Post by SirTrashBeard on Sept 15, 2013 22:16:22 GMT
Hello all,
As an engineering student (3/5th through), I sometimes encounter projects that lend an insight into the world of guitar and amplification R&D.
With the most recent lab experiment in my Instrumentation class, we were given a waveform, generated by an arbitrary waveform generator and analyzed by an oscilloscope. Taking this data and plotting the voltage versus time, we can see the physical waveform graphically.
Now, how does this relate to guitar? Well, this is basically the foundations of how modeling amplifiers, such as Line 6, are designed, and how the Kemper profiling amps work. You can take the output from any amplifier or effect and analyze the waveforms generated and compare that to a dry signal of the same clip. It is as "simple", then of determining how that waveform differs from the dry signal, and emulating the mathematical interpretations of that difference.
The problem is, as with the nature of approximations, you have certain intervals over which you approximate the functions true value. The smaller your interval, the more accurate your approximation is to the true value. I believe this is why it has taken modeling amps so long to really sound and 'act' like the real tube amps. However, with the Kemper, the sound is very much spot on (and seasoned studio professionals have a very difficult time telling them apart from the real deal) and we will continue to see an improvement as we are able to make the intervals over which we analyze the waves smaller and smaller. This means a more accurate interpretation and, if effect, more realistic emulations of what the tube amp you are imitating sounds like.
If you are actually interested in the report for this lab, I am attaching it below.
Report 3 - harmonic Analysis.docx (144.38 KB)
As an engineering student (3/5th through), I sometimes encounter projects that lend an insight into the world of guitar and amplification R&D.
With the most recent lab experiment in my Instrumentation class, we were given a waveform, generated by an arbitrary waveform generator and analyzed by an oscilloscope. Taking this data and plotting the voltage versus time, we can see the physical waveform graphically.
Now, how does this relate to guitar? Well, this is basically the foundations of how modeling amplifiers, such as Line 6, are designed, and how the Kemper profiling amps work. You can take the output from any amplifier or effect and analyze the waveforms generated and compare that to a dry signal of the same clip. It is as "simple", then of determining how that waveform differs from the dry signal, and emulating the mathematical interpretations of that difference.
The problem is, as with the nature of approximations, you have certain intervals over which you approximate the functions true value. The smaller your interval, the more accurate your approximation is to the true value. I believe this is why it has taken modeling amps so long to really sound and 'act' like the real tube amps. However, with the Kemper, the sound is very much spot on (and seasoned studio professionals have a very difficult time telling them apart from the real deal) and we will continue to see an improvement as we are able to make the intervals over which we analyze the waves smaller and smaller. This means a more accurate interpretation and, if effect, more realistic emulations of what the tube amp you are imitating sounds like.
If you are actually interested in the report for this lab, I am attaching it below.
Report 3 - harmonic Analysis.docx (144.38 KB)
-Ryan (Admin)
