How to synthesize hydraulic lift/robotic arm sounds?

[JO512]

I'm extremely curious about how you made the sound

You're in luck! I used Serum and Reaper primarily, so I should be able to share some files along with my explanation. I'll try to do that in the morning. I am too wiped out now from hiking and climbing today!

Do you have a convolution reverb? I used Melda's MConvolutionEZ (free) with a couple of the included IRs for part of the sound. This is a fairly important ingredient.

[Unaspected]

BertKoor's advice (as usual) was really solid but it might deserve a little expansion as half was implied without directly stating.

Getting the static tone would be the first step. I would suggest just using ears but if it's not working out then analysing with FFT will help. Moving directly from this, you could use any modern additive synth that allows for resynthesis of samples - feeding the engine with only the sustained, drone section of the sound.

Then applying pitch envelopes should help with the rest.

Everyone has given good advice but Bert's really stood out. As did what Ah_Dziz wrote with regards to pressurised air. And this should hint at not modulating the pitch of all the tones. The air pressure sound will likely just fade in and out. It's pitch might increase slightly when more energy is being used but probably shouldn't deviate too much.

As vurt mentioned, breaking sound down into layers is key - something that Andy teaches. It's amazing what filtered noise can become in the mind of a human.

As for Foley: Portable kinetic phone chargers with wind-up handles - whilst I have found they don't really work for charging mobile phones, they sound great for this use. Pitch up or down to change the impression of size.

[JO512]

I'd love to know how you made it!

I've attached the Reaper file and a couple of Serum presets. I've never shared a Reaper file before. I don't know if/how that will work. You'll have to set the tracks up for your own MIDI controller input. Let me know if you have any problem with the ZIP file. You'll need to download the SerumFX version if you don't already have it. Access to it is included with your Serum license. And Melda's MConvolutionEZ is used here in a number of places. In the sound I shared earlier, there is some reverb applied to the whole thing. In this file I provided here, there is none, as you might not have the same reverb. Add reverb to taste to put this sound in whatever space you think appropriate.

I'll try to describe how I created the basic motor sound. For the main oscillator, I used Serum's wavetable editor and just added the first few partials in descending intensity. This is basically like a really soft saw, lacking all the higher harmonics. You can play with the partials here to change the character of the motor sound to taste.

Then I added some amplitude modulation from a second oscillator. That second oscillator is a simple sine pitched down 3 octaves below the first oscillator. The AM is critical to the motor-like texture of the sound. (In my opinion, AM is under-utilized and under-appreciated! It can be a great source of texture and character in a sound.)

I added the noise oscillator, adjusted to taste, to dirty up the sound a bit.

I used an envelope to alter the coarse pitch of the two oscillators such that pitch rises quickly and then sustains at this higher frequency until released, at which point there is some release time such that the pitch then winds back down fairly quickly. This modulation is very important to the realism here. It gives the impression of motor winding up quickly when powered on and winding down quickly when power is released. I also applied this envelope to the level of the oscillators, including the noise.

I then applied a low pass filter with a gentle slope and a slight amount of resonance mostly to roll off the higher frequencies in the noise.

The pitch of the main oscillator is then modulated slightly with LFOs (one modulating the rate of the other) to give a little semi-random wobble. You don't want a perfectly steady sound.

In the effects portion of this Serum patch I added only a little distortion. But this distortion is pre-filtered with something between a band pass and a high pass with a high resonant peak. So it applies mostly to a narrow frequency range. This is then mixed a little past half-wet.

After Serum in the chain, I added some more saturation/distortion to the whole signal mixed 100% wet with a moderate amount of drive. In my original version, I used Softube's Saturation Knob. But for the file I shared, I used the distortion in SerumFX. I also EQ'd this a bit to brighten the sound with a high shelf a bit. All the distortion makes the sound more noisy/rough and more sharp/bright with the added harmonics.

