Chord dissonance models
=======================
This package implements various models of perceptual chord dissonance.
Given a musical chord composed of individual tones, each composed of
partials, a dissonance model provides a score that estimate how
dissonant (harsh) does it sound to human listener.
It contains implementation of several models of dissoance with
corrections of errors found in the formulas in the papers. See below.
Installation
------------
::
pip install dissonant
Why ``dissonant``? PyPI package ``dissonance`` was already taken.
Usage
-----
Dissonance of a C major chord with harmonic tones in 12-TET tuning with
base 440 Hz using the Sethares1993 model:
::
from dissonant import harmonic_tone, dissonance, pitch_to_freq
freqs, amps = harmonic_tone(pitch_to_freq([0, 4, 7, 12]), n_partials=10)
d = dissonance(freqs, amps, model='sethares1993')
Dissonance curve of a sliding interval of two harmonic tones: see
`notebooks/dissonance_curve.ipynb <notebooks/dissonance_curve.ipynb>`__.
Papers
------
- `1965, Plomp, Levelt - Tonal Consonance and Critical
Bandwidth <http://www.mpi.nl/world/materials/publications/levelt/Plomp_Levelt_Tonal_1965.pdf>`__
- 1979, Hutchinson, Knopoff - The significance of the acoustic
component of consonance in Western triad
- `1993, Sethares - Local Consonance and the Relationship Between
Timbre and
Scale <http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/consonance.pdf>`__
- http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/papers/consance.html
- `2000, Vassilakis - Auditory roughness estimation of complex
spectra <http://www.escom.org/proceedings/ICMPC2000/Wed/Vassilak.htm>`__
- PDF is not public, only HTML
- `2001, Vassilakis - Perceptual and Physical Properties of Amplitude
Fluctuation and their Musical
Significance <http://www.acousticslab.org/papers/VassilakisP2001Dissertation.pdf>`__
- PhD thesis
- `2002, Cook - Tone of Voice and
Mind <http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/PDFs/Tone_of_Voice_and_Mind.pdf>`__
- book
- `2004, Sethares - Tuning Timbre Spectrum
Scale <http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/ttss.html>`__ - book
- `2005, Vassilakis - Auditory Roughness as Means of Musical
Expression <http://www.acousticslab.org/papers/Vassilakis2005SRE.pdf>`__
- `2006, Benson - David Benson Music: A Mathematical
Offering <http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/mth192/pages/html/music.pdf>`__
(`book
page <http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/mth192/pages/html/maths-music.html>`__)
- `2006, Cook, Fujisawa - The Psychophysics of Harmony Perception:
Harmony is a Three-Tone
Phenomenon <http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/PDFs/EMR2006.pdf>`__
- `2009, Cook - Harmony Perception: Harmoniousness Is More Than the Sum
of Interval
Consonance <http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/PDFs/MusPerc2009.pdf>`__
- `2010, Vassilakis, Kendall - Psychoacoustic and congitive aspects of
auditory roughness - definitions, models and
applications <http://acousticslab.org/papers/VassilakisKendall2010.pdf>`__
- `2013, Dillon - Calculating the Dissonance of a Chord according to
Helmholtz theory <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1306.1344v5>`__
Extra
~~~~~
- `2001, McKinney et al. - Neural correlates of musical dissonance in
the inferior
colliculus <http://research.meei.harvard.edu/NeuralCoding/Papers/mckinneyISH.pdf>`__
- `2007, Vassilakis - SRA: A Web-based Research Tool for Spectral and
Roughness Analysis of Sound
Signals <http://musicalgorithms.ewu.edu/learnmoresra/files/vassilakis2007smc.pdf>`__
- http://musicalgorithms.ewu.edu/algorithms/Roughness.html
- http://musicalgorithms.ewu.edu/learnmoresra/moremodel.html
- Kameoka, A. & Kuriyagawa, M. (1969a). Consonance theory, part I:
Consonance of dyads. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 1451-1459.
- Kameoka, A. & Kuriyagawa, M. (1969b). Consonance theory, part II:
Consonance of complex tones and its computation method. Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 1460-1469.
- Mashinter, Keith. (1995). Discrepancies in Theories of Sensory
Dissonance arising from the Models of Kameoka & Kuriyagawa, and
Hutchinson & Knopoff. Undergraduate thesis submitted for the double
honours degrees in Applied Mathematics and Music, University of
Waterloo.
