One Synth Challenge #88: TAL-NoiseMaker (Mac/PC) (z.prime wins!)

[ninjamode]

Nice submissions, a couple blew me away tbh
I've been using this synth most of the month & hope to submit in a few days.. so thought I'd share a few tips for pushing the synth further (may/not be useful since everyone works differently):
-Use the noise waveform in the LFO & use it to modulate anything (found its nice for creating white noise with a different character if you map it to osc pitch & set the LFO amount high.. comes in handy when making drums/fx)
-In the LFO if you set to synced rate & set to the highest speed it will oscillate at audible rates.. More fm capabilities there.
-For evolving sounds (wavetable esque behaviour), map the multi point envelope to the volume so when layering instances.. you can "crossfade" between them easily.
-Noisemaker has velocity mapping sliders, try adjusting the cutoff slider on some sounds & get creative by intricately placing midi notes & velocity amounts (small details are fun)
-The HP slider comes in handy if you mix as you go.
-I should have wrote these earlier since most of you already know the synth well enough after taking part

[ontrackp]

My entry -- OribiTAL

26 instances of TAL in Logic Pro X. Logic EQ, compressor, reverb on tracks. Multicompressor, Adaptive Limiter, EQ, Exciter on Master Bus.

I hope you enjoy -- it's fun to be back in the OSC!

https://soundcloud.com/ontrackp/ontrackp-orbital

[zippy731]

Nice submissions, a couple blew me away tbh
I've been using this synth most of the month & hope to submit in a few days.. so thought I'd share a few tips for pushing the synth further (may/not be useful since everyone works differently):
-Use the noise waveform in the LFO & use it to modulate anything (found its nice for creating white noise with a different character if you map it to osc pitch & set the LFO amount high.. comes in handy when making drums/fx)
-In the LFO if you set to synced rate & set to the highest speed it will oscillate at audible rates.. More fm capabilities there.
-For evolving sounds (wavetable esque behaviour), map the multi point envelope to the volume so when layering instances.. you can "crossfade" between them easily.
-Noisemaker has velocity mapping sliders, try adjusting the cutoff slider on some sounds & get creative by intricately placing midi notes & velocity amounts (small details are fun)
-The HP slider comes in handy if you mix as you go.
-I should have wrote these earlier since most of you already know the synth well enough after taking part

These are great tips, for TAL or other sound design. Thanks!

[Laxplanet]

Thank you Laxplanet.. I will sample off my keyboard and send it to you.

Regards

cool, maybe just post it as a dropbox or Gdrive link here in the forum

[Laxplanet]

Well, it's some kind of tom
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B85oSO ... sp=sharing
Presets I used to make it. I Eqed compressed the layers for the audio file
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

[H-man]

Nice work there drBob If you are still working on this I might make a couple of suggestions (just that ....suggestions)
The closed hihat is a little too loud and thus distracting.

OK, thanks --- hat ----done!

You could also mix the "Tshack" with a little more "Tshizzzzzz" if you get my drift.

Tshack- more fizz .... done! Right volume???

Crash et al are great.
Second, it is loud but I think it might be the backing organ? Some variation in the volume here might convey a little more feel as well.Just first impressions and some food for thought Rob

... and all the above tweaked as well ...

Any better???

Thanks for all this ...

dB

Yep, an improvement on the hats certainly IMO. Remember that sounds at higher frequencies will cut through and thus seem a lot louder. I fall into this trap, especially after listening too loud for too long.

Separation is better now too, especially in the first half. One thing tho, the snare/rim click thing is barley audible now You could try a One-louder, one-softer and see if it anchors the track against the "falling down the stairs and landing on your feet" solo stuff.

Give it a whirl

Cheers,

BH

[doctorbob]

Yep, an improvement on the hats certainly IMO. Remember that sounds at higher frequencies will cut through and thus seem a lot louder. I fall into this trap, especially after listening too loud for too long.

Yeah, I know. Definitely caused by listening too loud for too long. Thanks for pointing it out.

Separation is better now too, especially in the first half. One thing tho, the snare/rim click thing is barley audible now You could try a One-louder, one-softer and see if it anchors the track against the "falling down the stairs and landing on your feet" solo stuff.

OK, thanks for this. I do have a good rim shot in there, so I will see if I can make it more "audible", and may try the little soft/loud trick too.