Next, I added some convolution reverb using MConvolutionEZ. I used the "electric fence" IR in the "sound design" folder. Convolution of the right sort really helps to make a sound seem physical. The reason, as far as I understand, is that natural objects have various resonances. And certain frequencies also tend to get dampened. And they reverberate a bit. They are never like a pure synth oscillator. You can simulate this with EQing, by adding some notches and sharp peaks, as well as adding some reverb. But many IRs do this better. Adding this convolution effect makes it sound more like the motor is part of some mechanical system, maybe inside a case attached to something metal that might itself have cavities. Try different IRs and you'll see how they give the sound a different character, making it seem like a different physical object.

I almost forgot portamento/glide. This is important so the motor sound winds up and down between the pitches of different notes on your keyboard or sequencer.

That's basically it for the main motor sound.

I added another layer that only plays during the early part, which makes it sound like there is some metallic dragging and a little strain on the motor. This layer is basically just a couple of oscillators with 19 fairly similarly leveled, but somewhat random partials. I added some FM from the noise oscillator to both the main oscillators. The noise source for this modulation is pitched down quite a bit. I also added a sub-oscillator with a square wave. This is all then filtered with a gentle low pass with a little resonance, the cutoff set fairly high. And once again, there is distortion and convolution reverb, and also a bit of chorus and stereo widening.

The metallic clanking noises were done separately. I basically made a Serum patch that makes a sound with a sharp attack and fast decay. This is a down-pitched noise osc combined with a bit of high pitched tone from the main osc quickly modulated downward with an envelope, similar to how you might synthesize a kick. You might notice in the "clang" patch in Serum that the second oscillator is turned off. If you turn it on, it adds some high-pitched metallic ring using a wavetable made by adding some scattered, fairly random partials selected by ear for a metallic sound.

For the clang sound, after Serum, I used some convolution and some strong EQing to get some high resonant peaks and some notching. The IR I used changes between the first clangy noise and the second. I just automated the wet/dry controls of two instances of MConvolutionEZ to make this change. The two IRs make it sound maybe more like two different parts of a machine.

I added another noisy hit layer for some variation in the second clangy noise.

That's it for main synth patches. The performance part is important. I used MIDI sequencing and automation envelopes. You can see these in the attached screenshot. I engaged the motor sound at different pitches using notes on the piano roll. And then I modulated the pitch-bend of the motor patch using an automation envelope. I also modulated the volume some. This is the main "animation" of the motor sound. I deliberately made the pitch a little lower while the second texture layer plays to make the motor seem like it is under more load during that part. Once that texture part is released, I raised the pitch of the main motor sound a little to give the sense of a load having been released, the work being now easier. I added some random slight wobbles here and there.

The clanks were performed just by randomly sprinkling some short MIDI notes at a variety of pitches on the piano roll and fiddling until I got something that sounded reasonably mechanical.

Most of this was arrived at through just trying different things and fiddling until I got something that sounded roughly believable.

That's about it, I think! Feel free to ask me questions!

[JO512]

This one is excellent great job

Nice work.

Thanks!

[JO512]

Get thee to Andy Farnell's Designing Sound-ery postehaste

That book is a bit expensive, but looks interesting. Worth it? I am not super-eager to get deeply into PD, as I have tried it and rather disliked working in it. I like Reaktor better. Is this book then not for me?

[JO512]

By the way, Serum isn't really the best tool for making inharmonic metallic sounds and whatnot. I just used it here for simplicity and to see if I could make a convincing sound that way. Honestly, I don't feel the clanky noises I made here are the best.

For metallic sounds, wood block sounds, and that sort of thing, I haven't found anything that works better than Harmor. Being able to alter the pitches and amplitudes of the partials using an image is incredibly powerful. It allows you to make inharmonic sounds with lots of control. And you can set up keyboard mapping such that different keys use different spots in the image. The "pluck" feature is also great. Shorten it for more dampened sounds. If you drop a random image in and set speed to zero and just try different spots in the image with a pluck, you can quickly get a great variety of very natural sounding tings, gongs, bells, wood blocks, and so on.

