Objective profiling of perceived punch and clarity in produced music

This paper describes and evaluates an objective measurement that profiles a complex musical signal over time in terms of identification of dynamic content and overall perceived quality. The authors have previously identified a potential correlation between inter-band dynamics and the subjective quality of produced music excerpts. This paper describes the previously presented Inter-Band Relationship (IBR) descriptor and extends this work by conducting more thorough testing of its relationship to perceived punch and clarity over varying time resolutions. A degree of correlation is observed between subjective test scores and the objective IBR descriptor suggesting it could be used as an additional model output variable (MOV) to describe punch and clarity with a piece of music. Limitations have been identified in the measure however and further consideration is required with regards to the choice of threshold adopted based on the range of dynamics detected within the musical extract and the possible inclusion of a gate as utilised in some loudness algorithms.