REAL-TIME ANALYSIS OF SENSORY DISSONANCE
John MacCallum, Aaron Einbond, See Profile, John MacCallum, Aaron Einbond · University of Huddersfield Repository (University of Huddersfield) · 2007
Abstract. We describe a tool for real-time musical analysis based on a measure of roughness, the principal element of sensory dissonance. While most historical musical analysis is based on the notated score, our tool permits analysis of a recorded or live audio signal in its full complexity. We proceed from the work of Richard Parncutt and Ernst Terhardt, ex-tending their algorithms for the psychoacoustic analysis of harmony to be used for the live analysis of spectral data. This allows for the study of a wider variety of timbrally-rich acoustic or electronic sounds which was not possible with previous algorithms. Further, the direct treatment of audio signal facilitates a wide range of analytical applications, from the comparison of multiple recordings of the same musical work to the real-time analysis of a live performance. Our algorithm is programmed in C as an external object for the program Max/MSP. Taking musical examples by Arnold Schoenberg, Gérard Grisey and Ian-nis Xenakis, our algorithm yields varying roughness estimates depending on instrumental orchestration or electronic texture, confirming our intu-itive understanding that timbre affects sensory dissonance. This is one of the many possibilities this tool presents for analysis and composition of music that is timbrally-dynamic and microtonally-complex. 1