Timbre, Sound Quality, and Sound Design

International audienceSound quality evaluation applies the results of timbre research to the assessment of the sound quality of manufactured products (domestic appliances, transportation, etc.). This chapter first provides an overview of one methodology. A number of acoustic descriptors reflecting perceived timbre dimensions are established and used to predict users' preference judgements. Whereas such a methodology has proven very effective, it also has some limitations. In fact, most studies only consider the pleasantness of the sounds and often overlook other potential roles of sounds in products and interfaces. In the second part, the chapter introduces sound design. Whereas sound quality evaluation merely proposes a diagnostic of the timbre of existing products, sound design aims to create or modify the timbre of product sounds to meet specific intentions. These intentions consider the pleasantness, but also several other aspects of product sounds: functionality, identity, and ecology. All these aspects are interdependent and often closely related to the temporal and timbral characteristics of the sound. The chapter continues with a discussion of the roles and practices of sound designers and introduces a set of tools that foster communication about timbre between the different participants of a sound design process. In particular, the focus is on the necessity for these participants to share a common timbre vocabulary, and the potential impact of education about sounds is considered. Finally, an important functional aspect of product sound is discussed: how to design the timbre of sounds to support user interactions with the product

Taxonomy and Definitions for Sonification and Auditory Display

Hermann T. Taxonomy and Definitions for Sonification and Auditory Display. In: Susini P, Warusfel O, eds. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2008). Paris, France: IRCAM; 2008. Sonification is still a young research field and many terms such as sonification, auditory display, auralization, audification have been used without a precise definition. Recent developments such as the introduction of Model-based Sonification, the establishing of interactive sonification and the increased interest in sonification from arts have raised the issue of revisiting the definitions towards a clearer terminology. This paper introduces a new definition for sonification and auditory display that emphasize necessary and sufficient conditions for organized sound to be called sonification. It furthermore suggests a taxonomy, and discusses the relation between visualization and sonification. A hierarchy of closed-loop interactions is furthermore introduced. This paper aims at initiating vivid discussions towards the establishing of a deeper theory of sonification and auditory display

Perceptual asymmetry in the subjective duration of ramped and damped sounds

International audienceTime-varying-level sounds that increase or decrease in level are well established to induce auditory perceptual asymmetries, for loudness and subjective duration. Several studies revealed ramped sounds to be perceived louder than equivalent damped sounds using durations from few milliseconds to few seconds. In addition, other studies revealed ramped sounds to be perceived longer than damped sounds for durations from 10 ms to 500 ms. As a consequence, it could be hypothesized that the perceived duration asymmetry may be responsible for the loudness asymmetry. Thus, the aim of the present study was to extend the results about asymmetries in subjective duration for tones above 500 ms, in order to test the plausibility of the hypothesis under these conditions. Using a 2I-2AFC adaptive method, ramped and damped tones were matched in duration to the point of subjective equality. At equal subjective duration, short-damped sounds (< 0.5 s) were matched longer than short-ramped sounds, confirming previous results, whereas long-damped sounds (0.5 to 2 s) were matched to the same duration as long-ramped sounds, which question the hypothesis for durations above 500 ms

Is loudness part of a sound recognition process?

International audienceInfluence of loudness on sound recognition was investigated in an explicit memory experiment based on a conscious recollection-test phase-of previously encoded information-study phase. Three encoding conditions were compared: semantic (sounds were sorted in three different categories), sensory (sounds were rated in loudness), and control (participants were solely asked to listen to the sounds). Results revealed a significant study-to-test change effect: loudness change between the study and the test phases affects recognition. The effect was not specific to the encoding condition (semantic vs sensory) suggesting that loudness is an important hint for everyday sounds recognition. [Q-JF] Dat

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Sketching sound with voice and gesture

Insights: In product and interaction design, sounds should be included in the early stages of the design process. Voice and gestures are natural sketching tools that we can exploit to communicate sonic interactions

Loudness asymmetries for tones with increasing and decreasing levels

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)Studies of loudness change for tones with linearly varying levels using different loudness rating methods, such as direct estimation or indirect estimation based on the start and end levels, have revealed an asymmetry depending on the direction of change (increasing vs decreasing). The present study examines loudness asymmetry between increasing and decreasing levels for 1-kHz tones over the range 60-80 dB SPL and over four ramp durations (2, 5, 10 and 20 s) using direct global and continuous loudness ratings made by subjects. Three measures extracted from continuous ratings (loudness duration, loudness change, loudness slope), on the one hand, and the global loudness rating, on the other hand are examined and analyzed separately. Measures extracted from continuous ratings do not reveal any significant perceptual asymmetry between an increasing and a decreasing ramp. However, direct estimation of the global loudness is higher for an increasing ramp than for a decreasing ramp. This result can be explained by a short-term auditory memory effect called the ``recency effect''

Perceptively based design of new car horn sounds

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.Due to the technologies used, there exist only a few different kinds of car horn sounds. We propose a method for the design of new sounds, based on a perceptual study of the actual sounds of car horns. Firstly we deal with recordings of existing car horns. We show that the different kinds of horn sounds can be divided into nine main families. Within these families we demonstrate secondly that the perception of timbre results from the integration of three elementary sensations. Thirdly, another experiment reveals that some sounds are better identified as car horns than others. A relationship between the perceived timbre of the sounds and their ability to be identified as car horns is established. Finally, we generalize our results to synthesized sounds. The synthesis method was designed to explore and enlarge the perceptual space. Studying these sounds confirms and generalizes the previous results. A model is proposed, which is able to synthesize sounds and predict their ability to be identified as car horns

Perceptive study and recommendation for sonification categories

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.In the field of audio signaletics, most sound designers have their own recipes to make samples that convey a certain meaning, which we could call auditory function. The aim of the present article is to compare the perceptive representation and the functional representation with the usual sound categories designed to fulfill specific actions of user's interface. The article finally proposes recommendations for the designers according to perceptive results

Mapping Sound Properties and Oenological Characters by a Collaborative Sound Design Approach -Towards an Augmented Experience

International audienceThe paper presents a specific sound design process implemented upon a collaboration with an important stakeholder of the wine (Champagne) industry. The goal of the project was to link sound properties with oenological dimensions in order to compose a sonic environment able to realise a multisensory experience during the wine tasting protocol. This creation has resulted from a large scale methodological approach based on the semantic transformation concept (from wine words to sound words) and deployed by means of a codesign method-after having shared respective skills of each field (sound and oenology). A precise description of the workflow is detailed in the paper, The outcomes of the work are presented, either in terms of realisation or conceptual knowledge acquisition. Then, future perspectives for the following of the work are sketched, especially regarding the notion of evaluation. The whole approach is finally put in the broad conceptual framework of 'sciences of sound design' that is developed and argued in the light of this study