Traditional parameter matching for multiple wavetable synthesis uses relative error to measure the quality of the matched spectrum to guide the search for a near-optimal solution. It is supposed that the smaller the relative error, the better is the match. This is generally, but not always true. This document describes a perceptual relative error, which takes into account the masking characteristics of our auditory system, as an improved measure of the perceived quality of the match. Selected instrument tones have been matched and resynthesized by both traditional and perceptual wavetable matching synthesis, and the listening test results show that perceptual wavetable matching outperforms traditional wavetable matching in general, especially for instrument tones with some masking....[ Read more ]

Traditional parameter matching for multiple wavetable synthesis uses relative error to measure the quality of the matched spectrum to guide the search for a near-optimal solution. It is supposed that the smaller the relative error, the better is the match. This is generally, but not always true. This document describes a perceptual relative error, which takes into account the masking characteristics of our auditory system, as an improved measure of the perceived quality of the match. Selected instrument tones have been matched and resynthesized by both traditional and perceptual wavetable matching synthesis, and the listening test results show that perceptual wavetable matching outperforms traditional wavetable matching in general, especially for instrument tones with some masking.