Abstract
Timbre is a complex auditory attribute that is extracted from a fused auditory event. Its perceptual representation has been explored as a multidimensional attribute whose different dimensions can be related to abstract spectral, temporal, and spectrotemporal properties of the audio signal, although previous knowledge of the sound source itself also plays a role. Perceptual dimensions can also be related to acoustic properties that directly carry information about the mechanical processes of a sound source, including its geometry (size, shape), its material composition, and the way it is set into vibration. Another conception of timbre is as a spectromorphology encompassing time-varying frequency and amplitude behaviors, as well as spectral and temporal modulations. In all musical sound sources, timbre covaries with fundamental frequency (pitch) and playing effort (loudness, dynamic level) and displays strong interactions with these parameters.
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Acknowledgements
The writing of this chapter was supported by grants from the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (RGPIN-2015-05280 and RGPAS-478121-15), the Canada Research Chairs Program (#950-223484), and the Killam Research Fellow Program of the Canada Council for the Arts.
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Stephen McAdams declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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McAdams, S. (2019). The Perceptual Representation of Timbre. In: Siedenburg, K., Saitis, C., McAdams, S., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 69. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14832-4_2
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