Adding envelopes to our synthesizer that aren‘tan ADSR.
ADSRs might be the envelope generators that we encounter most often, but they’re not the only way to shape our sound. There are a number of other musical ways to craft change in our synthesizer over time with these non-periodic TVCs.
Let’s check out what other options there are in Reaktor 6 primary.
Coding (well, “patching”) an artificial neural network in Pure Data Vanilla to create some generative ambient filter pings.
From zero to neural network in about ten minutes!
In audio terms, an artificial neuron is just a nonlinear mixer, and, to create a network of these neurons, all we need to do is run them into each other. So, in this video, I do just that: we make our neuron, duplicate it out until we have 20 of them, and then send some LFOs through that neural network. In the end, we use the output to trigger filter “pings” of five different notes.
There’s not really any kind of true artificial intelligence (or “deep learning”) in this neural network, because the output of the network, while it is fed back, doesn’t go back an affect the weights of the inputs in the individual neurons. That said, if we wanted machine learning, we would have to have some kind of desired goal (e.g. playing a Beethoven symphony or a major scale). Here, we just let the neural network provide us with some outputs for some Pure Data generative ambient pings. Add some delay, and you’re all set.
There’s no talking on this one, just building the patch, and listening to it go.
0:00 Demo 0:12 Building and artificial neuron 2:00 Networking our neurons 3:47 Feeding LFOs into the network 4:20 Checking the output of the network 5:00 Pinging filters with [threshold~] 8:55 Adding some feedback 10:18 Commenting our code 12:47 Playing with the network
Creating an artificial neuron in Pd:
Pinging Filters in Pd:
More no-talking Pure Data jams and patch-from-scratch videos:
Making some chiptune French house using the Commodore 64 and Alesis 3630.
C64 French House
Here, I’m using Paul Slocum’s CynthCart to turn my old C64 into a SID synthesizer. We run those licks into an Alesis 3630 compressor, side-chained to a kick drum (from an Alesis D-4), and then we have some pumping French house. Finally, we add some finishing touches with delay, reverb, and EQ in Logic Pro, as well as a cameo by an Electrix Warp Factory hardware vocoder. Download the track here for free:
Patching up an analog feedback loop in Eurorack with some generic modules.
I don’t do a lot of videos talking about Eurorack for two main reasons:
(1) I’ve actually only been doing Eurorack for a couple years now, even though I’ve been doing digital synthesis and sound design for decades, and
(2) I don’t want my videos to be about any particular piece of hardware that you need to get (as always, I’m not sponsored by anyone).
But, the patch I put together in this video could be done by any number of modules, all I have is a sine wave, a ring modulator (multiplier), a reverb, a filter, and a limiter/compressor/saturator (anything to stop hard clipping). Put them together, feed them back, and you have some dynamic, analog generative soundscapes.
Creating retro sounds with hard-synced oscillators in Reaktor 6 Primary.
“Hard sync” is synthesis technique that uses two oscillators: when one oscillator (the “leader”) finishes a cycle, it resets the period of the other oscillator (the “follower”), creating a period at the frequency of the leader, but a timbre from the incomplete cycles of the follower.
This is a really easy way to create original, complex sounds, using just two oscillators.
0:00 Defining “Hard Sync” 0:38 Building a Single Oscillator 1:35 Adding the “Follower” 3:03 Changing the Pitch Relationship 4:40 That Hard Sync Sound 4:57 How it Works 6:30 Follower Lower than Leader 7:25 Adding an Amplitude Envelope 8:10 Adding a Filter (for a bit) 9:28 Closing, Next Steps
Doing some filter “pinging” use the resonant [bob~] filter in Pd Vanilla.
Filter pinging is a synthesis technique where you sent a “pop” (i.e. an audible click) to a resonant filter to create a percussive plucking sound around that filter’s cutoff frequency. Since we’re in Pd Vanilla, the easiest way to get a resonant filter is with [bob~], the “Runge-Kutte numerical simulation of the Moog analog resonant filter.”
There’s no talking on this one, just building the patch, and listening to it go.
0:00 Setting up the filter 0:40 Filtering a sawtooth wave 1:35 Subaudio [phasor~] 2:04 Randomizing cutoff frequency each ping 3:33 Commenting the code 5:12 Oops
Using the tilt of an iPad to control an analog feedback-based patch.
In this patch, I send OSC (Open Sound Control) data about the tilt of my iPad to Max/MSP on my computer, which converts this data into MIDI, and subsequently, on my synth, voltage. That voltage (changing based on the iPad’s tilt) opens up a VCA (voltage-controlled amplifier) which controls the level of the feedback.
The analog feedback loop here goes: ring-modulator to saturator to reverb to delay to low-pass filter to the VCA (which runs back into the ring-modulator).