KVR Audio

soma · Post by **soma** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:33 pm

Can someone please show me some good musical classic and experiemtnal uses ring modulation? I know what it is doing mathimatically but I could never get anything I liked using it. I've been making music for years but just about everytime I touch RM I get crap.

I heard Mouse on Mars use it a lot and I could never make any of those sounds. If someone showed me how to do that it would relieve a huge curiosity I've had for ages.

Muff Wiggler · Post by **Muff Wiggler** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:41 pm

make bell and chime sounds very easily with ringmod

eric_schafer · Post by **eric_schafer** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:44 pm

Yamaha's CS-80 had an interesting Ring Modulator, and Vangelis used it all over the place, particularly on the Blade Runner soundtrack.

Arturia has redesigned their implementation of the CS-80's ring modulator in v1.5 of their CS-80v software.

funkynuts · Post by **funkynuts** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:45 pm

Classic remixes such as "the carpenters greatest hits performed by Dalek chamber choir"

But seriously though just mess around with the frequency and depth ,modulate over time and let your ears decide whether its worth using or not.

Ring mod can be difficult to fit in a song and really is more suited to special fx and fills rather than musical parts(although it can add an edge to pads and ambient textures.).Try it in this context eg. run a drum fill through the ring mod then into a dub style delay,automating the modulation as the fills playing etc.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:53 pm

It can be used in a similar fashion to vocoders and bitcrushers, too. Try it on drums for instance.

In a synth, if you modulate the modulation, you can get a ringing tone that changes in timbre and pitch over time, which make some of the aforementioned Blade Runner sounds. Also a good way to get harmonically rich tones out of two simple sine waves.

It's good for making an unpleasant noise.

Also try singing into it, and adjusting the carrier pitch to give you different kinds of warble.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:55 pm

You can use it to fake a rim-shot on a snare drum..

mik82 · Post by **mik82** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:02 pm

When I used to use Buzz I remember using ring modulation to mix two harmonically related notes gave a nice noise.

SleepyP · Post by **SleepyP** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 1:10 am

hehe, i see an opportunity! my own DistBit unit has ring mod that is accomplished by multiplying the input with an oscillator. you can actually set it up to control/modulate the oscillator's pitch via normal MIDI keyboard data, which i find can be used to do some cool things to synth sounds when you control the synth & the distbit with the same MIDI data

Majken · Post by **Majken** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:18 am

The main problem with.. err.. just about every ringmod plugin is that they use an oscillator for modulation. This means you have a static note, meaning you will screw up harmonics.

A ringmod should work more like a vocoder with two inputs. That makes it possible to have the same bassline but with two different sounds being ringmodulated to create harmonics that aren't disharmonic to the notes played.

Could also be used to play notes with drums and what not, I'm gonna make a simple ringmod plugin just to allow for dual stereo inputs or dual mono inputs.

/Majken

ericj23 · Post by **ericj23** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:44 am

the waldorf d-coder is a vocoder but it can use too seperate inputs - will this work like your vocoder - i guess i'm just asking what does a ring mod do thats different from a vocoder

clueless · Post by **clueless** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:47 am

ericj23 wrote:the waldorf d-coder is a vocoder but it can use too seperate inputs - will this work like your vocoder - i guess i'm just asking what does a ring mod do thats different from a vocoder

vocoder (typically) - two input signals, carrier (eg oscillator) and modulator (eg voice)

ring mod - two signals go in, the sum and the difference of their frequencies comes out

tetraplan · Post by **tetraplan** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:55 am

Majken wrote:A ringmod should work more like a vocoder with two inputs. That makes it possible to have the same bassline but with two different sounds being ringmodulated to create harmonics that aren't disharmonic to the notes played.

RingAM in AudioMulch has this, and I don't understand why this is the only one so far. IANACoder, but I don't think it should be that hard to make (in other words: any takers? SE-gurus perhaps?).

Groet, Erik

Forever Sun · Post by **Forever Sun** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:57 am

For THE ultimate Ring Modulation mayhem head straight to Beaubourg by, yet again, Vangelis.

A difficult listen but worth it. I'll say it again: it's a text-book listen for all KvRians.

There's a more musical and very beautiful use of ring mod on Vangelis' Columbus soundtrack. Can't remember the track name. Every time I listen to it I get goosebumps - so I save this track and listen to it on special occasions only ( don't want to tire of it

)

ericj23 · Post by **ericj23** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 10:10 am

clueless wrote:
ericj23 wrote:the waldorf d-coder is a vocoder but it can use too seperate inputs - will this work like your vocoder - i guess i'm just asking what does a ring mod do thats different from a vocoder
vocoder (typically) - two input signals, carrier (eg oscillator) and modulator (eg voice)

ring mod - two signals go in, the sum and the difference of their frequencies comes out

yeah but the d-coder has two inputs - so what does it do - it's something to do with filter bands rather than addition subtraction ?

Forever Sun · Post by **Forever Sun** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 10:11 am

Here you can listen AND see ring mod in action. This was posted by dave175 in this tread:http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... c&start=45

Here's the clip, as dave175 said, it's talent :
http://www.bernhard-doering.de/Synthi-M ... vtmahm.mpg

Good use of Ring Modulation?