Timbre Space

A sound’s timbre can be represented by a point inside a conceptual timbre space, a space where the axes are usually defined by the principal attributes (e.g., spectral centroid, attack time) that one would implicitly use to perceive or conceive any timbre in a given context. Timbre spaces are obtained using a statistical method called multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), which generates a simplified multidimensional map from a series of perceptual distances between pairs of timbres (as measured in perceptual experiments). The experimenter then deduces the attributes (acoustic descriptors) that best describe the axes obtained. Timbre spaces provide us with complementary information to the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of timbre perception, and can also be a very useful compositional tool.