Skip to main content

Andrew Milne

Western Sydney University, School of Humanities & Communication Arts, Faculty Member

Western Sydney University, The MARCS Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Development, Post-Doc

Followers

671

Following

213

Co-authors

14

Public Views

I am a Senior Research Fellow in Music Cognition and Computation, and leader of the Music Science Lab at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia. My research is at the interface of music, cognitive science, mathematics, computing, and their implications for education and well-being. My recent research has included cross-cultural music cognition (including on-site field experiments in a remote Papua New Guinean community), the cognition of familiar and unfamiliar (microtonal) harmony, cognitive mechanisms and mathematical models related to the perception, performance, and algorithmic generation of complex rhythms. I am a musician, composer, and occasional performer, and have developed several music software applications (including the widely used XronoMorph rhythm generator), and designed and built new musical interfaces in public art, therapeutic, and educational settings.
Phone: +61 2 9772 6151
Address: Westmead Innovation Quarter, U.6.14

less

InterestsView All (20)

Uploads

Journal Articles by Andrew Milne

Evidence for a universal association of auditory roughness with musical stability

PLOS ONE, 2023

We provide evidence that the roughness of chords—a psychoacoustic property resulting from unresol... more We provide evidence that the roughness of chords—a psychoacoustic property resulting from unresolved frequency components—is associated with perceived musical stability (operationalized as finishedness) in participants with differing levels and types of exposure to Western or Western-like music. Three groups of participants were tested in a remote cloud forest region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and two groups in Sydney, Australia (musicians and non-musicians). Unlike prominent prior studies of consonance/dissonance across cultures, we framed the concept of consonance as stability rather than as pleasantness. We find a negative relationship between roughness and musical stability in every group including the PNG community with minimal experience of musical harmony. The effect of roughness is stronger for the Sydney participants, particularly musicians. We find an effect of harmonicity—a psychoacoustic property resulting from chords having a spectral structure resembling a single pitch...

The effects of rhythmic structure on tapping accuracy

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2023

Prior investigations of simple rhythms in familiar time signatures have shown the importance of s... more Prior investigations of simple rhythms in familiar time signatures have shown the importance of several mechanisms; notably, those related to metricization and grouping. But there has been limited study of complex rhythms, includ- ing those in unfamiliar time signatures, such as are found outside mainstream Western music. Here, we investigate how the structures of 91 rhythms with nonisochronous onsets (mostly complex, several in unfamiliar time signatures) influence the accuracy, velocity, and timing of taps made by participants attempting to synchronize with these onsets. The onsets were piano-tone cues sounded at a well-formed subset of isochronous cymbal pulses; the latter occurring every 234 ms. We modelled tapping at both the rhythm level and the pulse level; the latter provides insight into how rhythmic structure makes some cues easier to tap and why incorrect (uncued) taps may occur. In our models, we use a wide variety of quantifications of rhythmic features, several of which are novel and many of which are indicative of underlying mechanisms, strategies, or heuristics. The results show that, for these tricky rhythms, taps are disrupted by unfamiliar period lengths and are guided by crude encodings of each rhythm: the density of rhythmic cues, their circular mean and variance, and recognizing common small patterns and the approximate positions of groups of cues. These lossy encodings are often counterproductive for discriminating between cued and uncued pulses and are quite different to mechanisms—such as metricization and emphasizing group boundaries—thought to guide tapping behav- iours in learned and familiar rhythms.

New musical interfaces for older adults in residential care: assessing a user-centred design approach

Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Mar 30, 2021

Purpose:For older adults in aged-care, group music-making can bring numerous physical and psychol... more Purpose:For older adults in aged-care, group music-making can bring numerous physical and psychological benefits, ultimately improving their quality of life. However, personalising music-making to optimise these benefits is often difficult given their diverse ages, experiences, abilities, cognitive and motor skills, and their experience with music technology.Materialsandmethods:In this study, we conducted a 10-week group music-making intervention with twenty participants in an aged-care home, using a prototype digital musical instrument that we iteratively refined by following a user-centred design approach from direct resident feedback. The prototype instrument adopted a novel method for errorless learning in music-making settings, which we also refined, by increasing the difficulty level of the instrument's operation. We also assessed the residents' engagement with the sessions by obtaining feedback from caregivers and facilitators.Results:Results show that residents' enjoyment decreased as the complexity (difficulty) of our errorless learning implementation increased. We also found that resident engagement increased when changes to the prototype digital musical instrument were provided, but not when residents were giving feedback. Results also found that participation over the course of the intervention, and the number of songs played during each session also enhanced engagement.Conclusions: Overall, our results show the intervention was beneficial to residents, although we note some areas of enhancement for further interventions in designing prototype musical instruments for group music-making in aged-care settings. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONOlder adults positively engage with novel music technology, and do so increasingly over subsequent sessions. Repeated sessions may have the potential to enhance longer-term adoption of technologies as well as any rehabilitative effects of the group music-making activity.There is significant potential for residents with different abilities to all make music together, although to maximise the sustainability of the devices, the sessions, and the subsequent rehabilitative benefits, residents must be given the right adaptation for individual interfaces that balances ambition and ability.Rapid DMI prototyping positively enhances engagement among older adults, suggesting that in the case of a custom DMI, an upgrade schedule should be aligned with key rehabilitative milestones. Similarly, in the case of pre-developed digital music systems, resident exposure to new features or functionality should be strategically introduced, so as to maximise engagement for key phases of resident rehabilitation.

A point-process model of tapping along to difficult rhythms

by David Bulger and Andrew Milne

Journal of Mathematical Psychology, Dec 1, 2022

Experiments where participants synchronise their taps to rhythmic cues are often used to study hu... more Experiments where participants synchronise their taps to rhythmic cues are often used to study human perception and performance of rhythms. This experimental study is novel in two regards: The cyclic rhythms (non-isochronous patterns of cues) presented to participants were more challenging than usual (including many from unfamiliar time signatures), and we have modelled participants' performance via a conditional point process. Point processes are well suited to describing partly random sequences of events, but have rarely been used previously to model tapping experiments, the only other study we know being Cannon (2021). Our model uses continuous functional parameters to describe participants' responses to auditory stimuli with much finer temporal resolution than in previous studies. Taking account of both the clock and the dynamic attention theories of sensorimotor synchronisation, we assessed the time course of the propensity to tap within each cycle at a resolution of less than 13 ms, identifying the influence of cues on the tapping propensity and the progress of learning their rhythmic patterns. We also sought to determine the trajectory of the putative refractory period (feedback inhibition of tapping) after each tap, and assessed the distribution of tapcue asynchronies in a more finely resolved manner than usual. Our models also indicated complex kinetics of the feedback over about 100 ms.

Emotional responses in Papua New Guinea show negligible evidence for a universal effect of major versus minor music

PLOS ONE, Jun 29, 2022

Music is a vital part of most cultures and has a strong impact on emotions [1-5]. In Western cult... more Music is a vital part of most cultures and has a strong impact on emotions [1-5]. In Western cultures, emotive valence is strongly influenced by major and minor melodies and harmony (chords and their progressions) [6-13]. Yet, how pitch and harmony affect our emotions, and to what extent these effects are culturally mediated or universal, is hotly debated [2, 5, 14-20]. Here, we report an experiment conducted in a remote cloud forest region of Papua New Guinea, across several communities with similar traditional music but differing levels of exposure to Western-influenced tonal music. One hundred and seventy participants were presented with pairs of major and minor cadences (chord progressions) and melodies, and chose which of them made them happier. The experiment was repeated by 60 non-musicians and 19 musicians in Sydney, Australia. Bayesian analyses show that, for cadences, there is strong evidence that greater happiness was reported for major than minor in every community except one: the community with minimal exposure to Western-like music. For melodies, there is strong evidence that greater happiness was reported for those with higher mean pitch (major melodies) than those with lower mean pitch (minor melodies) in only one of the three PNG communities and in both Sydney groups. The results show that the emotive valence of major and minor is strongly associated with exposure to Western-influenced music and culture, although we cannot exclude the possibility of universality.

