phi kappa

Generating naturally-sounding electronic instruments

Saturday, February 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized

As i was drifting off to sleep, my thoughts wandered to the topic of eletronically generated instrumental sounds. Think of a violin. Now, think of a soundwave that has (nearly) the same properties as a note played by that instrument. What sound will you “prefer”, i.e. what sound sounds more “natural”?

Do people tend to prefer real instruments over eletronically played versions? Why? What is the difference?

It could be that the subtle difference in the timbre (or the perception thereof) of the sound generated by the resonance of the body of the violin has a different shape than that generated by speakers. Or is the way the shape of the soundwave generated by the violin differs by small yet perceptible details from the eletronically generated one? Has the natural sound of a violin random influences such as the casual vibration of atoms that make up the string, influences that are beyond a trivial imitation by lines of program code and yet noticeable enought? Or is the difference only perceived when the listener know about the different origins of one same sound?

I will investigate this when i wake up.

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