Sympathetic Strings

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I'm interested in making patches that resemble instruments with sympathetic strings. My healing tools of choice are all old- Reaktor and the NI stuff, Alchemy, Omnisphere, the AAS modeling coll, Kaivo, and active demos of a few more like Plasmonic. I'm not necessarily wanting exact instrument sounds so no samples.
Anyone else doing this or also interested?
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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how successful have you been getting close to a sitar?
i know there are many others, but i want a sitar, and like you don't want samples, as in this instance they are definitely too static, the whole point of sympathetic strings is to be alive!
:ud:

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vurt wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 4:58 pm how successful have you been getting close to a sitar?
i know there are many others, but i want a sitar, and like you don't want samples, as in this instance they are definitely too static, the whole point of sympathetic strings is to be alive!
Just started playing around with the idea as i am in a duo with a world class Persian musician. My job is (of course) drones, weird whispy sounds, weird noise, and all the engineering. i've been making (still) lots of drone patches and i thought 'tambura like synthesizer sound'. i haven't mentioned it yet, until i get a few i like.
So, nothing worth sharing yet but soon...
I think it's String Studio that has a decent(?) sitar. Years ago i wanted to get all the Harm Visser Reaktor and Tassman patches to reverse engineer but life took a major sharp turn.
I'm thinking Reaktor will be the answer. yay!
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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i look forward to hearing what you come up with.
yeah, id imagine reaktor (or similar) would be the best bet.
exciter, plus resonators.

then lots of experiments with routing and controls/mixing.
id imagine lots of great sounds along the way though 8)
:ud:

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I did this with combfilters. Here is a video I made on it a few years ago. I hope this helps.


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Nice. I have been working with comb filters in Zebra and was just pointed to a preset for it on another forum that very closely resembles my own attempts. I've has the striped beast for a while but have been lazy learning the intricacies.
Eventually it will also be Reaktor, the alpha omega toolbox of fun. However i just started searching around for some of my old ensembles and that a deep dive off a cliff)! I then went to the UL and the search function and i did not get along well. Then i got distracted by a bunch of weird noise on YT. After that i got distracted by this YT channel which i really like: ...

Back to comb filters, i don't want to delve into melda right now (i think it's great stuff btw) but i'm sure i'll be able to do the same with others.
Thanks
Last edited by CrystalWizard on Mon Jul 03, 2023 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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CrystalWizard wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2023 10:54 pm Nice. I have been working with comb filters in Zebra and was just pointed to a preset for it on another forum that very closely resembles y own attempts. I've has the striped beast for a while but have been lazy learning the intricacies.
Eventually it will also be Reaktor, the alpha omega toolbox of fun. However i just started searching around for some of my old ensembles and that a deep dive off a cliff)! I then went to the UL and the search function and i did not get along well. Then i got distracted by a bunch of weird noise on YT. After that i got distracted by this YT channel which i really like: ...

Back to comb filters, i don't want to delve into melda right now (i think it's great stuff btw) but i'm sure i'll be able to do the same with others.
Thanks
There are a lot of cool things you can do with combfilters. I like the Melda combfilter because you can use multiple at the same time, but others should work the same way. Just make sure you have a limter on it so the feedback doesn't get out of control.

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indeed, thanks. In my "roaring twenties" out of control feedback was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Acoustic coupled, stringed instrument feedback mostly (guitar and bass guitar).
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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First thing: i posted a very similar topic on another forum. Is that bad netiquette? Or, should i post a link?
Second: i've not had as much time to play with all of the tools and ideas i have just yet.
Third: i have way overthinked this project, which was fun but lagged me getting the actual patches done.
Fourth: i really should change the title, my main interest as first was tombura drones which are not created by sympathetic strings at all. It is the curved bridge which makes for minute frequency variations and a piece of string wound through the strings right at the bridge.
I've patched around and searched around for patches for Zebra, Razor, Absynth, Omnisphere, Chromophone, buncha others, plus actual Tombura and Sitar samples and Kontakt India. As per a recommendation in that other thread i need to try String Studio, in particular the Masala sound pack which i also have but forgot.
I've set up an Ableton Live set with a bunch of this and i will post some weirdness soon. Even maybe just a track with examples of each.
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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CrystalWizard wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:15 pm First thing: i posted a very similar topic on another forum. Is that bad netiquette? Or, should i post a link?
if it's full of interesting info post it 8)

while im here, i know it's not a sympathetic strings instrument, but can you help here...
viewtopic.php?t=599069

im not too up on physical modelling :)
:ud:

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https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... ds.140933/
there's a post by R Naroth with a link to an excellent Zebra bank, in particular a patch Thombura.
There's some good pointers, too.

Ah, i thought i posted there early AM while still sleeping and (night) medicated (as opposed to my day time routine) but either i didn't hit send or it disappeared (happens pretty often).
gadgets an gizmos..make noise~crystalawareness.bandcamp.com/ soundcloud.com/crystalawareness Restocked: 7/2026
if this post is edited -it was for punctuation, grammar, or to make it coherent (or make me seem coherent).

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CrystalWizard wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 6:42 pm https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... ds.140933/
there's a post by R Naroth with a link to an excellent Zebra bank, in particular a patch Thombura.
There's some good pointers, too.

Ah, i thought i posted there early AM while still sleeping and (night) medicated (as opposed to my day time routine) but either i didn't hit send or it disappeared (happens pretty often).
ooh cool, see, the zebra patches are worth the post 8)
:ud:

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