question about frequency

[b-lam]

ok so a very techy question.
i'm just gonna explain what i understand about this, please someone tell me if i'm wrong...

so each frequency is a certain pitch, and different sounds are made by adding harmonics, which are basically different pitches added onto the main one... so theoretically if i got an incredibly effecient bandpass on a sound i could isolate the various waves it is made up of, and theoretically you could make any sound from a combination of sine waves and volume envelopes...

am i making any sense at all? it all seems a bit simple now i think i've got the hang of it

[pompende]

uhhhhhhh...i am pretty sure although i am not good with the syntax here.
to me tho it sounds like all you need now is Kontakt2 !

[intoccabile]

It's exactly as you said, B-LAM !

[misk]

thats pretty much true man. when you get down to it, i suppose that the most realistic form of synthesis would be additive synthesis, with an unlimited number of sine wave oscillators. though, in reality, the ability to recreate any sound imaginable with sinewaves alone is near impossible i would think.

or atlease rather futile.

but yes, frequency = pitch

[b-lam]

thats pretty much true man. when you get down to it, i suppose that the most realistic form of synthesis would be additive synthesis, with an unlimited number of sine wave oscillators. though, in reality, the ability to recreate any sound imaginable with sinewaves alone is near impossible i would think.

or atlease rather futile.

but yes, frequency = pitch

yeh i wasnt hopin to become some sort of synthesis genius it was just curiousity.

cheers for clearin that up

[crash fistfight]

Its amazing what you can do wth synthesis techniques. I did a synthesis module last year where we touched on Formant synthesis, building the harmonics up until you get a vowel sound. Its dead freaky. You are right though you could come up with virtually any sound possible but it wouldn't sound excatly like it as you have to take timbre into effect too.

Every wave has differing harmonics a sine wave is made up of even harmonics while a square wave is made up of odd harmonics and its these that add together to make a sound. From what I remeber from my studies that is a sort of a stripped down version.

Pitch doesn't have anything to do with the harmonics, this creates the specific sound of the wave. Its the cycles per second of a wave that determines the pitch which is measured in Hz.

.

[pompende]

the ability to recreate any sound imaginable with sinewaves alone is near impossible i would think.

or atlease rather futile.

tell that to fourier.

[nospin]

IYou are right though you could come up with virtually any sound possible but it wouldn't sound excatly like it as you have to take timbre into effect too. .

the 'timbre' is a result of the harmonics. an A on bass guitar sounds different than and A on a saxophone, because of the upper harmonics created by the shape and materials of the instrument.

theoretically, if you could analyze a sound made, all of the frequencies, their amplitude, and when they occur, then you could recreate that exact sound.... isnt that sampling? or any digital audio recording.?

i dont really hope to make a synth sound like a trumpet though... not really my goal...

[b-lam]

Every wave has differing harmonics a sine wave is made up of even harmonics while a square wave is made up of odd harmonics and its these that add together to make a sound. From what I remeber from my studies that is a sort of a stripped down version.

Pitch doesn't have anything to do with the harmonics, this creates the specific sound of the wave. Its the cycles per second of a wave that determines the pitch which is measured in Hz.

.

ok is this definatly right? because on here i've also read that by lowpassing a square wave you can get a near sine wave... a sub bass technique, i've tried it and it does sound similar to a sine... which would mean that what makes it a square wave (the harmonics) are the bits in the higher frequencies i.e. higher pitches....?...

[nospin]

ok is this definatly right? because on here i've also read that by lowpassing a square wave you can get a near sine wave... a sub bass technique, i've tried it and it does sound similar to a sine... which would mean that what makes it a square wave (the harmonics) are the bits in the higher frequencies i.e. higher pitches....?...

from what i understood, a pure sine wave didnt have harmonics

a sine wave occurs at one frequency. when you add higher frequencies on top of it (at lower volumes) they wont be heard as a "pitch" but will effect the shape and sound of the wave. the loudest (highest amplitude) frequency, will usually be the lowest, and usually be the note we hear it as. if you filter out all the harmonics, then you are back to one frequency, one sine wave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone_series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics

[b-lam]

ok is this definatly right? because on here i've also read that by lowpassing a square wave you can get a near sine wave... a sub bass technique, i've tried it and it does sound similar to a sine... which would mean that what makes it a square wave (the harmonics) are the bits in the higher frequencies i.e. higher pitches....?...

from what i understood, a pure sine wave didnt have harmonics

a sine wave occurs at one frequency. when you add higher frequencies on top of it (at lower volumes) they wont be heard as a "pitch" but will effect the shape and sound of the wave. the loudest (highest amplitude) frequency, will usually be the lowest, and usually be the note we hear it as. if you filter out all the harmonics, then you are back to one frequency, one sine wave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone_series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics

ah gotcha, i thought fistfight was saying harmonics didnt have a pitch, which he wasnt, he was just sayin they dont necessarily audibly affect the pitch. good links, i understand it better now