Will someone give me a rundown on partials in certain synths? I was curious as to how many partials any given Reason synth can create and does more partials mean cleaner or better sound? Also, are voices the same as partials? If not, what are voices? I'm a little confused.

A partial is part of a voice. It refers to a very specific pitch an oscillator is generating. If you open up Thor and load a single sine-wave oscillator in the analogue oscillator section then that single oscillator, provided you have nothing else in the signal chain, is playing a partial.

If you open up Multi-Osc in Thor, underneath the Sine wave oscillator you've created, you'll have a sound better considered as a voice, as the tone you're generating will consist of more than one partial.

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my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

so do more partials equate to a better sound? Synths e.g.: Massive, or Absynth, or Razor seem to be doing something that I haven't been able to recreate in Reason. Reason is definitely my DAW of choice, however, I'm still getting harsh sounds out of it instead of those rich and lush sounds that I'm looking for. Is that due to the amount of partials the patches in Reason use or is that because I don't understand sythesis completley?


The reason why I ask is because, as we speak, I have 4 instances of Thor running, with an INIT patch, multi-osc, all slightly detuned. Frequency all the way up, some chorus. And then I've been equalizing and adding various fx, and I'ms till stuck with this very harsh sounding "voice".

here's a sample of the synth I'm workin on: Testsynth by DJRYAN™

What's the best way to take the sharpness out and make something as featured here:

3:40+ mark..

Last edited by DJRYAN™ on Sep-30-2011 at 00:25

If you're going by the NIRazor video and inferring that synths are designed around partials, the way that is, stop. While there have been quantum leaps in the way VST's have been designed - so as to add more harmonic diversity and thereby creating richer, warmer textures (i.e. Zeta+) - you're vastly over-emphasizing the importance of jargon which pertains to a very, very specific frequency generated by a sine-wave. Also, Razor is of a vastly different architecture than Massive, or most synths, for that matter.

There's about a million different things you can do in Thor that affect the sound; from mix control on individual oscillators to how each is routed through which-ever filter to using LFO's to control any number of variables, there-in. If you're using three Multi-Osc's on a maxed out signal chain, you might want to consider dropping some gain from each of the filters or using a Low Pass Ladder on the Master Out. Still, if that's the only oscillator you're using, you're severely limiting yourself. It's not that I don't want to answer that question but there is no clear, concise answer to your question. Thor is too vast and you're only scratching the surface of what it's capable of.

Reason synths are great but they're not end-all, be-all by any stretch. That said, I don't think it's a question of any synth being "better" than anything you'll find in Reason. Any new synth you get is going to have altogether different characteristics that will only add to your palate of available sounds to choose from. I'm not saying you shouldn't get something new because it's entirely possible for you to learn something you wouldn't know, otherwise. I'm also not saying you should.

It's possible that you'll find some preset in some synth that replicates a specific sound you're trying to emulate but you could well acquire a metric-fuck-ton of VST's and even hardware synths trying to get the sound you want.



Also, I like that sound, but see second paragraph.

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Wow! I totally get what your saying. That makes a whole lot of sense. Everything. I appreciate you taking the time to provide me a bit more insight. I have to admit that I have no idea about this part of Thor though, and I have a feeling this will just take my patches to an entirely new level:



and it drives me crazy. I assign the LFO to modulate oscilator1 pitch or even filter 1's frequency or just mess around but nothing tangible comes from it. All I get is a bunch of roaming synths sound that sound crazy and disorganized or non-listenable. Is there a guide out there that shows specifically how to route certain parameters to do certain things? Or what needs to be done to create recognizable synths.

I know there are a lot of soundsets out there, combinators, patches, and the like that have some of these sounds already embedded, but, I think that defeats the entire purpose of learning. There's this guy here in Atlanta, Richard Devine and he can just tear a synth up. You can assume he knows the ins and out and that's what I want to know.

And I'm not trying to sound like a total dumbass, although its probably too late, but still don't understand what the global envelope, mod envelope, or the filter envelope do. I can't get it to do anything to the sound. Except for on the global mod. Sometimes I get it to rise, but then I expect it to fall again, and it just stays at that highest pitch. So yea, I really wanna know how to kill a synth.

Anyways, since my last post I've still be playing around with the synth patch. I gotta pretty wierd acid thing going on.. lol!! =) check it out!!..

tester by DJRYAN™

Last edited by DJRYAN™ on Sep-30-2011 at 01:15

With the exception of vocal loops, this is all Thor:

Eddie Zilker - Bad Kitten Preview by EddieZilker

Here's that window you highlighted, in this instance, showing Rotary modulation routes for one of the Thor's that went into creating the plucked sound.




LFO's are better used on filters - at least that's what I like to use them for. Try putting an LFO with a square wave onto a filter and see what happens - even though that kind of sounds like what you did. I haven't use any guide to get to where I got with Thor but then I don't suspect I've gotten all that far with it, myself. It's just kind of a matter of finding out what does what to what and being able to navigate to get a desired result. And that comes with experience.

The filter envelope affects each of the filters depending on what their Env knob is set to. Honestly, I haven't really toyed around with the Mod or Global envelopes, yet.

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all sound can be transformed into a summation of sinusoidal waves. Each of these is a partial. A sine wave naturally has 0 overtones or partials. It is completely irrelevant to the quality of a sound. Like saying does EQ make things sound good or bad, In your hands, most likely bad.

lowering the sample rate will reduce quality yet introduce partials due to the nyquist foldback effect. So partials and quality mean nothing without some context first.

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old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

At least he has the balls to post his music, however terrible it may be.

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quote:

ALFI - BOHICA - DJ MIX (Stream+Dropbox)

LOL

other than leaving pretty much all the haters here with an incredible sense of inadequacy, not really sure what it would bring. I've been on point on pretty much everything , i don't really think i need to back anything up. I've shown a few on here via pms, of course they weren't complete douche bags and were genuinely curious.

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old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Oct-03-2011 at 01:23

quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi At least he has the balls to post his music, however terrible it may be.

Creativity drives all things forward regardless of the percieved state, so i am told

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quote:

Originally posted by DJRYAN™ Is there a guide out there that shows specifically how to route certain parameters to do certain things? Or what needs to be done to create recognizable synths.

Someone put me onto to it the other week, may be useful for you, I did have a brief look and it applies to most areas of synthesis im certain. enjoy!

how to make a noise
http://noisesculpture.com

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quote:

Originally posted by DJRYAN™ Wow! I totally get what your saying. That makes a whole lot of sense. Everything. I appreciate you taking the time to provide me a bit more insight. I have to admit that I have no idea about this part of Thor though, and I have a feeling this will just take my patches to an entirely new level: and it drives me crazy. I assign the LFO to modulate oscilator1 pitch or even filter 1's frequency or just mess around but nothing tangible comes from it. All I get is a bunch of roaming synths sound that sound crazy and disorganized or non-listenable. Is there a guide out there that shows specifically how to route certain parameters to do certain things? Or what needs to be done to create recognizable synths.

I would start out learning the Subtractor first. It has a simpler design, and you can still modulate most of the same stuff as in Thor. Honestly, put any of Reason's synths inside a Combinator and you can modulate absolutely everything -- like sweep through a synth's waveforms and octaves, use an LFO to change other LFO's destinations and frequencies and amplitudes, combine LFOs with the Spider tool, use Maelstrom waveforms for Subtractor sounds. It really is a great environment for experimenting.

Hmm, maybe I will make a thread about this stuff later.