Analysis of concurrent timbres with an auditory model
Gregory J. Sandell · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1994
Concurrently sounding timbres (two or more instruments playing on the same or different pitches) sometimes yield unexpected qualities of sound which are exploited in orchestration. A model simulating spectrum analysis by the human auditory periphery is used to explore the differing contributions of individual instruments to the sum sound. Signals are passed through a bank of overlapping bandpass filters whose center frequency spacing corresponds to equal physical distances along the basilar membrane. Thus sinusoidal components do not fall into single ‘‘bins’’ as in a Fourier analysis, but rather spread excitation over a large number of channels. Some partials are resolved in separate channels while other partials are processed in a single channel with others, leading to interactions that determine the overall timbre of the combination. Sampled musical instrument tones are combined into concurrent arrangements and analyzed with the method.