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So what can a mechanical oscillator do that a digital one can't?
by DonnyV 3y ago
So what can a mechanical oscillator do that a digital one can't?
- wilsonnb3 3y agonothing but they are way cooler than digital oscillators
- WalterBright 3y agoDigital effects pedals have trouble emulating the nonlinear behavior of vacuum tubes, so I imagined the same issue would come up with mechanical implementations. I've never heard a digital trumpet that sounded much like a real trumpet. Digital implementations also often suffer from being too perfect.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoYou won't hear a trumpet suitably emulated by motors either. But that wasn't the question. Any motor-based oscillator can be accurately emulated by a digital oscillator, so the answer to the original question is "nothing." But yeah, neither is good enough to emulate a trumpet played by a human.
- sideshowb 3y agoThe trumpet on my prophesy ain't half bad but yes I concede that point. For synthetic sounds however, at this point I think it's mostly a question of workflow. Like yes you can take time to program all those imperfections into a digital sound. Or you can take time to make an analog device which has them inherently.
- WalterBright 3y agoMotors always have imperfections, resonances, feedback from the room its in, etc. I don't know if they'd have enough for it to be audible.
- fuzzfactor 3y agoPlus the only way to emultate it is to have the real thing as a reference beforehand.
- v1ne 3y agoIndeed, motors are physical devices with their own imperfections. But … these are brushless motors, tightly controlled with a feedback loop. They, as they also say in their videos, very quickly follow input changes. I wonder how much weird effects you might hear on those.
- kazinator 3y ago> I've never heard a digital trumpet that sounded much like a real trumpet. How do you know that every trumpet you've ever heard that sounded real wasn't synthesized?
- WalterBright 3y agoI used to play a trumpet for years. I had no talent for it, which is why I gave it up. But I know what they sound like.
- itishappy 3y agoScrew up! ;) They literally perform worse than digital oscillators, and that's desirable. Pure sounds are boring, sounds with character are what makes music interesting!
- gaze 3y agosound like a mechanical oscillator -- up until someone figures out how to emulate it, which is true of every instrument. But, here it is, and it sounds unique, and that's the point.