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1994-03-18
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Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com
GUS Musician's Digest Thu, 17 Mar 94 15:14 PST Volume 5: Issue 37
Today's Topics:
Percussion Patches / Banks, etc, (not again!)
Saxes and sound
Studio
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Standard Info:
- Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest.
- Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:57:15 EST
From: Meshreki@eecis.udel.edu
Subject: Re: Percussion Patches / Banks, etc, (not again!)
>Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 1:30:42 EST
>From: Meshreki@eecis.udel.edu
>
>[...]
>Why is MegaEM using ULTRASND.INI? No custom patch capability (without
>[...]
>I put two 200K piano .PATs in there that I know is foiling MegaEM somehow
Sigh. My apologies to anyone in the digest who read this far, and
especially to Jayeson, for this blunder. Obviously if I can put
patches with different names in ULTRASND.INI, then I _do_ have custom
patch capability. I also remembered that someone went to a lot of
trouble to figure out how Xwing was mapped and replaced some of the
patches to make Xwing more enjoyable (i.e. replaced a flute that was
being used as an engine noise with an actual engine patch), all using
MegaEm (look for XWNGSNDS.ZIP).
Yes, I was dropped on my head as a child. :-)
Anyway, I'm thinking about uploading D10PAT0A.ZIP to epas soon. These
are a few of my favorite Roland D10 sounds that I mono multi-sampled
@ 8 bit. I'll call it version 0.a because I can't set the loop points
to save my life. There's a really nice flute in there, and a 'warm pad',
and a nice brass sound, if someone could take a listen, repair the damage,
offer suggestions, etc. I'm willing to resample if it gets that far along.
I have already grabbed the excellent windows patch making tutorial
(PATREF23.ZIP).
Sam
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 09:32 -0500
From: WADLEIGH@PROCESS.COM
Subject: Saxes and sound
>Could you explain a bit the way various saxes sound and what makes it sound
>like that, if you know... You seem quite knowledgeable with these instruments.
I started playing sax about 35 years ago, and the sound of a saxophone is just
about the hardest to synthesize. Most instruments have a fairly simple basic
waveform that comes from the way the sound is generated, which is then modified
by the instrument. Strings vibrate in a sine wave. Brasses begin with
vibrating lips producing a sawtooth wave. "Woodwinds" (which include flutes
that have no wood anywhere) begin with a column of air vibrating in a pipe,
which produces a square wave. Saxophones are an exception, since they are not
made with a straight bore. The bore of a saxophone is a cone, not a cylinder.
The result is that the square wave vibration that begins at the reed alters in
a complex manner as it travels down the expanding bore and produces a full,
rich sound with so many undertones and overtones that no other instrument can
match it in complexity.
The variations in sound from one instrument to the next depend on the reed, the
mouthpiece, and the instrument. The capabilities of each combination simply
define a range of possibilities that can be infinitely altered by performance
techniques, but they do tend to determine the basic "sound" of the performance.
Reeds are made from slices of bamboo in various thicknesses, or from plastic.
Thin reeds allow great flexibility in pitch bending and work best in the lower
ranges, but tend to become flat and uncontrollable in the upper ranges. They
are also very fragile. Thick reeds work best in the upper ranges, but make the
instrument very hard to control in the lower ranges. A very thick reed may
make playing the lowest notes nearly impossible. Plastic reeds have a "hard"
sound, heavily loaded towards the high frequencies and sadly lacking in the
lower-frequency undertones. They are quite durable and often used by students
or (occasionally) by jazz musicians who want that "thin hard" sound for some
special effect.
Mouthpieces have all sorts of profiles to allow dynamics. Most professional
mouthpieces are fairly flat to allow a range of changes in the way the reed is
"gripped" for different performance techniques. Metal mouthpieces tend to
produce a "hard" sound while plastic and ebony mouthpieces tend to induce less
of this high-frequency bias.
Instruments have all sorts of variables, but it is primarily the instrument
that adds the undertones to the overall sound. Various manufacturere have
their "secrets" of construction which tend to create a distinctive sound.
Professional instruments have all sorts of tiny adjustments in them that make
them easy to play while preserving all those induced undertones. Student
instruments are made as cheaply as possible. They tend to lack the rich
undertones, have slow responses in the keys that make quick fingering changes
difficult if not impossible, and often become virtually unplayable in the
extreme upper and lower ranges of the instrument.
Selmer (Paris) is the world leader in saxophones. Their instruments preserve
the sharp edge of high frequencies produced in the reed and mouthpiece while
adding a full, rich set of undertones. Conn is well-known for their "soft"
sound, which tends to add very full undertones at the cost of damping out much
of the high frequency component. The professional models that Yamaha produces
rival Selmer (Paris). There's also a Selmer (USA) which is the old Bundy line
with the Selmer name. These are student models, and purists (like me) are
disgusted at the mislabeling for marketing purposes. It's like the awful
period when AMF owned Harley-Davidson and put the logo on Benelli imports. A
Bundy is not a Selmer and shouldn't be labeled as such.
The mathematics of a saxophone's waveform are very much like a square wave that
has been subjected to circular polarization. Increasing the high frequency
component produces a "hard" sound, usually associated with and "edge" in the
attack. The high frequency sounds "ramp up" first, followed by the lower
undertones. Increasing the low frequence component produces a "softer" sound.
If the lower frequencies "ramp up" during the attack, the tendancy is to cut
the high frequency component (like the distinctive Conn sound). The worst of
all is the "brass bucket" sound of a student sax, in which the high frequency
sounds are inconsistant and the low frequencies are almost completely absent.
This is an empty, hollow sound often described as "thin."
If you really want to compare different sampled synthesis methods, listen to
the saxophones. They are so difficult to synthesize that any weaknesses in the
synthesis methods will almost certainly appear there first.
Hal
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 16:04:27 +0200
From: iddos@math.tau.ac.il
Subject: Re: Studio
dionf@ere.umontreal.ca (Francois Dion) writes:
>Note that women usually hear higher than men, so they can make more
>accurate mixes.
Women are also more responsive emotionally, so by watching them listening
you can tell when you "got it" or "lost it". I found they also easily
_demonstrate_ while men _explain_. This of course works better for dance
but less for macho style music.
----
Ido Amin (3rd World Fox) iddos@math.tau.ac.il
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Arts & Crafts since 1984
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 12:35:35 +0100 (MET)
From: Students-Account <matt2@sztma.tu-graz.ac.at>
Subject: unsubscribe
------------------------------
End of GUS Musician's Digest V5 #37
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