[bgill]

Thanks for the info since the confusing article never showed one. Putting the sound on a computer is hardly what I’d call bringing any of these instruments back. Build them, show them, and play them otherwise there is no point.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think that they ARE building reproductions of the original instruments. If you listen to the DuFay chanson, it sounds like actual stringed instruments - unlike the Scarlatti computer reproduction. There are slight variations in the plucking, tempo, decay, etc. that indicate actual live performance. Maybe the computer was able to put that in, but that would be so much trouble it would be easier to build one and get a harpist to play it.

The problem with computer generated or electronic music is always that it has no variation - it sounds completely mechanical. It also lacks the overtones of an actual vibrating string, they try to put them in but the harmonics are so complex that they can only approximate it.

And while you don't want your live musicians to make HUGE errors or mess up tempi and stuff, there's a warmness in the sound that computers can't seem to manage.