aeternamente: allthingslinguistic: wuglife: Because of the…
Because of the way the camera captures this image (rolling shutter), you can see the vibration of the guitar strings very clearly.
This isn’t exactly how the strings vibrate (this video makes the waves look narrow), but it still gives you a good idea of what mechanism causes the unique sound of each string. See how the shapes are slightly different for each string, but they also change depending on the note being played? Since each string is a different thickness and wrapped with a different gauge wire, the vibrations affect each one differently. All of these differences add up to different sounds, both in pitch and quality. The difference in quality (not pitch) is the timbre (“tam-ber” [ˈtæm.bɚ]).
Timbre is what makes sounds recognizably different from each other. It’s why people’s voices sound different, and why trumpets sound different from flutes. It’s also why the sound “ah” ([ɑ]) sounds different from “ee” ([i]) and “oo” ([u]).
And, despite the fact that they’re sometimes called vocal cords, the vibrating parts in your larynx don’t quite look like guitar strings. A better name is vocal folds, because they’re folds of flesh that vibrate against each other. For example, here’s a video of someone people’s vocal tracts.
THIS IS SO AMAZING!! Holy crap, you guys! The wave forms are right there—you can see them! They’re all fun, funky shapes and stuff!
I think it’s pretty cool that the harmonics (starting at 2:06) are a lot closer to pure sine waves than the normal pitches. Do you hear how they sound softer and not as bright as when he’s playing normally? That’s because there are fewer overtones in the sound, because the strings vibrate with a simpler wave form.
This is seriously the coolest thing.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/47071168341.
