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Re: emulating birdsong with a synthesiser design program

Subject: Re: emulating birdsong with a synthesiser design program
From:
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 13:15:16 +0200 (MEST)
I agree, the initially 'plastic' output of a simple sinewave generator can
be further improved for instance by adding more details as faint harmonics,
reverberation (using special FIR filters) or even by adding noise in order =
to
simulate a real-world microphone. Depending on the amount of time and money
you are willing to spend on such a project, it should be indeed possible to
create very realistic imitations.

Though, I would still continue recording truly natural sounds =96 just
prepared a relatively inexpensive set-up (a pair of Rode NT1-A microphones,=
 a Tascam
US-122 USB audio interface and an old laptop) for my first attempts in
stereo recording.

Regards,
Raimund

> well in these days with such powerful computers, and the ability to desig=
n
> synths that will, I should be able to design a close analogy to the bird
> voice
> box.
>
> I think anyone form of sound should be possible to synthesise, for exampl=
e
> the cricket is an extremely complicated series of clicky rattles,with
> extremely
> complicated filtering.  I think any adept filtering should recreate
> something
> that sounds as amazing has a cricket and fairly similar.
>
> European birdsong I hear around here seems fairly easy to recreate, for
> all
> the smaller birds. only the birds that are larger than blackbirds such as=

> pigeons have more complicated timbers to the voice resulting
> fromreverberations in
> the voice box  which are so fast that they seem to act like frequency
> modulation as well as vibrato, why do you think crow calls sounds like
> three detuned
> voices sounding at once?
>
> The soundscapes here sound fairly easy to emulate, I just want to make a=

> parallel universe within my computer, and it may take years to sounds
> completely
> genuine, but essentially it comes to the same thing as reducing bird
> acoustics
> to the most representative equation that can describe the varieties of
> birds
> of various sizes, using the acoustic dimensions of amplitudes, timber,
> filters,
> spatialisation, and pitch.  I wouldn't dream of trying to use a normal
> synthesiser, but with today's computer-aided design, the aim is to design
> a
> dedicated professional level synthesiser.  I already stumbles upon some
> fractal like
> oscillators the other day, which sounds rather like crow voice.
>
> It is easy to make sounds that are indistinguishable from certain bird
> calls.
>  You'd be surprised how easy it would be to emulate a song thrush given a=

> couple of years of hobby workwith today's tools
>
>
> > Reminds me of a call I got from the Disney folks a couple of years
> > ago after sending me on a trip to Costa Rica to record natural sounds
> > for a project they were doing. The fellow who called (a friend and
> > colleague who will remain nameless) was desperate. He had just
> > received a memo from Disney corporate ordering him to empty out and
> > destroy the contents the storage room where they had collected one of
> > the most unbelievable archives of sound that began in 1938. Aside
> > from efx, it included rare birds, natural soundscapes, mammals,
> > insects, etc., etc. When he asked why, corporate apparently responded
> > that any 8-year old with a Mac and midi synth could recreate the
> > sound of a rainforest or a desert, that the room was needed for
> > storage, and they therefore didn't need the collection any more. It
> > was ordered destroyed. I was called in an attempt to rescue the
> > collection, but I had no room where we live and breathe for more than
> > what we have. As far as I know, it's gone now.
> >
> > I began what there is of my career emulating natural sounds (hear our
> > first Warner Brother's record, In A Wild Sanctuary, 1970, and which
> > is still available) on synthesizer and quickly found that nothing can
> > compare, aurally, creatively, aesthetically, texturally, to the
> > melifluous and delicate fabric of what already exists within the fold
> > of the natural world. Yeah. We're pretty good at getting close, but
> > it still ain't a Cuban cigar, folks.
> >
> > Bernie
> >
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>=20
>

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