This is a topic close to my heart. In 2019 in the peak of lockdowns - i decided to indulge a backburner curiousity i've had for a decade and a bit - modular synthesis. I bought the recommended modules for Doepfer's rendition of a Trautonium (a ribbon input instrument) - which needs to be heard to be appreciated. One thing which this instrument showed me is how little pitch variation is utilised in synthesis. In this thread on modwiggler (modular synth forum) there's a very indepth convo about realistic bowing/string sounds.
I tried recording a rendition of Hans Zimmer's memoirs of a geisha main theme violin solo (scroll down to the youtube clip of the geisha).
The pitch being fully continuous and in control of the player injects incredible amounts of "realism" and "violin-ness" to the sound. The IR of violin body i added in this example is crude - BUT - it illustrates my point really nicely:
https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68150&start=100
I think both the attack pitch envelope is crucial to get this right as well as the pitch bends induced by the player.
An even better illustration is in an even cruder synth i own - Unisyn's Pitch to CV converter has a VERY crude tri/square/saw wave - and the the pitch + volume - is the main carrier of expression - this is an example of me playing a bamboo flute into a mic - and having it converted to a saw wave synth patch through some reverb added in post - the flutiness is remarkable here imo:
I have to shout out Fricko modules - in Euro being really cool forward thinking modules which aim to inject some novel building blocks for building acoustic sounds:
https://fricko.home.blog/
I tried recording a rendition of Hans Zimmer's memoirs of a geisha main theme violin solo (scroll down to the youtube clip of the geisha).
The pitch being fully continuous and in control of the player injects incredible amounts of "realism" and "violin-ness" to the sound. The IR of violin body i added in this example is crude - BUT - it illustrates my point really nicely: https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68150&start=100
I think both the attack pitch envelope is crucial to get this right as well as the pitch bends induced by the player.
An even better illustration is in an even cruder synth i own - Unisyn's Pitch to CV converter has a VERY crude tri/square/saw wave - and the the pitch + volume - is the main carrier of expression - this is an example of me playing a bamboo flute into a mic - and having it converted to a saw wave synth patch through some reverb added in post - the flutiness is remarkable here imo:
https://soundcloud.com/khaleeji/unisyn-flute-and-vocal-recor...
I have to shout out Fricko modules - in Euro being really cool forward thinking modules which aim to inject some novel building blocks for building acoustic sounds: https://fricko.home.blog/