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> Another way to think about timbre is by comparing instruments. In an old stand-up bit, Steve Martin strummed the banjo and mused, “You just can’t sing a depre
by hnthrowaway6543 3y ago
> Another way to think about timbre is by comparing instruments. In an old stand-up bit, Steve Martin strummed the banjo and mused, “You just can’t sing a depressing song when you’re playing the banjo . . . You can’t just go, ‘Oh, death, and grief, and sorrow, and murder.’
Anyone who's played Outer Wilds should disagree with this.[0]
To say we can't describe timbre is a bit misleading, because there are concrete mathematical ways to analyze sounds; they exist in a three-dimensional space of frequency, amplitude and time. But that's helpful in the same way that describing programming languages as collections of 1s and 0s is.
What's lacking for describing timbre, I suppose, are the steps between "this sound is a sum of a particular arrangement of sine waves" and "this sound is a piano". There are common terms such as ADSR or "brightness" and "warmth" but those don't tell the full story.
The question is, how valuable is that intermediate step when you could just say "this is a piano, this is a banjo"?
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR_wIb_n4ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR_wIb_n4ZU
- tomjakubowski 3y agoI always thought the Outer Wilds OST was rather hopeful, in a rustic kind of way, not depressing.
- shagie 3y agoI'd also recommend Timber Zeal - https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceBanjoMusic https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceBanjoMusic https://timbrzeal.bandcamp.com/music https://timbrzeal.bandcamp.com/music ... and the Hardspace Shipbreaker opening https://youtu.be/b4LbAr4uz9A https://youtu.be/b4LbAr4uz9A You certainly can do minor with a banjo.
- adzm 3y agoNotably easy when you tune the B string to a B flat. Instant minor!
- scns 3y agoThank you VERY much!
- shagie 3y agoYou might also find Hardspace: Shipbreaker - Music of Space https://youtu.be/RX_56MiOnAk https://youtu.be/RX_56MiOnAk interesting. > Watch our audio director Ben McCullough describes how he created a unique audio environment and soundtrack for a Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
- tarentel 3y agoI don't know if I necessarily agree with that quote but your counter example does not give me emotions of death, grief, sorrow, or murder. It sounds very hopeful to me.
- hnthrowaway6543 3y agoAnd that just goes to show you how context-sensitive and subjective the emotional quality of sounds and music is. Half the people watching that video get teary-eyed when hearing it :)
- kazinator 3y agoA banjo is plinky-plonky: it has a sharp attack, but not a lot of sustain. It's not great for playing a melody with long, slow notes. It's better suited for rhythmical patterns, and faster tempos. It's possible that a banjo could have a part in an ensemble piece about death, grief, sorrow and murder, but as a solo work, the idea does seem dodgy. It's not so much the timbre as the envelope. We have ways to talk about the not envelope. That is complex though, because different components of the sound can have different envelopes: e.g. high harmonics dying off before fundamentals. Envelope is not separable from timbre.
- pxc 3y ago> Anyone who's played Outer Wilds should disagree with this. Not exactly about death, but certainly grieving things like the emotional blunting of psychiatric medications, inability to accept love or forgiveness, and lines like: > I'll pretend bein' with you doesn't feel like drowning Sounds decidedly less hopeful to me than that track from Outer Wilds live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psIRw0d509w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psIRw0d509w studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-XICfi4j3Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-XICfi4j3Q
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mrob 3y ago>You can’t just go, ‘Oh, death, and grief, and sorrow, and murder.’ There's a whole sub-genre about this that's commonly played on banjo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_ballad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_ballad
- casey2 3y agoIs that the space fallout game? Can't say I remember the music. Edit: I was thinking of The Outer Worlds, not Outer Wilds btw