One Synth Challenge #88: TAL-NoiseMaker (Mac/PC) (z.prime wins!)

[Mechanought]

Here's my latest iteration.

It's got the overall mood, tone, and energy that I'm going for but I feel like the Chorus is missing something. ideas?
https://soundcloud.com/mechanought/toas ... -microlord

[jasinski]

Here's my latest iteration.

It's got the overall mood, tone, and energy that I'm going for but I feel like the Chorus is missing something. ideas?
https://soundcloud.com/mechanought/toas ... -microlord

Reminds me a bit of Tron.

[Mechanought]

Here's my latest iteration.

It's got the overall mood, tone, and energy that I'm going for but I feel like the Chorus is missing something. ideas?
https://soundcloud.com/mechanought/toas ... -microlord

Reminds me a bit of Tron.

People say this about my music quite frequently. It's either Original Tron, or Daft Punk Tron. I'm not a massive fan of Tron so it confuses me, but I think it's cool either way. Tron Legacy has one of my favorite scores of all time, and not just because Daft Punk composed it. It's probably because I use arpeggios in everything.

I still can't figure out what's off with my chorus. Too much Side Chain compression on the bassline? Too much high end content? Too little percussion (though I'm usually pretty minimal with my percussion)? It's driving me mad. I'll figure it out eventually, but I thought I'd see if someone could illuminate me and save me some time.

[garryknight]

Are there any free compressors that have the same features as Fabfilter Pro-C even if I have to manually set everything?

There's a free dynamic EQ that should be able to mimic this behaviour, I believe. It's called TDR Nova.

EDIT: Oh, well, should have read the rest of the thread

[singplumb]

https://soundcloud.com/jackketch/mccloud-returns-osc88
O.k. I'm ready for critiques, and I'm willing to take it so I can better it!

[z.prime]

... and here's a preview of another thing I'm not working on:
https://soundcloud.com/z_prime/future-b ... noisemaker

[nineofkings]

This thing uses a lot of CPU. A simple patch with short release is using about 6%. A comparable Massive patch uses about 2%.

[z.prime]

This thing uses a lot of CPU. A simple patch with short release is using about 6%. A comparable Massive patch uses about 2%.

... and I can have basically the same track replaced with Serum instances with nearly 0 CPU when idle... but somehow I think I'll manage this thing. Maybe disabling (selecting 'off') for the modulators you're not using will help?

[MegaMeganium]

for like half of last semester I was stuck with just this synth and stock ableton intro. It's turned into my go-to for drums actually. the drawable envelope is perfect for kicks and the fm is nice for percussive stuff as well (I just wish it would fm with the selected wave - a pulse mudulating a square makes for very nice hihats)

anyway here's what I got so far:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109907369/neuro.wav

gonna probably work on varying things up so it doesn't feel as looped

and @ Z.Prime - your track, as usual, is shaping up to likely be one of my favorites

[Laxplanet]

do any of you guys have any tips on making high hats? I've looked around on youtube but there weren't many videos around

As I mentioned before I find using square waves and Fm to be the easiest way of making hats. I made a single note single patch hat sound in Noisemaker that I think sounds pretty good. I will upload a patch\demo of it in a couple days when I get my room set up again (It's being painted).
But for now try this-

1 Set OSC 2 to a square turn down OSC 1 and sub OSC, trigger this with a note in high register

2 Dial in some FM on OSC two using a mod frequency higher than OSC2's frequency. The Mod frequency is determined by OSC 1 tune settings but it uses a sine wave as the actual mod source.

3 High pass this sound and set volume env etc

4 try setting OSC 1 to noise and turn up OSC 1 volume slightly, turn on Ringmod

5 Alternatively dial in a small amount of vintage noise in control section use high pass in control section for more control over tonality

6 Dial in some built in reverb

[MegaMeganium]

do any of you guys have any tips on making high hats? I've looked around on youtube but there weren't many videos around

As I mentioned before I find using square waves and Fm to be the easiest way of making hats. I made a single note single patch hat sound in Noisemaker that I think sounds pretty good. I will upload a patch\demo of it in a couple days when I get my room set up again (It's being painted).
But for now try this-

1 Set OSC 2 to a square turn down OSC 1 and sub OSC, trigger this with a note in high register

2 Dial in some FM on OSC two using a mod frequency higher than OSC2's frequency. The Mod frequency is determined by OSC 1 tune settings but it uses a sine wave as the actual mod source.

