BINAURAL MIX

https://soundcloud.com/ambisonique-sounds/ambisonique-sounds-railway-station-binaural-bounce

A lot of the work i do in terms of sample packs is under the Papas St Germain moniker.

For  my future SFX projects and packs i will be using ambisonique sounds.

The following is a summary detailing the audio used, routing and audio placement of the various elements present in the binaural mix.

Descriptor

The intention of this binaural mix is to recreate a realistic real world environment from the perspective of a commuter standing on a rail way station platform as a train enters stops and then departs from the station. The mix will contain several audio samples recorded by me in various real world environments and those elements will be placed appropriately within the sound field. Effects such as EQ and reverb will also be utilized to create a realistic environment for the listener.

Audio Used
Several audio elements were used to combine and create the full binaural mix. The audio elements used were the following:
1. Station background noise and announcement
2. Announcement Bell
3. Train entering station/train leaving station
4. Pigeons taking flight
5. Train whistle
6. Human activity(coughing and laughing)
7. Chatter
8. Walking

Each of these audio elements would be treated differently dependent on where each element should be in relation to the listener’s perspective. This would have an effect on the sounds treatments with EQ and reverb as well as the movement of that audio element within the scene.

The reverb effects on all of the audio elements are intended to simulate naturalistic effects present in an area such as the train station. The motion of the objects through the sound field are also intended to reflect the natural movement of objects within the environment.This following summary will highlight the panning movements of each audio element and the specific treatments it would receive within the mix.

Station Background Noise

This element forms the basic background sound to the mix. This sound is the overall background noise of the station environment and will be static through out the mix. Some minimal reverb will be applied to suggest the size of space of the station and to emphasize the announcement taking place over the tannoy is taking place some distance from the listener perspective. The reverb will also have some stereo width to help increase the size of the basic sound stage.

Announcement Bell

This sound will be placed mid left in the sound field, suggesting the area in which the sound is  coming from. Some reverb will also be applied to the sound, emphasizing some distance between the sound source to the listener’s perspective. This sound will stay static within the overall mix reflecting the fact that it is a static object.

Train Entering Station/Train leaving station

These two sounds are the main events within the binaural mix. The intention is for the train to enter the station, stop and then leave. This sound will require automation within Logic on two fronts. In the first instance, the train will enter from the far left and progress to the mid point of the stereo field. This will require automating the binaural panner to move from far left into the middle. In the second instance, the volume level of the train will increase as it comes into the station. This will mean automating the volume level, increasing the sound as it moves closer to the listener perspective as well as attempting to start the sound with some reverb which would then gradually tail off as the train approaches. For the train leaving the station the opposite will apply as the automated pan will work middle to far right as the amount of volume will decrease as the train moves away.

Pigeons taking flight

The sound of the pigeons taking flight will be another sound where automation will be used to move the sound within the mix. The pigeon sound will start behind the listener to the far right hand side and be gradually panned to the front left hand side. Some volume automation will be applied as the pigeons go close to the listener perspective. There will also be a volume increase and steady decrease as the sound increases in distance from the listener, moving to the far front left of the sound field also.

Train Whistle

This will be a simple static sound to the left of the listener perspective and will be close with very slight reverb. This will attempt to simulate the idea that this sound source is close to the listener’s perspective.

Human Sounds (coughing and laughing)

These sounds will be static within the sound field, placed to the front right and middle left areas in the sound field. One sound will be close to the listener’s perspective with little reverb whilst the coughing sound will be low in volume and more reverberant. This is to create the idea that the person coughing is across the tracks and standing at the opposite platform.

Chatter/Walking

As the train stops at the station people will exit the train. This sound will be slowly panned from middle front to the far left as the people head off to the station exit. This sound will also require a gentle volume decrease as the sound pans off to the far left. Both the pan and volume controls will be performed using automation features within Logic. Both of these sound events are directly linked with each other.

Ambient Electronica Vol 1 - 50% Off by Papas St Germain at Sampleism

Ambient Electronica Vol 1 - 50% Off by Papas St Germain at Sampleism



The new pack from papas st germain,many of the sounds we're creating using granular synths,FM sounds and some wave table based stuff.