- Phil Keenan ([@ingthrumath](https://twitter.com/ingthrumath))
- http://meandering-through-mathematics.blogspot.com/2015/03/consonance-and-dissonance-in-music.html
- http://meandering-through-mathematics.blogspot.com/2016/06/experimenting-with-sounds-consonance.html
Other resources
---------------
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonance_and_dissonance
- http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/
- http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/05%20harmony.html
- http://www.res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp/~cook/Harmony.c
- N. D. Cook, T. Fujisawa and K. Takami. This program is an
improved version of the algorithm reported in Tone of Voice and
Mind (Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2002). It calculates the
dissonance, tension, instability and modality of chords
containing 2-5 tones and assuming the presence of 1-5 upper
partials.
- video: `CogMIR 2013 - Norman D Cook - Visual Display of the
Acoustical Properties of
Harmony <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmnaiyS5EE>`__
- http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/consemi.html#anchor149613
- http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/forrestjava/html/TuningAndTimbre.html
- http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/comprog.html - MATLAB, C++, Lisp
- https://gist.github.com/endolith/3066664
- http://www.davideverotta.com/A_folders/Theory/m_dissonance.html
- http://www.music-cog.ohio-state.edu/Music829B/diss.html
Models
------
There are several acoustic models of dissonance. They may work on
different data and provide several various metrics. All of them are
based on some perceptual experiments.
Input signals:
- two plain sinusoidal tones
- two harmonic tones - integer multiples of the base frequency
- chord (two or more) of harmonic tones
- signals with continuous spectrum
PlompLevelt1965
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They measured the perceived dissonance of pairs of sinusoidal tones and
of complex tones with 6 harmonics. They provide only experimental data,
not a parametric model.
Sethares1993
~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, he explicitly parameterizes the data of PlompLevelt1965 (for a
pair of sinusoids and for any number of complex tones) with constants
found by fitting the curve to the data.
Dissonance ``d(x)`` for the difference ``x`` between a pair of
frequencies. This ignores the absolute frequencies.
::
d(x) = exp(-a * x) - exp(-b * x)
Constants:
a = 3.5
b = 5.75
Dissonance for a pair of frequencies ``(f_1, f_2)`` (for f_1 < f_2) and
their amplitudes ``(a_1, a_2)``. This takes into account the absolute
frequencies. ``d_max`` is just the maximum of d(x).
::
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
s = d_max / (s_1 * f_1 + s_2)
x = s * (f_2 - f_1)
a_1 * a_2 * (exp(-a * x) - exp(-b * x))
Constants:
a = 3.5
b = 5.75
d_max = 0.24
s_1 = 0.0207 # 0.021 in the paper
s_2 = 18.96 # 19 in the paper
Expressed in terms of ``d(x)``:
::
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) = a_1 * a_2 * d((f_2 - f_1) * d_max / (s_1 * f_1 + s_2))
Model of dissonance of a single complex tone (containing various
partials) is just the sum of dissonances for all pairs of partials. In
case the partials are integer multiples of a base frequency we can call
tone “harmonic”, otherwise just a general “timbre”.
::
freqs = (f_1, f_2, ... f_n)
amps = (a_1, a_2, ... a_n)
d_complex(freqs, amps) = 0.5 * sum([d(f_i, f_j, a_i, a_j) for i in range(n) for j in range(n)])
or equally:
d_complex(freqs, amps) = sum([
d(freqs[i], freqs[j], amps[i], amps[j])
for i in range(n)
for j in range(n)
if i < j])
Then we can model dissonance of a pair of complex tones (timbres).
Basically it’s still a sum of dissonances of all pairs of partials. We
can however express ``freqs_2 = alpha * freqs_1`` and plot
``d_complex()`` for fixed ``freqs_1`` and varying ``alpha`` to get a
“dissonance curve”.
Note that this model can be used to model dissonance of intervals of
complex tones, as well as chords (any number of tones).
Note the constants ``s_1``, ``s_2`` are defined in the paper with low
precision. Better precision is provided in the code by Mr. Sethares:
http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/comprog.html.
Questions?
^^^^^^^^^^
Why we just sum the dissonance and not compute mean? Which aggregation
operation makes more sense?
Vassilakis2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There’s a modification to the ``d_pair()`` function which should make it
depend more reliably on “SPL” and “AF-degree”, in particular put more
accent on the relative amplitudes of interfering sinusoids rather than
on thir absolute amplitudes.
Defined in Eq.(6.23) on page 197 (219 in the PDF).
