timbrebased
Timbrebased is a term used in audio signal processing and music information retrieval to describe approaches that prioritize timbre—the perceptual attribute corresponding to tone color and quality—as the primary source of information for analyzing and classifying audio content. In timbre-based analysis, differences in spectral content, envelope, and excitation are used to distinguish instruments, sound events, or musical styles, rather than relying mainly on pitch or rhythm.
The term is not tied to a single standard, but appears across research literature as a contrast
Techniques commonly associated with timbre-based analysis include a set of spectral and temporal features such as
Applications span instrument recognition, automatic tagging and classification of musical genres, sound event detection, audio restoration,
Related topics include timbre, spectral analysis, and music information retrieval.