List of Vienna Talk 2010 presenters

Presentation type: Oral / Invited

Describing and classifying timbre in the time-frequency domain

In a mathematical setting, most commonly used representations of audio signals may be modelled in the time-frequency domain. For musical instrument sounds possessing the same fundamental frequency and onset-time, the difference in timbre can be described via a transition mask. Using this mask, the transition between instrumental timbres may be directly studied. In particular, intermediate timbres can be produced in a controlled manner, i.e. while observing the changes of the time-frequency pattern.
In this contribution we will introduce the techniques necessary to understand the approach. In particular, we will point out the importance of judiciously designed time-frequency dictionaries, which allow for perfect reconstruction. This design step requires the inspection of certain operators associated with time-frequency representations. We will show that in situations of practical relevance, these operators are pure multiplication operators and can thus be easily inverted. This inversion step then provides a perfect analysis-synthesis system allowing for controlled coefficient modification. Furthermore, we will show several and play several examples. As an application, the approach is applied to the classification of instrumental sounds.

Flossmann, Sebastian (O)

Fouilhe, Eric (O)

Fricke, Jobst P. (O)

Fritz, Claudia (O)

Gingras, Bruno (O)

Goebl, Werner (P)

Granzotto, Nicola (P)

Grosshauser, Tobias (O)

Guettler, Knut (O)

Hansen, Uwe J (O)

Kartofelev, Dmitri (P)

Kausel, Wilfried (P)