One Synth Challenge #104 - Zebralette by u-he (Photonic Wins!)

[cb8rwh]

Hi all,

this is my first attempt at an OSC, and, as you might expect, I have a question!

I use Bitwig. Am I able to use a Bitwig filter and an ADSR modulator on that filter - I want to do this to get the typical choppy filtered sound on a bass etc.

Cheers

[Medniex]

Taron! This snare No.4 is totally awesome!!! What is this magic? I noticed something fancy in waveform section (I should probably start to read user manual now )

[Taron]

Hah! Isn't it GReAT!
Yeah, I tried to paint a transition from a kind of hammered sine wave to noise. It worked out pretty well, but the real magic, I find, is the Delay that sustains the "snarring", so to say. In the preset I made it a bit long, but you can dial down cross over to get it properly tight.

I don't think the user manual can tell you much about it, though, hahaha. Luckily I figured out that the percentage under each delay stage is a time multiplier. This way you can get a tight series of mini delays. Use the highpass to restrict it to the higher frequencies and you really get a nice tail for anything smashing, hehehe.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

THIS IS JUNK TRACK AND NOT ACTUAL ENTRY. Will delete it after.
https://soundcloud.com/trojakew/zebrallette-snare-demo
This track is sick - if this is made with Z and participate i will vote for it

[TrojakEW]

This track is sick - if this is made with Z and participate i will vote for it

Yes it is made with zebralette but as I said not entry just quick junk to show how the snares sounds . I can post also those 2 rythm presets that are used here if anyone want them.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Maan i am amazed by this track - when i hear this i was like 'better not to participate ' i can't make better competitor - it will be pleasure and inspiration if you share presets.Why you don't want to finish it - it's a great track ,sounds like movie soundtrack ...what about collaboration on this idea,i'd really like to contribute ..please don't delete it :):)

[Taron]

Awww, man, I'm really getting so excited right now, but it will be so long before I can really share with you what I've got going. Let's just say: One can do the most amazing percussion, when one lets go of any ordinary percussion concept and goes a little, hmmm...nutty with it. Not in a synthetic sense, but more like what strange real-life things could work well as percussion and then try to emulate them. Stuff gets so interesting that way!
But also, my last piano turns into one of the...nay... THE most amazing guitars I've managed to make with a free synth, or almost any for that matter. It's like either a steel guitar or a clean electric guitar. Anyhow, it's pretty fun.

Jeeez, I can't wait to share this stuff with y'all!

[TrojakEW]

But also, my last piano turns into one of the...nay... THE most amazing guitars I've managed to make with a free synth, or almost any for that matter.

Thats is interesting because while tweaking my piano preset in order to make it sound better I get to point where it become more guitar then piano. I added another instance with previous piano preset to see what parameters I have changed. After that I managed to make another preset that is piano on low, guitar on high and morphed sound in middle. So two instruments on one preset .

But maybe I'm hallucinating since it is hard to concetrate because of pain (I'm ill and I'm on antibiotics and other related drugs ).

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

TrojakEW thanks for sending me project files and wishes for faster recovery - i am not sure that the rules allow it but i would like to develop entire composition based on your idea and to participate with it - i guess it will be interesting for people and for me to see what will happen cuz i was always fascinated by movie sound tracks but never done anything like and it seem like your style is very close to that.Cheerz

[Taron]

But also, my last piano turns into one of the...nay... THE most amazing guitars I've managed to make with a free synth, or almost any for that matter.

Thats is interesting because while tweaking my piano preset in order to make it sound better I get to point where it become more guitar then piano. I added another instance with previous piano preset to see what parameters I have changed. After that I managed to make another preset that is piano on low, guitar on high and morphed sound in middle. So two instruments on one preset .

But maybe I'm hallucinating since it is hard to concetrate because of pain (I'm ill and I'm on antibiotics and other related drugs ).

Awww, man, I hate to hear that, always with the darn antibiotics. Make sure you don't feed your bad bacteria with sugars and see that you rebuild your good ones with yogurt or Kefir or the likes! Just allow yourself to heal, take it easy and know that you are in the healing phase right now where rest is most important!

As for your piano approach, I'm very certain you've tried to recreate an entire piano sample, which can't hold up beyond a certain range (I have one of such in my song, too). But in my later approach I've used KeyFollow to address all key zones, leading to fairly amazing results, except those 2 keys away from the target "squeekers", I'd call them. But they are fabulous for e-guitars!

[TrojakEW]

Thanks guys but no rest for me I'm at work and can't afford leave . Too much work here now but I'm not very helpfull in this state. I'm on painkillers drugs now and world is spinning faster then ususal.

Regarding using my "project" maybe someone can point out if it is against rules. But no colab since I will have my own track.

[Taron]

Who ever puts you to work should know better, Trojak! You will only prolong your agony and will be useless for much, much longer. I know, we're born into insanity, but as much as we have forgotten just how mindless we're being enslaved, we should use every chance to regain clarity and at least try to improve our ability to function. That includes getting rest when it is needed, because work won't get better otherwise and everything only suffers.

As for anybody actually picking up your project and continuing that, I'm pretty sure that's a bad, bad idea for the OSC. Totally fine, if it acts as an inspiration, but literally taking it over, hmmm...that would constitute a collaboration for sure.
But I'm not the judge of that, of course.

[eraze the borders]

I have a really basic question. What is your approach of building sounds with wavetables? How do you know which wavetable you need to draw to get a certain sound? Do you look at the cycle of a certain instrument and then try to recreate it in the synth?

Until now, I am only drawing random shapes and see what they sound like and if I can use them for anything. But I want to learn how to really shape the sound the way that I like it.

Any tipps are really welcome

[Taron]

Uh, uh, may I, may I?!?

Well, first you must KNOW that you can use your logical mind to create specific characteristics. In the beginning this may seem impossible, but it is VERY possible!
What do you know about waveforms and wave cycles?
Basics:

• a single sine wave across the whole wave cycle (center | Up | center | Down | center) will play at the given frequency (note)
• two sine waves across the wave cycle ( c | U | c | D | c | U | c | D | c ) will play one octave higher than the given frequency (note)
• If you have two sign waves, any deviation from them will sound like the given frequency again, giving you two components you'd hear. One at the given note and one an octave higher.
• any repetition will bring a new, stable part of the spectrum into the sound, which you then can hear.
• any brief interruption of a stable repetition will briefly suggest another frequency component, which you can hear, but just as a spectral blib, so to say. Highly unnatural for the most part, unless you know exactly what you're doing.
• if you isolate a single wave cycle from a recorded sample, like of a piano, for example, you can see that inside a single cycle are many vibrations, sometimes even almost chaotic looking. This shows to you the various frequencies that resonate with a single piano note, especially the lower octaves!
• Look at BJ's example post for how not to use effects, because it shows something you can recreate with your own drawn waveform. It shows very tight delays, creating a string like sound. To recreate that, pretend the waveform to be not just one cycle, but a whole sample with decay. "CUCDCuCdcucdc-- - - - ".

There appear to be endless approaches to this, but once you get a basic understanding, you can recognize that it's only a few variations of how you would go at it, though endless are the sound characters you can create with any of those ways!

The thing I love doing is to imagine the physical behavior of resonating or stimulating bodies, practically on a microscopic level. Imagine a bow, for example, stimulating a string. It pulls the string until the tension of the string is stronger than the friction of the bow, at which point it releases and gets grabbed again... and so on.

[eraze the borders]

Uh, uh, may I, may I?!?

Well, first you must KNOW that you can use your logical mind to create specific characteristics. In the beginning this may seem impossible, but it is VERY possible!
[...]

There appear to be endless approaches to this, but once you get a basic understanding, you can recognize that it's only a few variations of how you would go at it, though endless are the sound characters you can create with any of those ways!

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

I can see that my theoretical knowledge here is very small. I never really thought about waveforms or wave cycles in the first place. But this OSC made me curious about how those things work. How classical instruments can be imitated with digital technology. I'll definitely try some of the things you mentioned.

That's one of the main reasons why I really love OSC. There's always something to learn and someone willing to share knowledge. Great thing!