::
a_2 should be >= a_1
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
(a_1 * a_2) ^ 0.1 * 0.5 *
((2 * a_2) / (a_1 + a_2)) ^ 3.11 *
(exp(-a * s * (f_2 - f_1)) - exp(-b * s * (f_2 - f_1)))
Where:
spl = a_1 * a_2
af_degree = (2 * a_2) / (a_1 + a_2)
a = 3.5
b = 5.75
d_max = 0.24
s_1 = 0.0207
s_2 = 18.96
It can be expressed in terms of d(x):
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
spl = a_1 * a_2
af_degree = (2 * a_2) / (a_1 + a_2)
s = d_max / (s_1 * f_1 + s_2)
x = s * (f_2 - f_1)
spl ^ 0.1 * 0.5 * af_degree ^ 3.11 * d(x)
In comparison in the Sethares1993 model it is:
::
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
spl = a_1 * a_2
s = d_max / (s_1 * f_1 + s_2)
x = (f_2 - f_1) * x
spl * d(x)
Note that in order to handle the case if a_1 < a_2 we could define:
::
af_degree(a_1, a_2) = (2 * min(a_1, a_2)) / (a_1 + a_2)
Looking at Vassilakis2010 this is exactly what they do, extending
Vassilakis2001, otherwise the model is the same.
Extending this to a set of complex tones is the same as in Sethares1993
- just aggregate ``d_pair()`` for all pairs via a sum.
Note there’s an additional ``0.5`` factor in the Vassilakis2001 model
compared to Sethares1993. IMHO the meaning is to compensate for pairs of
partials being summed twice. In order to make the models comparable we
should remove this term and take only pairs of partials only once in all
models.
Cook2002
~~~~~~~~
Dissonance model (Cook2002, Appendix 2, page 276 and on, eg. A2-1):
::
Original - wrong:
d_pair(x, a_1, a_2) =
mu_a = (a_1 + a_2) / 2
mu_a * (exp(-a * x) - exp(-b * x))
Fixed:
d_pair(x, a_1, a_2) =
mu_a = (a_1 + a_2) / 2
mu_a * c * (exp(-a * x) - exp(-b * x))
Where:
mu_a ... mean amplitude, within [0.0; 1.0]
x ... interval between the frequencies (in semitones)
a = 1.2
b = 4.0
c = 3.5351 = 1 / (np.exp(-1.2) - np.exp(-4))
Parameters were “chosen to give a maximal dissonance value at roughly
one quartertone, a dissonance of 1.00 at an interval of one semitone,
and smaller values for larger intervals”.
The constants ``a`` and ``b`` are quite different than in the
Sethares1993 model. Also the amplitudes are aggregated by mean, instead
of product or minimum. The constant ``c`` is missing in the paper but
needs to be on the place as in the formula above.
Cook2006
~~~~~~~~
Other metrics: dissonance, tension, modality, tonal instability. Based
on three tones, not just an interval of two.
Dissonance model (Cook2006, eq. 3).
Note that in the article it’s actually defined in a wrong way: - there’s
one more minus sign when applying ``beta_1``, ``beta_2`` - logarithm
should be of base 2 - ``log2(f_2 / f_1)`` needs to be multiplied by 12
to get the 12-TET semitone interval - there should be bracket, not floor
around the difference of exponentials (probably a printing error)
Note: for the sake of readability we replace here original greek ``nu``
with ``v``.
::
Original - wrong:
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
x = log(f_2 / f_1)
v = a_1 * a_2
v * beta_3 *
floor(
exp(-beta_1 * x ^ gamma) -
exp(-beta_2 * x ^ gamma))
Fixed:
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
x = 12 * log2(f_2 / f_1)
v = a_1 * a_2
v * beta_3 *
(exp(beta_1 * x ^ gamma) -
exp(beta_2 * x ^ gamma))
Constants:
beta_1 = -0.8 # "interval of maximal dissonance"
beta_2 = -1.6 # "steepness of the fall from maximal dissonance"
beta_3 = 4.0
gamma = 1.25
Total dissonance of a chords is the sum of dissonances of all pairs of
partials.
Cook2009
~~~~~~~~
Simplified version of Cook2006. Still the definition is wrong (see
above).
There’s no gamma exponent.
::
Original - wrong:
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
x = log(f_2 / f_1)
v = a_1 * a_2
v * beta_3 *
(exp(-beta_1 * x) -
exp(-beta_2 * x))
Fixed:
d_pair(f_1, f_2, a_1, a_2) =
x = 12 * log2(f_2 / f_1)
v = a_1 * a_2
v * beta_3 *
(exp(beta_1 * x) -
exp(beta_2 * x))
Constants:
beta_1 = -0.8 # "interval of maximal dissonance"
beta_2 = -1.6 # "steepness of the fall from maximal dissonance"
beta_3 = 4.0
Tension of a triad (not implemented yet):
::
tension(f_1, f_2, f_3) =
x = log(f_2 / f_1)
y = log(f_3 / f_2)
v = a_1 * a_2 * a_3
v * exp(-((y - x) / alpha)^2)
alpha = ~0.6