Audio analysis reveals mutual associations between clients’ and therapists’ vocal timbres in Guided Imagery and Music sessions

The Arts in Psychotherapy, 2022

Existing literature broadly demonstrates that a therapist’s tone of voice affects interpersonal a... more Existing literature broadly demonstrates that a therapist’s tone of voice affects interpersonal and therapy outcomes, and qualities of human voice tone (pitch, volume, rhythm, speed and intensity) influence human interaction and attachment. However, little empirical and systematic evidence surrounds the use of voice in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and other psychotherapeutic practices. This exploratory study investigates the use of acoustic analysis to report on ways in which therapists’ and clients’ voices attune with each other and the music in GIM practice. Seven volunteer university student participants each attended a single GIM session with a qualified GIM therapist. Audio recordings of the session were made using a multi-channel recording device and 61 excerpts of the recordings were then analysed using the MIRToolbox for Matlab. It was found that acoustic features of the client’s voice predicted acoustic features of the therapist’s voice more commonly than the other way round (therapist predicting client). Furthermore, both such predictions occurred more commonly than they did for acoustic features of the music predicting acoustic features of either the therapist or client. These results suggest the client’s voice influences the therapist’s voice more than the therapist’s voice influences the client’s, and the music is the least influential. This study developed a reliable methodology for data collection and analysis to examine interactions between the client and therapist voices and music in GIM practice and provides further insights for clinical practice and training, enhancing sensitivity to vocal interactions and attunement.

Increasing music preference through guided self-framing: A comparison of historical and imaginative approaches

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

Exploring older adult needs and preferences for technology-assisted group music-making. A qualitative analysis of data collected during the participatory user-centred design process

Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Jun 5, 2022

Music Perception Abilities and Ambiguous Word Learning: Is There Cross-Domain Transfer in Nonmusicians?

Frontiers in Psychology, Feb 28, 2022

Perception of music and speech is based on similar auditory skills, and it is often suggested tha... more Perception of music and speech is based on similar auditory skills, and it is often suggested that those with enhanced music perception skills may perceive and learn novel words more easily. The current study tested whether music perception abilities are associated with novel word learning in an ambiguous learning scenario. Using a cross-situational word learning (CSWL) task, nonmusician adults were exposed to word-object pairings between eight novel words and visual referents. Novel words were either non-minimal pairs differing in all sounds or minimal pairs differing in their initial consonant or vowel. In order to be successful in this task, learners need to be able to correctly encode the phonological details of the novel words and have sufficient auditory working memory to remember the correct word-object pairings. Using the Mistuning Perception Test (MPT) and the Melodic Discrimination Test (MDT), we measured learners' pitch perception and auditory working memory. We predicted that those with higher MPT and MDT values would perform better in the CSWL task and in particular for novel words with high phonological overlap (i.e., minimal pairs). We found that higher musical perception skills led to higher accuracy for non-minimal pairs and minimal pairs differing in their initial consonant. Interestingly, this was not the case for vowel minimal pairs. We discuss the results in relation to theories of second language word learning such as the Second Language Perception model (L2LP).

Evaluative conditioning of responses to unfamiliar chords by exposure to valenced images

Psychology of Music, 2022

The extent to which emotional responses to musical elements are influenced by their past associat... more The extent to which emotional responses to musical elements are influenced by their past associations with specific emotional responses is largely unknown. To assess this possibility, the present study tested whether pairing positive, negative, or neutral chords from an unfamiliar musical system (a microtonal Bohlen–Pierce tuning) with positively or negatively valenced pictures would have an effect on subsequent liking ratings. The microtonal chords used in this experiment had been previously rated, independent of any other affective input, in an earlier experiment; this allows us to class each chord as intrinsically positive, negative, or neutral. It was found that exposure with an image increases liking ratings independent of the valence of the images, compared with no exposure which supports a mere exposure effect; but, interestingly, we did not find substantial evidence for evaluative conditioning. Results are discussed in light of theoretical accounts of evaluative conditioning...

Making the unfamiliar familiar: The effect of exposure on ratings of unfamiliar musical chords

Musicae Scientiae, 2020

Affective responses to music have been shown to be influenced by the psychoacoustic features of t... more Affective responses to music have been shown to be influenced by the psychoacoustic features of the acoustic signal, learned associations between musical features and emotions, and familiarity with a musical system through exposure. The present article reports two experiments investigating whether short-term exposure has an effect on valence and consonance ratings of unfamiliar musical chords from the Bohlen-Pierce system, which are not based on a traditional Western musical scale. In a pre- and post-test design, exposure to positive, negative and neutral chord types was manipulated to test for an effect of exposure on liking. In this paradigm, short-term (“mere”) exposure to unfamiliar chords produced an increase only in valence ratings for negative chords. In neither experiment did it produce an increase in valence or pleasantness ratings for other chord types. Contrast effects for some chord types were found in both experiments, suggesting that a chord’s affect (i.e., affective r...

