I’m gonna give some specifick tips I discovered on this machine per page the next days, because general knowledge can be useful but every synth is gonna give you different sonical results.
I’ still thinking wich page would be the most interesting to start with.
Logically that would be the Amp - page. or the Osc. 's pages …
And I have to do this between the soup and the patatoos at work without being tapped on my fingers…
When imitating or creating a sound it’s usefull to make a simple analyse of it before starting A 3 step - analyse.
How dous the sound START = Env attack
What’s the basic body MID = Env decay - sustain
How dous it END = Env release
AMP - Page
Amp-Env: ATTACK Most drum or percussion sounds start with a burst of energy ( fast attack ) and that energy fades very fast if not adrupt ( fast release )… So the attack-value has to be 0 or close to 0. All Env-types can be very fast so all env’s can be usefull but there are ( the last 2 ) specific Env’s with extra fast attacks, Modefiing their attack-times will rather change the caracter of the attack. For us humans the first milliseconds of a sound will define very strong how the rest of a sound is percieved, so tiny changes in the first thousands of seconds is of great impact. ( this will be even more noticable when using the others Env’s > to filter etc… )
. DECAY Mostly a fast decay will do good > after the burst of enery can go to 0 in allmost no time.
SUSTAIN Mostly a 0 value is what you need >>>>>>>>>> attack - decay and relaese are TIME- Values … The sustain is a LEVEL - VALUE. It’s the level when holding a note. For most percussion 0 is ok > no sustain needed. ( to reach the SUSTAIN both Attack and Decay - fases have to run to their end - if not the sound will go immediatly to the release fase. So you could make for EX a snare that " ruffles " when holding the key long enough. Same go’s if you want the combination of OPEN - CLOSED HIHAT within one sound, so you can open or close it by trig-length. ( open = sustain > closed = no sustain ).
RELEASE All kinds of variations depending what you want. For many Metal-sounds you’ll need a rather long RELEASE, Skin-sounds ( toms - tabla - konga etc… )will be shorter and some sounds don’t need it at all > wooden sticks or a hard snare.
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Most of you will know all this, but I’m trying to be clear for beginners. please correct me if I write mistakes please
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( When starting to create I usually put filter1 totally open with no resonance to have all High-Frequencies availeble. I find it somehow more pratikal to cut away Frequencies later on than to add )
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Later I’ll come back more in detail on the AMP-ENV-settings in combination with the other Env’s and modulators + parameter-locking.
AMP-page FX-settings:
On the same page you can add chorus - delay - and reverb.
- Chorus : probably inveted to give a single voice the illusion of being multiple voices. ( depending on settings ). this way ypou can have a single let’s say Violin-sound to sound lika a group of violins. In extremer settings it becomes allmost like a fazer. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> when parameter-locked on some steps you can spread athose wider into the stereo-field, give them more body, but most important - make many of 1 voice.
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Delay : VERY usefull for percussion. and by parameter-locking on some trigs you canbecome those typical DUB - Delaylines as it is a Send-Return system. By controlling the send-amouth with a Performace - encoder you can manully introduce blasts of delay tha will keep on repeating over the dry trigs when you close the send. Try out different time intervals ( rate’s ) - this way you can make triplets, or more exsotic sundevisions, or even change the rate
while playing. Many time’s it’s best to filter a part the low freq’s out as those will give you a mess pretty easy. a trick =I really love is to modulate the RATE to the smallest settin ( = 1 ) while preforming. As the rate go’s faster repeats build up adding extra energy or when going slower giving extra space and Fraekness > in combination with Reverb-modulation ( let’s say the reverb close while the delay-rate go’s up < you can make a ritem come from the deapsea whirling up to the top ot the vulcan ! Rate modulation can be programmed per trig > and by tying thos trigs together by PARAMETER-SLIDING you can nbuild up or down the rate in incredible ways.
- Reverb : again like for the delay < Per trig sending can be WOW !
Usually I’ll allways add some small amout for any hats and other percussin that has high-frequencies. another great trick is lock 3 steps in the FX-track , make a parameter-slide from step 1 to 2. Trig 1 and 2 can best be set far apart, but trg 3 comes directly after trig 2. Reverb wet in step1 - Reverb dry in step 2 - back t wet in step 3 … try other variations - listen what happens
For metal-percussion you’ll need long release settings for the ENV. Depending what you want the decay could be longer in combination with some sustain. Sometimes - like for giant Bell-sounds - you can use a fast attack ( hitting the bell ) + long decay - ( energy builds up )- to a high sustain ( metal ring’s ) - long Decay ( fade-out). U’d have to use the other ENV’s and mod’s too - but more on that later.( when explainig the other Env’s and LFO’s )… when the sustain is a maximum you won’t notice the sustain as the decay is the time to reach the sustain.
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Dotted Env’s are the most used for percussion as you want the attacks to be retriggered for eatch note.
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Don’t forget that the FX-track can have it’s own length > this way you can make a track that loops on a different trig from all other tracks - a nice way to make polyritmick modulation.
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You can modulate every part of the Amp-env. Try changing the decay and sustain and-levels in different ways. by modulation ( velocity - lof’s - env1 and 2 - parameter-locking OR BY HAND IN REALTIME ( performance encoders ) . Very small changes in Decay and can result in huge différences > Going from a long release to 0.1 can be …
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When using the performanc-encoders to adjust FX-parameters I mostly use a centerd setting for the encoder so the Delay can be modulated in positive or negative ways.
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Setting short Reverb-times with a combination of high Early-Reflections can give you very metallic rushes over your percussion - most interesting when done manual or by parameter-locking…
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ETC…
CIAO