Tag: karplus-strong

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Karplus-Strong Synthesis in Reaktor Primary

Patching up a Karplus-Strong synth from scratch in Reatkor 6 Primary.


Karplus-Strong synthesis is a digital synthesis technique that simulates the sound of plucked strings by using a feedback loop to model the behavior of a vibrating string. Developed by Kevin Karplus and Alex Strong, this method generates resonant waveforms by feeding back a short noise signal through a filtered delay line with feedback.

In this video we build a simple K-S synth from scratch in Native Instruments Reaktor 6, exploring what happens based on the design decisions that we make. By the end of this video, you should understand both the theoretical concepts and practical implementation in Reaktor, giving you a unique tool for your music production arsenal.

Check out more intermediate Reaktor Tutorials here:

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Karplus-Strong Synthesis in Pure Data Vanilla

Patching up a Karplus-Strong synth from scratch in Pure Data Vanilla from scratch.

Karplus-Strong synthesis is a digital synthesis technique that simulates the sound of plucked strings by using a feedback loop to model the behavior of a vibrating string. Developed by Kevin Karplus and Alex Strong, this method generates resonant waveforms by feeding back a short noise signal through a filtered delay line with feedback. In this video, we build a simple K-S synth from scratch in Pd, exploring what happens when we mess with the various parameters.

  • 0:00 Defining Karplus-Strong synthesis
  • 1:25 Noise “burst” to excite the string
  • 3:23 Adding the delay
  • 4:57 Setting up the feedback
  • 7:13 Controlling the rate of the delay
  • 10:21 Understanding the range of pitches
  • 12:06 Adding the low-pass filter
  • 13:21 Talking through the patch
  • 14:05 Adjusting the envelope of the noise (bowed sounds?)
  • 16:02 Closing / Next steps / Randomization

More Pd Tutorials here: