Adding Warmth

[Sweaty Ear]

Hello all,

Was wondering if anyone could tell me how to process a tone with a gated envelope so that the very beginning (transient?) has a slight grit to it. the best examples i can think of would be the classic synth sound from Van Halen's "Jump" or the arpeggiated synth in Jennifer Lopez's "Play". I'm thinking it would be equivalent to duplicating the track and delaying one by a few ms but seem to remember a video or article explaining a way to do this with a compressor or some other fx.

[llze]

The easiest way would be to automate a distortion and letting it fade out while the sound evolves maybe.

Difficult to say without an exact sound example.

hope it helps.

[Held]

MDistortionMB or MSaturatorMB can process the tonal and transient parts separately, so you can use them them to only distort transients.

[Sweaty Ear]

thanks for your responses. here's utube links to the songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwYN7mTi6HM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haIpoOCFdzM

the fx isn't as pronounced as remembered and it doesn't happen on every note but in the Van Halen track you can hear it on the very first bass synth note even before the classic synth hook starts as well as in some of the chords in the motif itself. same with the arp synth at the beginning of the second. it sounds like it could be similar to an extremely fast grace note. other live examples might be the grit you'd hear from a french horn note or a blaring brass section.
if you know of a freeware vst that can do what MDistortionMB and MSaturatorMB can i'd love to try it.

[Sweaty Ear]

want to get to five posts quickly so had to bump. lol.

[CHOOS]

I think all you need is to not set the unison to random phase.
Use a retrigger setting or set randomness low enough that you get that extra attack to the sound.
Another trick is to set a pitch envelope very very short like 3ms or whatever sounds good to get that extra click in your attack.

Let me know if this makes sense?

[highkoo]

In FL Studio, Id prob use Peak Controller and make it so just the transient peak triggered some distortion mix, but Im not sure itd be great at a super fine resolution tbh.
There are also things like Devious Machines Texture that add a signal with the same kind of volume triggered envelope.

[himalaya]

Hello all,

Was wondering if anyone could tell me how to process a tone with a gated envelope so that the very beginning (transient?) has a slight grit to it. the best examples i can think of would be the classic synth sound from Van Halen's "Jump" or the arpeggiated synth in Jennifer Lopez's "Play". I'm thinking it would be equivalent to duplicating the track and delaying one by a few ms but seem to remember a video or article explaining a way to do this with a compressor or some other fx.

The 'grit' that you want and which you think you hear in the Van Halen song is not created with any type of obvious distortion. That infamous 'Jump' synth 'brass' is created on the mighty Oberheim OBXa synth which is known for its raw, and yet 'warm' tone. And this is what you hear. It's that authentic analogue sound. In the low octaves that's how it sounds: raw, buzzy, yet deep and lush. Then, the actual chord stabs are played with staccato. The keys are struck with the fingers, released, the amp envelope on the synth is very short and you get the sound that you hear on the record.

Adding distortion to affect transients is a strange way of going about it. It's the raw synth sound plus the playing style. I've re-created this sound in numerous synth plugins and it never required any type of distortion, or some peculiar techniques to affect only transients with distortion.

Adding distortion to make sounds stand out is a valid technique but the synth tone in the Van Halen song does not rely on it.

The Jennifer Lopez song is a different story. The sound is raw, but highly processed. Could be a single sawtooth waveform with some effects, including a chorus, or maybe a narrow unison sawtooth wave (plus the reverb/delay effects). It could also be heavily equalised.

Remember that the attack stage of a sound can be effectively shaped with an envelope modulating a filter. In all of these examples, even a tiny amount of fast decay could be shaping the LPF which would give the sound a very snappy 'transient'. This is a basic technique which you should explore before you reach for any distortion.

The technique that you are thinking of, that of shaping transients with distortion, is really useful when making drums and percussion sounds. It is easy to do in many synths without any external distortion. Simply assigning an envelope to filter drive and editing the shape of the envelope so that it has a fast attack and extremely fast and tiny decay (to silence) can give that immediate 'punch' to a sound that is already shaped with the standard amp envelope and filter envelopes. I used this technique all the time in the Tremor drum synthesiser, as an example.

edit:typo

[Sweaty Ear]

thank you all for your 'sound' advice (sorry, had to). still very new to sound design and will have to learn a lot more but will definitely be giving your suggestions a try.

[soops32]

Shaperbox 2 by cableguys has a distortion shaper that you can draw yourself it's also a great all round plugin for tons of sound design needs

[n2077]

Shaperbox 2 by cableguys has a distortion shaper that you can draw yourself it's also a great all round plugin for tons of sound design needs

This is exactly what you are looking for. I have a few extra serials for it, gonna make a sale thread soon and will put it for sale in there.

You can also use Melda mWaveFolder and dial in the sound you want, then almost instantly cut down the wetness.
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MWaveFolder

[astralprojection]

use LFO tool

[n2077]

Shaperbox 2 by cableguys has a distortion shaper that you can draw yourself it's also a great all round plugin for tons of sound design needs

This is exactly what you are looking for. I have a few extra serials for it, gonna make a sale thread soon and will put it for sale in there.

You can also use Melda mWaveFolder and dial in the sound you want, then almost instantly cut down the wetness.
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MWaveFolder

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, wavefolder is good stuff. Melda are poggers! The free MWaveShaper is a MUST HAVE for any musicician as well. https://www.meldaproduction.com/MWaveShaper



I also have licenses for CableGuys DriveShaper if anyone is interested. Gonna make a post with it soon.

[Sweaty Ear]

ok. just got the waveshaper but haven't tried it yet. will soon though. thanks. I'd also be interested in getting licenses if the budget allows.