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Everything we can't describe in music

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Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#21

Post by analog31 »

taco_emoji wrote: post #20
hydrogen7800 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everything is overtones", or so I've heard somewhere. The pitch, or note you hear from an instrument is the fundamental frequency, and the combination of overtones determines the timbre. These overtones are other sine waves at different amplitudes and frequencies, and the combination of these are instrument dependent. Additive synthesizers do this to approximate "real" instruments.

It's also the shape of the wave. Sawtooth waves are buzzier or "brighter" than sine waves, for example.

For periodic signals the waveform and the overtone series precisely determine one another.

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#22

Post by andoando »

taco_emoji wrote: post #20
hydrogen7800 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everything is overtones", or so I've heard somewhere. The pitch, or note you hear from an instrument is the fundamental frequency, and the combination of overtones determines the timbre. These overtones are other sine waves at different amplitudes and frequencies, and the combination of these are instrument dependent. Additive synthesizers do this to approximate "real" instruments.

It's also the shape of the wave. Sawtooth waves are buzzier or "brighter" than sine waves, for example.

And the shape of the wave is just a composition of more waves :->

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#24

Post by tarentel »

hnthrowaway6543 wrote: post #12

> Another way to think about timbre is by comparing instruments. In an old stand-up bit, Steve Martin strummed the banjo and mused, “You just can’t sing a depressing song when you’re playing the banjo . . . You can’t just go, ‘Oh, death, and grief, and sorrow, and murder.’ Anyone who's played Outer Wilds should disagree with this.[0] To say we can't describe timbre is a bit misleading, because there are concrete math…

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that quote but your counter example does not give me emotions of death, grief, sorrow, or murder. It sounds very hopeful to me.

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#26

Post by hydrogen7800 »

andoando wrote: post #22
taco_emoji wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also the shape of the wave. Sawtooth waves are buzzier or "brighter" than sine waves, for example.

And the shape of the wave is just a composition of more waves :->

This is a great visualization of fourier series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r18Gi8lSkfM

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#28

Post by nicklecompte »

navane wrote: post #7

Timbre is what makes the violin sound different from the bassoon, what makes the strings in general gives them their sound, and brass theirs. Timbre is what makes a singers voice unique. Classical composers had a set of fixed timbres to play with, each instrument having their own. With synthesizers everything is possible.

"everything is possible" except for a synthesized instrument that actually has the expressive range of a real violin or saxophone. Even a synthesized piano is noticeably lifeless compared to the real thing (synthesized piano bass notes are especially thin).

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#29

Post by hnthrowaway6543 »

tarentel wrote: post #24
hnthrowaway6543 wrote: post #12

> Another way to think about timbre is by comparing instruments. In an old stand-up bit, Steve Martin strummed the banjo and mused, “You just can’t sing a depressing song when you’re playing the banjo . . . You can’t just go, ‘Oh, death, and grief, and sorrow, and murder.’ Anyone who's played Outer Wilds should disagree with this.[0] To say we can't describe timbre is a bit misleading, because there are concrete math…

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that quote but your counter example does not give me emotions of death, grief, sorrow, or murder. It sounds very hopeful to me.

And that just goes to show you how context-sensitive and subjective the emotional quality of sounds and music is. Half the people watching that video get teary-eyed when hearing it :)

Re: Everything we can't describe in music

#30

Post by andoando »

hydrogen7800 wrote: post #26
andoando wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the shape of the wave is just a composition of more waves :->

This is a great visualization of fourier series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r18Gi8lSkfM

Man I wish my full time job was studying math.
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