Ring-mod what’s it good for?

[vata44]

So I’ve been doing synthy stuff for a long while now, but aside from SFX I see no real musical use for the ring-mod (totally personal taste here). Does anyone find it critical to their use ring-mod for designing patches and presets for composition? Is there a genre that leans heavily on ring-modded tones?

The real question, is there some magic that ring-mod can do for me that I am completely unaware of?

It always reminds me of telephone dial type sounds. Or it sounds dissonant and irritating. Just me?

Please educate me and help me make the most of that feature.

[enCiphered]

Ring modulation definitely has more to offer than just old-school sci-fi bleeps or dial tones. In the right hands, it can be musical, aggressive or subtle, depending on how you use it.

In sound design, it's fantastic for adding inharmonic richness, especially for metallic, bell-like or dissonant textures. Great for drones, experimental ambient, IDM, dark techno or cinematic stuff. You’ll hear it all over industrial and glitch genres too, where that broken, alien character is a feature, not a bug

For more musical results try modulating at musically related frequencies (like fifths or octaves) instead of arbitrary ones.
Use it subtly on sustained pads or layered under plucks to add grit without overwhelming the sound. Combine it with filters, distortion or FM for even more complex textures.
When you want to break out of standard subtractive synth tones, ring mod can take you into unexpected and inspiring territory. Definitely worth experimenting with. It’s one of those tools that pays off once you start pushing beyond its stereotypical use cases.

[whyterabbyt]

Use it as a reverb!

[vata44]

Thank you for your tips. I will certainly be trying it on pads as you mentioned. If it can tonal grit/texture that would be ideal, but it’s that inharmonic/dissonant thing that is nails on a chalkboard for me. lol.

[RunBeerRun]

Distortion. I used to use the Snarling Dogs Mold Spore ring mod, right after a fuzz pedal.

[KBSoundSmith]

I spent only about a minute on designing a simple sound for this thread, so it's nothing amazing, but here is an example of ring/amplitude modulation used to make a harmonic sound, in this case a cheap organ: https://app.box.com/s/6463mqjlqwmmj4kuhsxvv9k8jywuw3yb

Simple matter of choosing ratios which generate harmonic partials. Just put on the same hat you wear when using Phase/Frequency Modulation. Most people just usually make noisy patches, but there's nothing limiting you to that.

[DocAtlas]

Thank you for your tips. I will certainly be trying it on pads as you mentioned. If it can tonal grit/texture that would be ideal, but it’s that inharmonic/dissonant thing that is nails on a chalkboard for me. lol.

You may still get inharmonicity if you are playing a polyphonic signal into a ring modulator; you'll be using a very complex signal as your carrier, and every frequency in it will be interacting with the modulator, even if the latter is just a sine wave. Even though the carrier is suppressed in the output, it can get messy really quick.

Some synths (Omnisphere, Falcon, modular synths) let you have a separate ring modulator for each note played, and have the modulator frequency track the note you're playing. This can work for more musical sounds.

The first ring modulator I had was an Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer. It was interesting, but ultimately it didn't live up to the hype in the advertising. There are much better options available now.

[DocAtlas]

Thank you for your tips. I will certainly be trying it on pads as you mentioned. If it can tonal grit/texture that would be ideal, but it’s that inharmonic/dissonant thing that is nails on a chalkboard for me. lol.

You may still get inharmonicity if you are playing a polyphonic signal into a ring modulator; you'll be using a very complex signal as your carrier, and every frequency in it will be interacting with the modulator, even if the latter is just a sine wave. Even though the carrier is suppressed in the output, it can get messy really quick.

Some synths (Omnisphere, Falcon, modular synths) let you have a separate ring modulator for each note played, and have the modulator frequency track the note you're playing. This can work for more musical sounds.

The first ring modulator I had was an Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer. It was interesting, but ultimately it didn't live up to the hype in the advertising. There are much better options available now.

[planetearth]

For those of you who can make something useful with it, which synths would you say offer the "best" or most useful ring mod options (other than Omnisphere or Falcon, which most of us don't have)? My old Roland D-10 offered it only as a routing option, and I see something similar in the Rhodes Chroma emulation from Cherry Audio. But neither synth allows you to do anything more than "enable" ring modulation, really. I know I have others that offer it, but it seems to be more of an effect (or even afterthought) with some of them. Which synth(s) offer parameters that allow you to use it more like phase distortion/FM?

Also, what sets ring modulation apart from phase distortion/FM? Or even amplitude modulation, for that matter? I know there aren't many synths that synthesize sounds solely from amplitude modulation (or ring modulation, for that matter), but I know there's more to ring mod and amplitude mod than I've seen implemented in synths.

