In music, timbre (pronounce /ˈtam-bər'/, tɪm.bər like timber, or ˈtæm(brə), from Fr. timbre tɛ̃bʁ) is the quality of a musical note or sound that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices 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.