Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!noao!ncar!unmvax!uservx.afwl.af.mil!galetti
From: galetti@uservx.afwl.af.mil
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Formants (was Re: <None>,perect pitch)
Message-ID: <1991Apr15.094703.21856@uservx.afwl.af.mil>
Date: 15 Apr 91 09:47:03 GMT
References: <425389987@1991Apr7.100059.1489@urz.unibas.> <1094700003@cdp> <1991Apr11.142237.1501@urz.unibas.ch> <1991Apr13.235927.5503@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: Phillips Laboratory - Kirtland AFB
Lines: 28

In article <1991Apr13.235927.5503@milton.u.washington.edu>, allyn@milton.u.washington.edu (Allyn Weaks) writes:
> 
>>That is also the way you distinguish different instruments, by the overtones.
> 
> Only partly.  Much more important is the attack - the wild ravings of the
> first several milliseconds of a note.  If you hear only a sustained tone, it's
> often hard to tell a violin from a flute from a horn.  Pianos are more
> distinctive because of non-linearities in the overtones.
> 
I have to agree with you here.  I see this a lot when I edit a sample.  Without
a descriptive attack the sample could be a simple analog synth.  Vocal samples
sound really stupid without some form of complex attack.  For example, if you
sample someone singing "ah" and then edit it so the attack is gone, it sounds
pretty boring.  If you sample "Tah" and preserve the attack, it sounds much
better.

The Roland D-50 uses this concept.  It takes advantage of the primacy effect
that attack sounds have on the human ear.  When a distinctive attack is 
followed by a simple oscillation, the result is a realistic and pleasant sound.
Well, I like it anyway!

> Allyn Weaks
> allyn@milton.u.washington.edu
  ___________________________________________________________________________
 /   Ralph Galetti                  Internet:   galetti@uservx.afwl.af.mil   \
|    PL/LITT                        Interests:  computers, music, computers   |
|    Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-6008                and music, golf, sleep.       |
 \__"No, they couldn't actually prove that it was HIS vomit" - Nigel Tufnel__/