Steve

[KBSoundSmith]

For those of you who can make something useful with it, which synths would you say offer the "best" or most useful ring mod options (other than Omnisphere or Falcon, which most of us don't have)? My old Roland D-10 offered it only as a routing option, and I see something similar in the Rhodes Chroma emulation from Cherry Audio. But neither synth allows you to do anything more than "enable" ring modulation, really. I know I have others that offer it, but it seems to be more of an effect (or even afterthought) with some of them. Which synth(s) offer parameters that allow you to use it more like phase distortion/FM?

Also, what sets ring modulation apart from phase distortion/FM? Or even amplitude modulation, for that matter? I know there aren't many synths that synthesize sounds solely from amplitude modulation (or ring modulation, for that matter), but I know there's more to ring mod and amplitude mod than I've seen implemented in synths.

Steve

For the synths I own, Bazille and Zebra both have flexible implementations, especially when wanting it for more traditionally "musical" sounds, although it goes without saying they do the harsh stuff if you want (Halion has a nice RM in its Analog Synth zone too). Bazille is especially interesting, given its modular nature, where it can be intermixed with FM/PM, waveshaping, phase distortion, etc (Zebra of course is no slouch either, since the input waveforms can be whatever you've concocted). Generally, if you want to use ring modulation "musically," the architecture of the synth needs to allow the ring mod inputs to track pitch (easy if the inputs are just normal oscillators, rather than a fixed-pitch effect). In use, treat it similarly to programming FM/PM and you'll get lots of mileage.

Regarding comparisons to other forms of synthesis: the name reveals what it is: a form of modulation synthesis. Modulation synthesis is where you alter the output of a Carrier Waveform by use of a Modulator Waveform. The specific affect will be based upon which part of the waveform is being modulated. In Frequency Modulation, a Modulator is modulating (...wait for it...) the Frequency of the Carrier. Likewise, in Phase Modulation, the Phase of the Carrier is being modulated by the Modulator (most FM synths are actually PM synths, for anyone who doesn't already know this, although many synths are starting to include both, as there are some subtle differences).

Obviously then, Amplitude Modulation is when the Amplitude of a Carrier is altered by a modulator. What is Ring Modulation? Ring Modulation IS Amplitude Modulation -- specifically, it is a subset/specific instance of Amplitude Modulation. Ring Modulation in digital form can be easily defined as multiplying the amplitude of two waveforms together. Amplitude Modulation, the more general case, also includes a DC Offset which allows the Carrier to remain audible and mixed into the resulting waveform in various amount['''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''s (<--- niece's cat. decided I'd leave it lol). So, in practical terms, the difference is that Ring modulation creates a new waveform only, whereas Amplitude Modulation creates the new waveform and lets you mix in the original Carrier. (In the organ patch above, I used both -- Amp. Mod. allowed for preservation of a strong fundamental, and Ring Mod for upper harmonics).

Phase Distortion has some similarities to Phase Modulation in so far as they both use carriers and modulators to manipulate phase to achieve their results. However, Phase Mod uses separate, full oscillator to achieve its affect and the output is related to Bessel functions, whereas Phase Distortion has carrier and modulators that are synchronized per cycle of the waveforms. I think most people find PD more "intuitive" to program, as it is easier to make sound like a subtractive synth.

[planetearth]

Excellent! Thanks, @KBSoundSmith!

I knew quite a bit about PD/FM through "informally" studying the history and implementation of both over the years. And I knew amplitude modulation was very similar to ring modulation, but your explanation helped a lot with that. There just aren't many synths that offer a lot of control over either of those, from what I gather. But I'll start digging into the synths I have that offer ring mod and amp mod, to see just what they can do.

Thanks again!

Steve

[nanostream]

Thanks for the thorough explanation, KBSoundSmith!

Phase Plant can do AM in the generator section. But it also has polyphonic effects, which means you can keytrack the ring modulator effect while using the mix knob to dial in the amount you like. Additionally you can use different sources as modulator, and modulate the RM frequency or other parameters like Bias to get a wide variety of musically useful (or noisy, whatever floats your boat) sounds.

Mostly I use it to add a slightly detuned, modulated additional layer to create different beatings, which can be very lovely imho.

[Zipede]

Or you could just use ring-mod to make this little number

[jamcat]

Ring modulator is good for Tony Iommi’s guitar solo on Paranoid, and Ozzy declaring he is Iron Man.

[swilow11]

Ring Mod side chain seems to be trendy atm. Personally, I think it sounds pretty bad but it's at least a different use for ring mod than most of us are used to.

AM is more useful imo. You can get some interesting musical content from it, much more so than ring mod. I've been using AM to create relatively realistic sounding bass guitar sounds. Something about the combination of very rapid ratchety sounds and added sidebands can yield a nice emulation of a slap bass timbre.