Absolute Spectral Tone Color (ASTC)
A psychoacoustics concept introduced into voice pedagogy by Ian Howell used to describe human perception of frequency. According to Howell, absolute spectral tone color is defined as: “Any two or more simple sounds (e.g., a sine wave, single harmonic of a complex tone, or narrowly notch filtered band of noise) of identical frequency, regardless of their sources, will produce an identical tone color percept independent of other spectral fluctuations considered aspects of timbre. If these simple sounds are located within a complex sound, their inherent absolute spectral tone color is never lost or changed, only expressed or masked. These tone colors may be placed on a continuum and bear a meaningful similarity to several vowels.” Notation convention is a tilde preceding an IPA symbol, surrounded by pipes. For example, an [u]-like quality is |~u|. See Howell, Ian, Parsing the spectral envelope: toward a general theory of vocal tone color (DMA dissertation, New England Conservatory of Music, 2016).[1]
- ↑ "NATS July 2022 Pedagogy Workshop Working Group Three Science-Informed Terminology and Definitions for Voice Pedagogy" (PDF). Science-Informed Voice Pedagogy Resources. December 4, 2024. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
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