Publication date in RUL: 06.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta acustica
• Shortened title: Acta acust.
• Publisher: EDP Sciences
• ISSN: 2681-4617
• COBISS.SI-ID: 56233731

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: akustika, glasbeni inštrumenti, barva zvoka