Speaker
Description
Audio scores convey the musical information from the composer to the musician in an acoustic way instead of written notation. Typically, the score is being played to the musician via loudspeakers, and the musician imitates what they hear. Here, psychoacoustics play a major role in the composition, because the timing of perceiving the sound changes and consciously imitating it depends on the musician’s auditory system and the acoustic environment. A critical question from the composers perspective is when the musician is able to perceive a change in timbre because this affects the compositional process. Our work approaches this question from a psychoacoustic perspective. To this end, we modelled the potential of the musician to distinguish between two timbres. Specifically, we used a template-based perception model initially designed to detect perceptual similarity between two pianos. We adapted that model to our task and extended the stimuli by sounds of other instruments. With the help of the model, composers can simulate a virtual musician and test their compositions analogous to a music notation programme that simulates a virtual instrument.