Space-induced Distortion of Starting Transient of Musical Sound

Musical sound can be defined as complex sound that begins with the starting transient followed by a (more or less) steady sound and ends with decaying sound. After that, continuous movement from one frequency to the another follows. The rate of change of loudness for partial tones that are greater then certain thresholds and their relative starting times are different for miscellaneous musical instruments. Recognition of a particular musical instrument depends upon short starting and ending transients. Relative starting time of the starting transients partial is limited by the rate of change of loudness that is greater than 600 dB/s. The envelope of all rates of change defines the maximum rate of change for loudness levels and partials that dominates in certain time interval. The beginning transient is the complex phenomena, assessed with early sound and rate and synchronized with the rise of loudness and dominant partial tone in the observed time interval. The just-noticeable threshold of rates of loudness change for partial tones in different acoustically treated spaces was measured and described in this paper.