Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post Reply
El Niño
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:09 pm

Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by El Niño »

After trying to use sampled drums for ages I've become a bit dissatisfied with the fact that they always seem a bit off and out of pitch with my song, so from now on I really only want to use drums which Ive synthesized inside sunvox at particular pitches which match the key of the song.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to create nice synthesized drums with the FM module, the Noise generator module, and perhaps square wave generator or analogue module?

Ive tried doing this so far: Open a new song turn up the BPM to quadruple the BPM of the song your working in (if your song is 140 BPM, use 560 BPM), then square wave generator with a fast pitch down, layer another slightly detuned square wave generator with fast pitch down at slightly different rate...for kick drum. sample it into a sampler module then copy that into the original song. It sounds O.K I guess.

Has anyone had any success making nice synthesised drums using the FM module? kicks, hi-hats, cymbals, snares, claps, percussion, bells?
Darkhog
Posts: 250
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:03 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by Darkhog »

Can't you just use DrumSynth module?
excelenter
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:53 am

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by excelenter »

Usually I do similar stuff, but for kicks I also can suggest:
* using triangle and sine waves instead of square
* throwing in some distortion and compressor to give it more punch
* adding clicking sound on top
* adding barely noticeable delay/reverb

I've tried to use kicker module, and it's good actually with some spicing on top of it (dist + comp + very light delay) :)

Never used FM for that though. I'll try it eventually.
User avatar
dusicyon
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:12 am
Location: Brazil

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by dusicyon »

Hello, El Niño!
So, I did it some weeks ago. In my case I was searching for a more original sound for my drums (tired of using samples). I managed to make a set with bass drums, snares, hats, cymbals, claves, cowbells and others. I liked the results, the toms isn't so good but the rest are great. You can find help by this series of tutorials: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Nov01/a ... ts1101.asp They helped me a lot.
I didn't used FM. Most of times I used analog generators (I found it better because of filter envelopes), with many types of waveforms.
Have fun! :friends:
El Niño
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:09 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by El Niño »

Hey! Thanks, Im going to go and check out those tutorials now...that was really interesting, if a bit complex for me.

I found this article recently, its about renoise but really useful information in there anyway:

http://beatcreators.wordpress.com/2012/ ... hine-pt-1/
User avatar
dusicyon
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:12 am
Location: Brazil

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by dusicyon »

Cool link.
It's not that complex, it just depends of the realism you want. It's possible to make drums using just noise gens and filters. You said something about pitch, so, instruments like kicks and snares are unpitched, this means that they don't really have a definitive "note". Sometimes I use some sample and they got transposed for down, the kicks for examples are like grrrrrrroooooooshhhhhh, is that what is happening to you? You can change it clicking twice on the module and editing the relative note to 12 for 1 oct up, 24 for 2 oct up, etc, depending on the sample...
Hope that helps you get the sound you want.

I'm currently working on a drum set for sharing here, all synthesized in sunvox. It is already done actually, but they're really CPU killer, I'm trying to make some tweaks to make it a litle light, and do a lo-fi version fo it too. Really cheesy thing. hehehe :good:

UPDATE: The synths are here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2461
ibim
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:06 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by ibim »

How about techno kick drums? Is it possible to go from really high pitch to really low pitch really fast? I tried slide down effect and some phase modulation, didn't come up with anything completely satisfying. I suspect it won't be much of a problem when the envelope module comes though.
ibim
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:06 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by ibim »

I managed to get it somewhat like I wanted it, but I want it snappier, faster pitchdrop. Give it a try! It has an annoying ringing sound to me, does anyone else get that? But it goes away when I render so it really doesn't matter.
Attachments
kick.sunvox
(3.32 KiB) Downloaded 837 times
Elfferich
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by Elfferich »

ibim wrote:I managed to get it somewhat like I wanted it, but I want it snappier, faster pitchdrop. Give it a try! It has an annoying ringing sound to me, does anyone else get that? But it goes away when I render so it really doesn't matter.
I fully know what you mean. I will make synthesize a kick for you that has the punch you want.
Give me some time and I will upload it on this topic. :)
Elfferich
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by Elfferich »

Sorry that I'm later than expected. I'm really busy with exams now, but here it is. I learned to make bass drums from other sunvox projects and to watch tutorials online how to synthesize own kicks. The tut doesn't have to be for sunvox. Just know how to make one and try that in sunvox.
Attachments
Bass drum.sunvox
(22.9 KiB) Downloaded 595 times
User avatar
The Handle
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:11 am

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by The Handle »

Ok, I can give you some HUGE tips on this, as I've actually created my drums from scratch with Sunvox multiple times before.

