drums

drum part

Figure 14 summary

• separate kick and snare synths
• separate kick and snare sequencers
• panning and volume stuff

mixer channel

As usual there is a mixer channel at the bottom of this wrapper. There are two instruments in here, a kick and snare drum, one panned to the left and one to the right. The channel is controlled by fader 2 and pan 2.

parts

Five abstractions make up the patch, a sequencer for the kick drum pattern and a kick drum synth, and the same for the snare drum plus an effects patch.

Figure 14: H1-drums

H1-drums.pd

kick sequence

Figure 15 summary

• 16 beats to a bar
• 2 part sequence
• add in occasional

two select units

When placing beats you don't have to use one [select] object and insert each beat in the right order, that would be most frustrating, instead its okay to just add more [select] operations for new beats as needed. Here the first and second bar are handled by different [select] units.

skip some beats

Beats 2, 7 and 10 do not play every time. A [spigot] is like a valve, it lets its input through to the output whenever a 1 message appears at its right inlet, and continues to do so until it is sent a 0 message. The messages on the left inlet are then blocked and do not appear at the output. Here a [random 2] unit in combination with a spigot permits one in every two beats to pass through.

Figure 15: H2-kickseq

H2-kickseq.pd

kick drum wrapper

Figure 16 summary

• choose one of three
• some with shorter decay

three kick sounds

This wrapper modifies the performance of the kick drum synth by storing three preset sounds, long and low, medium, shorter and higher. On each received beat one is selected at random, including a rest where no kick plays at all. Note how this behaviour is built in to the instrument now, not the sequence as we have defined it. Combined with a measure of uncertainty for individual beats in the previous patch the result is a much sparser pattern than you might expect.

Figure 16: H3-kickdrum

H3-kickdrum.pd

kick drum synth

Figure 17 summary

• short line decay
• 4th power decay
• base 20 and sweep 100
• affects amp and pitch

parameters

Two parameters are passed for each kick sound, a decay time and a pitch range. This list is unpacked first from the list output of [t b b l] with the first decay value going to the inlet of a [pack] object and the second going to the set the frequency sweep scale.

envelope

A more complicated arrangement of messages for this envelope shows the simplicity, and limitation, of [line~]. In order to have a non-zero attack we need to hold off the decay message for at least as long as the attack rise. This is done with a message delay [del 2] giving a 2ms delay to the bang message.

signals

The signal is an sine wave with amplitude and frequency as functions of the fourth power of the falling line segment. Frequency is down to a minimum of 20Hz, and as high as the second parameter passed. Amplitude is always from full to zero, decaying in the time set by the first parameter.

Figure 17: H4-kickdrum-synth

H4-kickdrum-synth.pd

snare pattern

Figure 18 summary

• same pattern repeated

simple 7 beats

Couldn't be much simpler this one, it plays beats 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12.

Figure 18: H5-snareseq

H5-snareseq.pd

snare wrapper

Figure 19 summary

• choose one of four
• various pitch and decay

4 parameters

Each of four parameters is unpacked and connected to its destination in the DSP. The first parameter sets the top of the sweep range and the second sets the minimum with [* ] and [+ ] units respectively. Parameter 3 goes directly to the resonance inlet of filter [bp~ 400 2 ].

signals

The signal source is [noise~ ], which is modified by the filter. Notice that the control signals for the filter cutoff are not at audio rate. Message domain control is used because [bp~ ] cutoff is a message rate inlet. However, we convert the amplitude control to a smoothed signal at the last moment, [lop~] is used to remove any sudden jumps.

Figure 19: H6-snaredrum

H6-snaredrum.pd

snare synth

Figure 20 summary

• get parameters
• power 4 decay curve
• smooth signal

4 sounds

In an identical fashion to the kick drums, some snare drum random variation. There is a 1/3 chance that no beat will play. On the remaining 2/3 of beats one of 4 possible parameter messages is sent. The values represent filter amount, filter base, filter resonance and total amplitude. As you can see there is a mixture of short, long, high and low values in the four messages.

Figure 20: H61-snare-synth

H61-snare-synth.pd

snare effects

Figure 21 summary

delay and sweep filter

These effects are a slowly moving filter on top of a delay unit (which we will examine in the next section). A [loadbang] sets up an initial delay time, fixed to 375ms here, and feedback (60 percent), as well as setting the initial resonance of [vcf~] which prefers to be set up this way.

low frequency oscillator

An lfo can simply be a normal oscillator running very slow when you want audio rate control signals. The cutoff frequency of [vcf~] is set by an audio signal which gives a much smoother change of settings. If a control rate filter adjustment is used here at such a low frequency we would certainly hear occasional clicks with a [bp~ ] unit. The lfo sweeps up in one direction between 300Hz and 5300Hz about every 2 seconds.

Figure 21: H7-snare-fx

H7-snare-fx.pd

play the drums

Figure 22 summary

old style electro drums

This kind of sound is typical of electronic music circa 1979/80, like Kraftwerk (Autobahn), Ultravox (Vienna) or early Human League (Being Boiled). Resonant noise sweeps in the lower ranges have quite a powerful sound.

beat density

It's hard to pin down this beat. With just enough randomness the actual beat is unclear on first listening to the drums alone, it seems to mutate around a bunch of similar patterns. This effect is helped lots by the delay. It doesn't really make sense until we also have a bassline to anchor key points with, so let's build a bass line in the next section.

Figure 22: H8-drums

H8-drums-play.pd H8-drums-play.ogg