On the Roles of Complexity and Symmetry in Cued Tapping of Well-formed Complex Rhythms

Music Perception, Dec 1, 2021

Production of relatively few rhythms with non-isochronous beats has been studied. So we assess re... more Production of relatively few rhythms with non-isochronous beats has been studied. So we assess reproduction of most well-formed looped rhythms comprising K=2-11 cues (a uniform piano tone, indicating where participants should tap) and N=3-13 isochronous pulses (a uniform cymbal). Each rhythm had two different cue interonset intervals. We expected that many of the rhythms would be difficult to tap, because of ambiguous non-isochronous beats and syncopations, and that complexity and asymmetry would predict performance. 111 participants tapped 91 rhythms each heard over 129 pulses, starting as soon as they could. Whereas tap-cue concordance in prior studies was generally &gt;&gt; 90%, here only 52.2% of cues received a temporally congruent tap, and only 63% of taps coincided with a cue. Only −2 ms mean tap asynchrony was observed (whereas for non-musicians this value is usually c. −50 ms). Performances improved as rhythms progressed and were repeated, but precision varied substantially between participants and rhythms. Performances were autoregressive and mixed effects cross-sectional time series analyses retaining the integrity of all the individual time series revealed that performance worsened as complexity features K, N, and cue inter-onset interval entropy increased. Performance worsened with increasing R, the Long: short (L: s) cue interval ratio of each rhythm (indexing both complexity and asymmetry). Rhythm evenness and balance, and whether N was divisible by 2 or 3, were not useful predictors. Tap velocities positively predicted cue fulfilment. Our data indicate that study of a greater diversity of rhythms can broaden our impression of rhythm cognition.

The Need for Composite Models of Music Perception

Music Perception, 2021

In the article “Consonance preferences within an unconventional tuning system,” Friedman and coll... more In the article “Consonance preferences within an unconventional tuning system,” Friedman and colleagues (2021) examine consonance ratings of a large range of dyads and triads from the Bohlen-Pierce chromatic just (BPCJ) scale. The study is designed as a replication of a recent paper by Bowling, Purves, and Gill (2018), which proposes that perception of consonance in dyads, triads, and tetrads can be predicted by their harmonic similarity to human vocalisations.In this commentary, we would like to correct some interpretations regarding Friedman et al.’s (2021) discussion of our paper (Smit, Milne, Dean, & Weidemann, 2019), as well as express some concerns regarding the statistical methods used. We also propose a stronger emphasis on the use of, as named by Friedman et al., composite models as a range of recent evidence strongly suggests that no single acoustic measure can fully predict the complex experience of consonance.

Prefrontal High Gamma in ECoG tags periodicity of musical rhythms in perception and imagination

eNeuro, Sep 30, 2020

Rhythmic auditory stimuli are known to elicit matching activity patterns in neural populations. F... more Rhythmic auditory stimuli are known to elicit matching activity patterns in neural populations. Furthermore, recent re- search has established the particular importance of high-gamma brain activity in auditory processing by showing its involvement in auditory phrase segmentation and envelope tracking. Here, we use electrocorticographic (ECoG) re- cordings from eight human listeners to see whether periodicities in high-gamma activity track the periodicities in the envelope of musical rhythms during rhythm perception and imagination. Rhythm imagination was elicited by instruct- ing participants to imagine the rhythm to continue during pauses of several repetitions. To identify electrodes whose periodicities in high-gamma activity track the periodicities in the musical rhythms, we compute the correlation be- tween the autocorrelations (ACCs) of both the musical rhythms and the neural signals. A condition in which partici- pants listened to white noise was used to establish a baseline. High-gamma autocorrelations in auditory areas in the superior temporal gyrus and in frontal areas on both hemispheres significantly matched the autocorrelations of the musical rhythms. Overall, numerous significant electrodes are observed on the right hemisphere. Of particular interest is a large cluster of electrodes in the right prefrontal cortex that is active during both rhythm perception and imagina- tion. This indicates conscious processing of the rhythms’ structure as opposed to mere auditory phenomena. The autocorrelation approach clearly highlights that high-gamma activity measured from cortical electrodes tracks both attended and imagined rhythms.

