Music 171 homework 2
This assignment is to make a Pd patch to produce a tone that starts
as a pure sinusoid but, under control of a toggle switch, fades in
three harmonics to make a "complex" (non-sinusoidal) tone. The
transition should be smooth so that you hear the first timbre
evolve into the second one. When the toggle is switched off again,
the sound should smoothly "morph" back into the original sinusoid.
Here's an example of how this might
sound. In this example, the fundamental frequency is 220, and
there are only four partials (fundamental and three overtones. The
partials' amplitudes are less than the fundamental; if you gave
them all the same amplitude the sound would be pretty harsh.)
For extra credit, apply vibrato to the even-numbered partials
(under control of a second toggle switch) so that, after you turned
the first toggle on to make the sound "complex" (be non-sinusoidal,
i.e., have overtones), the second toggle makes the even-numbered
overtones in the patch change their pitches in sync, oscillating
around their nominal frequencies. This should make the sound appear
to split in two, as in this
example.
back to music 171 main page