Doepfer

Hi,

  Does anyone have a list of the formants present in acoustic instruments and other non-
musical sounds?  I am looking to expand my sound design knowledge and having a ready 
guide would be very useful.

Yours Aye

Stuadh

Whatever you might find would likely only be general information, 
because formants are the characteristic resonances of individual 
instruments or systems.. in other words, from violin to violin the 
formants would be different, just as from one person's voice to 
another person's voice the formants would be different. 

You could find frequency ranges for different instruments, but each 
instrument's formants are like its fingerprint, unique to that 
particular instrument.

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "stuadh" <stuadh@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
>   Does anyone have a list of the formants present in acoustic 
instruments and other non-
> musical sounds?  I am looking to expand my sound design knowledge 
and having a ready 

> guide would be very useful.
> 
> Yours Aye
> 
> Stuadh
>

General information is fine.  I'm just after a start point from which to experiment.  I got 
the idea from the Sound on Sound, Synth Secrets series, Formant Sysnthesis http://
www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar01/articles/synthsec.asp.  Given that there is something 
about the grouping of violin formants that makes the instrument sound violiny, I reckon 
having a database of different sonic reference points must be useful.  Has anyone any 
experience in this?  I have found several online articles describing how we use formants to 
identify sounds, but none show which frequencies relate to which sounds (except a bit the 
Synth Secrets giving vowel formants).

Yours Aye

Stuadh

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "untiedstates" <untiedstates@...> wrote:

>
> Whatever you might find would likely only be general information, 
> because formants are the characteristic resonances of individual 
> instruments or systems.. in other words, from violin to violin the 
> formants would be different, just as from one person's voice to 
> another person's voice the formants would be different. 
> 
> You could find frequency ranges for different instruments, but each 
> instrument's formants are like its fingerprint, unique to that 
> particular instrument.
> 
> --- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "stuadh" <stuadh@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > 
> >   Does anyone have a list of the formants present in acoustic 
> instruments and other non-
> > musical sounds?  I am looking to expand my sound design knowledge 
> and having a ready 
> > guide would be very useful.
> > 
> > Yours Aye
> > 
> > Stuadh
> >
>

I'd link this stuff, but it's easier if you google "violin formants" 
and there's a good bit of stuff there. No database out there that I 
know of (I know because I searched for this type of stuff in the 
past) but you can find info on individual instruments for a start... 
violins and guitars and so on.

Formants and properties of acoustic systems makes me think of how in 
analog synthesis one of the sounds that screams "analog synth" is 
the low pass filter sound - and this I think relates to Brian Eno's 
interest in synths and bodily functions - have you ever heard your 
stomach grumbling and thought that it sounds like a analog synth 
sound? I certainly have - hearing the stomach's sounds being 
filtered through the abdomen is like a sound being filtered through 
a low pass filter.

Not to digress too much, but just something I think of when it comes 
to analog synth "artificial" sound vs. "real" acoustic sound. One of 
the aspects of raw acoustic sounds that makes them what they are is 
the amount of high frequency content, and synthesizing acoustic type 
sounds in analog seems hard to me because the waveforms don't have 
that real high frequency content in the harmonics. I'm just thinking 
of what you have to start with as raw material before it hits the 
formant filtering.

Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and worthwhile to understand 
how to synthesize acoustically based sounds - I'm certainly 
interested in it, but I like analog synths for the nice "fake" 
sounds that they make. :)