Designing a Frequency Modulation Synthesiser in Synthmaker

Modulation VST Plug In

There are various types of  modulation based synthesis with frequency modulation synthesis being a form of synthesis that gained attention from the early 1970s onwards.

 The basic premise of FM synthesis is that a waveforms properties, are changed by applying a modulating frequency to that waveform which is in the relative audio range of the waveform.

The benefits of this type of synthesis, are that simple waveforms can be transformed into complex waveforms, offering variations in timbre and tones.

 More harmonics are produced from a simple waveform using fm synthesis, giving more depth and character to the sound.

For the purposes of creating the modulation vst effect, the basic waveforms would be two sine waves generated from a multi oscillator component. The two sine waves would provide the simple building blocks to the sound with the modulation, filters and LFO being added after this initial 1st stage.

The process involved working from the basic wave player delayed schematic. The two wave player components were replaced with a multi oscillator component running through each signal path, left and right.

Modulation effects are time domain effects. The sound properties of two sine waves can be changed when the two signal are summed together but differing time values are applied to each signal, causing phase differences between the waveforms.

This causes a change in the sound to the original waveforms, affecting the timbre and tone of the note as the waveform progresses over time. This creates the effect of phasing.

The vst being created would synthesize this effect . The two sine waves were initially summed together and routed separately through sum and delay components within which, the time properties of the signal could be altered.




basic starting point for modulation synthesizer

The difference that this makes is fairly minimal so the next stage is to affect the sine waveforms with a form of modulation. For this vst , frequency modulation will be applied to the carrier signal.

 The benefits of frequency modulation are the effect the modulator has on the sine waves. The FM modulator modulates the carrier waves frequencies, producing more harmonics and resulting in a richer sound using a minimum of components, therefore reducing cpu usage.


In order to add further interest to the sound, an ADSR envelope and LFO could be added to allow more control over the sound parameters.

 In this case, the envelope was added after the frequency modulation module. This would control the shape of the sound as it evolved over a time period.

 In this case , separate ADSR controls were added to the separate signal paths for greater flexibility in controlling each signal path with the intention of providing a wider range of sounds for the modulated synthesizer.

The next stage of the process, involved drilling deeper into the frequency modulation modules and providing some parameters and control over the frequency modulation. Control parameters would be applied to both the modulator and carrier.

control parameters connected to modulator and carrier










The most effective method of doing this, was to insert 2 vertical sliders inside each FM module, add two float integers  and then connect them appropriately within the module.

 Doing this , allows for slider control of the carrier and modulator frequencies on the front panel. For greater control over the parameters, the values of scale were also altered within the vertical sliders.

Initially, these values were entered as 20 to 20, 000 to simulate the frequency range of human hearing but some additional tweaking was performed on these values as the results produced from these settings were fairly extreme.

 One of the knobs attached to the carrier frequency on channel 2 was labelled as white noise and would be kept on the front panel as white noise can be useful in FM synthesis when simulating percussive sounds with short attack and release settings on the ADSR envelope.

After the ADSR envelope, some further refinements would be added to offer further control over the types of sounds the synthesizer can produce.

 Another section was added to the synthesizer, with the intention being to add further harmonics, generated with a sine wave form and FM modulation. The design would consist of two vector sliders, connected to float integers which would contain the values from the vector sliders. These would then affect the carrier frequency and modulation frequency of the fm module.

The vector slider would have a connection to the carrier and the other vector slider would be connected to the modulator.

This would allow some degree of change in the sound where the modulation and frequencies could be altered on the front panel independently. The FM module in this subsection linked to a sine generator and proceeded through the ADSR envelope.

This sine generator would have a switch connector which could be activated to generate further modulation between the two vector sliders. The design of this section was also based on the ideas behind FM synthesis.

 The two vertical sliders would have to be set at 0.00 in order to have no effect on the output sound at all. When the vector sliders are moved from the 0.00 position, some higher harmonic content is added to the existing sound.

 A small LED switch was added allowing the option of switching the oscillation sub section on and off when desired.

 Due to the complex harmonic material inherent in the FM synthesis design, it was decided to add a visual representation, enabling the user to quickly visualize the nature of the harmonic content.

