Timbral attributes for objective quality assessment of the Irish Tin Whistle

In this paper we extract various timbral attributes for a variety of Irish tin whistles, and use these attributes to form an objective quality assessment of the instruments. This assessment is compared with the subjective experiences of a number of professional musicians. The timbral attributes are drawn from those developed in the Timbre Mode

Partial Envelope Analysis with Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

This paper investigates the application of the technique of Nonnegative Matrix Factorisation (NMF) to the analysis of partial envelopes extracted from a variety of instrumental sounds. Firstly, the initialisation of the NMF method is shown to be important for obtaining useful results. This is followed by an experimental analysis of the bases produced by NMF that demonstrates how they represent prototypical signal features

Dynamic Time Warping for Tin Whistle Partial Envelope Analysis

This paper examines techniques for the analysis of the amplitude envelope of harmonic partials in a tin whistle sound. Due to the nature of the envelope, a robust technique is required to estimate envelope parameters. This is achieved using a dynamic time warping based method. Furthermore, a heuristic scheme for addressing difficulties in envelope modelling is also introduced. The results presented show performance improvements over more established methods

Comparing synthetic and real templates for dynamic time warping to locate partial envelope features

In this paper we compare the performance of a number of different templates for the purposes of split point identification of various clarinet envelopes. These templates were generated with Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (ADSR) descriptions commonly used in musical synthesis, along with a set of real templates obtained using k-means clustering of manually prepared test data. The goodness of fit of the templates to the data was evaluated using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) cost function, and by evaluating the square of the distance of the identified split points to the manually identified split points in the test data. It was found that the best templates for split point identification were the synthetic templates followed by the real templates having a sharp attack and release characteristic, as is characteristic of the clarinet envelope

An evaluation of warping techniques applied to partial envelope analysis

Traditional methods for partial envelope analysis run into difficulties in the presence of tremolo and noise. This paper investigates an alternative method of analysis that uses a variety of non-linear warping techniques to match a synthetic envelope template to the partial envelope. Generation of suitable templates is discussed and the variety of implementations for the warping algorithm is examined. A complete procedure for matching the template is then explained and justified. Application of this procedure to partial envelope analysis of flute sounds is described and the results presented demonstrate the best choice of warping implementation. This technique allows for better envelope segmentation thus enabling improved modelling in representations such as the Timbre Mode

Considerations for a Computational Estimation of the Complex FM Spectrum

Complex frequency modulation (FM) is a useful method for sound synthesis as it allows the creation of rich timbres using only a small number of waveforms. However, the mathematical expression for the frequency domain representation of a frequency modulated (FM) wave with a non-sinusoidal modulator is a complex equation with multiple summation terms. Its implementation in software requires nested loops, with the number of loops depending on the number of sinusoidal components required to describe the complex modulator wave. Although the spectral representation can be easily computed from the FFT of the time domain waveform, this is at the expense of the insight that can be gained by direct evaluation of the analytic expression for the frequency domain representation. This paper looks at creating a software implementation of the analytic expression that overcomes the need for many nested loops and can be generalized. It will also suggest how it could be applied in a distributed processing environment

Considerations for a Computational Estimation of the Complex FM Spectrum

Complex frequency modulation (FM) is a useful method for sound synthesis as it allows the creation of rich timbres using only a small number of waveforms. However, the mathematical expression for the frequency domain representation of a frequency modulated (FM) wave with a non-sinusoidal modulator is a complex equation with multiple summation terms. Its implementation in software requires nested loops, with the number of loops depending on the number of sinusoidal components required to describe the complex modulator wave. Although the spectral representation can be easily computed from the FFT of the time domain waveform, this is at the expense of the insight that can be gained by direct evaluation of the analytic expression for the frequency domain representation. This paper looks at creating a software implementation of the analytic expression that overcomes the need for many nested loops and can be generalized. It will also suggest how it could be applied in a distributed processing environment

Implementing loudness models in Matlab

In the field of psychoacoustic analysis the goal is to construct a transformation that will map a time domain waveform into a domain that will best capture the response of a human perceiving sound. A key element of such transformations is the mapping between the sound intensity in decibels and its actual perceived loudness. A number of difdferent loudness models exist to achieve this mapping. This paper examines implementation strategies for some of the more well-known models in the Matlab software environment

Dynamic Time Warping for Tin Whistle Partial Envelope Analysis

This paper examines techniques for the analysis of the amplitude envelope of harmonic partials in a tin whistle sound. Due to the nature of the envelope, a robust technique is required to estimate envelope parameters. This is achieved using a dynamic time warping based method. Furthermore, a heuristic scheme for addressing difficulties in envelope modelling is also introduced. The results presented show performance improvements over more established methods

Timbral attributes for objective quality assessment of the Irish Tin Whistle

In this paper we extract various timbral attributes for a variety of Irish tin whistles, and use these attributes to form an objective quality assessment of the instruments. This assessment is compared with the subjective experiences of a number of professional musicians. The timbral attributes are drawn from those developed in the Timbre Mode