Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [timbre]

For questions about the underlying tone quality or tone color of a sound.

Timber is the tone color of a given instrument that gives instruments their general unique sound characteristics. It is pronounced in the French manner, like "tamber".

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Why do certain rooms/vessels respond to specific frequencies?

Since I was a kid I was always wondering why is it that when I sing in a small room (i.e. bathroom!), whenever I touch a certain frequency, the whole room vibrates sympathetically. What are the parameters that make an acoustic body (be it a room,…
Shimmy Weitzhandler
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What are some of the things that influence a player's "tone"?

Listen to Larry Carlton, Jeff Beck,Steve Morse, Grant Green, Freddie/BB/ King, Hound Dog Taylor, Luther Allison, Dave Gregory ect.. - love'm or hate'm they all have very distinctive tones, Why? It's not all about the amp and the effects - what else…
JustnBeaver
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Do hollow body guitars really sound more "mellow?"

I think my next guitar is likely going to be a self-built Warmoth Thinline Telecaster. My question is for those of you who own or have played hollow body guitars a lot is this: do they really sound more mellow than their solid body counterparts? If…
Jduv
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How to generate the tone of a specific waveform?

Most synthesizers can generate the common standard types of waveforms, such as sine, triangle, square, sawtooth, pulse, noise, etc. And these can be used to create various types of timbre in a synthesized tone. Today I found myself wondering how to…
Mentalist
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Harmonic implications of an instrument's timbre

Is there a study of harmonic implications of an instrument's timbre in western music theory? For example: If i use an instrument with a "rich" timbre, with lots of overtones, then isn't the sound more prone to "cluster" if i play a set of…
ccorvi
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Math formulae for organs?

I already know that an organ can be synthesized by using sine waves at specific frequencies. But if you generate sine waves like that, the timbre of the note is very very plain (it sounds just like a plain tone) Is there anywhere I can find the math…
bobobobo
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How can you distinguish instruments by their timbre characteristics?

What I am trying to achieve is to distinguish instruments by their timbre. What I have read so far made me think that different instruments have different number of overtones. Is it possible to identify an instrument from a list of…
Юрій Кравець
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Is there a general explanation for why my timbre varies when I choose to sing at different ranges?

I'm a woman who has generally fit more into the alto range, and I haven't sung formally for more than five years. For the past few years, I've noticed that I've generally found it more comfortable to sing along along the higher portions of the tenor…
user20731
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Electronic device that introduces harmonic overtones

I play electric guitar but love the sound of violin. I have read articles where violins have been placed under spectral analysis and show rich overtones of harmonics. Is there any device I can use to duplicate this? I have tried adding octavers and…
smiley
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Transposing the human voice

I've been playing around with the pitch changer in Audacity. I noticed that when I change the key on instrumental music, while it may sound off, the timbre is mostly the same. In fact, it only sounds weird for pieces I've heard before since it…
Tony
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Drum tuning/timbre?

How integral to the harmony of the music is the tuning/timbre of the drum-set? It must be more aesthetically pleasing, even on a subconscious level, to have the drums tuned somewhere in the vicinity of the general keys in which the other musicians…
Tim Burnett - Bassist
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Such a thing as a "timbral/orchestrational progression"?

When we study harmony, it is considered obvious that we must consider chords in relation to the chords that come before and after them (chord progressions). However, I have yet to find any resources on orchestration which describe relationships…
lightning
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What combinations of wind instruments could mimic or closely resemble the timbre of a pipe organ?

When I say "wind instruments," I am mainly referring to those you would find in a concert band, to be more specific, here's a mock-up list of instruments I could potentially choose from: Piccolo, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet (Bb), Bass Clarinet (Bb), Alto…
Sam
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What's the difference between timbres built from sine and square waveforms?

Once again I've come across some ambiguous concepts,which I'm not sure if I've got their meanings right. It says that a sine wave has a pale timbre whereas,for example,timbres built from a square wave are penetrating.Is it talking about their…
Triscenic
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Can the timbre of a marimba be changed?

I was wondering can the timbre of a marimba be changed? Maybe by changing the length of the resonators? Thanks for all of your help.
frf
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