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Sound designers - how do you add expression?
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| cryophonik |
Just curious to know how some of you guys approach adding expression to your patches (e.g., mod wheel, aftertouch, pitch bend, etc.). One of the first things I do when I'm going through a new set of sounds or beta testing someones else's is to play around with the mod wheel, aftertouch, and pitch bend to see how "musical" they are. I hate to say it, but I'm often quite disappointed in how often people just use the mod wheel to add an annoying (and unusable IMO) amount of vibrato, or just use the MW to mangle the sound into something completely unusable. So, that's often one of the first things I alter. But, I don't know that my approaches are much better and I'm thinking that it's worth discussing some different approaches. Here's my typical approach:
1) Mod Wheel - I usually use this to do one or more of three things:
- open or close the filter (and sometimes modulate resonance).
- increase/reduce the amount of movement in the patch (i.e., if the patch is being modulated all over by an LFO or arp, I use the mod wheel to reduce its effect and vice-versa.
- morph the sound into something quite different; not always useful in a musical sense, but can be very cool, particularly with synths that allow you to assign numerous parameters to each controller.
2) Aftertouch - I usually just use this to modulate the filter cutoff slightly, or maybe a little vibrato; nothing novel there.
3) Pitch Bend - Sometimes I leave it at an octave, but I usually find that a small interval, such as a whole note, is much more usable to me.
Like I said, those are the only expression controls that I usually use (aside from freely assignable ones ala Virus TI, Massive, etc.), but feel free to mention others (e.g., breath or foot controllers) and maybe we'll get some better ideas going. |
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| Acton |
| Personally, it's all about the pitch bend. Every other parameter, I usually automate in the sequencer. But for some reason, I do admire the vibrato effects (using the mod wheel) in Omnisphere. |
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| owien |
well i will say the most important part to gaining good expression from a patch or sound,is created by tuning your ears in to what you want it to do.
every patch or part you make has a role to play in the song/track
by simply adjusting the mod wheels wont give you good expression then again it might just not enough or to much of the wrong thing.
i found modulation and the use of shapes to mold it into something first is far more effective.
and again tuning my ears in if it should sound like it needs to do something for me to draw out the sound then in most cases you will find a no real set pattern in creating it.just time
i recon a good idea will be to post up something you want made and see what people can come up with and maybe give a better incite into how it as done . whilst still fresh on the brain |
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| Zombie0729 |
| if the mod wheel isn't on an LFO contolling pitch or filter then what i like to do is if the synth has an LFO "delay" or "fade" knob i'll turn it up a bit so anything longer than 1/8 notes will trigger it. the mod wheel can then apply ammount of LFO but still have the delay in tact :) that's my fav |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by owien
i recon a good idea will be to post up something you want made and see what people can come up with and maybe give a better incite into how it as done . whilst still fresh on the brain |
I don't think you're understanding the point of the thread - I'm not lost as to how to create expression and I've been a sound designer for a good 30 years, so I'm not looking for someone to show me how it's done - I'm just looking for a good discussion of other's peoples approaches, sharing some ideas, maybe triggering some new ones, etc. as DJAR and Acton have done above.
I guess part of the point is that I seem to have fallen into a sound design trap where I tend to use the same handful of expression tricks and would like to get some other ideas. Automating parameters is certainly another way of doing it and, while I do that as well, I also tend to sit and just play my keys, so I rely a lot on aftertouch, MW, sustain pedal, and to a lesser extent, pitch bend. |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zombie0729
if the mod wheel isn't on an LFO contolling pitch or filter then what i like to do is if the synth has an LFO "delay" or "fade" knob i'll turn it up a bit so anything longer than 1/8 notes will trigger it. the mod wheel can then apply ammount of LFO but still have the delay in tact :) that's my fav |
That's a pretty cool idea - I'm going to have to try that! |
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