[filvox]

I'd love to know how you made it!

I've attached the Reaper file and a couple of Serum presets. I've never shared a Reaper file before. I don't know if/how that will work. You'll have to set the tracks up for your own MIDI controller input. Let me know if you have any problem with the ZIP file. You'll need to download the SerumFX version if you don't already have it. Access to it is included with your Serum license. And Melda's MConvolutionEZ is used here in a number of places. In the sound I shared earlier, there is some reverb applied to the whole thing. In this file I provided here, there is none, as you might not have the same reverb. Add reverb to taste to put this sound in whatever space you think appropriate.

I'll try to describe how I created the basic motor sound. For the main oscillator, I used Serum's wavetable editor and just added the first few partials in descending intensity. This is basically like a really soft saw, lacking all the higher harmonics. You can play with the partials here to change the character of the motor sound to taste.

Then I added some amplitude modulation from a second oscillator. That second oscillator is a simple sine pitched down 3 octaves below the first oscillator. The AM is critical to the motor-like texture of the sound. (In my opinion, AM is under-utilized and under-appreciated! It can be a great source of texture and character in a sound.)

I added the noise oscillator, adjusted to taste, to dirty up the sound a bit.

I used an envelope to alter the coarse pitch of the two oscillators such that pitch rises quickly and then sustains at this higher frequency until released, at which point there is some release time such that the pitch then winds back down fairly quickly. This modulation is very important to the realism here. It gives the impression of motor winding up quickly when powered on and winding down quickly when power is released. I also applied this envelope to the level of the oscillators, including the noise.

I then applied a low pass filter with a gentle slope and a slight amount of resonance mostly to roll off the higher frequencies in the noise.

The pitch of the main oscillator is then modulated slightly with LFOs (one modulating the rate of the other) to give a little semi-random wobble. You don't want a perfectly steady sound.

In the effects portion of this Serum patch I added only a little distortion. But this distortion is pre-filtered with something between a band pass and a high pass with a high resonant peak. So it applies mostly to a narrow frequency range. This is then mixed a little past half-wet.

After Serum in the chain, I added some more saturation/distortion to the whole signal mixed 100% wet with a moderate amount of drive. In my original version, I used Softube's Saturation Knob. But for the file I shared, I used the distortion in SerumFX. I also EQ'd this a bit to brighten the sound with a high shelf a bit. All the distortion makes the sound more noisy/rough and more sharp/bright with the added harmonics.

Next, I added some convolution reverb using MConvolutionEZ. I used the "electric fence" IR in the "sound design" folder. Convolution of the right sort really helps to make a sound seem physical. The reason, as far as I understand, is that natural objects have various resonances. And certain frequencies also tend to get dampened. And they reverberate a bit. They are never like a pure synth oscillator. You can simulate this with EQing, by adding some notches and sharp peaks, as well as adding some reverb. But many IRs do this better. Adding this convolution effect makes it sound more like the motor is part of some mechanical system, maybe inside a case attached to something metal that might itself have cavities. Try different IRs and you'll see how they give the sound a different character, making it seem like a different physical object.

I almost forgot portamento/glide. This is important so the motor sound winds up and down between the pitches of different notes on your keyboard or sequencer.

That's basically it for the main motor sound.

I added another layer that only plays during the early part, which makes it sound like there is some metallic dragging and a little strain on the motor. This layer is basically just a couple of oscillators with 19 fairly similarly leveled, but somewhat random partials. I added some FM from the noise oscillator to both the main oscillators. The noise source for this modulation is pitched down quite a bit. I also added a sub-oscillator with a square wave. This is all then filtered with a gentle low pass with a little resonance, the cutoff set fairly high. And once again, there is distortion and convolution reverb, and also a bit of chorus and stereo widening.