The perceptual relevance of balance, evenness, and entropy in musical rhythms

Cognition, Jun 19, 2020

There is an uncountable number of different ways of characterizing almost any given real-world st... more There is an uncountable number of different ways of characterizing almost any given real-world stimulus. This necessitates finding stimulus features that are perceptually relevant – that is, they have distinct and independent effects on the perception and cognition of the stimulus. Here, we provide a theoretical framework for empirically testing the perceptual relevance of stimulus features through their association with recognition, memory bias, and æsthetic evaluation. We deploy this framework in the auditory domain to explore the perceptual relevance of three recently developed mathematical characterizations of periodic temporal patterns: balance, evenness, and interonset interval entropy. By modelling recognition responses and liking ratings from 177 participants listening to a total of 1252 different musical rhythms, we obtain very strong evidence that all three features have distinct effects on the memory for, and the liking of, musical rhythms. Interonset interval entropy is a measure of the unpredictability of a rhythm derived from the distribution of its durations. Balance and evenness are both ob- tained from the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of periodic patterns represented as points on the unit circle, and we introduce a teleological explanation for their perceptual relevance: the DFT coefficients representing balance and evenness are relatively robust to small random temporal perturbations and hence are coherent in noisy environments. This theory suggests further research to explore the meaning and relevance of robust coefficients such as these to the perception of patterns that are periodic in time and, possibly, space.

Perceived Emotions of Harmonic Cadences

Music & Science, 2020

Harmonic cadences are chord progressions that play an important structural role in Western classi... more Harmonic cadences are chord progressions that play an important structural role in Western classical music – they demarcate musical phrases and contribute to the tonality. This study examines participants’ ratings of the perceived arousal and valence of a variety of harmonic cadences. Manipulations included the type of cadence (authentic, plagal, half, and deceptive), its mode (major or minor), its average pitch height (the transposition of the cadence), the presence of a single tetrad (a dissonant four-tone chord), and the mode (major or minor) of the cadence’s final chord. With the exception of average pitch height, the manipulations had only small effects on arousal. However, the perceived valence of major cadences was substantially higher than for minor cadences, and average pitch had a medium-sized positive effect. Plagal cadences, the inclusion of a tetrad, and ending on a minor chord all had weak negative effects for valence. The present findings are discussed in light of con...

Cognitive, Motor and Social Factors of Music Instrument Training Programs for Older Adults' Improved Wellbeing

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

Given emerging evidence that learning to play a musical instrument may lead to a number of cognit... more Given emerging evidence that learning to play a musical instrument may lead to a number of cognitive benefits for older adults, it is important to clarify how these training programs can be delivered optimally and meaningfully. The effective acquisition of musical and domain-general skills by later-life learners may be influenced by social, cultural and individual factors within the learning environment. The current study examines the effects of a 10-week piano training program on healthy older adult novices' cognitive and motor skills, in comparison to an inactive waitlisted control group. Fifteen participants completed piano training led by a music facilitator in small groups (max n = 4 per lesson class; two experimental, two waitlisted control groups). Data was collected using an explanatory sequential design: quantitative data from a battery of cognitive and motor tests was collected pre/post-test on all participants, with further post-test data from the waitlisted control group (n = 7). Qualitative data included weekly facilitator observations, participant practice diaries, and an individual, semi-structured, post-experiment interview. Bayesian modelling demonstrated moderate evidence of a strong positive impact of training on part A of the Trail Making test (TMT), indicating improved visuo-motor skills. Moderate evidence for negative impacts of training on part B of the Trail Making Test (and difference score delta) was also found, suggesting no benefit of cognitive switching. Qualitative results revealed that the group learning environment motivated participants to play in musical ensembles and to socialize. Motivation was optimal when all participants were happy with the chosen repertoire (participants reported they were motivated by learning to play familiar music) and when the facilitator observed that groups had formed cohesive bonds. Informed by these factors, exploratory analyses demonstrated strong evidence that a participant's lesson class had an impact on post-test scores (TMT part A). These results not only demonstrate the extent of cognitive benefits of a short-term piano training intervention for older adults, but also the importance of considering the group dynamics in the learning environment.

