Subject: Taurus Patch Programming #11
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 12:03:40 -0700
From: timkoelm@iconz.co.nz
To: jv1080@emccta.com

Greetings JV/XP'ers, and welcome to another patch programming tutorial!

An evocative bell sound today, which I've called "Ethereal Bell". This is
a four tone patch, and as a result sounds quite full - it's also got quite
a stereo presence, and takes up a lot of space in a mix. I've incorporated
elements of a certain acoustic instrument into this patch but a bit more
on that soon.

The basis of this patch is a celesta sample, which I've assigned to tones
1 and 2. I've detuned them, and panned each tone hard left and right. A low-
pass filter is applied to the two tones, cutting the high frequency content
in the sample to give a smooth, mellow sound. The TVF envelope is inactive
for tones 1 and 2, but check out the TVA envelope - there is a long decay
and release. I wanted to make the sound "wash" over the listener, so the long
envelope release time was necessary.

But with a long decay to the raw sample, the timbre was still rather static
and unmoving. I used the LFO section to provide some movement, and the way
I used it was based on my observations of a wonderful instrument, the vibraphone.
For those of you who don't know, the vibraphone is essentially a mallet percussion
instrument. It looks not unlike a xylophone, except the "bars" are made
of solid metal. Now, I don't know exactly how it works (I think it must be an
electrically powered fan or something), but the vibraphone is equipped with a
mechanism which adds a regular amplitude modulation to the sustained mallet
sound - resulting in a voluptuous tremolo. (I've noticed that even those who
play the instrument refer to this effect as vibrato, which is incorrect; vibrato
is pitch, not amplitude modulation)

Creating a cyclic amplitude modulation ie. tremolo on the Super JV is as easy
as assigning an LFO to LEVEL and fine-tuning the RATE, so that's what I've done
here. Notice that I've had to adjust the LFO1 offset to achieve a pronounced
effect, and also notice that the LFO1 rates for tones 1 and 2 are different -
this results in "pulsing" that is not exactly in sync for the two tones...the
sound is more alive, more "swimmy". LFO2 for both tones is modulating pitch,
so there is also a degree of vibrato at work here. Note the use of the DELAY
and FADE parameters. Delay does just that - it delays the onset of the LFO wave.
Fade works in a similar fashion - it kind of "smooths" the onset of the wave.
Crank one of the LFO destinations (ie. PITCH, LEVEL, FILTER or PAN) up to its
maximum and you can hear the effect of the delay and fade parameters.

That's tones 1 and 2. I still wanted a more pronounced attack - the celesta
sample by itself just didn't cut it. So, on tone 3, I called up a glockenspiel
wave. I edited the TVA envelope so it blended nicely with the celesta waves,
and applied the LFO LEVEL and PITCH techiques to the wave (a la tones 1 and 2).

This gave the patch sparkle, clarity and attack. It still needed body, so I used
a technique which I used in one of the earlier Taurus patches ("Glockenbells",
tutorial #1). I copied tone 3 to tone 4 and changed the wave to a sine wave.
This filled in the timbre nicely. A good helping of Analog Feel and stretch
tuning, and the basic patch was complete.

There wasn't any special technique to effects in this patch. Just a long hall
reverb, and some spacious chorusing - no EFX were necessary. With the long release
and the amount of space it takes up in a mix, this patch might not necessarily
work well in a pop or dance context. But as part of an ambient intro to a tune
which explodes into life, or in a new age musical context, I think it would work
quite well. It's also fun to just sit and play with. Try chords based on
open 5ths and 4ths - there's a little demo included with the patch which does this.

That's all for now. Comments, questions and observations are welcome. Enjoy!

Best Regards,

Taurus3

******************************

    --------------------------------------------------------------------
