[sdiy] presets on a modular

[Richard Wentk]

At 15:08 13/11/2004 +0100, Ingo Debus wrote:

>Am Freitag, 12.11.04 um 12:08 Uhr schrieb Paul Maddox:
>
>>How many 'real musical' instruments have multiple sounds?
>>A piano, err no, A flute, err no,
>
>Sure a flute does have many different sounds. When you look at a flute 
>signal on the scope and vary the embouchure it looks like a wave shaper 
>being tweaked.
>
>Sure, it always sounds "like a flute" (unless very unusual playing 
>techniques are used), but then, a Minimoog always sounds like a Minimoog, 
>doesn't it?

This is a very interesting thing, because what identifies each sound isn't 
a single waveform, but a whole *group* of timbres and playing techniques.

So when we think of instrument sounds, we're already grouping them by an 
arbitrary psychoacoustic model than includes 'fluteyness' or 'pianoness' or 
whatever - and which really covers a wide range of sounds and pitches.

You could say that synths and organs are the same. Although they make a lot 
of different sounds, mostly they get squashed into 'synth' or 'organ'. 
There are subgroups for synth strings, synth bass, synth brass and the rest.

Still, everyone know what presets are. :-) What happens when you switch 
presets is you don't just get a new timbre, but optionally a new set of 
articulation techniques with the mod wheel, aftertouch, and so on. Whereas 
with a flute you just get the one timbre family, and one set of 
articulation options.

That's why the distinction still holds.

Richard