The Rhythmotron

Leonardo Music Journal, 2019

This paper describes the Rhythmotron: a percussion-centred robotic orchestrion, commissioned for ... more This paper describes the Rhythmotron: a percussion-centred robotic orchestrion, commissioned for the CoLABS festival in Sydney in 2017. We describe how we electronically reimagined the mechanical components of a cylinder piano, by using a variant of the XronoMorph software, and we consider the synergy between algorithmically generated rhythms in a digital environment alongside its analogous mechanical counterpart. We detail the idiosyncratic behaviours of linear actuators when used to power drumming robots, and we discuss the aesthetic implications of the Rhythmotron.

Perception of affect in unfamiliar musical chords

PLoS ONE, 2019

This study investigates the role of extrinsic and intrinsic predictors in the perception of affec... more This study investigates the role of extrinsic and intrinsic predictors in the perception of affect in mostly unfamiliar musical chords from the Bohlen-Pierce microtonal tuning system. Extrinsic predictors are derived, in part, from long-term statistical regularities in music; for example, the prevalence of a chord in a corpus of music that is relevant to a participant. Conversely , intrinsic predictors make no use of long-term statistical regularities in music; for example, psychoacoustic features inherent in the music, such as roughness. Two types of affect were measured for each chord: pleasantness/unpleasantness and happiness/sad-ness. We modelled the data with a number of novel and well-established intrinsic predictors, namely roughness, harmonicity, spectral entropy and average pitch height; and a single extrinsic predictor, 12-TET Dissimilarity, which was estimated by the chord's smallest distance to any 12-tone equally tempered chord. Musical sophistication was modelled as a potential moderator of the above predictors. Two experiments were conducted, each using slightly different tunings of the Bohlen-Pierce musical system: a just intonation version and an equal-tempered version. It was found that, across both tunings and across both affective responses, all the tested intrinsic features and 12-TET Dissimilarity have consistent influences in the expected direction. These results contrast with much current music perception research, which tends to assume the dominance of extrinsic over intrinsic predictors. This study highlights the importance of both intrinsic characteristics of the acoustic signal itself, as well as extrinsic factors, such as 12-TET Dissimilarity, on perception of affect in music.

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

by Andrew Milne and Roger T. Dean

Organised Sound, 2019

Perceptual dimensions underlying timbre and sound-source identification have received considerabl... more Perceptual dimensions underlying timbre and sound-source identification have received considerable scientific attention. While these scholarly insights help us in understanding the nature of sound within a multidimensional timbral space, they carry little meaning for the majority of musicians. To help address this, we conducted two experiments to establish listeners’ perceptual thresholds (PT) for changes in sound using a staircase-procedure. Unlike most timbre perception research, these changes were sonic manipulations that are common in synthesisers, audio processors and instruments familiar to musicians and producers, and occurred within continuous sounds (rather than between discrete pairs of sounds). In experiment 1, two sounds (variants of a sawtooth oscillation) both with the same fundamental frequency (F1: 80 Hz, 240 Hz or 600 Hz) were played with no intervening gap. In each trial, the two sounds’ partials differed in amplitudes or frequencies to produce a timbre change. The sonic manipulations were varied in size to detect thresholds for the perceived timbre change – listeners were instructed to indicate whether or not they perceived a change within the sound. In experiment 2, we modified stimulus presentation to introduce the factor of transition time (TT). Rather than occurring instantaneously (as in experiment 1), the timbre manipulations were introduced gradually over the course of a 100 ms or a 1000 ms TT. Results revealed that PTs were significantly affected by the manipulations in experiment 1, and additionally by TT in experiment 2. Importantly, the data revealed an interaction between the F1 and the timbre manipulations, such that there were differential effects of timbre changes on the perceptual system depending on pitch height. Musicians (n = 11) showed significantly smaller PTs compared to non-musicians (n = 10). However, PTs for musicians and non- musicians were highly correlated (r = .83) across different sonic manipulations, indicating similar perceptual patterns in both. We hope that by establishing PTs for commonly used timbre manipulations, we can provide musicians with a general perceptual unit, for each manipulation, that can guide music composition and assessment.