Timbre blending of wind instruments: acoustics and perception

Abstract

The acoustical and perceptual factors involved in timbre blending between orchestral wind instruments are investi- gated based on a pitch-invariant acoustical description of wind instruments. This description involves the estimation of spectral envelopes and identification of prominent spectral maxima or ‘formants’. A possible perceptual relevance for these formants is tested in two experiments employing differ- ent behavioral tasks. Relative frequency location and mag- nitude differences between formants can be shown to bear a pitch-invariant perceptual relevance to blend for several in- struments, with these findings contributing to a perceptual theory of orchestration.