3 High pass this sound and set volume env etc

4 try setting OSC 1 to noise and turn up OSC 1 volume slightly, turn on Ringmod

5 Alternatively dial in a small amount of vintage noise in control section use high pass in control section for more control over tonality

6 Dial in some built in reverb

(I dont know how to embed)

I dont have an ms20 at all but this is pretty helpful and usable. the clashing fm does wonders and its pretty good sounding when high passed. the envelope trick with the long release and short decay is also great for opening and closing the hihat
Since Noisemaker only lets you fm with a sine wave its not as good, so I mix in a bit of white noise to round it out.
Also not already suggested is adding a pitch envelope to make a clicky sharper transient it actually works great

[Laxplanet]

do any of you guys have any tips on making high hats? I've looked around on youtube but there weren't many videos around

As I mentioned before I find using square waves and Fm to be the easiest way of making hats. I made a single note single patch hat sound in Noisemaker that I think sounds pretty good. I will upload a patch\demo of it in a couple days when I get my room set up again (It's being painted).
But for now try this-

1 Set OSC 2 to a square turn down OSC 1 and sub OSC, trigger this with a note in high register

2 Dial in some FM on OSC two using a mod frequency higher than OSC2's frequency. The Mod frequency is determined by OSC 1 tune settings but it uses a sine wave as the actual mod source.

3 High pass this sound and set volume env etc

4 try setting OSC 1 to noise and turn up OSC 1 volume slightly, turn on Ringmod

5 Alternatively dial in a small amount of vintage noise in control section use high pass in control section for more control over tonality

6 Dial in some built in reverb

(I dont know how to embed)

I dont have an ms20 at all but this is pretty helpful and usable. the clashing fm does wonders and its pretty good sounding when high passed. the envelope trick with the long release and short decay is also great for opening and closing the hihat
Since Noisemaker only lets you fm with a sine wave its not as good, so I mix in a bit of white noise to round it out.
Also not already suggested is adding a pitch envelope to make a clicky sharper transient it actually works great

You can also ad click by using a fast filterEnv with a bit of resonance

[Darksynth FX]

This synthwave track came quite naturally and was fun to make, Tal's synths are perfect for this genre !

DAW: Ableton 9 Suite

11x NoiseMaker
11x Ableton EQ8
1x Ableton compressor
1x Ableton limiter
1x Ableton reverb (send channel)
1x Ableton delay (send channel)

https://soundcloud.com/darksynth-fx/dar ... -your-life

[EDGEK8D]

I have my music written and arrangment complete. Now comes the endless synthesis adventure of agonizing over my drum sounds, which I'm getting there with, but I have a few questions first.

What are the knobs above the Attack and Decay in the amp envelope? I was thinking this was some sort of velocity thing, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Why do some presets have different sub oscillator waveform? Can I change it? If so, how? I swear a few have a saw wave sub, most have a square. Typically a sub is a square or triangle, occassionally a sine.

What's with the "State Variable" or SV filters? Am I missing something about how to "vary the state"?

I too find this guy to be a bit CPU intensive.
Not terrible but just more than I thought it would. I use a lot of Logic stock synths and I forget that DAW specific stuff is rather efficient. This thing is damn scratchy and noisy too.....hence the name I suppose.
Love the FM, Ringmod, and graphical envelope though....those alone make it a fine tool. Love some of the clangy mettalic sounds I'm getting.
Oh, and the chorus is a must for OSC. I jonez for modulation plugins during OSC sometimes.

Thanks

[z.prime]

What are the knobs above the Attack and Decay in the amp envelope? I was thinking this was some sort of velocity thing, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

An AD envelope, for whatever target you pick, separate from the ADSR below.

Why do some presets have different sub oscillator waveform?

It's always a square, I think (maybe the filters make it sound different).

What's with the "State Variable" or SV filters? Am I missing something about how to "vary the state"?

Unsure, but they sound great to me. Actually seems they might alter the resonance balance or something, but sorry I don't really know this one for sure. There's probably a SV algorithm that's floated around which they're based on.

I too find this guy to be a bit CPU intensive.

:'(