An electronic musical instrument may be multitimbral, which means it can produce two or more timbres (also called sounds or patches) at the same time. In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different Instruments which may be multitimbral include synthesizers, samplers, and music workstations. A sampler is an electronic musical instrument closely related to a Synthesizer. A music workstation is piece of electronic musical equipment providing the facilities of a Sound module, a Music sequencer A multitimbral instrument might be configurable in a variety of ways:
- Splitting the keyboard at a given point allows a musician to play, for example, a bass sound with the left hand and a piano sound with the right hand. A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a Musical keyboard. Bass (ˈbɛɪs as in base) when used as an adjective is used to describe tones of low Frequency or range. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers
- Layering timbres allows a musician to play, for example, a pipe organ sound and a string ensemble sound together.
- Combinations of keyboard splits and layers may be possible.
- An external sequencer might play an accompaniment of bass and drum sounds on the instrument (actuated through MIDI) while the musician plays a piano part on the keyboard of the same instrument. A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers
Background
Multitimbrality is achieved by having a synthesizer with more than one sound producing module. In a fully digital system, each sound module is virtual, since in reality algorithms combine samples together in real time for output to a single D-A (digital to analogue) circuit. The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations and also differing denotations In Mathematics, Computing, Linguistics and related subjects an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions often used for Calculation
Synthesizers that can combine n timbres together are called n voice multitimbral. For example, a synthesizer capable of playing eight voices or timbres at one time would be an eight voice multitimbral instrument.
Multitimbrality is distinct from polyphony, which is the number of notes which can be played at the same time, not the number of different timbres. Polyphony is the property of an Electronic musical instrument which describes how many notes it can sound at one time All multitimbral instruments are polyphonic, but not all polyphonic instruments are multitimbral.
Applications
Inexpensive multitimbral synthesizers combined with a MIDI equipped computer (such as the Atari ST, before PCs became equipped as standard with a MIDI interface) made home studio recording much more accessible to the digital musician, particularly instrumental keyboard players. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated By capturing information digitally via MIDI, one could play back an entire work with several voices on a single multitimbral synthesizer. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers This, combined with a relatively cheap four track tape machine or higher end 16 and 24 track reel-to-reel machines would allow a musician to layer a number of keyboard tracks digitally, and then use a single track for MIDI information and the rest for analogue sounds, without requiring intermediate mix-downs to gain additional needed synth tracks. Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a Reel, rather than being MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers
See also
From the root prefix mono meaning one and timbre meaning a specific tone of a sound independent of its pitch monotimbral is usually used inDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic