There are unwavering laws of physics which govern the behavior of harmonics. There are no laws whatsoever governing politics so I'll be going with the harmonics on this one.
(Ed: why?)
Because we hear things all the time ... but mostly we have no idea how that happens.
Harmonics are the consequence of vibration as a guitar string vibrates in multiple frequencies at the same time with each frequency having consequences for the other frequencies. That's the physics of it but that depth isn't necessary as it's really not important for this discussion to understand how sine waves do what they do ... just that they do.
(Ed: sine wave?)
The frequency is the number for any given sound and the sine wave is the image of what it looks like. A frequency and a sine wave are different representations of the same thing.
(Ed: what does it matter?)
This is the difference between analog instruments and synthesizers and it's an important thing as every other instrument produces sound through vibration and thus each sound is comprised of the fundamental note plus its harmonics. However, a synthesizer creates a sound through whatever devious electronical trickery it uses but nothing is physically vibrating and thus the note is the fundamental wave but there are no harmonics because there is no vibration to create them.
Note: this may fall short of a full understanding of audio perception in humans but we're not going for a Nobel Prize, we only want to know what we're hearing. This note is only because sine waves traveling through air will affect each other. The interested student is welcome to pursue this but do anticipate dribbling on yourself if you get deep into it.
"Switched-on Bach" by Walter Carlos was one of the earliest synthesizer compositions and it featured Moog instruments. These were fascinating and the sound is still interesting but it's as dry as having unbuttered toast in the Sahara. That's because of the purity of the tones as in every sound being a discrete sine wave, unaffected by any others.
Note: I have no idea if it's the preference of Wendy Carlos to think of that time as before she became a woman. It's not that I have any interest in being politically correct but rather the language can't handle that kind of a change because humans never did it before. What I do know is Wendy was Walter when she recorded it but she is Wendy now. How that works out for grammar, etc I have no idea.
The way they make synthesized sound interesting is through the use of 'oscillators' and this is an electronical way to induce a synthesized vibration as an oscillation is just another word for the same thing. The purpose is to introduce sine waves other than the sine wave of the fundamental as the resolution of these waves is what makes the color of sound.
Maybe you would like to think of it as dropping a big rock into a pool of water. You can see the waves which come from it. If you now chuck some smaller rocks into the same pool of water, they will make ripples as well and you can watch the combination of the big ripples and the little ones as the water fades back to smoothness. This is much the same effect as the way sound works.
(Ed: what good is any of this?)
Right now lefty Unplugged is working on bringing his chops for playing a violin up to where he is with a guitar and that's a long march. It's much easier to get a cool sound out of a guitar faster than a violin and maybe you know the agony of listening to someone learn a violin. The reason is precisely because of the harmonics.
In playing a violin, everything vibrates. There's the natural vibration of the string and the harmonic series which comes but the violin goes beyond as the bow is vibrating as well and thus it contributes its own harmonic series. As you have likely heard in your life, when these series are not happy with each other than no-one anywhere around that violin will be happy.
Note: all of that vibration is dependent on how well the body of the violin embraces and sustains it and that's why people spend a million dollars for a Stradivarius.
(Ed: is this trying to show off knowledge?)
Nope. I learn while I write. I'm not a physicist.
(Ed: you're not much of a musician either)
Well, someone had to say it.
(Ed: so you're sitting in your cage down there and you decide you have to know how a harmonic series works?)
That's exactly what happened. If I can't explain it to someone else then I didn't really understand it so hopefully this material has imparted something to you as it did for me. It doesn't change what I play or how I play but it does give more insight into what comes from it.
(Ed: why?)
Because we hear things all the time ... but mostly we have no idea how that happens.
Harmonics are the consequence of vibration as a guitar string vibrates in multiple frequencies at the same time with each frequency having consequences for the other frequencies. That's the physics of it but that depth isn't necessary as it's really not important for this discussion to understand how sine waves do what they do ... just that they do.
(Ed: sine wave?)
The frequency is the number for any given sound and the sine wave is the image of what it looks like. A frequency and a sine wave are different representations of the same thing.
(Ed: what does it matter?)
This is the difference between analog instruments and synthesizers and it's an important thing as every other instrument produces sound through vibration and thus each sound is comprised of the fundamental note plus its harmonics. However, a synthesizer creates a sound through whatever devious electronical trickery it uses but nothing is physically vibrating and thus the note is the fundamental wave but there are no harmonics because there is no vibration to create them.
Note: this may fall short of a full understanding of audio perception in humans but we're not going for a Nobel Prize, we only want to know what we're hearing. This note is only because sine waves traveling through air will affect each other. The interested student is welcome to pursue this but do anticipate dribbling on yourself if you get deep into it.
"Switched-on Bach" by Walter Carlos was one of the earliest synthesizer compositions and it featured Moog instruments. These were fascinating and the sound is still interesting but it's as dry as having unbuttered toast in the Sahara. That's because of the purity of the tones as in every sound being a discrete sine wave, unaffected by any others.
Note: I have no idea if it's the preference of Wendy Carlos to think of that time as before she became a woman. It's not that I have any interest in being politically correct but rather the language can't handle that kind of a change because humans never did it before. What I do know is Wendy was Walter when she recorded it but she is Wendy now. How that works out for grammar, etc I have no idea.
The way they make synthesized sound interesting is through the use of 'oscillators' and this is an electronical way to induce a synthesized vibration as an oscillation is just another word for the same thing. The purpose is to introduce sine waves other than the sine wave of the fundamental as the resolution of these waves is what makes the color of sound.
Maybe you would like to think of it as dropping a big rock into a pool of water. You can see the waves which come from it. If you now chuck some smaller rocks into the same pool of water, they will make ripples as well and you can watch the combination of the big ripples and the little ones as the water fades back to smoothness. This is much the same effect as the way sound works.
(Ed: what good is any of this?)
Right now lefty Unplugged is working on bringing his chops for playing a violin up to where he is with a guitar and that's a long march. It's much easier to get a cool sound out of a guitar faster than a violin and maybe you know the agony of listening to someone learn a violin. The reason is precisely because of the harmonics.
In playing a violin, everything vibrates. There's the natural vibration of the string and the harmonic series which comes but the violin goes beyond as the bow is vibrating as well and thus it contributes its own harmonic series. As you have likely heard in your life, when these series are not happy with each other than no-one anywhere around that violin will be happy.
Note: all of that vibration is dependent on how well the body of the violin embraces and sustains it and that's why people spend a million dollars for a Stradivarius.
(Ed: is this trying to show off knowledge?)
Nope. I learn while I write. I'm not a physicist.
(Ed: you're not much of a musician either)
Well, someone had to say it.
(Ed: so you're sitting in your cage down there and you decide you have to know how a harmonic series works?)
That's exactly what happened. If I can't explain it to someone else then I didn't really understand it so hopefully this material has imparted something to you as it did for me. It doesn't change what I play or how I play but it does give more insight into what comes from it.
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