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I have a question relating the "timbre" of a sound, namely what is exactly and exhaustively defined by this word? Most definitions that I come across seem somewhat loose as "the color of the sound". So what I want to know is:

  1. Is timbre physical or perceptual in nature? (Does a tree falling in the woods make a sound that has timbre?)

  2. Is timbre a collection of ways in which we can excite the natural frequencies of an object? (For example: plucking, bowing, hammering, kicking and whichever other way we can make a different violin sound)

  3. Does an object have a single timbre or multiple timbres?

  4. Does an randomly evolving noise have timbre? (Is timbre applicable where there is no consistency and recognizability?)

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  • $\begingroup$ This may help physics.stackexchange.com/questions/108435/… $\endgroup$
    – J. Manuel
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 8:27
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, I've read it, didn't satisfy my questions regarding the number of timbers an instrument has and whether it is an objective phenomenon. Thanks anyway Manuel. $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 8:30
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    $\begingroup$ Please restrict this question to a main single question. $\endgroup$
    – Mauricio
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 11:35
  • $\begingroup$ I was under the impression that the additional questions are just a further explanations of the central question. (I.e. answering "No" to question #4 would automatically answer the main question as timbre=perceptual) $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 13:35
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    $\begingroup$ I’m voting to close this question because this is better suited to music.SE $\endgroup$
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 14:23

2 Answers 2

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A sound typically have the main harmonic, which determines its pitch and the subharmonics and/or overtones of lower energy that determine its color, which is what is usually meant by timbre.

However, this is indeed only half of the story - since human ear has different sensitivity to different frequencies/amplitudes, the same sound does not necessarily have the same color for humans and other animals, and even for different humans. The most obvious example are the sound thresholds for low and high frequencies that can be perceived by some people but not by others, e.g., depending on their age or sex.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does a single object have multiple timbres? That is, can a single person perceive multiple timbres of a single violin, where the only factor we change is how we create the sound? Or is "timbre" used to describe a single characteristic that is a complex non-linear way that the instrument will respond to different treatment? $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 7:50
  • $\begingroup$ Further, is timbre contextual? Not in a physical way in which the waves might interfere or our receptors might mechanically react differently - but contextual in a way we mentally experience timbre differently when heard along some other sound? (in a way that for example we experience violin A in a different way when heard alongside a piano or a didgeridoo, even though the violin frequencies we hear are, hypothetically for this example, 100% the same) $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 7:57
  • $\begingroup$ @Dimitri in principle, yes... but the size of effect may differ. As an extreme example: if one listens to a violin near a passing train, it is simply not heard. Some timbers may also be in dissonance with each other, making bad combinations. I think it was Tchaikovsky who thought that piano, cello and violin are an awful combination... but still wrote pieces for this trio. $\endgroup$
    – Roger V.
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 8:02
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    $\begingroup$ Well my point was to compare periodic and aperiodic sounds in this context, relating to the timbre. In some contexts it might not be relevant, but the goal of the question was whether for example a randomly evolving noise - has a timbre? This is at the core of my question really, whether the meaning of "timbre" is recognizability or is it rather a set of frequencies produced/heard. But I am starting to realize that the term is just ambiguous I guess, I wanted to check because sometimes things seem ambiguous just because I don't understand them well. :D $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 8:51
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    $\begingroup$ "But I think timbre is more frequently used in musical context as a term." I think that's right. And I think it's used for sounds that have a definite frequency, such as those made by stringed instruments when bowed and wind instruments including the voice. I'd exclude, for example, drum beats. If two drums have different sounds, I'd say just that, rather than different timbres. $\endgroup$
    – Philip Wood
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 9:33
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Timbre does not have a precise formal definition in physics, in sense that concepts such as force, mass, charge etc have precise definitions. The word timbre is typically used to describe qualities of musical sounds other than their pitch and volume. To take your example of the violin and the didgeridoo- both instruments could play the same note at the same volume but they would sound unalike, and the differences we would refer to as their timbres.

Timbre can be used to refer to the sensory experience or to the characteristics of a musical instrument, voice etc. You could use the word timbre to describe the qualities of other sounds if you wished.

Timbre arises because sounds are very complicated waveforms which our brains classify in three quite different ways. We think of sounds as being quiet or loud, which very broadly equates to the average magnitude of the peaks of the waveform. We think of sounds being 'high' or 'low' in pitch, which broadly equates to the frequency of the most dominant component of the waveform. That leaves lots of other characteristics of waveforms that sound different to us, and we label those the timbre of the sound.

In physics, a waveform that isn't a pure sine function can be modelled as a spectrum of lots of superimposed sine functions of different frequencies, and it is the brain's response to different spectra that give the sense of timbre. If, for example, you pluck the string of a guitar at the midpoint of the string, the spectrum of the resulting sound will be dominated by the fundamental frequency of the string. However, if you pluck it closer and closer to the bridge, you will set off more overtones in the spectrum, so the resulting sound will be more 'twangy'.

With an electric guitar, or a synthesiser, the range of sounds that can be produced is extraordinarily wide, with any number of effects achievable. In physical terms, they represent waveforms that result from the superposition of different blends of pure notes.

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  • $\begingroup$ "In physical terms, any waveform can be modelled as a spectrum of lots of superimposed frequencies, and it is the brain's response to different spectra that give the sense of timbre." Is this in terms of physics or psychophysics or something third? Sorry Marco, not trying to nitpick, but that's what's confusing me about the term. $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 13:51
  • $\begingroup$ Hi Dimitri, I meant in physics and mathematics (I'll edit my answer to make that clear). If you have some complicated waveform that isn't a pure sine wave, you can express it as a sum of sine waves with different frequencies. If you Google Fourier analysis you will find lots to interest you. $\endgroup$
    – Professor Sushing
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 14:11
  • $\begingroup$ You might also want to bear in mind that conscious hearing, like conscious vision, is a mental phenomenon and is still unexplained. There is no such thing in physics as the colour yellow, for example. Yellowness is a mental construct that your brain creates when light waves of certain frequencies excite atoms in cells in your eye. $\endgroup$
    – Professor Sushing
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 14:16
  • $\begingroup$ Well yeah, that's basically what I wanted to know, whether the term refers to an objective quality of sound or rather a mental phenomenon. Thanks for the answer! $\endgroup$
    – Dimitri
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 14:36

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