i wish you would have done staccato on the ewql. the truth is that even a roland juno can do decent sustain stuff. it's the staccato that requires a sampler...
Andrew Chellman
I always thought it was the other way around, in my opinion. Staccato is short, there isn't much time to decide if it sounds realistic or not. EWQL has round robin which contributes to a nice staccato sound.
deathtokoalas
it's short, but it's pretty complex when you think about it - a bow scraping a string, producing a sort of a broken waveform with fundamentals collapsing differently from note to note. staccato on a real string instrument consequently always sounds a little out of tune, which is difficult to create synthetically. the longer the notes get, the more easily a synthesizer can use the tools it has to shape them just because it conforms better to what a synthesizer does...
reali reddoot
the fundamental frequencies collapsing? elaborate
deathtokoalas
you're scraping two tense objects together in short bursts. we usually think of modelling strings in terms of combining frequencies of sine waves because they're vibrating strings, but staccato is really more like scratching nails on a chalkboard in the sense that it's two rough objects rubbing against each other. so, there's a lot of friction in there (meaning the waveform is quite broken) and not much of the vibrating action we associate with string synthesis - meaning that the associated frequencies (fundamental and resonant, excuse my colloquialism) fall apart very quickly.
reali reddoot
very interesting, im very curious now and must conduct more research. Thanks for the insight!!
deathtokoalas
if you want to get something close to it, you're going to need to model the friction with a noise generator or random oscillator and do a lot of experimentation to "dial it in". you're also going to need a way to get the notes to spike out of tune a little as a result of the extra force on the string. i've played with a few abstract synthesis approaches that use physical modelling of things like springs to get around the limitations of traditional oscillation-based additive synthesis. with the tools we have available today, you're likely to be able to get something decent - but not with a traditional hardware synthesizer.
it might be fun as a project, but if you're serious about getting a good staccato for musical application, i'd really advise using a sampler.
