Predictors for the perception of wildness and heaviness in distorted guitar timbre were investigated. A pairwise comparison was conducted for the stimuli of five different amounts of distortion and three types of diodes. The result indicated that the perception of wildness and heaviness seemed to be compiled as one attribute associated with the “power” of the timbre. The ratings appeared to correspond to the threshold voltage of diodes and the amount of distortion. Also, the spectral kurtosis had a relatively high negative correlation with the ratings. The types of diodes, the amount of distortion, and the spectral kurtosis seemed to be appropriate predictors for the perception of wildness and heaviness.

Authors: Tsumoto, Koji; Marui, Atsushi; Kamekawa, Toru
Affiliation: Tokyo University of the Arts, Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
AES Convention: 142 (May 2017) Paper Number: 9748
Publication Date: May 11, 2017 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Audio Processing and Effects
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18624

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