Perceived instrument character is shaped by the time evolution of sound amplitude
Evidence
The envelopes of the sounds of musical instruments can often be divided into different phases in time. The attack represents the phase when the amplitude of sound increases. After this, the behaviour of the sound depends on the type of the source. In string instruments, the amplitude first decreases rapidly, after which a shallower decrease is reached. In electric instruments, the attack is often followed by decay, a decrease in amplitude; sustain, a constant amplitude; and release, a decrease of the amplitude until silence. This sequence is sometimes called the ADSR-sequence. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 686
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Defines the ADSR sequence (attack-decay-sustain-release) and distinguishes acoustic instrument decay from electric instrument sustain envelopes.
- XREF: Connects to synthesizer envelope concepts (ADSR envelopes in subtractive synthesis) well-known in audio programming and sound design.
Related
- Musical instrument sounds divide into attack, decay, sustain, and release phases (similarity 0.93)
- Instrument sound envelopes are described by attack, decay, sustain, and release phases (similarity 0.85)
- Temporal change is a defining feature of natural sound perception (similarity 0.83)
- A sound object is analyzable into attack, body, and decay (similarity 0.83)
- A sound envelope is defined by attack, body, transients, and decay (similarity 0.82)
- A single amplitude envelope cannot capture how separate spectral parts evolve (similarity 0.80)
- Two kinds of sound change activate different processing features in hearing (similarity 0.80)
- Auditory stimuli separate into fine structure and slower envelope (similarity 0.79)
- Hearing repackages one-dimensional sound signals into multidimensional time-frequency objects (similarity 0.79)
- Hearing is highly sensitive to temporal changes in sound (similarity 0.79)
- Even steady-state musical notes vary in amplitude envelope over time. (similarity 0.78)
- Sounds are time-varying when their intensity changes over time (similarity 0.78)