Chapter One - Sound and Hearing - Posted on 2016-07-19 by Andrew Pitts

With my exciting first step into the world of music, I have already learned a few things considered 'review'. The most fascinating thing I learned in this lesson was about the shapes of sound waves and how one pattern (whether simple or complex) essentially dictates the timbre of an instrument.

This realization opened a train of thought into whether I could experiment and research into wave characteristics to attain specific sounds. For example, when an instrument is played (in this lesson, a violin), it creates a specific complex pattern of attack, decay, sustain, and release, as well as pitch, depth, and a myriad of other effects.

As I have been playing with the new envelope filter I got in the mail today, I thought about how the pattern must be mapped onto an electric current to capture the original sound of my guitar, then this current must pass through each modifying pedal in my board, then any effects from the amp itself and finally turned back into a sound by the cab. The hundreds or thousands of repetitions of these patterns form a note or chord, and that is how timbre essentially works.

Now I'm wondering how these patterns can be purposefully rendered to create specific effects, like brightness, gain, overdrive, and countless other effects.

Andrew Pitts

7/18/2016