Snare Synthesis: Part 2 - Snare Top

Welcome back to the Sound Synthesis Architect!

In this installation we are going to create a top snare instrument to combine with our snare body instrument that we created in Snare Synthesis: Part 1 – Snare Body. 

We’re going to start this instrument by setting oscillator 1 to sine/square wave with the wavetable and amp turned all the way down and the intensity turned all the way up. Now we’re going to attach the first envelope to the first modulation slot under the amp pot. Set the range of the envelope to 11 o’clock.

Now go down to the envelope and bring both the attack and sustain all the way down and pull down the decay to about 10 o’clock. Do the same to envelope 4, which is the amp modulation, only for this one set the decay to about 9 o’clock. We’re also going to use envelope 4 to modulate oscillator 1’s pitch. Attach envelope 4 to the modulation slot under the pitch in oscillator 1 and set its range up one octave (12:00).

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. Set the color to about 3 o’clock and the amp between 4 and 5 o’clock.

Next we are going to go to FX1 and set it to classic tube to give it some drive. Set the dry/wet to about 5 o’clock and the drive to 3 o’clock. In FX2 we are going to add reverb with the dry/wet to about 8 o’clock, the size to about 11 o’clock, and both the density and color up to full. Turn on the EQ and roll off the low shelf to about 9 or 10 o’clock, boost the mids by bringing the frequency to about 11 o’clock and the boost to about 2 or 3 o’clock, and the high shelf to about 1 or 2 o’clock.

Once again we are going to set the first insert to sample and hold and raise the pitch to somewhere between 3 and 5 o’clock. This pitch will really alter the timbre of the instrument so I encourage you to play around with this when mixing to find the right spot for it to fit in the mix. In insert 2 we are going to add a bitcrusher with the dry/wet pot at about 9 o’clock and the crush pot at about 3 o’clock. To ensure that this is working go to the routing tab and click on Ins 2 as illustrated with the arrow in the picture below so that the insert is in filter 1’s path instead of attached to filter 2.

Lastly, we are going to add some feedback with the amp set at noon and attach the velocity macro to sc modulation slot in the amp mod parameters.

I’ve attached both Massive patches below for your use.

Snare Body

Snare Top

That’s all for this post. As always comments or questions are welcome. Stay tuned for more sound synthesis tip and tricks.

Happy synthesizing!