Three of the above scales of semantic differential were found to be the most successful in describing timbre:

Wake and Asahi’s study Sound Retrieval with Intuitive Verbal Expressions,²⁸⁰ suggests the semantic differential scale of opposite attributes for the end points of the scales (table 5.3 previous page), confuses the understanding of the timbre picture, finding that the use of direct opposites provided a greater differentiation between individual timbres, a practice described as Verbal Attribute Magnitude Estimation (VAME), i.e. a single adjective scale.

The Piano Contrasts survey questions used verbal-attributes which consist of similarity and opposite dimensions, such as ‘clear-bright’, ‘clear-mellow’ and opposite semantic differential, ‘short note’, ‘singing note’.

Graham Darke defines three types of verbal descriptors in his study, Assessment of Timbre using Verbal Attributes. ²⁸¹

i) Sound Itself : words of the actual sound as onomatopoeia, and comparison of the timbre of real instruments, ‘flute- like’, ‘bell- like’ for example.

……musicians invoke a comparison with actual instrumental sounds, flutey, stringy, reedy, brassy, organ-like etc. This is similar to the psychophysical sensations of smell- consider the descriptions of the ‘nose’ of a good wine! ²⁸²

An Oboe might be described as producing a ‘reedy sound, whereas a flute produces a ‘mellow tone. ²⁸³

It is the prominence and the decay of partials that determines tone²⁸⁴ Thin: Flute 2nd harmonic prominent (few harmonics) Bright :Oboe 2nd +4th harmonic prominent Rich: Violin many prominent harmonics

The sound has a double-reed edge to it: it comes out to greet you like an oboe rather than wrapping itself warmly around you like a clarinet. Those expecting Steinway mellowness may be disappointed. What one has instead is a sense of being able to take every detail of far-flung Fred Williams landscape with clarity, precision and, where necessary, with moments of subtly highlighted colour. ²⁸⁵

²⁸⁰SanaeWake, Asahi,T. “Sound Retrieval with Intuitive Verbal Expressions” ICAD(1998) Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Auditory Display,(ICAD :November 1-4, 1998).
^{281     2} Darke.
^{282     14}Roederer,156
²⁸³ William Drabkin,Tone (iii).Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed January, 2014 , http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/53934.
^{284     5}Johnston,108.
²⁸⁵Peter McCallum,Stuart’s New Piano Rises To The Occasion, Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. 15th March 1999.