Empirical studies of computer sound

In this chapter, we discuss computer-generated sound as the object of empirical study, particularly in perceptual, cognitive, and computational research. The purpose of such study begins with the musicological, taken broadly as understanding the structure of music and its impact on listeners, as well as the creative and performative roles of those who realise the music. It continues with the use of computer-generated sound as material for studies on sonic cognition and temporal perception more broadly. One of the advantages of computer sound is its susceptibility to minute control, in the way that scientific empiricists favour, an opportunity largely lacking in cognitive experiments with culturally constrained sonic structures such as those of Western tonal music, the subject of by far the greatest research attention to date.