For kicks:
At its core, a kick is simply a slid-down sine. Add a sine generator, crank the BPM up to max and bring ticks per line down to 1 (gives you the finest control over the pitch evelope), and play a note around C5-C7 (sustained for about 4-5 lines then cut-off, so pitch can be slid at the initial hit, and volume can fade with the release). Then pitch it down for about 4 lines, and mess with the speed of the pitch drop (around 400 for first line is good, then ~200 for second line). Then sample it, and that should get you close to a proper kick. Don't forget to add an EQ though! And if you want more punch, add a cymbal to the start of the kick (this is what gives a little extra hit to it), or mess with the slide speed. You can also use a square or triangle generator, but it will be more difficult to get the result you want.

For snares:
Analogue generator is your friend! I can't count the number of times I've made a snare with this thing. Play a note around E3-E4, set the wavetype to noise, then turn the built-in-filter to BP (4 or 3, 4 gets best results from my experience), bring the frequency up to around 3000-4000, crank up the resonance to about 1300, and play with the filter release (longer gets you a more toned snare). I promise you, you will be rewarded for your patience and tweaking. I have made some of my best snares doing this. Then (depending on your tastes) you can add even more analogue generators at different filter frequencies or waveforms (especially squares) to add complexity to your snare, maybe even feeding it into a mid-power distortion module.

To make a VERY basic snare, you can use a square for the initial impact (6 ms release) and another noise generator for the release (about 20-32 ms).

For cymbals:
The best method I've found for cymbals (hi-hats and closed-hats only, still working on crashes and rides) is to start with a noise generator, feed it into a flanger, then a filter module (hi pass), then a mid-power distortion module (for volume). Cymbals rely heavily on harmonics to get the tinny sound they produce. Set the release to between 6 and 12 for closed-hats.

For rides, I've been getting the best results from messing with the Spectravoice module. Play around with the harmonics settings to get the sound you want. I'm pretty close to a decent version at the moment, but it needs more research.
hseiken
Posts: 175
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:52 am

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by hseiken »

I am working on a drum synthesizer module and used this guy's ideas of resonating filters for drums. They sound much better and closer to real drum machines, especially 808/909. You can use the 'kick' module to make the initial 'click or 'audible' part of the drum then use a filter with super heavy resonance to get the tone aspect which is much thicker than the regular sinewave for some reason. It feels/sounds deeper and is quite nice. It also works for snares. Although this video shows everything in Russian, I managed to figure out what was happening with tihngs like the snare; using the NOISE slider on a DISTORTION unit, you can create also snares that sound very similar to old drum machines.

Using this as a starting point, it's possible to layer things up and get more sounds. I tend to think of drums as being not a single sound, but a layering of multiple elements that go by really quick. Delaying some elements, modulating others, etc. creates a more 'complete' kick or snare. Filters and EQ are your friends when shaping the sounds as well as layering.

Credit to Pavel Ti for his excellent video which actually taught me a lot recently.


And here's my WIP of the drum synthesizer module I'm working on based heavily off of Pavel Ti's sound design elements. I'm going for something that's a lot like DRUMATIC 2 VST, one of my old favorites.
WARNINGThis angry old nerd may rant about modern computers or computer culture! It is not directed at you 99% of the time! Ignore it if it seems silly or personal!
BreadBread
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2022 11:09 pm

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by BreadBread »

Darkhog wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:36 am Can't you just use DrumSynth module?
DrumSynth has a bunch of limitations compared to designing the drums yourself: it's harder to design around and most of the time you'll end up using more memory: which isn't a good thing if you're making your song around a 64K compo.
User avatar
burij
Posts: 90
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:23 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Re: Tips on synthesizng drums in sunvox?

Post by burij »

Try out my universal drum designer for that. I'm effectively synthesizing every drum sound with it. I stole the approach from simmons sdsv drum synth after reading an article about, how it works. the main idea is, that every percussion sound is some blend of noise and triangle wave. I added sine wave, some effects and it works. I was able to make kicks with it as well, but I prefer good samples for that
Attachments
wsch universal drum designer.sunsynth
(34.15 KiB) Downloaded 234 times
You can download my exclusive Sunvox-Metamodules here: https://label.weddinger-schule.de/category/tools/
Post Reply