Yep luckily we’ve all got different ears
Sounds like a swarm of mosquitos on acid
Actually that would sound pretty good
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No. Monomachine and a lot of time. Do you have a family? Abandon them they are slowing your progress.
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Great sound… No idea how to get it lol. My one hunch is that the high pitched sound has an LFO set to the pitch (saw wave?) with another LFO set to the pitch (vibratto triangle?) and the third LFO set to the second LFO… Because it sounds to me like the vibratto is changing speed.
That being said, here’s a fun story I’ve been thinking about lately: When I first hopped on a synth or two I knew nothing about synthesis. So I tweaked my friend’s Bass Station II until I got some awful, ear piercing sounds that I was a fan of. My friends complained and said they could “feel” the sound even when they were in a different room. I considered this a success. But back then I couldn’t make a pad or a hip bass or a lead to save my life.
Well now it’s the opposite.
So I’ve been thinking lately what if I were to approach synthesis as if I knew nothing at all? And just tried to make things sound fucked up instead of pleasing? Pretending I don’t know what a filter is? Or a Q? Where will that take me?
I think, maybe, a similar mindset is needed for these “swarms of mosquitos on acid” sorts of sounds. Start with something messed up, and make it more and more messed up and unrecognizable until your roommates complain about the pain in their skulls.
Anyway, I’m going to take up this idea tonight and for a few days and see how it goes. Being back in the mindset of knowing nothing about synthesis sounds inspiring to me… Though also literally impossible.
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We certainly do… The sound is definitely “awful” and I think that’s non negotiable, but I for one love how awful it is. Hence trying to recreate it ;p
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interesting idea! you might be able to replicate this synthesis-ignorance through random number generation for different synth settings? establish the range for the parameters you want to mess with (e.g. filter cutoff, attack, etc.) and hit up random.org to determine the starting place for those parameters.
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I love that sound.
I’m not going to try and recreate it, but if I were to have a go I’d probably start by looking at modulating the LFO interlace parameter (INT). Have the LFO set to push the sound very very far away from the original settings (pitch? distortion? filter? dunno), and then interlace it really fast. You can get some interesting fizzy/buzzy/crackly sounds that way.
There’s also obviously an LFO or two controlling the pitch (one triangle or something and then a random one on the triangle LFO rate/depth - so you get a smoothed/slewed random pitch change). Or it’s actually a bunch of trigs with random LFO on pitch and a bit of portamento. It’s possibly two sounds layered as well, a low tone and a high one, but it’s hard to be sure.
are the mosquitos on acid, or are we?
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Did somebody say a swarm of mosquitos on acid? Just the MnM here 
Almost sounds like something that’d be in a Silent Hill game to me haha
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spooky!
Fellow Nauts/Sophie fans might be interested to see that there’s a RYTM & an Octatrack on her desk.
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Nice Screenshot. OT and Rytm, Novation SL61 mkiii, Korg Triton 76, Ableton Push 2, the rest i dont recognize.
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Hi everybody! I was just wondering if anybody might be able to help me recreate that liquid like texture in SOPHIE - Hard at 1:17 on the Monomachine? Thanks in advance!
i think i’ve somewhat figured out how to get her sound using the digitone. i just wish it had more features like parameter slides and more flexible effects since the UX is so much better than the monomachine but the features are rather gimped.
(90% of the sounds in that are digitone)
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sick
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Would you mind sharing some of your approach with us? it sounds beautiful beyond the intention to emulate Sophie
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sounds great mate. not just the sounds but the arrangement of them too
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in all honesty i dont really know what im doing, its mostly just playing around. so i’d say it’s mostly experimentation but with the intention of getting to a certain kind of sound and considering the properties of that sound.
there was some interview she gave where she talked about considering the physical properties of the “materials” you’re trying to emulate with synthesis. i think keeping that in mind has helped the most. theres some MIT textbook i’d recommend checking out (pretty sure it might be meant for foley artists but the ideas work the same way) that goes into this idea in more depth.
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Great! Do you have a link to that text book?
Thanks!
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designing sounds andy farnell
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