Perception of attributes in real and synthetic string instrument sounds

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Doctoral thesis (article-based)
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Date

2003-01-31

Major/Subject

Psychoacoustics

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Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

52, [77]

Series

Report / Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, Raportti / Teknillinen korkeakoulu, Akustiikan ja äänenkäsittelytekniikan laboratorio, 68

Abstract

This thesis explores the perceptual features of natural and synthetic string instrument sounds. The contributions are in formal listening experiments on a variety of features in musical sounds that have not been studied in detail previously. The effects of inharmonicity on timbre and pitch have been measured. The results indicate that the implementation of inharmonicity is not always necessary. The timbre effect is more salient in natural instruments, but for high tones a pitch difference may also be detected. Guidelines were given for compensation of the pitch effect. A perceptual study of the decaying parameters showed that large deviations from the reference value are tolerated perceptually. The studies on the audibility of initial pitch glides and dual-polarization effects provides practical knowledge that helps in the implementation of these features in digital sound synthesis. Related to expression rather than basic string behavior, the study on perception-based control of the vibrato parameters has a sligthly different background. However, all of the studied features are more or less player-controlled by different ways of plucking the string or pressing the key. The main objective of the thesis is to find answers to current problems in digital sound synthesis, such as parameter quantization. Another aim is to gain more general understanding of how we perceive musical sounds.

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Keywords

perception, string instruments, sound source modeling, psychoacoustics

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Parts

  • Järveläinen, H., Välimäki, V. and Karjalainen, M., 2001. Audibility of the timbral effects of inharmonicity in stringed instrument tones. In Acoustics Research Letters Online (ARLO) 2, No. 3, pages 79-84.
  • Järveläinen, H. and Tolonen, T., 2001. Perceptual tolerances for the decaying parameters in string instrument synthesis. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 49, No. 11, pages 1049-1059. [article2.pdf] © 2001 AES. By permission.
  • Järveläinen, H. and Välimäki, V., Audibility of initial pitch glides in string instrument sounds. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Havana, Cuba, 17-23 September 2001, pages 282-285. [article3.pdf] © 2001 by authors. By permission.
  • Järveläinen, H., Verma, T. and Välimäki, V., 2002. Perception and adjustment of pitch in inharmonic string instrument tones. Journal of New Music Research 31, No. 3. [article4.pdf] © 2002 by authors and © 2002 Swets & Zeitlinger BV. By permission.
  • Järveläinen, H., Perception-based control of vibrato parameters in string instrument synthesis. Proc. International Computer Music Conference. Gothenburg, Sweden, 16-21 September 2002, pages 287-294. [article5.pdf] © 2002 by author. By permission.
  • Järveläinen, H. and Karjalainen, M., Perception of beating and two-stage decay in dual-polarization string models. Proc. International Symposium on Musical Acoustics. Mexico City, 9-13 December 2002. [article6.pdf] © 2002 by authors. By permission.

Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:tkk-000239