Contribution
Comparison of Synthesis Approaches for a Hybrid 3-voiced Styrian Harmonica
* Presenting author
Abstract:
A 3-voiced Styrian Harmonica uses three slightly detuned reeds per pitch to produce its characteristic sound, the acoustic beat, also known as tremolo. The acoustic beat is determined by the frequency differences of the reeds for each pitch. Based on sequentially recorded single-voice samples, a previous study showed that pitch-shifting of the outer voices mainly affected the perceived tremolo, while the general sound characteristics stayed similar. However, physical detuning requires grinding the reeds and is impractical on a real instrument. To achieve an adjustable tremolo, we propose a hybrid instrument that uses a single physical reed per pitch and synthesizes the other two reeds electronically. Using recorded sounds, we explore various synthesis approaches and compare them to actual Styrian Harmonicas.