Realistic synthesis on AR

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
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The drums that AR tends to make are very subtractive sounding (not a bad thing). The new Acoustic machines are great, but they actually sound more scratchy/digital in a MD/MnM kinda way, than any kind of modeling.

Was wondering if anyone has found any techniques for getting realistic-sounding, well, sounds, out of the AR. Particularly, I’m interested in generating tinny/metallic snares.

And don’t say use samples! :pl:

(This topic was partly created out of seeing if I can live without a Nord Drum, as now I have quite a few drum synths and am thinking about paring things back a bit… lmao)

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can you attach some samples of what you’re looking for? I don’t have a nord drum and never had one so I have no idea what’s coming out of it, but I did manage to get metallic sounds out of sd and rs machines, so would love to hear the general direction of what you mean

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One of AR biggest strengths for percussive sound design is the sampler (MKII in this case)…

I don’t mean using a pre-baked snare sample, but rather resample something from one engine and layer it on another engine.

That way you can design any sound in layers, you might want to start with the body of the snare and then focus on the metallic part etc…

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Do you mean by “realistic” the sound of a real kick-drum, real snare-drum, real HH etc?

I love electronic generated drum sounds, and use them all the time. But when it comes to “classic” real-drum sounds, I use samples - sometimes even heavy pre-processed samples - to achieve quickly, what I want.

I gave up emulating “real-drums” with analogue subtractive electronics long time ago. Even HH and cymbals generated by FM are not my cup of tea :wink:

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do i understand that you find that the nord drum is good for creating realistic snare sounds?

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The Nord Drum is one of the most digital sounding synths I’ve ever heard. It’s frightfully amazing sounding but trying to make it sound like a real kit is like trying to make a harmonica sound like an organ by adding reverb.

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agreed, i have a nord drum 2, thats why I asked.

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You can approximate real-world drums on Nord Drum! They still sound synthetic, of course. Thus I call it “uncanny valley drums”. It says right on the box “modeling percussion synth” so seems to be its main feature. :sweat_smile:

Anyway I’m finding I can do plenty of realistic synthesized drums on AR … of course they sound dirty and dark compared to ND but I’m really getting into that. SMP saves the day when it comes to transients, which are often delicate and understated on the synth machines. It’s kind of cheating, but who’s gonna know?

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