Musical Instrument Formants

The violin has many more formants than the human voice, though they don't change in time (as do those in the voice).

**Figure 3:** Violin spectrum, beginning, middle and end of a note.
$\scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics{eps/violin.eps}}$

Woodwinds have fewer formants than the human voice, but they are strong and perceptually important.

If a formant moves with pitch, the waveshape is (relatively) constant with pitch (can sound artificial).

Fixed-frequency formants will have a spectrum that changes with pitch (potentially more interesting).

``Music 175: Timbre'' by Tamara Smyth, Department of Music, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).