This was done by adding an FFT scope for analysis purposes. When adding the high harmonics with the vector slider, it is clear on the analysis display on the front panel where the harmonics occur.

A simple ping pong delay was added before the strength and volume control sections within the synthesizer. This was a simple design with customized controls, intended to create some interest in the movement of the sound without being too extreme.

Within the volume and strength controls section of the synth, some manual adjustments would be made to the integer values within the bender module as well as the adjustments to the scaling of the volume and strength controls. The adjustments to the volume and strength controls were ,again, performed by drilling into the controls and setting the minimum and maximum levels as appropriate so as not to clip the out puts.

 The final component part to add, was the preset manager which would provide some quick presets for users to get started with.

To finish of the vst plug in, the controls were arranged in a coherent manner on the front panel with each function and control being clearly named and a clear separation being provided between the sections of the synthesizer. Some adornments were added to enclose the separate sections and some simple colour schemes were also introduced for a clear cohesive front panel layout.

For the new Ppas St Germain sample pack Ambient Electronica Vol 1, FM synthesis was used quite frequently.Fm sounds can be effective for some styles of ambient and chillout genres,adding some edge and fizz to otherwise placid sounding synths.

I think this gives the sounds more character

Ambient Electronica available at sampleism.com from Feb 12th 2015

Downtempo Chilltrax Vol 1 by Papas St Germain at Sampleism

Downtempo Chilltrax Vol 1 by Papas St Germain at Sampleism



This sample pack was influenced by listening to Madlib,Flying Lotus and applying some psychedelic chillwave influences to create a versatile pack suitable for any genre.Many of the synth loops and guitar parts are designed to create a unique aural picture on which to build a track.

Creating an Additive Synthesiser in Synthmaker

Additive Synthesiser           

The following, is a quick post on the methods used to create an additive synthesizer within the software program Synthmaker.

This software was available for free with issues of computer music magazine,the software goes by a different name nowadays but any modular synthesiser program has the same principles described here.

This software is similar to programs such as reactor so many of the principles can be applied to whatever synthesiser building program you may be using.

 The report will highlight the methods used to create the synth, the intentions behind creating the synth and how successful the end product was.

Additive Synthesis

            The principles of additive synthesis are fairly simple and rely on basic sine waves to provide the basis for the sounds which will be created by the synthesizer. 

The basic premise of additive synthesis, is that a waveform can be described in terms of the frequencies and amplitudes of those frequencies contained within the waveform. 

This means that a certain amount of sine waves can be blended together at particular frequencies and amplitudes can be used to create different waveforms such as square or saw tooth waveforms.

 The character of the waveform, will be dependent on the harmonic intervals determined from the fundamental frequency. 

A very basic form of additive synthesis is the Hammond organ, where, drawbars on the organ are used to add higher harmonics as they are pulled out , creating a change in the character of the sound. In creating the vst plug in, the example of the organ can be used as a basis to start the design of the plug in.

            The first stage, involves using a combination of sine waves to produce a fundamental frequency and the harmonic information that the fundamental would produce in a real world instrument. At least 9 individual sine waves would be employed within the additive synth to create some harmonics at differing amplitudes to provide some character to the basic synth sound. 

The basic additive synth was used as the blueprint for the synth but some extra harmonics would be added to give more harmonic depth to the sound. An 8^th and 9^th harmonic were added into the additive module, adding some further high frequency content to the overall tone. 

The harmonic values of 8 and 9 were typed into the float integers and amplitude values of 0.2 were set, initially, for both harmonics. 

The amplitude values of each harmonic note could be altered individually or via a controller which could provide increased possibilities to alter the sound in real time. The sounds at this point would vary from high frequency tones to low bass tones depending on the amplitude values set for each harmonic. 

There are still many factors that need further consideration if the additive synthesizer is going to have more variation of sounds.

            Time and how a sound changes over time is a key factor in a sound being interesting to listen to.

 In a stringed instrument, the natural inclination of the sound is to be bright at the initial attack of the sound but over time, the higher frequencies fade away more quickly than the lower frequencies. 

This can be replicated within the synth by controlling the low and high frequency harmonics separately, using an envelope. 

This was done by creating a separate output for the 1^st to 5^th harmonics from the additive and then creating a separate output for the 6^th  to 9^th harmonics from the additive module.

