Application of wavelets to analysis of piano tones

Abstract

Applications of the wavelets on sounds of piano tones were explored. Among all kinds of attributes of a musical sound, the timbre might be the most important attribute. It is the timbre that helps people to recognize and identify the distinction between musical instruments. For piano tones, their onset transients and inharmonicity are two essential factors affecting the timbre of pianos. A variant wavelet multiresolution analysis is employed to compute durations of piano tones' onset transients. An approach based on the wavelet impulse synthesis is designed to estimate inharmonicity coefficients of piano tones. In addition, onset transients' wavelet time-frequency planes are investigated.