Thanks for the reply. I agree with the sentiment about making artificial sounds, and this is
what I'm aiming for. After all, why else spend time building up an extensive sample library
of real instruments. However, I've noticed a lot of my analogue sounds turning out a bit
the same, and one way to get variation is to colour the wave before it goes through lo-
pass or whatever. I'm also after the " its a bit like a [insert instrument] but messed up..."
effect with my sounds. I try the Google thang, though.

Cheers,

Stuadh

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com , "untiedstates" <untiedstates@...> wrote:
>
> I'd link this stuff, but it's easier if you google "violin formants"
> and there's a good bit of stuff there. No database out there that I
> know of (I know because I searched for this type of stuff in the
> past) but you can find info on individual instruments for a start...
> violins and guitars and so on.
>
> Formants and properties of acoustic systems makes me think of how in
> analog synthesis one of the sounds that screams "analog synth" is
> the low pass filter sound - and this I think relates to Brian Eno's
> interest in synths and bodily functions - have you ever heard your
> stomach grumbling and thought that it sounds like a analog synth
> sound I certainly have - hearing the stomach's sounds being
> filtered through the abdomen is like a sound being filtered through
> a low pass filter.
>
> Not to digress too much, but just something I think of when it comes
> to analog synth "artificial" sound vs. "real" acoustic sound. One of
> the aspects of raw acoustic sounds that makes them what they are is
> the amount of high frequency content, and synthesizing acoustic type
> sounds in analog seems hard to me because the waveforms don't have
> that real high frequency content in the harmonics. I'm just thinking
> of what you have to start with as raw material before it hits the
> formant filtering.
>
> Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and worthwhile to understand
> how to synthesize acoustically based sounds - I'm certainly
> interested in it, but I like analog synths for the nice "fake"
> sounds that they make. :)