Plucked Strings
This is one of my personal favourites because it is simple enough to serve as a PATCH: NYLON BC
template for countless related sounds. I not only based NylSolo HS on this
patch, but also all my pianos. Play low notes to see why.
Let’s head straight for the modulation matrix: ASSIGN 1 is used for vibrato
(ModWheel controls LFO 3OscAmt), ASSIGN 2 shortens amplifier attack as
well as opening Filter 2 a little when notes are played harder, and ASSIGN 3
balances out the volume across the keyboard.
Checking OSC BAL shows us that only oscillator 1 is being used - one reason
why Nylon BC sounds like single strings. The oscillator certainly doesn’t sound
like a sawtooth or pulse wave, so tweak the WAVE SEL knob to find out. Yes,
it’s one of the extra waves (5). Temporarily turn SHAPE up to 64 (pure sawtooth)
so that we can hear the effect of the filters better.
To test what the filters are really doing, defeat any effects and use a
harmonically rich sound source (either sawtooth or noise).
64 Acoustic Instruments
Restore Nylon BC by stepping up and down a patch. The soft ‘pluck’ and
some of the dynamics are due to meticulous work on the envelope settings:
Amplifier ATTACK is nominally quite slow (40), but we already know that this
parameter is being modulated by Velocity (see ASSIGN 2). Velocity is also
being used to modulate Filt1EnvAmt and Filt2EnvAmt (press the main EDIT
button and check the Velocity parameters) so the sound gets brighter when
you play harder. Both DECAYs are quite short - the sound only disappears
slowly because of the Time parameters - look in the Filter EDIT menu for these.
Now let’s see whether this sound can be turned into something like a mandolin.
The following is a complete walkthrough from Nylon BC to a fairly complex
mandolin sound, pulling out all the stops. Although there is a complete list at
the end of this section, you should follow the text first.