KVR Audio

VCA-089 · Post by **VCA-089** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:26 pm

Updated my submission post.

This month I got so many things to do, probably start another bunch of projects I will not complete, so I could be lazy in the comments. I will try to get into voting process as soon as possible.

functionform · Post by **functionform** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:55 pm

Damn wish I had learned keyboard as a kid. I keep meaning to now, but its hard to squeeze in the time to learn it properly. So basically I'm with you TNS

functionform · Post by **functionform** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 4:05 pm

That moment when you realize the timing fix that your track needed and its hours after deadline. Live and learn.

DawCrash · Post by **DawCrash** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 4:24 pm

OMG! 48 awesome tracks! It will take time to listen to all of them

Good luck everyone!

Darksynth FX · Post by **Darksynth FX** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 5:39 pm

Voted.

schiing · Post by **schiing** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:22 pm

Excellent turnout! I have to echo VCA-089: I hope no one takes offense if we're a bit more selective with our commentaries this round. 48 tracks requires a slightly different approach. It will be very fun to hear how the "any synth" theme plays out, though!

Danilo Villanova · Post by **Danilo Villanova** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:28 pm

Rellik wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 5:47 am Almost didn't make it this time! Surprised I forced myself to finish it up cymbals are hell every time...

https://soundcloud.com/rellyk/rellik-out-here-again

DAW: Reaper
FM8 (41), ReaEQ (25), MConvolutionEZ (14), SlickEQ (4), epicVerb (3), IVGI2 (3), ReaComp (2), OrilRiver, Kotelnikov, Limiter No6

Man, how the hell did you do those cymbals and brushes!

Rellik · Post by **Rellik** » Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:28 pm

Danilo Villanova wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:28 pm Man, how the hell did you do those cymbals and brushes!

The main background brush is mostly reverbed noise with a little bump somewhere between 200 and 400Hz for the drum body - the thing that makes it “brushy” is the loose ebb and flow, which I actually did with a breath controller! The brush “hit” is a really standard snare (noise and a donk) with a carefully tuned attack envelope and velocity control.

The cymbals are pretty much 100% from the Sound on Sound cymbal synthesis tutorial, specifically using a square FM modulator and square carrier, tuned at a dissonant ratio somewhere, both between 500Hz and 2500Hz. For each cymbal I used between 3 and 8 of these 2-op pair layers at different frequencies (plus a noise), with different decay times for each pair. A strong short reverb on the result is a must.

It’s really easy to make cool realistic metallic sounds this way, but agonizing to make it sound like an actual cymbal - I did like 5% examining cymbal samples and 95% trial and error. Just when it seemed like it would never work, I went layer by layer and disabled ones that sounded “off”, and that’s when it got a lot better.

One thing that consistently seemed to help was tuning two of the layers somewhat close together - the beat frequency reminded me of cymbals. I’ll gather up some of the patches and post them soon.

Leonard Bowman · Post by **Leonard Bowman** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 1:16 am

This talk about keyboards and harmony...

Learning the keyboard is probably worth your time, it's a versatile skill and enables you to make music in a larger variety of settings and applications. Most of my best musical ideas come from piano improv. Playing keys with others is really fun, too.

but....
I'm starting to see the keyboard as a limitation now, and harmony is becoming a much larger thing.
Knowing how to play keyboard is nice until you want a subminor chord, or a better tuned major third, etc. Both of my ideas for this month (ran out of time to finish) were in alternate tunings, and I hope to keep exploring these worlds as OSC continues.
Personally, I would like to see more synths that allow re-tuning. But that's mostly just me in a world of harmonically contented synth enthusiasts.

Rellik · Post by **Rellik** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 7:34 am

Danilo Villanova wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:28 pm Man, how the hell did you do those cymbals and brushes!

Here's a zip file with FM8 patches for the 11 pieces total in the kit (18 layers). I also included Reaper FX-chain files for each piece that puts together the layers with some stock ReaEQ/ReaComp. The cymbals won't sound like they should without some short wet reverb though. `snare_brush_mw` is set up for modwheel control (breath controller works better for me though).

http://www.adamlederer.com/junk/fm8_cymbals.zip

Danilo Villanova · Post by **Danilo Villanova** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 8:14 am

Rellik wrote: Tue Apr 02, 2019 7:34 am
Danilo Villanova wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:28 pm Man, how the hell did you do those cymbals and brushes!
Here's a zip file with FM8 patches for the 11 pieces total in the kit (18 layers). I also included Reaper FX-chain files for each piece that puts together the layers with some stock ReaEQ/ReaComp. The cymbals won't sound like they should without some short wet reverb though. `snare_brush_mw` is set up for modwheel control (breath controller works better for me though).

http://www.adamlederer.com/junk/fm8_cymbals.zip

Thanks for the explanation and patche, I'll look into it but I don't have FM8

Full Bucket · Post by **Full Bucket** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:03 am

Voted!

Here's the Reaper project for "darkdrums":
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/demo/darkdrums.rpp

And here's the synth plugin:
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/stigma.html

Cheers, Björn

ThePresent · Post by **ThePresent** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:11 am

Thanks for the explanation and patche, I'll look into it but I don't have FM8

You could take a real cymbal sample, freeze the image on a spectrum analyzer. Then you can clearly see what frequencies are in there. Then you can layer several synths on top of each other where each synth contributes some frequency peaks. You can do it with FM but also with tuned noise.

ilmai · Post by **ilmai** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:04 pm

Voted!

So many tracks, so busy, didn't have the time to give proper feedback on most tracks. Might return to this later if I have time.

Lots of good entries this time, with a few that really stood out. Congrats on great work everyone

mclstr · Post by **mclstr** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 2:52 pm

I voted.

That was hard. All tracks were good and I'd listen to them again and again.
I had to really split hairs to come up with ratings.

One Synth Challenge #121: Any One Synth (Rellik Wins!)