In Search of a Perceptual Metric for Timbre: Dissimilarity Judgments among Synthetic Sounds with MFCC-Derived Spectral Envelopes

Terasawa H, Berger J, Makino S. In Search of a Perceptual Metric for Timbre: Dissimilarity Judgments among Synthetic Sounds with MFCC-Derived Spectral Envelopes. J Audio Eng Soc. 2012;60(9):674-685. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16372

@article{Terasawa2012_16372,
  author = {Terasawa, Hiroko and Berger, Jonathan and Makino, Shoji},
  title = {{In Search of a Perceptual Metric for Timbre: Dissimilarity Judgments among Synthetic Sounds with MFCC-Derived Spectral Envelopes}},
  journal = {Journal of the Audio Engineering Society},
  volume = {60},
  number = {9},
  pages = {674--685},
  year = {2012},
  month = sep,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16372}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - In Search of a Perceptual Metric for Timbre: Dissimilarity Judgments among Synthetic Sounds with MFCC-Derived Spectral Envelopes
AU  - Terasawa, Hiroko
AU  - Berger, Jonathan
AU  - Makino, Shoji
T2  - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
J2  - J. Audio Eng. Soc.
VL  - 60
IS  - 9
SP  - 674
EP  - 685
PY  - 2012
DA  - 2012/09/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16372
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Because the spectral envelope of a sound is a crucial aspect of timbre perception, the authors propose a quantitative model of spectral envelope perception using a set of orthogonal basis functions, analogous to the three primary colors in vision. The goal is find a quantitative mapping between the physical description of the spectral envelope and its perception. This allows for a meaningful and reliable way of controlling timbre in sonification. This paper presents a quantitative metric to describe the multidimensionality of spectral envelope perception, i.e., the perception that is specifically related to the spectral element of timbre. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) were chosen as a metric for spectral envelope perception because of their linearity, orthogonality, and multidimensionality. Quantitative data from two experiments illustrate the linear relationship between the subjective perception of spectrally-varied synthetic sounds and the MFCC.
ER  -