********EDIT .......... rim shot now increased a bit, hopefully not too much!!! *************

dB

[Laxplanet]

Yep, an improvement on the hats certainly IMO. Remember that sounds at higher frequencies will cut through and thus seem a lot louder. I fall into this trap, especially after listening too loud for too long.

Yeah, I know. Definitely caused by listening too loud for too long. Thanks for pointing it out.

Separation is better now too, especially in the first half. One thing tho, the snare/rim click thing is barley audible now You could try a One-louder, one-softer and see if it anchors the track against the "falling down the stairs and landing on your feet" solo stuff.

OK, thanks for this. I do have a good rim shot in there, so I will see if I can make it more "audible", and may try the little soft/loud trick too.

dB

First thing that came to mind for me is the solo voice is simply to loud. If i'm having trouble with the mix I like to turn off all plug ins and focus on volume and synth settings and try get it sounding good from the start. When I was studying sound my lecturer told me if you want a good recording get good instruments and musicians who know how to play them; then all you have to do is put a microphone in the room. It's a bit like this with electronic music as well I feel.

[Laxplanet]

Another point I would make Db is that a solo recording of someone fingerpicking a twelve string will always sound louder than a heavy metal band or a full EDM mix. More instruments means less headroom. Your tune probably does not have to be driven very hard to be at a reasonable level as the arrangement is fairly sparse.

[doctorbob]

Another point I would make Db is that a solo recording of someone fingerpicking a twelve string will always sound louder than a heavy metal band or a full EDM mix. More instruments means less headroom. Your tune probably does not have to be driven very hard to be at a reasonable level as the arrangement is fairly sparse.

Thanks for this. I'll look into the mastering side as this is where it's getting some of the "drive" ... the basic mix is OK I think ... probably the multiband comp doing the damage!

dB

[Laxplanet]

Another point I would make Db is that a solo recording of someone fingerpicking a twelve string will always sound louder than a heavy metal band or a full EDM mix. More instruments means less headroom. Your tune probably does not have to be driven very hard to be at a reasonable level as the arrangement is fairly sparse.

Thanks for this. I'll look into the mastering side as this is where it's getting some of the "drive" ... the basic mix is OK I think ... probably the multiband comp doing the damage!

dB

Multiband comp can do that, It's a trap to look out for. I think my last entry suffered from that to some degree.

[davetbass]

Hi,

I used 6 instances of TAL-NoiseMaker and reverb and chorus from the the TAL.

Thanks for listening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://soundcloud.com/davetbass/davetbass88

Edit I updated with more limiting from the DAW (Reaper)

[rghvdberg]

Officially retired.

Nope, unacceptable. You can't. No way.
We were going to do a Bro Challenge!
I'm not kidding. You can't quit on me.
It doesn't have to be the next osc but we are gonna do this.

Unless you hate me.

(see what I did there? emotional blackmailing )

I'm gonna pm you tomorrow.

[HiEnergy]

My participating track is online... at least a preliminary version.

It's here: https://soundcloud.com/hienergy/the-noisemaker

The track uses 20 instances of TAL NoiseMaker. All used effects are DAW native.

DAW: Ableton Live 9.5
Prototyping: Cognitone Synfire 1.7
Synth: TAL NoiseMaker, current version, 20 instances used
Effects (all Ableton): EQ8, Reverb, Simple Delay, Gate, Compressor, Saturator, Utility, Limiter

[wagtunes]

Officially retired.

Nope, unacceptable. You can't. No way.
We were going to do a Bro Challenge!
I'm not kidding. You can't quit on me.
It doesn't have to be the next osc but we are gonna do this.

Unless you hate me.

(see what I did there? emotional blackmailing )

I'm gonna pm you tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I really am serious. I have lost all desire to do these. For starters, most synths are a real struggle to work with. The 32 bit ones I can't even bother with because they blow up my DAW. Working with free FX is discouraging because I don't have the custom presets that I do in Fab Filter stuff that I can just dial something up and be done with it. And I don't have the skill to really know what to do with EQs, compressors and so on. In addition to that, I have a business to run and just about have enough hours in the day for that. Putting in "serious" time into the OSC is not really an option for me.

Aside from all that, I'm just not very good at this stuff. Even my songs on paid synths, with paid FX that I took massive amounts of time to make, get brutally torn to shreds. It's what happens when you have limited talent.

I think I'm a decent sound designer with paid synths and some people actually like my libraries. I've even made some money doing it. So that's what I have to stick to.

The OSC is a luxury that I just can't afford anymore.