Perceptual effects of spectral modifications on musical timbres

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Abstract
The effects of spectral modifications on the similarity structure for a set of musical timbres were evaluated. The stimuli were 16 music instrument tones, 8 of which were modified in pairs. This modification consisted of exchanging the shape of the spectral energy distribution between the 2 tones within each pair. The 3-dimensional spatial representation of similarities among the 16 tones was obtained by multidimensional scaling techniques and compared to a previous scaling of the original 16 unmodified tones. The pairs of tones which exchanged spectral shapes in fact exchanged orders on the spatial axis which were previously interpreted as relating to spectral shape, thereby supporting the earlier interpretation. The 2 remaining axes of the spatial solution also retained their original interpretations, relating to various temporal details of the tones. A set of formal quantitative models for the spectral dimension was constructed and tested, and the results further supported the interpretation of this perceptual axis.

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