Timbre
Article
Timbre is the perceived quality or character of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds having the same pitch, loudness, and duration. It allows listeners to tell a violin from a flute or one voice from another.
Timbre depends on the distribution and evolution of harmonics, inharmonic components, noise, attack, decay, modulation, and resonance. The shape of a sound's spectrum changes through time and strongly influences recognition.
The physical source, excitation method, resonating structure, and performance technique all contribute. Room acoustics, microphones, loudspeakers, and signal processing can further alter the resulting quality.
Timbre is studied in acoustics, music perception, speech science, psychoacoustics, instrument design, and audio synthesis. It is multidimensional and cannot be described by a single numerical quantity.
Source details and credits
- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre