CHARACTERIZATION OF A TIMBER OF COMPLEX S OUNDS .1. MULTIDIMENSIONAL-ANALYSIS

Multidimensional scaling techniques are used to create a geometric rep resentation of the mental organization of perceptual or conceptual rel ations. In this study they are used to explore the perceptual structur e among different timbres (''timbre space''). The distance between any two timbres corresponds to their degree of perceptual dissimilarity. 98 listeners, musicians and nonmusicians of diverses nationalities, we re asked to judge the degree of dissimilarity between all pairs of a s et of 18 synthesized timbres equalized for pitch, loudness, and subjec tive duration. A multidimensionsal scaling analysis with the program C LASCAL revealed a space including three common dimensions shared by al l the timbres as well as a set of weights that indicate the existence of perceptual features specific to certain timbres (''specificities'') . Two of these dimensions seem to represent qualitatively the ''bright ness'' and ''attack quality'' of the tones. Classes of listeners were determined by from the correlational structure of the raw dissimilarit y matrices and weights are computed for each class. There was no syste matic difference between the five classes associated with the musical training of the subjects.