Timbre Space Representation of a Subtractive Synthesizer
This addresses the problem of understanding timbre perception in synthesized sounds for audio researchers, but it is incremental as it focuses on a specific synthesizer model.
The study produced a perceptual timbre space from dissimilarity ratings of subtractive synthesized sounds and correlated it with acoustic descriptors, finding that varied waveform input and enveloped filter were key drivers of timbral variation.
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.