These separate outputs were then connected to an ADSR envelope module separately

Doing this , allowed some control over how the harmonics would behave and the low and high frequency content could be controlled to react differently over time from each other.

 The intention, is to simulate the behavior of a stringed instrument where the high frequency content will fade more quickly over time than the low frequency content. 
This is a starting point for the synthesizer but more interesting results may be achieved by adding some control to the individual harmonic components themselves.

 The ADSR envelope was set to a particular value and then made into a module in order to keep the internal synthesizer components in order. Each individual harmonic or particle of the additive synthesizer would have a separate slider control which would determine the amplitude value of each separate harmonic, therefore, allowing a greater degree of control over the overall sound. 

This was done by connecting a vertical slider to each harmonic’s amplitude value whereby each slider could then be controlled on the synthesizer front panel.

            The intention was to provide a similar idea to the drawbar system on a Hammond organ, where pulling out the draw bars on the organ will add more harmonic content to the sound.

Some modifications were also made inside some of the vertical sliders where the value scale of the vertical slider would be increased from 0 to 1 up to 0 to 10.

 This was designed to give extended control to the amplitude values of each harmonic with increased possibilities in changing the sound of the plug in.

            As part of the process, each vertical slider’s scale would be altered differently in order to give a specific character to each harmonic. 

The slider would then be given a label/name describing the characteristic of the sound which would then be clear on the front panel, giving the user a preset description of each vertical slider on the front panel. 

The intention was to provide a wide range of sounds through adding different harmonic components at varying amplitudes. 

The synthesizer would be routed in two different sections. One section would feature the higher harmonics whilst the second section concentrated on the low to mid range content.

 Each section also had its own envelope, allowing control over the sustain of the frequency content within each section. This could enable the user to tailor the envelope controls of each section whereby the higher frequencies tail off quickly in a manner evoking the characteristics of stringed instruments where much of the high frequency information exists in the attack portion of the envelope rather than in the release of the note.  

            After the additive and ADSR  envelopes, a further reverb module was added to give a sense of space to the basic sounds being produced from the harmonics. The reverb unit was customized from an existing unit but new knobs and their values were applied to the float integers to create different values for the room size, width and effect mix. These values were set by drilling into the individual knob controls and setting parameter values.

This allowed for some fairly subtle reverb settings which would provide some depth to the overall synthesizer sound.

Volume and Strength Controls

            After the reverb module, the volume control module was added which would produce a non linear behaviors for the action of the volume and strength control knobs connected to the bender module and situated on the front panel as volume and strength controls. 

The volume and strength controls were connected to two float integers which would then connect to the bender module, determining the non linear control of the volume and strength controls which would also be visually represented by a level meter. 

The volume and strength parameters were also adjusted by drilling into each of these respective knob controls and setting new levels for the minimum and maximum settings.

            To provide some quick settings for users, a preset manager was integrated onto the front panel and some quick preset files and sounds were created and appropriately named for quick use.

 Four presets were named, Rhodes, Rhodes reverb, steel drums and organ. The vertical sliders within the additive module were untidy with a clumsy layout so these were all converted into modules, attached to the float integers, which were also converted to modules, and connected to the harmonic components.

Harmonic sliders within the additive tidied by converting into modules

The final internal working of the synthesizer can be seen in the screen shot below

sampledelicsounds.com

http://www.sampleism.com/papasstgermain/downtempochilltraxvol1?sk=kt

Equinox Sounds: MIDI Loops, WAV Sample Packs & VSTi Sounds Ambient Chillscapes Vol 2

Equinox Sounds: MIDI Loops, WAV Sample Packs & VSTi Sounds Ambient Chillscapes Vol 2



This pack is the 2nd volume of ambient chillscapes created by papas st germain for Equinox sounds.Inspired by artists such as boards of canada,brian Eno,Harold budd and burial.Designed to be used in any genre.

Equinox Sounds: MIDI Loops, WAV Sample Packs & VSTi Sounds Ambient Chillscapes Vol 2

Equinox Sounds: MIDI Loops, WAV Sample Packs & VSTi Sounds Ambient Chillscapes Vol 2



Papas st germain's latest release for equinox sounds