Digital Synthesis Techniques
Sample 1: Additive Synthesis
I started playing around with this right after class last week and had it in mind to make some sort of nasty sounding bass patch. I used envelopes to control the frequency and DC offset of the oscillators. I can't seem to predict, though, how the envelopes actually get used. The way I think it should work is that the metronome kicks off the envelopes and the frequencies I drew should be smoothly sent to the cycle~ object. That's what happens, except that the full envelope I drew doesn't get used.
 | 01 - Rumble.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Sample 2: Ring Modulation
 | Ring Modulation.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Sample 3: FM Fwub Bass
I modified Peter's FM patch to ramp the modulator amplitude between 20 and 250 over 1 second. This, in combination with the other modulation parameters, yielded a flappy bass sound.
Sample 4: FM Grow Tone
Using the FM synthesis patch again, but this time with different parameters, I created bass tone using a sine wave that evolved with a sound like a resonant filter sweep.
 | 03-FM_Fwub_Bass.wav 04-FM Grow Tone.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Sample 5: Faux Scratch
I discovered an interesting sound by scraping the first modulator frequency between -20 and 20. It made the sound burble a bit and sound almost like a turntablist scratching.
 |
05 Faux Scratch.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Sample 6: Blippy
Blippy, Atari-like noise sample. This one makes use of the modulo function to create the nasty repeating, yet random, blips.
 | 06 Blippy.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Sample 7: Metallic Additive "Feedback"
I took a look in the MAX/MSP documentation folder and looked through the tutorial pages. There are tutorial topics on all of the synthesis techniques we looked at in class along with some helpful patches. I took the additive synthesis patch and started hacking away at it to see what I could produce. The tutorial contains a subpatch called "partial~" which encapsulates some of the basic elements of an oscillator so the patcher doesn't get so messy. The first patch I created with my modifications uses a fundamental frequency and makes two sets of tone clusters, one of which is subltey randomized. I find that this sounds a bit like feedback in a PA system, but with some interesting pulses caused by the beating of adjacent frequencies.
Sample 8: Metallic Additive Shimmer
One of the presets from the original MAX/MSP tutorial patch sounded interesting when I played it back through my modified version of the patch. I think it sounds a bitter like a metallic shimmer.
 | 07 Metallic Additive Feedback.wav 08 Metallic Additive Shimmer.wav MAX/MSP Patch |
Download all samples from this entry.