Perceptual Attack Time (often abbreviated "PAT") is a subjective measure of the time that a musical sound's rhythmic emphasis is heard. It is analogous to the perceptual centre (aka "p-centre") in speech.
It is different from both the physical onset (i.e., the time at which the sound's acoustic energy first begins) and the perceptual onset (i.e., the subjective time at which a listener first notices that the sound has begun). For a very percussive sound such as a note played on a closed hi hat cymbal the perceptual attack time may be just a few milliseconds, while for a note bowed slowly on a violin the perceptual attack time may be as much as 50-100 milliseconds.
Read more about Perceptual Attack Time: Applications
Famous quotes containing the words attack and/or time:
“Remote and ineffectual Don
That dared attack my Chesterton.”
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)
“How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)