[Pd] Other synthesis methods

Christopher Charles schraubzwingenhalterung at web.de
Mon Feb 20 11:02:11 CET 2006


Chuckk Hubbard wrote:
> Hi.
> My Pure Data Just Intonation sequencing program is up and running, and 
> I'm in the process of making music with it for a dance/music ensemble 
> at my school.  The problem is everyone says it sounds like Mario.  I 
> tried making a granulator, and it sounded good but used so much CPU I 
> couldn't incorporate it into my sequencer.
> What I do have is 16 harmonics, filtered noise, a bp/lp/hp selector 
> with cutoff and Q control, and adsr sliders.  I have 8 copies of this, 
> each of which only runs when it is changed, and writes its results to 
> a graph, which the sequencer reads.  Thus it is also possible to draw 
> the waveform with the mouse, which I've found can make it a little 
> less predictable.  But too much of that makes it inharmonic, and even 
> so it still sounds very 80's.  I'd like the freedom to work in more 
> sophisticated synthesis.
> What can I do?
there are various other ways to shape synthetic sounds, particularly as 
a part in a subtractive synth: have a look at frequency modulation, 
amplitude/ring modulation, oscillator hardsyncing (resetting the phase 
of an oscillator by another oscillator), or pulsewidth modulation. you 
can create very interesting sounds if you gently combine these methods, 
for example feeding a hardsynced oscillator output as a frequency 
modulator into it's own sync source... something that works good on more 
complex signals than sinewaves is having a signal delayed by a (maybe 
amplified, dc'd and shaped) form of itself (having the signal as a 
source for the delay length of a vd~). be sure to check if lfos and 
(adsr-)envelopes applied in any part of your construction (modulation 
depths, frequency microtunings, filter cutoffs, pulsewidths, etc.) can 
do any good. with such techniques, your synths won't sound like mario, 
but more like luigi or princess toadstool.
another approach might be simple physical modeling: you can create a 
plucked string which sounds crappy in the bass region but fairly 
harp-ish in the upper octaves by sending a short, single triangle- (or 
whatever-) shaped impulse into a feedback loop the length of the note 
frequency^-1. with a slight lowpass applied on each iteration the signal 
will warmly fade out.
just ask if you have any questions about implementing these techniques.

some synthesis links -> 
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/articles17.htm

mfg
charlie




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