Psychoacoustic phenomena in electric-guitar performance
Jonas Braasch, Jonas Braasch, Joshua L. Braasch, Joshua L. Braasch, M. Torben Pastore · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2021
Early prototypes of the electric guitar were created at about the time public address systems were invented in the 1930s, with the pure intention of making the instrument louder. However, it was not until the 1950s when artists like Link Wray, Chuck Berry, and Ike Turner used non-linear distortion as the first electronic effect to transform the electric guitar into a fundamentally new instrument. The effect adds higher harmonics and improves sustain, allowing for long notes and spectral presence. Several other effects and techniques followed (e.g., delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, equalization, and compression), which were often used to blend the electric guitar into a band mix or to help it sonically stand out. Interestingly, the apparatus used for psychoacoustic research stems from the same electronic-circuit innovations that founded the electric guitar's electronic-effect industry. This presentation will focus on computational auditory scene analysis of variously effected guitar tracks embedded in a whole band mix to determine how these effects are used to make the guitar blend in (fusion) or stand out (transparency). To investigate this, model parameters related to loudness, masking, spaciousness, and modulation detection will be computed from audio tracks.