How can I generate audio with a timbre similar to a sample?
September 1, 2011 11:05 AM   Subscribe

How can I generate audio with a timbre similar to a sample?

Say, for example, I have a recording of a screeching bird, and I like the sound of it.

If I just grab a section of it and loop it, the dominate tone of playing it will come from the length of the sample, not whatever it is that I liked about the screeching bird sound.

And if I sample the full thing, then I just feel like I'm doing "jingle cats."

I want to be able to imitate the timbre of a sound and then generate a drone of any arbitrary length. It's fine if it sounds a little artificial, like the difference between a real human voice and the "voice" on a cheap synthesizer.

How would I learn to do something like this and what software is suited to the task?
posted by RobotHero to Media & Arts (8 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
What tools do you have? Most samplers can loop back from a point other than the end to a point other than the beginning, and only play through the rest of the sample once you release whatever the trigger for the sample was.
posted by mkb at 11:23 AM on September 1, 2011


Those are the fundamentals of sound synthesis. There are lots of books on the subject out there. You'll gain immense power by just skimming a few of them. Synthesis is quite intuitive once you've got your foot in the door.

There exists a book, Designing Sounds in SuperCollider. I think it's free here on Wikibooks ... It's pretty technical though, there would be books out there that paint the picture in broader strokes.

I accumulated my knowledge from lots of different sources. I wish I could name one. If you have a good local library, I'd check there. Then there are surely torrents out there with some great books ...
posted by krilli at 11:30 AM on September 1, 2011


There are certain additive software synthesizers with a "resynthesis" function, where it takes an audio sample, and then creates a synthesized emulation of it. Check p.14 of this PDF for a longer explanation.

You can also try importing your sample into a sampler with a "granular synthesis" function, like Kontakt, which can stretch the length of a sample independent of pitch.
posted by subtle-t at 12:49 PM on September 1, 2011


Hardwarewise, you're looking at boards like the Technos Axcel and the Access Virus Ti, and possibly the Kawai K5000S.
posted by rhizome at 12:55 PM on September 1, 2011


Response by poster: I'm unlikely to use these in live performances, my first goal is to generate sound effects for short films and animation.

In fact, any program that lets me keyframe pitch and volume like I would control position in After Effects I would love to hear about.
posted by RobotHero at 1:49 PM on September 1, 2011


I'm sure there's something in Reaktor that can do this, and I think Absynth can work like this too.
posted by krilli at 2:18 PM on September 1, 2011


Yes, Reaktor has resynthesis-oriented objects.

Given your use case, I would recommend looking into Kyma as well.
posted by rhizome at 3:45 PM on September 1, 2011


This month's Sound on Sound reviewed something that sounds like it does pretty much exactly what you want, specifically GRM Tools : Evolution

Quoting from the review "it takes snapshots of the frequency content of its input, then morphs between these, in essence creating a continuous sound that has (initially at least) the timbre of the original but none of the dynamic variation"

That sounds a lot like it can "imitate the timbre of a sound and then generate a drone of any arbitrary length".

Check out the Evolution demo half way down the page
posted by iivix at 12:11 PM on September 2, 2011


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