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To all composers and wizzards


Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 19, 2012 at 7:40pm

To all composers and wizzards

Is there a way one could change an ambient sound into a rhythmic structure containing the sound? Somehow like making grains out of an ambient sound and play it like percussion.

#65279

owmtxy

owmtxy
Nov 19, 2012 at 9:55pm

Umm, like stick it through an envelope? or something like train~ if it’s a grain-like, periodic rhythm maybe?

#235281

tegid o

tegid o
Nov 19, 2012 at 10:12pm

You could look at applying sidechain compression to the ambient sound triggered, for example, by a drum rhythm.

#235282

tep

tep
Nov 19, 2012 at 10:37pm

… techno~ ?

#235283

Rodrigo

Rodrigo
Nov 20, 2012 at 12:14am

Yeah, sidechaining to a drum track/click (ala the start of “How Soon is Now?”).

#235284

Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 20, 2012 at 2:41pm

owmtxy
I tried train and replaced the noise input with a soundfile. Sample and hold was actually what I thought would be a good start, but the sound which came out did not correspond to the sound input. Maybe I have to set the frequency range.

#235285

Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 20, 2012 at 2:42pm

tep
techno looked promising too. I replaced the phasor input with soundfile, but it did not put sound out.

#235286

Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 20, 2012 at 2:44pm

Rodrigo and tegid, do you have a patch which handles side chaining?

#235287

Rodrigo

Rodrigo
Nov 20, 2012 at 3:12pm

I’ve never done it in Max, but you can do it in any DAW super easily to test if that path is worth exploring further. The compressor attack/decay/ratio will have a massive impact on the sound as that will control each ‘grain’.

#235288

spectro

spectro
Nov 20, 2012 at 3:14pm

Vocoder and/or Cross synthesis are methods worth looking at for your purpose. There is an (old) example called “cross-dog” somewhere in the Max examples hierarchy that you should take a look at. There is also a vocoder patch somewhere too. Use your ambient source as the carrier, and a drum loop or rhythm pattern as the modulator

#235289

roger.carruthers

roger.carruthers
Nov 20, 2012 at 3:23pm

Probably easier to go the other way, i.e. gating the sound, with the gate being opened/closed by your rhythm track, using some kind of thresholding to trigger the gate. I probably have something somewhere…
I think built a Pluggo years ago that used Midi note-on’s to trigger a gate, back when that gated pad sound was a pre-requisite to all trance music ;-)
Cheers
Roger

#235290

roger.carruthers

roger.carruthers
Nov 20, 2012 at 4:05pm

I meant ‘the other way round’ meaning as opposed to compression, btw. Here’s a very quick n’ dirty gating example.
And yes, convolution is the other classic method for imposing the rhythm of one sound onto the timbre of the other – or vice versa,
Cheers
Roger

– Pasted Max Patch, click to expand. –
#235291

Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 22, 2012 at 1:33pm

spectro,
I will try that with my vocoder. That would be a good.

#235292

Hans Mittendorf

Hans Mittendorf
Nov 22, 2012 at 1:36pm

Hi Roger,
thanks for the patch. It seems to have the right parameter control, but I can’t get a good sound out of it. Attack, sustain, release would be good to be controlled. When you use your patch do you still hear the original sound input?

#235293

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