psychoacoustics

Sonority


The tonal quality or timbre of a sound. The term is usually used in a subjective, descriptive manner, often with such adjectives as 'full' or 'rich'.

Timbre, on the other hand, can be accounted for in terms of frequency content (spectrum) and its behaviour in time, and therefore can be regarded analytically as well as descriptively.

Compare: Consonance, Presence, Sonorous, Tone, Volume.