Klarinet Archive - Posting 000250.txt from 1996/06

From: "Gregory T. Wright" <103147.1471@-----.COM>
Subj: clarinet substiution
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 14:44:17 -0400

My friends,
All of the discussion regarding clarinets in various keys playing music
intended for clarinets in various (sometimes the SAME) keys, and the timbre
changes involved, reminds me of a fact of life for synthesizer sound samplers:
the "formant". I'm not sure if this applies to clarinets or not, but here goes:
Formants are areas of pitch which are always emphasized when an
instrument or voice produces a sound. "Overtones", "harmonics", or "partials"
are frequencies mathematically related to the fundamental pitch being produced;
if that pitch should rise or fall, the overtones do the same, proportionately.
Formants, on the other hand, are characteristics of the physical body producing
the sound. This can be easily understood by thinking of those pioneers of
recording, The Chipmunks. Doubling the tape speed after recording made the
voices twice as fast & one octave higher, AND CHANGED THEIR TIMBRE by raising
the formants an octave as well.
When a synthesizer uses sampled sounds to convincingly imitate "real"
instruments it must use more than one sample, because transposing a sample too
far changes it timbre noticeably. The piano is an instrument famous for this;
some synthesizers use(d) a different sample EVERY MINOR 3RD to avoid the
problem.
Do the different sizes of clarinet each have a characteristic formant
"recipe"? If so, it is easy to understand the problem, especially in
"classical" ("legit") musical groups. After all, would YOU listen to "Ave
Maria" performed by The Chipmunks?

-Gregory T. Wright
103147.1471@-----.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GTWrigh
t/