hello,
at first i would like to say I'm new to this forum and pretty new to ableton, too. so I'd say "hi" to everyone and hope to have a good time here.
so as you see my question is how to create a snare. i read many tutorials and also looked up some threads in this forum, but I didn't find the right answer, or maybe I just didn't get. I'm not interested in creating a snare by sampling, but by fm-synthesis.
i worked for hours on operator now, but i cannot receive what i am looking for. my operator-snares sound very weak,thin,small,"silent", flat what ever.
could someone give me a tip or a hint what is inportant in creating nice hard tough snares? (for example like in marc houle's techno vocals or in many justice or boys noize releases)
as i already said: im very new to ableton, and my english is not the best, too. sorry for that.
i hope you got what i wanted to explain. otherwise i d explain one more time.
well,
see you.. and thanks!
creating a snare by synthesis
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purplenoise
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:34 pm
- Location: Boston
Re: creating a snare by synthesis
I feel like I am not the most appropriate person to answer your question since I am not a professional sound designer, but, since it appears you are not either, maybe my advice can be a starting point.
the body of a synthesized snare drum needs to come from a dull wave that may be periodic (120 to 200 hz) like a sinewave or triangle wave. But it can also be a collection of waves near each other chaotically messing with each other. Chaotic wave interaction is the strength of FM so you could experiment with a pair of operators that are detuned non-harmonically
From your description it seems like you are getting the sizzle of the snare already, but no body, this sizzle can be created by overmodulating operators that are in the midrange.
The IMPact of the snare comes from the correct envelope shape and transients.
The transients can be short duration sounds that are much louder than the rest, they can be low frequency to give it a bit of a thud, and also midrange and noiselike.
The envelope needs to start out loud and nearly constant for a good 10ms and then decay, although envelope tweaking can be done effectively with compression, needs to be experimented a great deal and done by trial and error to sound right.
I hope this serves as a starting point.
-Aurelio
the body of a synthesized snare drum needs to come from a dull wave that may be periodic (120 to 200 hz) like a sinewave or triangle wave. But it can also be a collection of waves near each other chaotically messing with each other. Chaotic wave interaction is the strength of FM so you could experiment with a pair of operators that are detuned non-harmonically
From your description it seems like you are getting the sizzle of the snare already, but no body, this sizzle can be created by overmodulating operators that are in the midrange.
The IMPact of the snare comes from the correct envelope shape and transients.
The transients can be short duration sounds that are much louder than the rest, they can be low frequency to give it a bit of a thud, and also midrange and noiselike.
The envelope needs to start out loud and nearly constant for a good 10ms and then decay, although envelope tweaking can be done effectively with compression, needs to be experimented a great deal and done by trial and error to sound right.
I hope this serves as a starting point.
-Aurelio
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seismicexplo
- Posts: 61
- Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:43 pm
Re: creating a snare by synthesis
hi
simple (dry) snare in operator:
set one osc to noise and short decay
set another osc on saw(or square) and also short decay
and maybe some pitch envelope that goes down in pitch
seis.
simple (dry) snare in operator:
set one osc to noise and short decay
set another osc on saw(or square) and also short decay
and maybe some pitch envelope that goes down in pitch
seis.
Re: creating a snare by synthesis
Thanks a lot for your answers. I'll try out your tips now. I hope it will work better! 
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glamourboy
- Posts: 253
- Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:57 am
- Location: Copenhagen
Re: creating a snare by synthesis
i recently cooked up a convincing snare in zebra:
two sine osc around 200Hz detuned about 1 1/4 halftone (i just tweaked until they sounded like one "atonal" sound). enveloped like a short kickdrum.
one "click" sound. i made this with a sine phased 90 degrees and a hipass. ultra short envelope and make it loud in the mix.
two noise osc. one hipassed to be very "white" and the other i gave a reso bandpass for that PSHHH sound. envelope slightly longer than the sines.
the interesting part is that i routed sine one and two through bus 1 (yeah, zebra has busses) and gave them the shortest audible reverb i could produce, full damp, wet 100%, dry 50%. that made all the difference and it has come in handy when making kicks, cowbells, toms and every kind percussion instrument with empty space inside.
distortion, eq.
and the mix of the oscilators is the hardest part. have some kind of reference. the noise should be lower than you would think.
two sine osc around 200Hz detuned about 1 1/4 halftone (i just tweaked until they sounded like one "atonal" sound). enveloped like a short kickdrum.
one "click" sound. i made this with a sine phased 90 degrees and a hipass. ultra short envelope and make it loud in the mix.
two noise osc. one hipassed to be very "white" and the other i gave a reso bandpass for that PSHHH sound. envelope slightly longer than the sines.
the interesting part is that i routed sine one and two through bus 1 (yeah, zebra has busses) and gave them the shortest audible reverb i could produce, full damp, wet 100%, dry 50%. that made all the difference and it has come in handy when making kicks, cowbells, toms and every kind percussion instrument with empty space inside.
distortion, eq.
and the mix of the oscilators is the hardest part. have some kind of reference. the noise should be lower than you would think.
Re: creating a snare by synthesis
The process has already been covered pretty well in these replies, so I wont repeat them, but I made a video series that goes over making a few different drum sounds (like 808 and 909 snare, kick etc) out of a beatbox sample - it goes over all of this kind of stuff http://www.groove3.com/str/designing-el ... drums.html
but yeah, if you're not getting any 'body' to the snare then you want a sine around 200Hz with a short amplitude envelope - the 909 snare has something like this layered with the high snare sound, and if you put a real snare through a spectrum plug in you'll probably see a peak around the 200Hz mark, this is where the punch of the snare comes from
but yeah, if you're not getting any 'body' to the snare then you want a sine around 200Hz with a short amplitude envelope - the 909 snare has something like this layered with the high snare sound, and if you put a real snare through a spectrum plug in you'll probably see a peak around the 200Hz mark, this is where the punch of the snare comes from