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Just as live, human performers function as unique sound sources in a music recording, nonhuman performers are able to function in the same ways. Computers can be, and sequencers are non-human, mechanized performers.
Computers and sequencers have the potential to be programmed in great detail. They are capable of performing complex musical materials and ideas, by controlling (sending performance instructions to) sound sampling and synthesis devices. Computers and sequencers (both hardware and software) have the potential to give certain characteristic sound qualities to the music, but may also be very life-like. They are capable of very detailed and precise control over a performance (and of making related timbre changes), often providing very human-like results.
Sound sources, and sound qualities, can be created. The sound manipulation and generation techniques of sound synthesis allow for the design of sound sources. Many approaches to sound synthesis are available:
• Analog synthesis techniques
• Additive and FM digital synthesis techniques
• Many hybrid (analog + digital + sampling) synthesis
techniques (such as waveshaping, phase distortion, wavetable,
physical modeling, and granular synthesis techniques, etc.)
• Musique concrète techniques
• Recording and performing techniques on sound samplers
(sampled live or with commercially available sound libraries)
• Computer generated (often employing typical digital
synthesis or sampling techniques)
The creation of sound sources allows the recordist great freedom in shaping sound qualities. The recordist will be functioning as a sound designer, whose goal is to create a sound (with a sound quality) that will most effectively present the musical materials and ideas of the music. Sound sources that precisely suit the contexts of the sound and the meaning of the music may be crafted or created by the recordist.
While an examination of the sound synthesis process is out of the scope of this writing, it is important for the recordist to be aware of the many creative options afforded by sound synthesis. The study of sound synthesis from the perspective of building timbres will greatly assist the recordist in understanding the components of sound, and how the components of sound may be used as artistic elements. Signal processing and sound synthesis share many common traits.
By creating sound sources, the recordist will be presenting the audience with unfamiliar "instruments." The sources (new instruments) may be performing significant musical material. The reality of the performance has been altered out of the direct experience of the listener. The recordist must be more aware s/he will be creating a new reality of sound relationships, or might need to emphasize known sound relationships to reestablish known experiences. These relationships will be accomplished in such a way as to support the musical materials and ideas of the recording.
The human realities of sound relationships are most closely associated with acoustical environments. The listener will process the characteristics of the environment within which the sound source is sounding, and the location of the source within its acoustical environments, to imagine the reality of the performance. The acoustical environment itself will also function as a sound source, of sorts.
A set of environmental characteristics may be so much a part of the sound quality of a sound source, that the actual components of timbre become secondary in the global impression of sound quality judgements. The acoustical environment, in essence, becomes the sound source that is projected by the instrument which it contains. This is an unusual sound occurrence, and is accomplished through a very high percentage of reverberant sound over direct sound; it often causes the sound to appear to be "Other Worldly."
Non-musical concepts often find a place in a music project. As sound sources, speech and special effects require special consideration.
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