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Post by pt3r on May 21, 2023 18:48:23 GMT
I spent my day trying my best shot at synthesizing your basic drum sounds on the modular i.e. Kick, snares and hihats, it was no walk in the park. With all the fancy modules we/I have at our/my disposal we/I tend to forget what it takes to produce a solid sound from scratch. It was a bit of an eye opener for me and an exercise I can recommend.
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Post by Gaëtan on May 21, 2023 19:20:42 GMT
I don't have any dedicated drum module so all percussions are patched from scratch and it's always a lot of fun. Yes it often takes up a lot of modules but that forces you to strip the sounds down, which isn't always a bad thing.
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 21, 2023 20:10:31 GMT
I'm a big fan of synthesizing my own drum sounds from scratch. I think, as drum is my OG instrument, I can get lost in endless tweaking of drum sounds, where-as i'm often quickly satisfied with my lead/bass/.. voice sound. Tweaking a snare is one of my favorite modular synth challenges, because it has both tone & noise, and because it is IMO often one of the corner stones of a track (considering the track has drums in it). You can get away with almost any sound in a snare as well!  Algodrone is one of my favorite sound sources for snare drums (it has both tonal & noise qualities). I like to feed in some more white noise & a triangle/saw wave for the tone as well. So for a single snare I often end up using 3/4 sound sources, a mixer, and then filter - vca - env as well. But it's worth it in my opinion! I have not yet succeeded in making a good clap sound with AE Modular. I'm sure it's possible, but you'll need some retriggering tricks (maybe with the TRIQ, maybe with the TRIP, maybe with some cycling short envelope?) and some randomisation of this retriggering (ie: simulating humans not clapping at the same time, and not clapping always the same). Maybe this should be my next challenge to truely dive in to? I think the clap is the sound i've been dissapointed in the most often in different drum machines. For example, I absolutely LOVE the model:cycles, but it has not a single great clap sound preset imo. I mostly tend to use clap samples (I like the 909 one, although it is very cliché) and crunch/bitcrush/overdrive them with my Digitakt. |
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 21, 2023 20:13:29 GMT
For the record: experimenting is great fun, but for drum sounds it can be very helpful to search some basic tutorials on how to make such a sound in the first place. It's often way less obvious of what the sound is 'composed' in the first place, because you are kind of simulating something quite a-tonal getting hit with a stick haha!
I would have NEVER discovered how to create a punchy kick sound without any tutorials. (""why would you modulate the pitch so fast on a low note?!?"" was my first thought when someone showed me)
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Post by Gaëtan on May 21, 2023 21:09:39 GMT
I'm a big fan of synthesizing my own drum sounds from scratch. I think, as drum is my OG instrument, I can get lost in endless tweaking of drum sounds, where-as i'm often quickly satisfied with my lead/bass/.. voice sound. Tweaking a snare is one of my favorite modular synth challenges, because it has both tone & noise, and because it is IMO often one of the corner stones of a track (considering the track has drums in it). You can get away with almost any sound in a snare as well! Algodrone is one of my favorite sound sources for snare drums (it has both tonal & noise qualities). I like to feed in some more white noise & a triangle/saw wave for the tone as well. So for a single snare I often end up using 3/4 sound sources, a mixer, and then filter - vca - env as well. But it's worth it in my opinion! I have not yet succeeded in making a good clap sound with AE Modular. I'm sure it's possible, but you'll need some retriggering tricks (maybe with the TRIQ, maybe with the TRIP, maybe with some cycling short envelope?) and some randomisation of this retriggering (ie: simulating humans not clapping at the same time, and not clapping always the same). Maybe this should be my next challenge to truely dive in to? I think the clap is the sound i've been dissapointed in the most often in different drum machines. For example, I absolutely LOVE the model:cycles, but it has not a single great clap sound preset imo. I mostly tend to use clap samples (I like the 909 one, although it is very cliché) and crunch/bitcrush/overdrive them with my Digitakt. I've found the delay pretty useful for simulating a clap, with barely any feedback and a very short time. |
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Post by MikMo on May 22, 2023 4:16:18 GMT
I made this attempt a while back:
But that is more like an 8bit drumkit, especially the snarsound leaves room for improovement.
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Post by pt3r on May 22, 2023 5:28:10 GMT
keurslagerkurt to add swing to your drum sounds I suggest to trigger first an ENV that has its end trigger, trigger your drum. The delay you get between sending the drum trigger and the actual moment of the sound being triggered can be cv modulated by controling the Attack and/or Decay of the intermediate Envelope. This way your clap sounds don't always fall on the beat (like most people who feel the urge to clap along on concerts...) you will have to patch it thus that the claps don't fall on the one and the three 
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 22, 2023 9:30:28 GMT
I'm a big fan of synthesizing my own drum sounds from scratch. I think, as drum is my OG instrument, I can get lost in endless tweaking of drum sounds, where-as i'm often quickly satisfied with my lead/bass/.. voice sound. Tweaking a snare is one of my favorite modular synth challenges, because it has both tone & noise, and because it is IMO often one of the corner stones of a track (considering the track has drums in it). You can get away with almost any sound in a snare as well! Algodrone is one of my favorite sound sources for snare drums (it has both tonal & noise qualities). I like to feed in some more white noise & a triangle/saw wave for the tone as well. So for a single snare I often end up using 3/4 sound sources, a mixer, and then filter - vca - env as well. But it's worth it in my opinion! I have not yet succeeded in making a good clap sound with AE Modular. I'm sure it's possible, but you'll need some retriggering tricks (maybe with the TRIQ, maybe with the TRIP, maybe with some cycling short envelope?) and some randomisation of this retriggering (ie: simulating humans not clapping at the same time, and not clapping always the same). Maybe this should be my next challenge to truely dive in to? I think the clap is the sound i've been dissapointed in the most often in different drum machines. For example, I absolutely LOVE the model:cycles, but it has not a single great clap sound preset imo. I mostly tend to use clap samples (I like the 909 one, although it is very cliché) and crunch/bitcrush/overdrive them with my Digitakt. I've found the delay pretty useful for simulating a clap, with barely any feedback and a very short time. The delay, of course!! How did I not think of that thanks! |
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Post by pt3r on May 22, 2023 10:05:48 GMT
And thanks to the back to basics I was in dire need for another sine-ish waveform so I started using my VCO again cause it has this very handy mod depth control. Hurray for basic sound design exercises.
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Post by pt3r on May 22, 2023 11:05:20 GMT
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 22, 2023 15:29:37 GMT
And thanks to the back to basics I was in dire need for another sine-ish waveform so I started using my VCO again cause it has this very handy mod depth control. Hurray for basic sound design exercises. A sinewave you say.. I know something that is coming your way with a sine wave  |
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Algodrone is one of my favorite sound sources for snare drums (it has both tonal & noise qualities). I like to feed in some more white noise & a triangle/saw wave for the tone as well. So for a single snare I often end up using 3/4 sound sources, a mixer, and then filter - vca - env as well. But it's worth it in my opinion!
