Timbre Space Representation of a Subtractive Synthesizer

TL;DR

This paper constructs a perceptual timbre space for subtractive synthesis sounds using dissimilarity ratings and correlates the perceptual dimensions with acoustic descriptors, enhancing understanding of synthesized timbre perception.

Contribution

It introduces a geometrically scaled timbre space derived from human ratings and links it to acoustic features, focusing on waveform and filter effects in subtractive synthesis.

Findings

A perceptual timbre space was successfully created from dissimilarity ratings.

The study identified key acoustic descriptors correlating with perceptual dimensions.

Waveform and filter parameters significantly influence timbral perception.

Abstract

In this study, we produce a geometrically scaled perceptual timbre space from dissimilarity ratings of subtractive synthesized sounds and correlate the resulting dimensions with a set of acoustic descriptors. We curate a set of 15 sounds, produced by a synthesis model that uses varying source waveforms, frequency modulation (FM) and a lowpass filter with an enveloped cutoff frequency. Pairwise dissimilarity ratings were collected within an online browser-based experiment. We hypothesized that a varied waveform input source and enveloped filter would act as the main vehicles for timbral variation, providing novel acoustic correlates for the perception of synthesized timbres.