Unusual musical notes

March 28, 2005 8:49 AM

Neotones: As I understand it, a note is not a pure frequency but a combination of a prominent frequency and various overtones, which are multiples of the fundamental frequency, of diminishing contribution. Is there a device, that can generate alienesque tones, where one can freely manipulate the various overtones?
posted by Gyan to technology (13 comments total)

that's what synthesisers do, in various ways. most simply, you can have more than sine-wave oscillator (frequency) per voice, and change the relative amplitude of the different oscillators. but that's expensive (at least in hardware), because you usually want a *lot* of different overtones. so another approach is to to start with something other than a sine wave - typically a saw tooth or square wave. they have a wide range of overtones, at certain ratios. you then filter those to reduce the amplitudes of some and boost the amplitudes of others (a linear filter does nothing more than alter the strengths of different overtones).

that's how basic analogue synths work. software synths and things like fm synthesis are more complicated - partly for practical reasons (getting good sounds cheaply), but also because controlling the amplitude of each individual overtone directly isn't a particularly user-efficient way of making/adjusting a sound.
posted by andrew cooke at 9:01 AM on March 28, 2005

more than one sine-wave...
posted by andrew cooke at 9:01 AM on March 28, 2005

Any Windows-based softwares that allow me to experiment using a regular sound card (Santa Cruz)?
posted by Gyan at 9:08 AM on March 28, 2005

the stuff i know about is very programer-level - i'm not a musician - but if you don't mind a low-level, clunky interface, google for "csound".
posted by andrew cooke at 9:14 AM on March 28, 2005

Yes, andrew cooke is talking about additive vs. subtractive synthesis. Check out Loris, a library for creating and reproducing sounds using additive synthesis.

As for "devices" that use additive synthesis, look to further than the Hammond organ.
posted by Eamon at 9:16 AM on March 28, 2005

if you wanna get a professional grade awesome program that can do that (and much much MUCH much more), try Propellerheads Reason
posted by Mach5 at 9:27 AM on March 28, 2005

Reason is a sledgehammer to crack a nut if Gyan just wants to fiddle with some subtractive synthesis ideas.

Gyan, take a look at rgaAudio's Triangle II which is a freeware VSTi synth which will let you play with three oscillators. It comes bundled with a standalone host which has a virtual keyboard, so you can "play" the synth from your computer keyboard.
posted by benzo8 at 9:43 AM on March 28, 2005

Eamon -- thanks for the ref to Loris! Glad to see the creators of Lime are still doing cool things.
posted by weston at 10:00 AM on March 28, 2005

Subtractive synthesis won't give you that type of control. Additive synthesis very likely may, but few such products exist. This may be accomplished more readily with FM Synthesis made famous by Yamaha. A highly expanded software version (expanded algorithms, filters!) is available in FM7 by Native Instruments.

For sheer control, and pure weirdity potential, I've found nothing beats Absynth, with its additive style leanings, and the ability to freehand waves, coupled with the sheer numbers of oscillators available and freehandable envelopes.
posted by sourwookie at 12:02 PM on March 28, 2005

If you want, as I think I'm understanding from your question, to modify individual frequencies (overtones, or harmonics) from generated tones, then you'll be wanting to look at a program called Audiomulch. There's a plugin for it (which, if memory serves, comes bundled) which allows you to do precisely what you want to do. The learning curve is fairly shallow, IIRC.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 4:23 PM on March 28, 2005

Hmm, on reflection, you could do some interesting things in Reason. Just split the sound signal from whatever synth you're using, and route it X times to X number of eq's, then route from there through vaarious processors/FX units, and combine them all again at the mixer.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:47 PM on March 28, 2005

This is, by definition, additive synthesis. Almost any multi-oscillator synth can do this for you. This involves tuning the oscillators and mixing their relative volumes. As already noted, the Hammond Organ. Just google for a vsti with more than one oscillator and the ability to adjust the intonation and volume of each individual oscillator.
posted by basicchannel at 8:20 PM on March 28, 2005

If you don't want to mess about with VST's and host's and such, the first softsynth I ever loved was the TS404 which later got reincarnated in FL Studio. You can download it there for free.

Check the other synths at SharewareMusicMachine as well.

Then just hit play and start twiddling some knobs.
posted by Espoo2 at 11:20 PM on March 28, 2005