Musical Acoustics, Timbre, and Computer–Aided Orchestration Challenges

Abstract

Research on timbre has produced a lot of work over the last 50 years, whether on analysis of single tone, instrument timbre, synthetic timbre, or perception and emotion. However, there is still a lot to investigate for polyphonic timbre. This aspect is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in the field of computeraided orchestration. This paper reports on the development of a system capable of automatically identify perceptual qualities of timbre within orchestral sounds. Work in this area could enrich current and future computing systems designed to aid musical orchestration.