GAIA Exploring Sound (PDF) - Roland Corporation Australia

TONE versus Tone
Throughout this book we have to rely upon some common terms.
Unfortunately, in synthesis a few terms can convey a variety of
meanings. One of those is the word; tone.
You have heard people refer to the “tone” of a person’s voice, the
“tonal character” of an oboe, etc.. However, in synthesis we often
use the word “tone” to describe one small part of a sound. In fact,
with the GAIA we really have three synthesizers combined into
one, and refer to them as the “three TONES”.
There is a very simple way to describe the character or brightness
of the sound. We can use the words Tone Color.
So, throughout this book we will use the following definitions for
clarity:
TONE, one of the three synthesizers in the GAIA.
Tone Color, the character of the sound.
Take a look at Figure 1.4, which displays an area to the left side of
the GAIA. It confirms that the GAIA includes three TONES.
Figure 1.4 The TONE Selectors
How are we to distinguish between these two meanings of the
word?
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