The metallic clanking noises were done separately. I basically made a Serum patch that makes a sound with a sharp attack and fast decay. This is a down-pitched noise osc combined with a bit of high pitched tone from the main osc quickly modulated downward with an envelope, similar to how you might synthesize a kick. You might notice in the "clang" patch in Serum that the second oscillator is turned off. If you turn it on, it adds some high-pitched metallic ring using a wavetable made by adding some scattered, fairly random partials selected by ear for a metallic sound.

For the clang sound, after Serum, I used some convolution and some strong EQing to get some high resonant peaks and some notching. The IR I used changes between the first clangy noise and the second. I just automated the wet/dry controls of two instances of MConvolutionEZ to make this change. The two IRs make it sound maybe more like two different parts of a machine.

I added another noisy hit layer for some variation in the second clangy noise.

That's it for main synth patches. The performance part is important. I used MIDI sequencing and automation envelopes. You can see these in the attached screenshot. I engaged the motor sound at different pitches using notes on the piano roll. And then I modulated the pitch-bend of the motor patch using an automation envelope. I also modulated the volume some. This is the main "animation" of the motor sound. I deliberately made the pitch a little lower while the second texture layer plays to make the motor seem like it is under more load during that part. Once that texture part is released, I raised the pitch of the main motor sound a little to give the sense of a load having been released, the work being now easier. I added some random slight wobbles here and there.

The clanks were performed just by randomly sprinkling some short MIDI notes at a variety of pitches on the piano roll and fiddling until I got something that sounded reasonably mechanical.

Most of this was arrived at through just trying different things and fiddling until I got something that sounded roughly believable.

That's about it, I think! Feel free to ask me questions!

Jesus f**king christ, I'm sorry I'm answering so late, but KVR didn't give me a notification and I didn't check this thread for a while.

This is mind blowing. Honestly, sometimes I think to myself "hey, I think I got pretty good at sound design" and then a guy like you comes out and does some ridiculous shit like that and literally puts me and my skill to shame. It's literally demotivating, lol.

How did you learn all that? Where do I start studying to get to your level?

[JO512]

Jesus f**king christ, I'm sorry I'm answering so late, but KVR didn't give me a notification and I didn't check this thread for a while.

This is mind blowing. Honestly, sometimes I think to myself "hey, I think I got pretty good at sound design" and then a guy like you comes out and does some ridiculous shit like that and literally puts me and my skill to shame. It's literally demotivating, lol.

How did you learn all that? Where do I start studying to get to your level?

Hey Filvox! Thanks! And no worries about the delay. I just hope some of that proves helpful!

As for how I learned it, I guess I am just obsessed with sound! For the past couple of years, practically all I've been doing in my spare time is fiddling with all these tools and trying to understand how sound works, learning a little physics along the way as well (but not the math!). I thought I was doing all this to try to make some music, but, aside from a couple of tracks and a bunch of loops that I've never developed into songs, I really haven't done a whole lot of that yet. I've mostly just been playing with all the software, trying to really understand it, and doing a lot of sound experimentation, all with the intention of making music, but never really realizing much in that regard. I'm beginning to think maybe I am just more interested in sound design than making music!

[CrystalWizard]

Get thee to Andy Farnell's Designing Sound-ery postehaste

That book is a bit expensive, but looks interesting. Worth it? I am not super-eager to get deeply into PD, as I have tried it and rather disliked working in it. I like Reaktor better. Is this book then not for me?

Yes, definitely. I am also a Reaktor user but there is a wealth of useful info inside. Much of it is similar to your own analysis in style (which is quite excellent)!

[JO512]

Yes, definitely. I am also a Reaktor user but there is a wealth of useful info inside. Much of it is similar to your own analysis in style (which is quite excellent)!

Thanks! I might have to get it.

[JerGoertz]

*snip*

Thanks for sharing this, great work!