[A6] Rich, rich, rich

[Ioannis Kazlaris]

Hi people,

>>>NO. It's only fair to point out (for the zillionth time simce they invented 
digital audio) that when the audio goes in, it is stored as discrete steps. 
When it is brought back out, it IS an analog waveform again. Not the same one, 
but it IS analog (continuous), the same as you sampled. No matter how low the 
sampling rate. 

Well, sure but the continuity is different, so again the initial sound is not the same. I believe, based on what I have read about psychoacoustics, that the ear likes to INVENT the in-between harmonics or frequencies. By the way I can hardly imagine someone recognizing frequencies above 12KHz with precision. It's my guess that we can perceive these frequencies not directly but as richness. If someone does a FFT and look at the spectrum he might notice that these frequencies, if they exist, are very low in amplitude. When I was studying piano my teacher showed me something that I didn't know: Play a key in the middle registers of the piano very softly so that the hammer touches the string without making any sound and hold it there. Then play the same key 3 octaves below, this time hard. You will notice that after the sound lingers a bit, some of the frequencies of the lower key will "meet" the ones in the middle register. These will be a little more pronounced, something like a
 resonator. This is just a little experiment to show that:
 
1.) the piano is a very rich instrument indeed
2.) for a single key pressed, there are various harmonics at various amplitudes
3.) there is a lot of intermodulation between the harmonics, not directly perceptible.
 
This doesn't happen with analog or digital instruments. When somebody hears or programs a sound at a specific frequency, he also has to program some 2% amplitude at an octave higher, some 0,47% at a major seventh above that, blah blah...you get the point... We' re talking an infinite amount of harmonics. And since we perceive a sound by its fundamental, its even more difficult to recognize these extra frequencies let alone program them.

>>>I think the early post we had about "organic" sounds was off the mark with 
that definition of organic. Organic almost always refers to any sound like those 
found in natural events - even horns or drums. I try very hard to create an 
"organic" feel in any sound by unsing randomness (pitch, tone, attack etc). 
This helps ANY instrument you make feel more natural and comfortable to the 
listener.

My idea of the term "organic" is a sound with movement or animation to it. Also unpredictabilty. All the tricks that someone could come up with: noise, intermodulation, overdrive, panning, modulation from unexpected sources, blah-blah.
 
Now that I think of it, feedback in the Minimoog comes after signal enters the VCA whereas in the A6 it comes before the VCA. So, I was wondering whether we can employ this little trick by feeding the phones' output back in. I am not in front of the A6 right now but I don't see why that wouldn't work. Or double feedback for that matter, one coming from the routing and one that is already there...
 
Yannis


		
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