# Timbre

Timbre is the colour of a sound. It is why a violin and a flute playing the same A, equally loud, still sound like two different instruments. The main difference is in the harmonics: each instrument has its own balance of strong and weak ones. A bowed string has many strong upper harmonics, which makes it bright. A flute has fewer, so it sounds rounder. The beginning of the sound matters too. If you cut the attack off a recording, a piano and a trumpet become surprisingly hard to tell apart.

Connects to:
- [The harmonic series](https://mapideas.org/i/mu_harmonics)
- [Fourier's idea](https://mapideas.org/i/mu_fourier)
- [Resonance and formants](https://mapideas.org/i/mu_resonance)
- [Gamelan and ombak](https://mapideas.org/i/mu_gamelan)

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Harmonic series (music)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music))
- [What is music? Module 2, colour as a recipe of harmonics and Lab 2](https://sofiagallego.com/what-is-music/)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/mu_timbre · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#mu_timbre