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Harmonica challenge


maarkr

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there's a lame harmonica (IMO) in the XW and I've tweaked it some, but still sounds more like an accordian-like creature.

I looked on the web to try to find the tone harmonics for the single note and can't find anything... i added layers with different c of tone, as well as trying a fourth/fifth/sixth/octave up.  Anyone know a harmonica guru that may explain the tones or harmonics involved?  I realize it may not be possible to get it exact given the computing engine and filters involved, but it's fun to mess with it and try to get close enough so it sounds believable to people in the audience.  I got rid of my harmonica or I would play a single tone and use a waveform analyzer to see what's going on there.  Anyone want to try a collab with me to get a tone?  I'll have to upload what I have later... and i realize there are many types of harmonicas...  The harmonica tone would be similar to the one used in 'Last Dance for Mary Jane', or if u could duplicate Stevie Wonder's tone since he uses a chromatic piece?

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I just posted a hex layer harmonica sound. It's a clean sounding harmonica. I almost put a little distortion effect on it to make it a little gritty sounding,but I liked the straight sound a bit better. Very hard to do a convincing Harmonica. 

 

If I met the challenge be sure to give me some review stars. :D

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i replaced my harmonica with amaverick's tone...it's just better.   I'l listen to Brett's later.  i posted the dilemma of harmonica tone on HC forums, and the best point made is the fact that so much variation in the breathing, dual tones and mouth position makes a single tone duplication tough.  maybe messing with the mod wheel and sliders with different fx may get it closer.      :unsure:

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Not much activity on the harmonica front lately. I've already posted my entry, but if I were trying to extend it I would try to work on the pitch bend. The pitch bend wheel is the obvious candidate, but I think it's depth would need to be reduced and maybe a slight filter close combined with the bend.

 

In my submission, I tried to introduce a filter close via the touch sensitive keyboard, and although it animates the sound somewhat, I don't think it's realistic. I also tried to add a second harmonica note to simulate a player's breath bleeding across two holes but I set them a note apart whereas on a real harmonica I think they are often further apart. This seemed to capture some of the complex harmonics of an harmonica. I also tried to make the second note velocity sensitive so, if you played lightly you could sound a single hole, whereas if you played hard you would start hearing the other note, but I think this effect could be improved upon. I suppose I should really learn how to play harmonica.

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I'm gonna upload them all and mess with them this week.  maybe mess with a way to add the next note up, since many use the diatonic scale, and blow a tone into one reed then blend it into the next one up.  then for sucking a tone, maybe drop the chorus/verb to 0????

edit:  one submission was a SOL, and i think the harmonica really needs multiple notes so it needs like the HEX tone that was submitted.  I looked at the HEX tone, used an LFO on layer 1 to give it a slight vibrato tone, then tested some filters on layer 2 that gave it a kind of breathy sound.  Then i realized i really need to have a good recording of some harmonica samples before i get further so i know what i'm really trying to emulate... to be contd.

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  • 9 months later...

fyi, the best harmonica that i have used to date is one that i tweaked and uploaded in my perf file  'harp&org' .  it's not great for fast riffs, but for some slower quarter to whole notes, it sounds pretty good to me.  i loaded this on 1/22/15 and i use it for playing Tom Petty's song Mary Jane's Last Dance, cause the split organ sounds good for that song.  There's only a small range (just over an octave) that it sounds realistic.

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It's funny - I'm a complete novice with this synthesizer and I thought the same thing when I first heard the "factory Harmonica" - it's OK, but it it could be better.  On the other hand it has to be pretty tough to get a really good harmonica sound - it's such a strange instrument, dimensionally, the way it voices, the way it's played, nobody's mouth is really the same exact size, etc., etc.  It has such a unique and almost bizarre sound and no two harmonicas I've ever had sounded the same.  They can be squeaky-reedy-horny to lushy-stringy-trumpety-warmy and back again.  They can squeal and they can also do some really hard-to-replicate resonances.   Well, you basically put it in your mouth to play it, it figures no two sound exactly the same. 

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