Timbre
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The Timbre of a sound is the term used to identify a sound’s ‘fingerprint‘ as it represents that quality that makes it unique from another sound. This is directly linked to the primary and secondary frequencies and their specific volumes. Each instrument will have its own volume settings that will give it it’s unique sound.
String instruments can have similar timbres as their sounds and construction are similar enough that they would share certain sound qualities. The same would apply to wind instruments, reed instruments, and percussion instruments. The various instrument families all have their own characteristics that allow us to recognize the family that any given instrument might belong to however timbre can go deeper than that as well.
The difference between a violin and an acoustic guitar for example is pretty obvious even though each instrument might be playing the same note, or have the same equalization settings. They both belong to the string family however one is played with a bow while another is plucked or played with a pick. Using a guitar pick on a violin for example will result in a very guitar-like sound just as using a bow on a guitar will sound much closer to a violin. Their body size and construction is different however, therefore each will still have a unique sound. The timbre is how you know that one instrument is audibly different from another.
It isn’t as easy to distinguish two violins from one another since they have similar timbres therefore it’s safe to say that the timbre is the overall expectation we have of an instrument’s sound. There may still be slight and perhaps even obvious differences between two violins since a slight variation of wood or even hardware (ie. tuning pegs or strings) can affect the instrument’s tone in an obvious way however the timbre is basically the overall sound of an instrument that allows you to recognize a particular sound as coming from a violin and not a cello, piano or guitar.
It is possible to actually modify the tone drastically enough to cause an instrument to no longer sound like it is expected to however if the instrument is no longer recognizable or modified in such a way that it would sound like a different instrument altogether, you can say that the timbre has been affected and the new sound is actually a different instrument. With modern technology for example, you can make a guitar sound like a violin, or an organ… in this case, while you are using a guitar as a means or tool to making music, the timbre of your resulting sound is of an organ, not a guitar.
