Isolating the dynamic attributes of musical timbre

Three experiments examined the dynamic attributes of timbre by evaluating the role of onsets in similarity judgments. In separate experiments, subjects heard complete orchestral instrument tones, the onsets of those tones, and tones with the onsets removed ("remainders"). Ratings for complete tones corresponded to those for onsets, indicating that the salient acoustic attributes for complete tones are present at the onset. Ratings for complete tones also corresponded to those for remainders, indicating that the salient attributes for complete tones are present also in the absence of onsets. Subsequent acoustic analyses demonstrated that this pattern of similarity was due to the centroid frequencies and amplitude envelopes of the tones. The results indicate that the dynamic attributes of timbre are not only present at the onset, but also throughout, and that multiple acoustic attributes may contribute to the same perceptual dimensions.