Strings?

[mleghorn]

I love my new MicroBrute! It's versatile, but I can't seem to coax a decent orchestral string sound out of it. Am I missing the precise formula for this?

Thanks,
Mike

[Howard]

Perseverence plus a PolyMg resonator? 
(hi Mike!)

[Bacon]

I don't have a Microbrute (yet) but I have a standard recipe for orchestral string sounds that should give a decent result on the Microbrute too:

• Use only the Square/Pulse waveform turned up halfway so it doesn't overdrive the filter. Turn down the other wafeforms to 0.
• Set the LFO to a medium rate (a few Hz).
• Patch the LFO to PWM
• Increase the amount of LFO to PWM until you get a fair amount of movement in the sound without it starting to sound wobbly.
• Set the filter to LP.
• Set the resonance to 0.
• Set the cutoff fairly low but don't let the sound become too dark.
• Set the filter KBD tracking to 100% (12 o' clock), or lower if the sound gets too bright as you play higher notes.
• Set the envelope to a medium fast attack, full sustain, and a fairly long release (the decay setting doesn't matter since the sustain is on full volume).
• Set the filter envelope amount to 0.
• Set the VCA switch to ENV and the VCA envelope amount to maximum.
• Adjust the above settings to taste.
• For added body, try mixing in some sub-osc an octave below.
• An added sawtooth wave with some Ultrasaw would probably make the sound even fuller.

If you like, add some chorus and hall reverb from an external effects unit.

[mleghorn]

Hey Bacon, thanks for sharing that. I gave it a try. It's better than anything I came up with, but still doesn't sound much like orchestral strings.

Thanks,
Mike

[Bacon]

Yeah, a relatively limited analog synth like the Microbrute won't be the perfect tool for creating convincing string sounds. A full modular or one of the more advanced two-oscillator polys is probably a safer bet.

Or are you aware of any one-osc monosynth that can pull this off?

[mleghorn]

Actually Bacon, I think I'm getting some good pseudo-string sounds, using much of the parameters you suggested as a starting point. I really like the effect of LFO to pulse width. I like to play with the resonance and cutoff (BP and LP). The brute factor is excellent for adding some thickness. You can't beat these analog filters! The more I play with this synth the better it sounds to me. I wonder if it sounds better with break-in, or if it's just my ears adjusting to the sound. Thanks again!

[Bacon]

I'm glad I could be of some help at least

Regarding the LFO to PWM, on many older analog synths such as the ones I learned synthesis on in the 80s (for example the Akai AX60 I still have), an LFO was the default way to modulate the pulsewidth. In many cases you had two LFOs, one dedicated PWM LFO which was the only modulation source availble for PWM, and a general purpose LFO that could be routed to pitch, filter cutoff, etc. So when I first saw the specs of the Microbrute one of my first reactions was to figure out how to route the LFO to PWM.

[11011011]

I got a decent stringish sound, I'll try and dig up the patch and post it. That said, to make the strings more "orchestral", you'd definitely would benefit from a good chorus effect to thicken it up and a little reverb for extra creaminess.

Really I should be taking more photos of interesting patches as I experiment; there's a little tiny beautiful universe of interesting sounds in this thing. Very good job, Arturia!

[KrisM]

Adding triangle to about half and then turning on the Metalizer to halfway gives it a bit of a "string section" feeling  Especially if you give it about a third of the Release on the Env and don't play too smooth/legato