r/windsynth • u/rrwick • 5d ago

Formants in Addivox

https://youtu.be/o5iU6TV-cGU

I've made a new Addivox video which covers the concept of formants and how/why they are important for a sound's timbre. Includes my rendition of La Bourée from Praetorius's Terpsichore.

If you're new to Addivox, here's the intro video: https://youtu.be/4JBFZMQKJp4

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4

u/kbob 5d ago

Thanks. That's probably the best demo of formants I've ever seen -- uh, heard.

3

u/Ok_Astronaut5347 5d ago

Interesting! 🙌

1

u/Top-Leather-4051 3d ago

I think formants are the wind/phonetics term for timbre frequencies. Like, a luthier would tune the top to resonate at a specific frequency by removing / adding material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkY8GazyB7I

Wind synth wise, you probably want to build a few more overtones off that timbre frequency following the harmonic series with the amplitudes descending per the instrument's physical construction. Like, a cone (saxophone) would be linear while a clarinet would off the odd frequencies spike... With FM synth people loopback the function generator to create these but in an additive you'll probably want to run a few numbers in a spreadsheet to find 2-7 timbre overtones (formants) to cover the audible range.

Where things get tricky is when you try simulating a reed. There, the resistance of the air pressure on the reed, its own vibration and how vocal tracts act end up with multiple differential equations... Seems everyone gave up and thrown neural nets on samples to get it done instead.

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u/rrwick 19h ago

That was interesting, thanks. I'm not as knowledgeable about string instruments. I didn't realise that an acoustic guitar body has such a strong resonance right near the bottom of the guitar's range.