Is it possible to make instruments sound natural through audio editing like this?

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Now it gets complicated. Some sample libraries create new instruments by taking sounds and playing them in ways that are impossible. A harp, or piano cannot do pitch bend, but a sampler could do these things. Pianos play their note and decay, but you could have a sample that grows in volume. This becomes synthesis in a way - creating something impossible in real life. Other samplers combine multiple samples to create an entirely new sound that has never existed in real life, so is that sampling, or is it synthesis?

I am guessing in that case it would be synthesis but would I be correct?

Well is there any reason to use the old fashioned synthesis nowadays, since every instrument can be sampled, it seems? There are times I want a synthesized sound in the score, but is that just old technology now, and there is no reason to have it?

When it comes to a being able to play samples of an instrument in an unnatural way, I was actually thinking of asking the composer to do that with a tuba. I want a tuba, but played much faster, like a bass guitar. It may so good for what I am looking for, but I will have to see.

As for the flute like sound I want, I think I will have to use sampling in order to that overblowing sound, unless this can be done with synthesis? Or is synthesis a thing of the past, and new sampling technology, just makes synthesis unnecessary?

[Paul R Johnson]

No Ryan, you’ve still not understood.

There is no point trying to explain further. You simply do not have enough basic music knowledge to provide the framework needed to understand.

THE METHOD OF PRODUCTION IS UNIMPORTANT

If your synthesiser has a noise control, turn it up and flute gets breathy, in fact far more than a real one if you want.

Tubas and bass guitars. They can both play fast, it depends on the skill of the player. Tubas playing fast can sound like farts. As in funny, and make people laugh? Why do you think bass guitars play fast and tubas play slowly? No idea where you get these crazy ideas from?

None of this is your concern. You are way, way out of your depth. Give your composer your clips as guides and leave them alone. You are trying to have a serious conversation in a foreign language you only have a tiny amount of vocabulary for.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Paul R. Johnson

Each note will generate sympathetic resonances in some of the other strings

This is one thing missing from at least the less expensive electronic pianos that I've heard, and it takes away a great deal of richness from the sound.

e.g. on an actual piano, if I slowly and gently depress C4, G4, C5, E5, to lift the dampers without making the hammers strike the strings, and I then strike a loud staccato note on C3, I will hear sustained resonance on the four higher notes. If I depress the sustain pedal and then strike a staccato C3, I will hear a lot of resonance from a lot of strings. The inexpensive electronic pianos (or combo keyboards) that I've tried do not do this. Hopefully some of the "really good" electronics do have the resonance. At what make / model / price would I be likely to find that feature?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well the composer said that if I were to try to synthesize a flute it would not sound natural enough, and I need real flute samples to get a more natural sound, if he is correct.

I just thought that with the technology a tuba could play fast without the farting sounds, because you are overlaying the samples closer together as oppose to actually blowing into a tuba fast, making the farting sounds.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Maybe fast tuba would be appropriate considering what has transpired here for the past two years.

[Josh Bass]

Ba-dump ch!

[Ryan Elder]

Well it's just directors are allowed to tell colorists, what kind of color they want, and they are allowed to tell DP, what focal lengths they want, so is it really out of line to tell a composer what musical sounds you want?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

What this thread has revealed how little you know of this subject. You're trying to identify the instruments from movie sound tracks you want to copy then ask your composer use the same sound/instrument. I don't know how your composer puts up with you.

[Ryan Elder]

But why is it wrong to ask the composer to use the same instrument, or something close to, since that will likely get the same sound I am looking for. Instead of asking the composer to use the same instrument, should I ask him to get me that same sound as whatever instrument that is, instead?

[Greg Miller]

It's become obvious that you can't identify one instrument from another, don't understand differences between sampling, synthesizing, etc. So when you use these terms to communicate with the composer, you are just going to create a lot of misdirection and confusion.

Don't pretend you know things you don't know, by using terms you don't understand. At best that will just waste time; at worst it will piss people off. Doing those things will not gain anyone's respect; probably the opposite.

If you want to micro-manage the music, I think you might be better to give the composer a sample clip and say "I'd like it to sound like this." Period. Let the composer, with his (hopefully) experienced musician's ear, determine what instrument it is, how the sound was produced, etc.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but that's what I have been doing. I will tell him the sound I want, and then he says that instrument is. I then know the instrument because he tells me after. That's how I know the instruments so far.

[Greg Miller]

Then why have you been so confused about the difference between a transverse flute, fipple flute, clarinet, etc.? Why have you been so concerned about whether something is a real recording, sampled, or synthesized? Why are we involved in this process?

Give him the sample. Don't tell him what you think the sample is, just give him the sample and say "like this" and see what he gives you. If you then want some minor change, work that out later.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

Maybe fast tuba would be appropriate considering what has transpired here for the past two years.

If I'm not mistaken, the original version of this post was better!

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

Then why have you been so confused about the difference between a transverse flute, fipple flute, clarinet, etc.? Why have you been so concerned about whether something is a real recording, sampled, or synthesized? Why are we involved in this process?

Give him the sample. Don't tell him what you think the sample is, just give him the sample and say "like this" and see what he gives you. If you then want some minor change, work that out later.

Oh well I didn't ask him about those types of woodwinds exactly, just the ones I wanted him to make it sound like. But since he couldn't get the bass native American flute in his repertoire, I then just asked about others to explore other options. I was just curious about other opinions on here about it as well. But I am much more certain on all the other instrument sounds I want from him. Getting that type of flute sound is a tough one though.

[Josh Bass]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

If I'm not mistaken, the original version of this post was better!

He may have self-censored to avoid getting deleted