Sound Quality and Music by Dave Bogema

I attended the paper entitled Music Analogy: an Alternative Strategy for Setting Sound Quality Targets,� written and presented by Richard Fridrich of General Motors at the recent SAE conference. In this paper, a method for evaluating product sound quality and establishing targets is proposed, and this method makes reference to and takes many cues from music the way music is perceived and composed.

The traditional� sound quality target setting method uses statistics to determine the key metrics for a sound and a preference equation is derived, which ranks the importance of each key metric. This paper argues that this method does not adequately capture the way the sound is perceived.

For instance, the point is made that with a preference equation (i.e. Pref = aX+bY+cZ¦), it is implied that a deficiency in one metric can be made up for by an increase or decrease in another metric, or that tradeoffs are possible (e.g. for a preference equation utilizing loudness, tonality and roughness, a high roughness could be compensated for by a low loudness). In the view of a musical context however, the various qualities or metrics of music such as pitch, duration, loudness, etc. cannot be compensated for (e.g. an incorrect pitch played by the musician cannot be compensated for by playing it louder or softer or for a longer or shorter time). Similarly, the idea is proposed that with sound quality targets, sound quality metrics cannot be treated as items that can be traded off one for the other (e.g. a high tonality is still going to be a high tonality no matter what loudness it has).

There are some interesting points raised by this paper. Most interesting is the question of the art versus the science of product sound quality. The science of product sound quality has been thoroughly covered and developed, and today exists in the form of jury studies and statistical analysis. While the statistical methods focus on what juries prefer, there is also the opportunity in some areas of product sound quality design to enter in the artistic component, independent of a step-by-step jury evaluation. In the paper, the point is made that in music, a composer creates the music, then the audience (jury) listens (evaluates) and gives feedback (applause or boos or whatever). If the audience (jury) was involved in the creation of the music voting note by note as to whether they liked it or not you would end up with not a piece of music, but a jumbled mush.

Certainly, any artistic or creative endeavor must be undertaken by an individual and not a group. I once heard someone discussing the design of automobiles in general, and they suggested that to be very successful, the trick was not to give the customer what they wanted, but to give them something that they didn't yet know they wanted, that is, delight them with a new design that they had not yet envisioned themselves.