The significance of relative loudness in listener identification of pipe organ stops
Alastair C. Disley, David M. Howard · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2006
As part of a wider study of the factors affecting listener identification of pipe organ stops, the authors’ previous research [A. C. Disley and D. M. Howard, ‘‘Onset transient significance in listener identification of pipe organ stops,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 3333, abstract only (2006)] has suggested that the relative loudness of a stop as presented to a listener may have a significant effect on its identification. Recordings of a representative selection of pipe organ stops were played to a group of 43 organists in a formal listening test. Each stop was presented twice, once at its original amplitude and once at an increased amplitude equal for all stops. Listeners were asked to classify each example using nine general categories of organ stops. The results suggest that increased amplitude improves listener recognition for some stops (particularly open flute stops), but produces significant misidentification of other stops, especially those with the greatest difference between the original and increased amplitude. These results suggest that caution should be employed when considering equalizing sample amplitudes in similar listening experiments.