MusicBender Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Hey guys. It's been a long time since I've posted here, but I figured you all could help me with this better than anyone. I have a particular sound I'm looking for. It's this pure pitch-bending tone. Kind of sounds like a transmitting radio tuning frequencies. One exmaple of this is the beginning of the Coffee Break music from Earthbound: . In fact if I remember right Earthbound uses it a lot.Another example I found this in was the movie soundtrack to Gravity on track 7. I.S.S.; although, it is hard to hear it over the bowed percussion and/or feedback sounds: Anyone have a clue? I have Omnisphere and Absynth 5 trying to recreate it there. Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I think it's just a bent square/accordion with a tinny-sounding melodic percussive on top of it, isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 You mean this kind of sound? http://www.dannthr.com/temp/DR_RF_Transmission.mp3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) It could be pitch-bendy, but it doesn't sound pitch bendy to me. It sounds like FM synthesis with loads of resonance and a modulation envelope on a low pass filter cutoff. Perhaps a little high passing too (without the modulation). It sounds vaguely like this sound at 0:55, though slightly less dry and more wet with reverb. It's not exact since it needs more tweaking, but it's closer than purely pitch bending a sine wave, as there's somewhat of a "retrigger-chirp-like" texture to the timbre. Edited October 24, 2013 by timaeus222 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 It could be pitch-bendy, but it doesn't sound pitch bendy to me. It sounds like FM synthesis with loads of resonance and a modulation envelope on a low pass filter cutoff. Perhaps a little high passing too (without the modulation). It sounds vaguely like this sound at 0:55, though slightly less dry and more wet with reverb. It's not exact since it needs more tweaking, but it's closer than purely pitch bending a sine wave, as there's somewhat of a "retrigger-chirp-like" texture to the timbre. Mine is not a sine wave. The result was sometimes a sine wave on output, but no oscillator was used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Mine is not a sine wave.The result was sometimes a sine wave on output, but no oscillator was used. How would you make a sound without an oscillator? I thought you need an oscillator to act as the input to get any sound at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 How would you make a sound without an oscillator? I thought you need an oscillator to act as the input to get any sound at all? Noise. Mine is just dirty noise with an 8 pole band-pass filter. I assigned After Touch to control the resonance so I can open up the Q just be applying some light pressure. It lets me dirty it up as needed. Subtractive synthesis, the ultimate subtractive synthesis is starting with noise--take away the parts you don't need--and with noise, you start with everything: random broadband frequencies. From there, you can do anything as long as you know how to carve your sound. EDIT: For those out there just learning, 8-pole is 8x6 db/octave slope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicBender Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Dan, that's exactly what I needed! I saw your post and opened a recording of AM static from my old alarm clock radio. Used an 8-pole band pass filter and went to town. Got the exact sound I was looking for. Now my problem is when I put the cutoff automation into Cubase it doesn't glide the cutoff knob evenly. Sounds step-wise as if it were 32nd notes instead of a smooth change. Otherwise, it's perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Dan, that's exactly what I needed! I saw your post and opened a recording of AM static from my old alarm clock radio. Used an 8-pole band pass filter and went to town. Got the exact sound I was looking for. Now my problem is when I put the cutoff automation into Cubase it doesn't glide the cutoff knob evenly. Sounds step-wise as if it were 32nd notes instead of a smooth change. Otherwise, it's perfect! That's your synth. I'm modulating cutoff with the modwheel, so I'm pulling like 128 steps--which is smoother. I'm using Zebra2, by the way. I have Omnisphere, but I stopped touching it when I got Zebra--it's really one of the most flexible soft synths I've ever laid my hands on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 The pitch wheel has more steps (like thousands) if you can override that and apply it to your cutoff freq. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) Noise.Mine is just dirty noise with an 8 pole band-pass filter. I assigned After Touch to control the resonance so I can open up the Q just be applying some light pressure. It lets me dirty it up as needed. Subtractive synthesis, the ultimate subtractive synthesis is starting with noise--take away the parts you don't need--and with noise, you start with everything: random broadband frequencies. From there, you can do anything as long as you know how to carve your sound. EDIT: For those out there just learning, 8-pole is 8x6 db/octave slope. Ah, okay. I was almost going to edit my post and say a noise generator was a possibility, but I almost never use that kind of approach. EDIT: I just tried that, and I did manage to get that type of sound created too. I had some white noise with some distortion, high resonance, and cutoff modulation on a bandpass filter ("BP RezBand"). Edited October 24, 2013 by timaeus222 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicBender Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 You sir, are my late-night hero. Apparently also my neighbor -- I live nearby in Orange, CA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicBender Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Timaeus, thank you for looking into it as well. You guys saved me a lot of work. I also accidentally found opening the "noise" into iZotope Iris offered even more flexibility in that particular sound. Especially if one wants to make the resonance super-narrow (like strait line narrow). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 The resonance width or emphasis is a function of your filter. Iris can do really interesting filter shapes, but depending on your goals, the sound of the filtering won't be sloped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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