Harmonics

C

Calwood

New member
This is an area that I'm starting to get into. I'm getting to the point where I can use the gear that I have to its potential(as far as my ability is concerned) so I'm looking to upgrade.
I plan on upgrading things such as mics and pres but before i do that I want to learn about harmonics and maybe buy a harmonizer or 2.
Can anyone tell me a little about this topic and point me in the direction of some good harmonizers?

Thanks for the help.

Take 'er easy,..
Calwood
 
Hamonizer is a trademark of Eventide. You are looking for a pitch shifter. TC Electronics and Digitech make resonably priced ones.
 
I believe that i'm talking about,..mathematical multiples of fundamental frequencies. As I said,..i'm only just starting to research this topic. But,..i'm definitely not talking about pitch shifting,..I have expierience with those,..and have several.
I'm finding out that this is a hard subject to find anything on. ANY help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated.
I may have this wrong but I think that things like exciters are a way of achieving harmonics. But,..it may be that its a cheap way to go,....creates harmonics artificially???????
As you can tell,..I really dont know what I'm talking about but,..I think that harmonics will help achieve a more full audio signal,..if "full" is the right word there.

Anyone know what I'm talking about????

Thanks for any help.

Take 'er easy,...

Calwood
 
The aural exiters and bbe sonic maximizers are what you are looking for. But it is usually better to record sounds that have tose harmonics in the first place, instead of generating them artificially.
 
Still not sure what you're driving at but I will say that in my not so humble opinion exciters like the BBE and such suck BIG time.
 
BTW The harmonics that you are talking about are just a part of the sound something makes. They are the reason that you can tell the difference between a violin and a viola playing the same note. Thats what the formant is on a pitch shifter, the pitch shifter changes the note but leaves the harmonic content (formant) alone.
 
Calwood said:
As you can tell,..I really dont know what I'm talking about but,..I think that harmonics will help achieve a more full audio signal,..if "full" is the right word there.
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Well it's pretty easy to find gear that generates lots of harmonics. This is known as harmonic distortion, and generally equipment manufacturers try hard to avoid it, but cheap gear often comes with lots of it. The problem is that most of this distortion isn't what you are looking for. Higher order distortion, and odd order distortion doesn't sound nice. Low, even order distortion can sound pleasing, but it is not a true representation of the source.

Tube gear can yield musical harmonic distortion, but real cheap tube stuff has cheap solid state circuitry that can muddy up the sound with the nonmusical type. Another approach is the exciters mentioned.

I agree that it's best to capture whatever harmonics an instrument naturally has. That's a function of the quality of the instrument and the mic, pre, etc.

Keep in mind that the overtones produced by a given instrument are what gives that instrument its particular character. If you add too many overtones to a flute, you might end up with an oboe. This is sort of what oscillators do to create different sounds.

For reference, here's the harmonic or overtone series, you can see why high, odd order distortion isn't as prized as even:

1 tonic
2 tonic
3 fifth
4 tonic
5 third
6 fifth
7 minor seventh (d)
8 tonic
9 second
10 third
11 fourth/tritone (d)
12 fifth
13 minor sixth (d)
14 minor seventh (d)
15 seventh
16 tonic
17 minor second
18 second
19 minor third
20 third
21 fourth
22 tritone (d)
23 tritone (d)
24 fifth
25 sharp fifth (d)
26 minor sixth
27 sixth
28 sharp sixth (d)
29 flat seventh (d)
30 seventh
31 dissonant
32 tonic

Some of these labels are a bit of a stretch. The (d) label means that the interval is materially out of tune with equal temperament.
 
What are you wanting to add harmonics too? Or are you looking for a bass harmonizer like the Waves RBass or Maxxbass?

I like to use the bass harmonizers when i want a really round low end heavy bass sound, for style like Dub and some reggae songs.

Danny
 
darnold said:
What are you wanting to add harmonics too? Or are you looking for a bass harmonizer like the Waves RBass or Maxxbass?

I like to use the bass harmonizers when i want a really round low end heavy bass sound, for style like Dub and some reggae songs.

Danny
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I dont really know. I have no idea when where or how. I'm not even sure if this is a recording technique,..or something I heard from someone that didnt know what they were talking about or what. Sometime ago i got this in my head and thought that I should look into it later on down the road.

Yeah,.. Fairview,..i agree that its best to record sounds with those harmonics in them,...but,...I'm not sure thats possible with the amateur grade gear I have,..so,..I thought ,...harmonizers or whatever they are called would get my sound further ahead. I dont even know how I would tell if said harmonics were present or not.
I wish I could be more specific track rat,..but,...this is something that I know nothing about. Yeah,..I've heard those things blow big time. Never owned one myself.
Thanks for the input mshilarious,......it kinda makes things more confusing,..but,..usually when I get totally lost thats when things start making sense. Thanks for the help brother.

Calwood
 
Calwood said:
it kinda makes things more confusing,..but,..usually when I get totally lost thats when things start making sense. Thanks for the help brother.
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OK I'll try again. First off, don't worry about the long list of overtones. As I said, that was just for reference.

Let's say you have a piece of gear, a preamp we'll say. Run a test tone through it at 1 kHz. Using a spectral analyzer, look at the frequency graph. If it has low distortion, you'll see something like a single peak. If it has pleasing distortion, like nice tube gear, it will show a large peak at 1 kHz, and a couple of small peaks at low, even order harmonics (2, 4 kHz for example). A bad piece of gear will have the big peak, but a fair amount of random-looking small peaks here and there.

Now, an instrument is much more complex than a test tone. It will have its own series of harmonics that you are seeking to preserve. If you add distortion to that signal, the primary tone will still be heard, but the overtones will be muddied up by the harmonic distortion of the primary tone (and the distortion of the overtones themselves). Effectively they get lost, and you're wondering how you can add them back.

The answer is to start with a better signal chain. It doesn't have to cost a fortune, every step up the quality ladder helps.

I think once you upgrade your gear as you say, you'll suddenly hear all these harmonics you've been missing.

As for adding harmonics, sure you can do that, it's a cool effect, but it is an effect, which means that it doesn't replace a quality recording in the first place, and it should be used with discretion.
 
Calwood said:
I believe that i'm talking about,..mathematical multiples of fundamental frequencies. As I said,..i'm only just starting to research this topic. But,..i'm definitely not talking about pitch shifting,..I have expierience with those,..and have several.
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You are definately talking about *EXCITERS*.

Aphex Aural Exciter is, IMHO, the best (and the original).

BBE Sonic Maximizer is really their only ostensible competitor. Personally the BBE sounds more 'processed' to me.

Exciters are a really touchy subject. Some people love them, some people hate them. They're a tool and like all other tools you can overuse them, and it is easy to make stuff sound bad with them (same can be said of ANY effect--EQ, compression, reverb).

Personally I like the Aphex Aural Exciter when used on overheads or room mics. On guitar it sounds too "80's" and really obscures your top end and makes it muddle. Sometimes exciters can do nice things to synths and bass guitar. Once in a blue moon it can really put some life into a snare.

Honestly, it's not something you want to always use. Develop an ear for when you need to use it. NEVER EVER run an entire mix thru one!!! That will definately sound artificial as hell.

An exciter won't really make something sound 'thicker' but it will add sparkle, sheen and bring stuff forward in a mix if used sparingly on nice sounding tracks. As someone mentioned earlier it is best to get that high frequency content recorded rather than generate it; however, an exciter can 'tickle' what is already there and add that extra 2%.

I've found the trick is moderation. And don't use exciters on vocals EVER.

If you want to *thicken* up a sound I'd suggest looking into Empirical Labs' FATSO or the DISTRESSOR. Both will rock your bells.
 
The harmonics are part of the sound that you are recording. You would have a hell of a time getting rid if them. The only sound with no harmonics is a sine wave.
 
Farview said:
Try this link http://www.harmonicastore.com/
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too funny
i think the person who started this post would do well with reading more. If you don't know anything about a topic, the first step is to find out more. Once you've found out all you can and still don't have an answer to your specific question, here's the place to come.

not on a high horse, just a tip. i've found going to mega book stores and soaking up the recording section gets my juices flowing.
 
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