the infinite harmonics preset

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How often do you use the expression evaluator for making sound effects and/or music?

never
2
25%
rarely
3
38%
sometimes
1
13%
often
1
13%
all the time--I'm hooked!
1
13%
 
Total votes: 8

KenWDowney
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:35 am
Location: Norwalk OH

the infinite harmonics preset

Post by KenWDowney »

Since I haven't found a forum specifically for presets, and since I do not know how to create it, I am sharing this preset with you in the hopes that it will fascinate you as it does me.
I stumbled upon this concept last year and, though it has certain flaws, is quite interesting none the less. I have called it the infinite harmonics preset because that is what it creates, infinite harmonics.
Here is the preset.
sin(x*t^f*sin(pi*y*t))/8
where x, the tempo, is defaulted at 40, y, the harmonic preset, is defaulted at 2000, and f, the tempo increment variable, defaults to 1. I used 2000 for the harmonics default because it is an imperfect harmonic number--that is, it is not related to one of the eight compass directions and produces many offsets. Had I used 2100, it would have related to 210 degrees, which is northwest on the compass, though in fact you can increase the degrees by fifteen so that 210+15, or 225 * 10, 2250, works as a perfect number as well. These perfect harmonic numbers as I have called them produce nothing but a single tone and its octaves, where other numbers like 2000 produce various harmonic offsets. These offsets are more interesting to hear than the perfect numbers, and can be used to make various sound effects like energizer beams and the like.
The flaw is that as more harmonics are added in, the first harmonics do not fade away, causing a low rasping hum. This however can be removed with the clipboard noiseprint clearer under the filters menu. Since the numbers have to do with angles, pi is brought into the equasion--try producing perfect harmonic numbers without it!
Enjoy!
Blind Comfort
The Caring
Without the Staring
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Post by DougDbug »

It seems like a rather tedious way of generating sound effects or music, but some people have done some amazing things... Take a look at this post.

I think it would be more useful (for this purpose) if there were an easier way to alter the parameters & variables, and perhaps if you could dynamically control the expression dynamically with a program, while listening to the sound in real-time. I assume game developers have some nice special-purpose tools for designing sound effects. (I think most modern MIDI musical sounds are sampled, rather than being mathematically generated.)


---------------
I've only used the expression evaluator to make simple waveforms for testing & experimentation. I was wondering how well the soundcard would reconstruct waveforms near the Nyquist limit of 1/2 of the sample rate. So, I created some test waveforms and hooked-up an oscilloscope to a couple of computers. I've found that some soundcards/soundchips don't do any filtering!

From two of my computers at work, I can get a 24kHz square wave at a 48kHz sample rate (And, I cannot get a sine wave at high frequencies..) If I create a 20kHz "sine" wave (at 48kHz sample rate) I get a sequence of 16kHz (3 clocks) and 24kHz (2 clocks) pulses. At 1kHz, I can clearly see the 48 "stair steps" that approximate the sine wave... I can't hear these high-frequency defects. Another computer did a much better job of re-generating sine waves.
KenWDowney
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:35 am
Location: Norwalk OH

presets and music

Post by KenWDowney »

Yes, but that's nothing compared to some music I heard for the goldwave last year. It took five minutes to generate and sounded awesome--I just wish I could remember where to find it. It was complete with drums, bass line, harmonies, melodies and even sound effects--someone out there must have been quite bored to spend so much time writing such an awesome piece of music--through the evaluator!
The beauty of the infinite harmonics preset though is the simplicity of the equasion. Simply modifying x, y, and f will give you such a wide range of effects that you won't think it was the same equasion twice. I've created an energizer beam, a time machine, and some interesting musical abstracts through the preset. Tonight I'm going to work with other functions such as tangents and see how they alter the characteristics of the waves produced.
Blind Comfort
The Caring
Without the Staring
Kummel
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:10 pm

Post by Kummel »

I generated some noise musics, using complex formulas, like these four ones:

http://www.dogmazic.net/m3u/dwncounttit ... 32570&ur=1
simply made from the formula Sin(2*pi*(f+sin(2*pi*f*t))*t) as its name indicates.

____________________________

http://www.dogmazic.net/m3u/dwncounttit ... 31267&ur=1

http://www.dogmazic.net/m3u/dwncounttit ... 30954&ur=1

http://www.dogmazic.net/m3u/dwncounttit ... 31271&ur=1

These pieces are made each from one unique wave, with frequency modulation and phase distorsion modulation, up to five sub-carrier levels. The formulas can be about ten times longer than yours, but they are also delicate to handle, changing a number at the 6th significating digit of 1 can change completely the result. I keep the exact formula secret, while the deposit of the successive expressions I tried each after other are the only way to dissuade some abuses.
:D
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