Using Spectral Analysis to Evaluate Flute Tone Quality Ron Yorita Many skilled flutists place a high priority on "good" tone quality, or timbre. Timbre can be defined as the audible difference in character that a listener perceives for two notes played at the same pitch [13, 29] . Different timbres are determined by the combination and balance of harmonics that comprise a note [2, 38, 47] . Unlike pitch and rhythm, timbre is difficult to objectively quantify. This project explores (1) how tone

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... uality is described by skilled flutists, (2) whether the harmonic spectrum has some correlation with tone quality, (3) whether certain harmonic spectra are preferred, or considered "good".