What on earth is a "leading edge of a note"??

[notinuse]

If the slew rate of the system reproducing the audio is fast enough, does it matter?
Relative to measured sound vs. sound hear by ears, we can create systems that detect audio much better than human ears.

 

[MattHooper]

And can you, how do you actually hear it??

I hear this term used by some popular audio reviewers on YouTube and finally decided to search it up. Below is what Google AI says.

What do you all think? Any of you able to hear this so called leading edge of a music note and be able to tell if it is sharp and clear and different from one component to another?

Yes of course!

It looks like you’ve already answered your own question with the AI.

If you play a piano recording and play with EQ you can roll off the frequencies in which the leading edge or attack occurs and push the frequencies that emphasize the body of the note… or visa versa.

And since audio equipment, especially loudspeakers can have frequency variations, you might find the leading edge or attack of notes more prominent in some systems than others.

I work in sound effects design, and my work would be pretty much impossible without the general principles we’re talking about. I’m constantly combining and eqing recordings do things like increase the perception of edge/attack clarity of sounds. Sometimes I can pull this out just with EQ, other times it requires combining sounds. For instance, if I’m doing a heavy sword fight hit, I may start out with a recording of swords clashing or an anvil hit or whatever which gives body to the sound, but if there isn’t enough edge cutting through and I can’t pull it out with EQ, I might just quickly record two smaller blades or pieces of kitchen cutlery smacking together and then add that higher pitched “ ping” in to complete the sound and give it the edge I want.

 

[kemmler3D]

This is my off-the-cuff thinking on why some systems seem to reproduce the "attack" of a snare drum or the like better than others. Spoiler: it will have nothing at all to do with a driver being "fast" versus "slow". Disclaimer: I am not an expert, and I'm sure (and hope) that someone more knowledgeable will be along to correct any mistakes in my thinking (or slap me down if I'm entirely wrong).

Horns/compression drivers are often described as being superior at delivering the "attack" on drums and the like compared to other speaker types, as demonstrated by @Pareto Pragmatic bringing up their Heresies earlier. What horn-loaded speakers actually excel at, in my understanding, is sensitivity/efficiency. My thinking is that drums and like have a large amplitude spike on their attack, requiring large dynamics from the speaker/amplifier system. Due to their inherent efficiency, horn-loaded speakers are less likely to exhibit severe distortion and/or compression when reproducing these large-amplitude "attacks", which is what actually lends them their realism relative to other speaker systems.

This is plausible, more than vague doubts about tweeter that are flat beyond 20khz being somehow unable to start producing 20khz quickly, i.e. some kind of nonlinear "slowness" that doesn't appear in FR graphs. And it mirrors how dynamic compression works in the studio.

If you take a very dynamic drum track and add a dynamic compressor to it, to lower the peaks, guess what, the attack gets softer and less "snappy". In the extreme case you can make the attack and decay the same amplitude, at which point you have a burst of noise with a sudden onset, but not a "snap".

Speakers with low dynamic capability end up applying a certain amount of dynamic compression that is not exactly like, but similar to what's used in the studio. So efficient speakers with high headroom let through however much "snap" is in the recording better than speakers with less headroom.

 

[Newman]

Any of you able to hear this so called leading edge of a music note and be able to tell if it is sharp and clear and different from one component to another?

If you are talking about the situation where the note is asymmetrical wrt pressure, then there is evidence that this is audible.

The test would be to reverse the leads on the speakers. IIRC this has passed blind testing and is considered audible.

The second part of your question regarding being more audible in one component than another, I suppose it is possible with speakers but very unlikely with electronics.

However, I don't think it is an important, or even useful, evaluation criterion for selecting audio gear.

cheers

 

[RayDunzl]

And there are waveforms with what would look like an endless stream of "leading edges"...

Trombone

 

[Cool Runnings]

rationaltime said it well, but since I already wrote the following...

Attack is the term I would use. And I rarely think about it beyond, "Is the crack of the drum correct?"



One easy example is if you listen to a soft dome tweeter versus a compression driver/horn. Compression drivers are usually pretty quick on the attack compared to others, as a general but not universal rule. This is the one area where my modified 84 Heresies do very well indeed compared to my usual aluminum/magnesium dome tweeters, or my office soft domes.

Beyond that?

If I try, I can certainly focus on things like the start of piano notes, and listen for the actual percussion of impact of hammer on strings that comes before the tone. The "pluck" of a guitar/banjo string works too (think trying to hear fingers versus picks). The sound of a drumstick hitting the drum skin, that's more subtle to my ear, but it's there. Stick on rim of drum way less subtle, but a good thing to listen to for this.

Can I hear the "rise time" of the attack that must come before the decay? No way. Can I hear differences with synths? Probably not. Horns? Doubt it, maybe on Giant Steps or some very staccato piece, but I would not try.

Vibraphone? Yep.

I've never A/B tested on this, but when the attack is not crisp, it's pretty obvious on certain things on certain recordings. At least to me, after having listened and tuned systems for a while now.

Thanks this is enlightening. So leading note edge is a real and audible thing (at least for some people). I'll try to listen out for these nuances.

 

[Juhazi]

"Leading edge" and "timbre" are closely related, they make the charasteristic identity for an instrument or sound.

It has several components, frequency, distortion, amplitude and decay. Lots of info is easily found by Googling.

Why Do Instruments Sound Different? – Audio University

audiouniversityonline.com

Regarding recorded and replayed sound, all ot these components are modified to some extent, by eg. microphone type and placement, sound editing etc. and lastly by loudspeaker and listenng room.