How do YOU use Ring Modulation?

[stimresp]

Hi,

I'm looking for some inspriational uses for Ring Modulation options of my VST synths. I've been carefully trying-out all the features of my VST synths, and ring modulation always stumps me. Some synths have a single knob that ups the ring modulation between two oscillators - I haven't been able to get any useable sounds from these. Perhaps there are inteval settings between oscillators that give a more harmonic sound?

I understand the theory, and I am experimenting, whilst comparing hardware ring modulators:





Seems to me there is some potential there, so looking for hints on how you use ring mod in your VST synths.




Thanks in advance for any pointers.

[Audio Gnostic]

i dunno, as far as your question abotu making it more harmonic, as far as i know its not supposed to be. the whole point is to use inharmonic tones. try getting two sinewaves and set one to follow the keyboard and one to play at a stable pitch. then ring mod the one that plays w. the keyboard w. the stable pitch one and only mix the ring modulated osc into yoru mixer. ull get some crazy bell tones and stuff. pretty much experiment w. different waveforms, tunings, and putting on lfos and other stuff on either of the oscillators.

[Chopper]

to sound like them.

[stimresp]

When I say harmonic - nwhat I suppose I mean is ' pleasing' rather than the uncontrollable harsh tones ring mod is known for. So, a way to tame and control ring mod is what I'm after.

Your tip is a good start - thanks!

[Lost_Highway]

People often talk about getting bell-like tones out of ring-mod, but I've never yet managed to get anything that sounds remotely like a bell or gong or similar out of Oddity's ring mod. I'm not sure whether that's down to Oddity or me, but I suspect the latter

Don't get me wrong, I can get metallic-ish, aggressive sounds, just nothing bell-like. I'll be watching this thread with interest.

[jopy]

you can set the frequency to an extremely low value to make interesting tremolo effects on the other signal. in absynth i've set the "fixed" ringmod signal to extremely low frequencies and then used a foot controller to modulate the pitch. makes for interesting and fully controllable moving pads or even as an effect for audio in (e.g., guitar, drums).

this is an example with an obviously extremely nice ring modulator.

[Audio Gnostic]

you can set the frequency to an extremely low value to make interesting tremolo effects on the other signal. in absynth i've set the "fixed" ringmod signal to extremely low frequencies and then used a foot controller to modulate the pitch. makes for interesting and fully controllable moving pads or even as an effect for audio in (e.g., guitar, drums).

this is an example with an obviously extremely nice ring modulator.

um im pretty sure the moogerfooger is a filter with an lfo not a ring modulator.

[justin3am]

you can set the frequency to an extremely low value to make interesting tremolo effects on the other signal. in absynth i've set the "fixed" ringmod signal to extremely low frequencies and then used a foot controller to modulate the pitch. makes for interesting and fully controllable moving pads or even as an effect for audio in (e.g., guitar, drums).

this is an example with an obviously extremely nice ring modulator.

um im pretty sure the moogerfooger is a filter with an lfo not a ring modulator.

They also make a ring modulator.

[tranel]

Hi,

I'm looking for some inspriational uses for Ring Modulation options of my VST synths. I've been carefully trying-out all the features of my VST synths, and ring modulation always stumps me.

Ring modulation stumped me too for quite a long time, but recently I've managed to put it to good use:

1) I resampled my Triton's piano through the onboard ringmod and vinyl simulator, plus a minor EQ tweak. I let most of the piano sound come through untouched, the effects are just sort of adding extra (dis)harmonics/noise . The result was a very cool, eno-esque ambient piano that just looooved being smothered in Lexicon reverb. Tune to follow shortly.

2) I ran an analog string patch on the triton through the onboard ringmod set to about 10% wet, and let the LFO (sine wave) sweep it slooowly up and down in the background. Very subtle when used as the background pad.

3) Outrageous sound fx: ringmod >> formant shift sweep>> delay >> ooooodles of reverb


I personally don't like using ring modulation 100% wet, but used subtly it can be very cool.

