Minas Kapetanidis

hi guys..i am trying to make a patch like the one described in the "subject.png"...i want to change the timbre of sound as long as i am in the horizontal axis...any suggestions?

timbre-analysis-in-max-2

You can certainly try out several distortion, saturation and waveshaping algorithms and morph gradually between them [*~ ]. There are ideas in this forum too:

https://cycling74.com/forums/distortionsaturation-effect/

thank you for the reply but i am looking for an object that can change the quality of sound

Any waveshaper or distortion will severely change your sound if driven high enough. Experiment with some of those to find those that resemble the harsh and bright extremes you're looking for.

I would begin by looking at the helpfiles for reson~ cross~ and biquad~. HTH

that's a good idea...if i can't change timbre, i'll better put a filter..reson~ is a good one

timbre is nicely altered in the FFT realm of DSP. try using pfft~(i like to use gen~ within pfft~ too).

your horizontal axis seems a bit subjective in wording though? (many 'harsh' distortions i've heard also have 'bright' timbres because of the concentration of energy in higher registers)

in any case, if you experiment with fft from within pfft~, right away you can tame the timbre in different ways similar to a filter, but if you use other techniques like what HZ37 suggested about distortion techniques combined within a pfft~(for example: add distortion/waveshaping to the higher frequency bins only, to create a brighter sound), you can get many varied effects.

wouldnt "harsh" and bright" involve analysing the freqencies of the louder half of all partials and (all!) the relationships between them? quite a job, even with fft...

You can do some very specific timbral manipulations with additive synthesis. Here's a jumping off point:

You can do some very specific timbral manipulations with additive synthesis.  Here's a jumping off point:
http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/patch/2741


in the OP's patch, there's a soundfile that he/she wants to manipulate, and in my naiivete I suggested filters because I believe that you cannot alter the spectrum of a fixed soundfile (fft suggestions notwithstanding); you can only emphasise/reduce what is already there (reson/notch). OP is using vague and largely subjective descriptors.

Hi all
in the OP's patch, there's a soundfile that he/she wants to manipulate, and in my naiivete I suggested filters because I believe that you cannot alter the spectrum of a fixed soundfile (fft suggestions notwithstanding); you can only emphasise/reduce what is already there (reson/notch). OP is using vague and largely subjective descriptors.

timbre analysis in MAX