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In music, timbre, also timber (from Fr. timbre), (IPA /'tæmbəɹ/ as in the first two syllables of tambourine, or /'tɪmbəɹ/, like timber), is the quality of a musical note or sound that distinguishes different types of sound production or musical instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that mediate the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as sound quality or sound color.