December 2021 – Simon Hutchinson

A quick overview of principles and aesthetics audio “resonance” in filters and beyond.

In synthesis, we often encounter resonance controls on our filters, both digital and analog, but, more broadly speaking audio resonance the property of any device, space, or system to increase the amplitude of particular frequencies.

So what? Well, that’s a good question. Here I offer some different examples of resonance, both acoustic and electroacoustic, and perhaps there are some avenues there for you to explore in your own music and sonic art.

0:00 Defining “Resonance”
0:50 I Am Sitting in a Room
1:11 Breaking a Wine Glass
1:39 “That Really Resonated with Me”
1:56 Resonant Bodies of Instruments
2:11 Feedback Loops
2:36 Resonance as Metaphor
3:09 Where’s the Art?

More fundamentals of sound synthesis:

A quick and easy Pure Data patch-from-scratch tutorial building a sequencer that plays dynamically changing timbres for each note though frequency modulation synthesis.

In this patch, we set up a simple sequence of sine wave pitches (frequencies), then a sequence of modulation frequencies of a different length, then a random patterns of deviations, creating a constantly changing series of sounds.

There’s no talking on this one, just building the patch, and listening to it go.

0:00 Sequencing the pitch of a sine wave
1:23 Creating modulation oscillator sequence
2:45 Randomizing the deviation
3:15 Audio math: modulator frequency
3:51 Audio math: deviation
4:09 Audio math: FM synthesis
4:31 Tweaking the numbers
4:52 Commenting the code
5:47 Adding delay (as usual)
6:55 Feedback for the delay
7:17 Listening and more tweaking numbers

More no-talking Pure Data jams and patch-from-scratch videos here:

Month: December 2021

Pure Data Patch from Scratch: Simple FM Synthesis Sequencer