A set of forty popular music drum pattern stimuli with perceived complexity measures

This study presents an audio stimuli set of forty drum patterns from Western popular music together with empirical data on the stimuli’s perceived complexity. The audio stimuli are meticulous reconstructions of drum patterns found in commercial recordings; they are based on careful transcriptions (carried out by professional musicians), drum stroke loudness information and exact onset timing measurements. Data on perceived stimulus complexity was collected in a listening experiment using a pairwise comparison design with 220 participants (4400 trials); and complexity measures were calculated using the Bradley-Terry probability model. The drum pattern stimuli and their perceptual complexity estimates can be used for listening experiments in which stimulus complexity is a relevant independent variable; and they allow to assess measures and models of drum pattern complexity.