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "stuadh" <stuadh@...> wrote:
>
> General information is fine.  I'm just after a start point from 
which to experiment.  I got 
> the idea from the Sound on Sound, Synth Secrets series, Formant 
Sysnthesis http://
> www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar01/articles/synthsec.asp.  Given that 
there is something 
> about the grouping of violin formants that makes the instrument 
sound violiny, I reckon 
> having a database of different sonic reference points must be 
useful.  Has anyone any 
> experience in this?  I have found several online articles 
describing how we use formants to 
> identify sounds, but none show which frequencies relate to which 
sounds (except a bit the 
> Synth Secrets giving vowel formants).
> 
> Yours Aye
> 
> Stuadh
> 
> --- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "untiedstates" 
<untiedstates@> wrote:
> >
> > Whatever you might find would likely only be general 
information, 
> > because formants are the characteristic resonances of individual 
> > instruments or systems.. in other words, from violin to violin 
the 
> > formants would be different, just as from one person's voice to 
> > another person's voice the formants would be different. 
> > 
> > You could find frequency ranges for different instruments, but 
each 
> > instrument's formants are like its fingerprint, unique to that 
> > particular instrument.
> > 
> > --- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "stuadh" <stuadh@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > >   Does anyone have a list of the formants present in acoustic 
> > instruments and other non-
> > > musical sounds?  I am looking to expand my sound design 
knowledge 

> > and having a ready 
> > > guide would be very useful.
> > > 
> > > Yours Aye
> > > 
> > > Stuadh
> > >
> >
>

Thanks for the reply.  I agree with the sentiment about making artificial sounds, and this is 
what I'm aiming for.  After all, why else spend time building up an extensive sample library 
of real instruments.  However, I've noticed a lot of my analogue sounds turning out a bit 
the same, and one way to get variation is to colour the wave before it goes through lo-
pass or whatever.  I'm also after the  " its a bit like a [insert instrument] but messed up..." 
effect with my sounds.  I try the Google thang, though.  

Cheers,

Stuadh

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "untiedstates" <untiedstates@...> wrote:

>
> I'd link this stuff, but it's easier if you google "violin formants" 
> and there's a good bit of stuff there. No database out there that I 
> know of (I know because I searched for this type of stuff in the 
> past) but you can find info on individual instruments for a start... 
> violins and guitars and so on.
> 
> Formants and properties of acoustic systems makes me think of how in 
> analog synthesis one of the sounds that screams "analog synth" is 
> the low pass filter sound - and this I think relates to Brian Eno's 
> interest in synths and bodily functions - have you ever heard your 
> stomach grumbling and thought that it sounds like a analog synth 
> sound? I certainly have - hearing the stomach's sounds being 
> filtered through the abdomen is like a sound being filtered through 
> a low pass filter.
> 
> Not to digress too much, but just something I think of when it comes 
> to analog synth "artificial" sound vs. "real" acoustic sound. One of 
> the aspects of raw acoustic sounds that makes them what they are is 
> the amount of high frequency content, and synthesizing acoustic type 
> sounds in analog seems hard to me because the waveforms don't have 
> that real high frequency content in the harmonics. I'm just thinking 
> of what you have to start with as raw material before it hits the 
> formant filtering.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and worthwhile to understand 
> how to synthesize acoustically based sounds - I'm certainly 
> interested in it, but I like analog synths for the nice "fake" 
> sounds that they make. :)

Hi there!

I think you will find what you are looking for in this book:
The Acoustical Foundations of Music (Hardcover)
by John Backus.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393090965/qid=1145150365/sr=1-2/ 
ref=sr_1_2/102-5736561-7015355?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Check out the table of contents:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0393090965/ref=sib_rdr_toc/ 
102-5736561-7015355?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S003&j=0#reader-page

enjoy,

sfrules

HI

there is a really great book in German: The author is 'Jürgen Meyer' and 
the title is 'Akustik und musikalische Aufführungspraxis'. Beside a lot 
of other interesting knowledge it contains a list of the formants and 
the angle of sending these frequencies for around 90 acoustical 
instruments. The book costs around 90 euros.

Florian

stuadh wrote:

> Hi,
> 
>   Does anyone have a list of the formants present in acoustic instruments and other non-
> musical sounds?  I am looking to expand my sound design knowledge and having a ready 
> guide would be very useful.
> 
> Yours Aye
> 
> Stuadh
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Florian Anwander                  |ConSol
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email: florian.anwander@consol.de |http://www.consol.de