Regards,

T

[jopy]

...

[mhemnarch]

Typically I use ring mod for weird, dissonant sounds, but if the synth you're using lets you have keytracking on the ringmod oscillator (Massive, for example) you can get strange but consonant sounds by setting the modulation osc to extreme values (i.e. +36, etc.).

[himalaya]

Ring Modulation is like heaven's sonic waterfall for lead sounds.
The best exponent of this technique has to be Vangelis, yes, hate me, for bringing Vangelis into this , but he has pioneered the effect for expressive playing rather than Dalek FX (nothing wrong with Daleks though!).

I can't bring myself to name tracks that he has used RingMod to this effect
(there's so many), but you can hear what I mean by listening to this mp3.:
http://www.electric-himalaya.com/demos/ ... t/Lead.mp3

Once downloded fast forward to 0:41 and listen. That lead is suppose to be my emulation of Vangelis' famous lead sound with Ring Mod. Admittedly, the melody I played sucks but the effect of Ring Mod is nice, I think.

The two leads after that also use RingMod, so do have a listen.

There's a a longish track on Vangelis' '1492 Conquest for Paradise', that uses a lead sound with a RingMod that is just sublime. If I get the time I'll sort out a link for ya all to have a listen. First time I heard that track, driving at night, I had goosebumps ! Love it. It's hardly elevator music I say!

So my point is, that Ring Mod can be used to a great expressive effect, and not only to cause sonic mayhem with dissonance. Recipe no.1 :Use it sparingly instead of vibrato.

[mystran]

For two oscillators ring modulating each other... consonant "pure" intervals generally give you quasi-harmonic sounds. Unison or octave are the easy ones, but tuning a perfect fifth (that is, 1.5 times the frequency) accurately gives fundamental one octave below the lower of the two. Perfect forth, fifth and an octave.. the further you get from simple frequency ratios the more noisy it gets.. and even when the result is quasiharmonic it can be tricky to predict the exact fundamentals.. but in many cases you have to match a ratio pretty closely (especially with more complicated ratios) before you get reasonable results so when experimenting it's good idea to not sweep too fast over frequencies.. rarely do the ratios fall at the exact semitone intervals on the equal tempered scale (in fact.. other than octaves they never do), and often simple waveforms (say triangles, sines, or whatever) will work better than two harmonically rich waveforms.

[nix808]

[quote="mystran"]perfect fifth (that is, 1.5 times the frequency)[quote="mystran"]
What ratio is the fourth?
Thanks for that, I never knew.
Cheers

[mystran]

perfect fifth (that is, 1.5 times the frequency)

What ratio is the fourth?
Thanks for that, I never knew.
Cheers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music) has the theoretical ratios (as in "just intervals") if you scroll down a bit. Fourth in particular is 4:3 (which is approximately 1.33333...).. but once you get close you'd hear beating similar to just mixing two waves, so it's easy to fine-tune to taste by ear.

One thing to notice though, is that the more complex the ratios become, the lower the "fundamental" that you get goes.. and for harmonically rich tones you obviously get all kinds of inharmonic partials... but basically.. since you get sum and difference from the ring modulation of two sines, for fifth those would be 3/2 - 1 = 1/2 and 3/2 + 1 = 5/2. The highest harmonic tone which matches these is 1/2 times the lower note.

For fourth similarly, we get 4/3 - 1 = 1/3 and 4/3 + 1 = 7/3. Hence the "fundamental" kinda becomes 1/3 of that of the lower note (which would be two octaves below the higher note). The practically interesting part is that the "fundamentals" get pretty low when the ratio gets complicated, which tends to make the result sound more inharmonic than it actually is, because of the sparse upper harmonics and fundamental too low to be heard.. so practical advice would be to pitch the notes a couple of octaves higher when searching for something interesting, such that the lowest frequency gets into the audible range.

Or you can even fake a sub-oscillator with a ring mod in some cases.