Snare Synthesis: Part 1 - Snare Body

Welcome back to the Sound Synthesis Architect!

Today I will be walking you through the creation of a snare using Native Instrument’s Massive. Remember that these synths can be created using other synthesizers with similar parameters.
This sound is actually going to be the combination of two sounds which includes the muddier snare body and the crisp snare top. The snare’s main timbre is going to come from a noise oscillator at the end of the wavetable chain. In my first post we are going to tackle the snare body’s creation. 

First, set oscillator 1 to the sine/square wave and drop the pitch by one octave (-12.00). The wavetable position and intensity should be turned all the way up and bring the amp all the way down. Having the wavetable turned all the way up means that this first oscillator is going to be a square wave. We’re going to start modulating the sound by attaching envelope 2 to the first modulation spot of the amp. 

Next, go to the envelope and turn the attack and sustain (decay level) all the way down. This is starting to shape the sound to have percussive parameters. Set the range of the modulation to about 2 or 3 o’clock by clicking on the first modulation slot and dragging up (this is represented by a blue line that appears around the potentiometer).

Next, set oscillator two to the sine/triangle with the wavetable all the way up which means that this oscillator is going to be a triangle wave. Now we are just going to duplicate the settings that we have set-up for oscillator 1.

Now we can go over to the voicing section and click the option to turn on monophonic. Go back to the oscillator tab and turn on “Restart via Gate” by clicking the box next to it. Now turn the glide (Time) potentiometer all the way down.

The last oscillator that we are going to use is the noise oscillator and we’re going to set it to bright noise which is a little bit thinner and, you guessed it, brighter. The color tone should be turned all the way up and the amp all the way down. 

Next, we are going to modulate the amp with envelope 1 with the range of the modulation set to full. The parameters for envelope 1 are going to match the parameters of envelope 2 only with slightly more decay which should be set around 1 or 2 o’clock.

Now we want to set-up the amp envelope (envelope 4) to match the parameters that we set for envelope 1. Envelope 4 should already be attached to the amplitude modulation slot.

We’re almost done with the body. Next we are going to change the timbre by adding some effects. Set FX1 to reverb with the dry/wet set to about a quarter, the size to about 10 o’clock, and the density and color to about 2 o’clock. Then we are going to just add a little bit of equalization. Pull down the low shelf a little bit, boost the low-mid frequencies by setting the frequency to about 10 o’clock and turning up the boost pot to about 3 o’clock. You may want to boost the high shelf just a little bit but a lot of our higher frequencies are going to come from the snare top so this instrument should be a little dull.

Lastly, we are going to give it a little bit of feedback to fill out the sound. Boost the amp of the feedback to about 12 o’clock. Enable insert 1, set it to sample and hold, turn up the dry/wet to about 3 o’clock, and turn the pitch all the way up.

You may want to play with the levels of the EQ and possibly drop the level of the master if it is clipping.

That’s all for this post. As always comments or questions are welcome. Stay tuned for my next post when we tackle the snare top.

Happy synthesizing!