Voices & timbres

[enuenu]

A timbre is made up of two or more voices being played simultaneously. Thus to create a timbre, a synth must be polyphonic. Polyphonic means the ability to play more two or more voices simultaneosuly.

 

To play two or more timbres simultaneously the synth must not only be polyphonic, it must also be multitimbral.

 

Do I have all this correct?

 

PS - How do you know if you are playing a voice or a timbre? Maybe all sounds from a synth are timbres, voices being internal tones not used in isolation but rather as building blocks for the timbres we hear.

[tim gueguen]

What synth are you talking about specifically? Different companies name the components of a synth sound different things.

[Chando]

???? what????

[ElectricPuppy]

No, timbre is sound character. A C note played by a trumpet sounds different than a C note played on a flute, even though they're both playing the same tuned note. Playing more than one voice at a time isn't a "timbre". On a piano or a guitar, thats called playing a chord.

[mildbill]

Timbre is determined by the harmonics present in a note.

 

I think there might be a manufacturer or two who call a 'note', a 'timbre' instead, but technically, that's incorrect.

 

Playing two notes at once, is usually called an 'interval' (designating the number of half steps between them).

 

Playing three or more notes at once is called a chord.

 

Multitimbral means that different timbres (notes containing different harmonic makeup) can sound at the same time. Sometimes on different channels, sometimes split across the keyboard, or sometimes layered.

[enuenu]

Thanks. I 'm going to have to do some more research and come back. I am finding the way terminology is used in MIDI very confusing at times. Channels, voices, timbres, layers etc. I have seen these terms used in different ways.

 

Would examples of timbres in a synth be;

Electronic Piano 01

Harpsichord

Banjo?

 

This might give you an idea about just how lost I am.

[Chando]

Yeah. OT - I got in a huge arguement with a bandmate about the difference between a "modulation" and a "transpose".

 

Still a bit confused now..

[mildbill]

Yeah. OT - I got in a huge arguement with a bandmate about the difference between a "modulation" and a "transpose". Still a bit confused now..

 

 

 

Sidetrack the thread for a bit here.

 

Two types of modulation - the synth geek type where an lfo, envelope, or other modulator (source) affects a destination (parameter).

 

The other type, more likely in a band setting is when you modulate from one key to another using a series of chords. Several ways to do it, but a common one is to use the V (five) of V (five) of the key you're in.

If you're in the key of C, the V of V (G), is D, which would tend to resolve to G. When G is established as the new key, you have modulated from C to G.

 

Transposing is shifting up or down by a number of half steps.