added 16" and 4" pulse waves, EQ and overdrive

Some substeps to a snare sound with Ragnarök Softsynth by Full Bucket. 

Some theory

I like the snare to sound a bit acoustic. Of course, it is impossible, to get a proper real snare with a synthesizer. However, one can do a lot with that little synth Ragnarök, even though it has no pitch-envelope. I was surprised about that.
It is important for an acoustic snare, that the rattle after the snap is something else then pure white noise. Imagine a snare drum, when the cables (i.e. the snare) are lifted off the head of the drum. Once hit, the membrane would oscillate and sound rather like a tom.
But when the noise element touches the skin of the snare-drum, the noise element absorbs energy from the skin and turns it into noise. So the oscillation sounds much weaker and shorter than without the noise element. But as the oscillation of the drum is the energy source of the noise, the oscillation will always be audible, at least a bit.

This is why I don't start with the noise, but with the oscillation.


The tutorial

1.    Start with a pulse wave of Ragnarök, and a highpass-filter that is adjusted so that the lowest frequency of the 8” pulse wave is still audible. I took the 18dB/oct filter. I played the synth at A#2. Why highpass? We will see in step 4.
2.    I added the 16” and the 4” pulse waves for a fatter sound. I'm sure this is not always the right approach, but in this case it does well. Furthermore, I used the EQ of Ragnarök to turn the higher frequencies down and boost the low frequencies. This is, because we are using a highpass filter and cannot cut off the high frequencies by another mean. And I turned the Overdrive a bit more than the half way up … this is not really necessary.
3.    Now turn the oscillation into something like an FM sound using the LFO. Thus, we need a pretty high frequency for the LFO. And then, of course, we need to raise the FM amplitude. It is important, that it is not the highest possible amplitude. I used a bit less than half way of the knob.
4.    Turn up the filter resonance to half way. This gives the sound a “boom”, a boost at (almost) the bottom end of all audible frequencies. This is why I used a highpass-filter.
5.    Introduce the filter-envelope. I go about two marks high for the amount. You can use an AD-Envelope with attack set to zero.
6.    Adjust the filter-envelope. Basically set the decay to a decent amount. I took two marks long. That makes a bit of the snap.
7.    Adjust the amplitude-envelope. Basically set the decay to a decent amount.
8.    Add some noise until it sounds well.
9.    To make the sound tighter, you can compress it decently. The effect of the compressor is, that it turns the amplitude of the sound down very quickly. Of course one can decrease the decay of the amplitude-envelope. But that makes the whole sound shorter. If you want a quick decrease of the amplitude, but want the sound to last long, you need to use a compressor. This is what I did.

Snare Tutorial

Hi there, thanks for peeking in :)

I am student of physics, and I love to make music, and I love synthesizers. 

I see music as a gift. 
"Every song, every single melody
Everything I play and sing I dedicate to thee.
Oh my lord, that is all I want to do:
Thank you for letting me be the tap it's going through.
It comes back to you."

(from "Today", Dieter Falk)

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCssBgDx5VibUewPXUObxKvQ

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