Swoosh Sound

[Noa]

I've got a book on sound design telling me that the first step in creating that "swoosh" sound on a synth is --

"Turn off all oscillators and increase the resonance so that the filter breaks into self-oscillation."

Can someone translate that into Operator language?

It sounds like I'm supposed to bring the Operator to life without hitting any keys. Like its breathing or something. I don't get it.

[iamnotcool]

If I understand correctly, the sound you're trying to achieve is done like so:

-set one of the oscilators to generate white noise, turn off all others

-set your filter to high pass or band pass, with medium-low resonance

-automate the filter to sweep down through the frequencies, which will give you that wooshing sound.

-be sure to set a medium to long attack on the volume envelope to have the sound ramp up to full volume over a few seconds

hope that helps.

[snakedogman]

I've got a book on sound design telling me that the first step in creating that "swoosh" sound on a synth is --

"Turn off all oscillators and increase the resonance so that the filter breaks into self-oscillation."

Can someone translate that into Operator language?

It sounds like I'm supposed to bring the Operator to life without hitting any keys. Like its breathing or something. I don't get it.

I haven't used operator but they're talking about a self-oscillating filter. Some synth have this and some don't. It means that the filter itself can generate a tone when you turn the resonance all the way up. You still need to hit keys for it to play but you can disable the oscillators. Again, don't know if Operator has a self-oscillating filter so it might not work.

[Noa]

Thanks guys.
I was previously using the LFO to sweep my noise but I'll try the filter.

[Noa]

The filter trick was easy enough but how do I get that Vibrato sound Out of the sweep. It doesnt sound clean.

[BinaryB]

what is the sound design book ?

I am on the hunt for sound design info here...

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69114

[suburbanbather]

The filter trick was easy enough but how do I get that Vibrato sound Out of the sweep. It doesnt sound clean.

Try assigning an lfo to cutoff knob of your filter. You may be to sweep the filter while the lfo gives a Vibrato effect simultaneously.

Operator is a great synth but everything you are asking about would be much easier with a subtractive synth.

[Noa]

Dance Music Manual by Rick Snoman. Its pretty good. I also have the Live 6 Power book. Thats good too.

[BinaryB]

whats the best things youve learned from the Live6 Powerbook ?

[Noa]

Live power 6 is ok. To be honest the
Snoman book is better. It has more tricks and techniques than Live Power 6.

[BinaryB]

So what do you think are the best things you learned from them ?

[tylenol]

"Turn off all oscillators and increase the resonance so that the filter breaks into self-oscillation."

Can someone translate that into Operator language?

Operator's filter doesn't self-oscillate (as far as I know). You can get sort of similar effects by using a relatively pure tone and automating the fine tuning, or the transpose. To see what this could sound like load up something like fabfilter timeless and turn the resonance all the way up (twin won't do it, and volcano is tricky to actually get to self-oscillate -- there are probably lots of other devices that do this, but this is the one I have).

For melodic swooshes I've actually had the best luck using a MSEG in Zebra 2, personally. You have a lot of control and you aren't restricted to whatever tone your filter characteristics tend to produce.

how do I get that Vibrato sound Out of the sweep. It doesnt sound clean

Whoa, I'd never noticed it before, but operator's noise sounds bad. It is obviously looped and has some very non-random characteristics. At F3 it sounds like some kind of machine!? and at some frequencies the non-random characteristics are the dominant sound. Edit: apparently this is in purpose, the manual suggests that if you want statistical randomness you modulate it with another oscillator, or use the LFO in S+H mode on it. Anyways, I think the loop characteristics of the noise is what you are hearing.

[Noa]

That sounds about right.

[Noa]

Thanks. Everything you said made total sense. I've now been using the ocillators, detuned, to try and combat that vibrato. I've found sucess in automating a hipass filter and then used the lfo to modulate the filter in order to create a falling or rising effect.