Timbre, unlike pitch and loudness, has no objective scale

Evidence

Timbre judgments are highly subjective and therefore individualistic. Unlike pitch or loudness judgments, for which listeners might be asked to rate sounds on scales of low to high or soft to loud respectively, there is no “right” answer for timbre judgments. Listeners will usually be asked to compare the timbre of different sounds and rate each numerically between two opposite extremes of descriptive adjectives, for example on a 1-to-10 scale between “bright” (1)—“dark” (10) or “brilliant” (1)—“dull” (10), and a number of such descriptive adjective pairs could be rated for a particular sound. … Hall (1991) suggests that it is theoretically possible that one day up to five specific rating scales could be “sufficient to accurately identify almost any timbre.” — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1481

Categorization

• SEED: The claim that five adjective-rating scales could identify almost any timbre is a striking idea — a piece on the search for a ‘periodic table’ of timbre could carry it.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the methodological contrast between timbre perception and pitch/loudness scaling.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1481
• XREF: connects to: No musical tuning system can be proven superior to another; Pitch lacks magnitude, so rating scales fail where loudness scales succeed; Science cannot measure the aesthetic qualities that make music revered — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 41 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Timbre lacks a one-dimensional subjective scale unlike pitch and loudness #corroborates (0.95) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1425
• Timbre is defined negatively, as whatever differs between equal-pitch, equal-loudness sounds #qualifies (0.78) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1451
• Timbre served as a residual basket for non-loudness non-pitch sensations #expands (0.72) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1339
• Timbre is conditioned entirely by the strength and presence of overtones #complicates (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1426