Try to emulate another instrument - Musical Creativity 19

The same but different

I referred to utilising the differences in each instrument for inspiration in a previous article.

A similar inspiration can happen when you try emulate a different instrument. At first attempt, the emulated instrument often sounds nothing like the intended instrument. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

In one session, I'd used a guitar and processing to emulate an organ sound. I did try re-recording it later with a proper organ patch, but it just didn't have the same feel. I'm still happier with the guitar version and so I kept it. You can tell it's not an organ; that doesn't bother me. I like the sound I ended up with and that counts. Can't remember the exact effects I used on the guitar, when I find my notes, I'll post them as a comment. From memory, I probably used a guitar DI, chorus, rotor cabinet simulator, amp simulator, tube emulator and heavily compressed it so there was little dynamic range. That's a lot of effects, but it got me the basic dirty, organ sound I wanted. I also added a stereo delay to complete the picture.

The End Result

What I learnt was that it's not necessary to have the sound perfectly emulated since often I don't want the perfect sound. Everything we do in the recording process is implementing a choice on how we want the end result to sound. That could be how which microphones we choose or how we place them, which preamps, how much low-end rolloff is applied, eq at recording and or mixing and so on. In the same way, the end result of an emulation doesn't have to sound like the intended instrument. It can do things that the original can't. Try playing 6 concurrent notes on a 4 string bass. Can't be done. Generally you wouldn't want to, but sometimes an effect like that can be useful.

In the story above, I had an organ sound that I couldn't create with an organ synth. And I had attributes of a recorded guitar. I liked that.

The track was "Roll On" and you can find it in Show Reel 4. In the background, there's an atmospheric pad or two that fade in and out. It's only at 2 minutes 50 seconds into the track that I introduced a proper organ sound to heighten the mood. The organ sound I added contained more treble and was a cleaner sound than that provided by the processed guitar.

Other situations 

Another common situation would be trying to record an instrument that you wouldn't normally have access to such as a sitar. Actually I find that a lot of the time, I don't want an accurate sitar sound and an emulation is more likely to fit into the sound I'm looking for.

Is it worth it?

Depends on why you're trying to emulate the instrument.

Sometimes you find a different destination along the journey - in trying to emulate in instrument, you find a melody or a sound that wouldn't come from either the source or the intended instrument. That's my preferred ending.

However, if you're trying to achieve a perfect emulation, then expect to spend a lot of time, tweaking velocities, changing patches many times mid-way through a melody, tweaking zones or ranges, mixing in different instruments. All to get the best sound possible, which unfortunately may still be recognisable as an imitation if you've chosen the wrong notes. Some instruments are easier to emulate than others.

But it should still give you a great idea of what it could sound like from recording the real instruments. From a creativity point of view, I love the near-instant access to banks of instruments so I can figure out if a sound will work out as well as I can hear it in my head or whether I should be thinking of a different instrument or melody.