Quiz 10 Flashcards
How is sound generated in an electric instrument?
the sound is generated by a physical vibration and picked up and modified by electrical/electronic circuits
What is a disadvantage of analogue instruments based on additive synthesis?
they require lots of oscillators to make the harmonic components needed to build a complex sound
What occurs in voiced sound?
the vocal folds vibrate causing sound with harmonic content
how is the distinctive sound made in yodelling?
making a fast transition between the chest register and head register
what is a formant?
a broad peak in the voice frequency spectrum
How is waveform generated in an electronic instrument?
an analogue or digital circuit generates waveform directly
what is subtractive synthesis?
it starts with waveforms that have lots of harmonics and applies filters
What are some examples of fricatives and plosives?
fricatives: z, v, s, f, j, ss
plosives: b, p, g, k, d, t
Why is the replacement of valves with transistors important?
transistors are much lower power and much smaller than valves
how is a hammond organ similar to a conventional pipe organ?
both use addition of harmonics to build up a complex sound
what do the positions of the hands affect in a theremin (early analogue synthesiser)?
the position of the hands controls the pitch and volume of the oscillator
What class do the membranes of chordophones, membranophones and idiophones fall under?
percussion
why does a struck xylophone bar not have a harmonic series with integer multiples of a fundamental?
the bar is rigid and therefore does not have the same harmonic modes as a stretched string
why do drums/membranophones not have a harmonic series with integer multiples of a fundamental?
they are 2D systems with excited states that are more complicated than those of a 1D system
why is the playing position in drums important?
it allows selection, or damping, of modes to change the harmonic content
