Single Cell Software

Needs tweaking but getting there.

Thanks for the comment, Unc.

So I used this article as a reference point:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/practical-bowed-string-synthesis

Since there is no "resonant filter bank" in the ModSynth it seemed one alternative was to set up several resonant band-pass filters instead.

The ModSynth here is not laid out in a particularly intelligent way but it started as an experiment, kept adding elements to see what was happening, and due to the time consumed in "tuning" the resonance I haven't had time to re-think the flow and fix it.

To tune the 4 resonant freq listed in the article (Figure 2b) this was used as reference:

http://pages.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

As an example, the lowest resonant freq is 300 Hz. That falls between a D4 and a D#4. Setting up a WG playing that note, it was put into a mixer and alongside it was white noise thru the BP filter with resonance on full. Then by carefully sweeping the filter it was possible to match the freq from the WG.

There are several ways to control the response. As a note or notes increase in volume on an actual stringed instrument it means the pressure from the bow on the strings is increasing causing more resonance from the body as I understand it. I hadn't thought it out well before but automating the upper left mixer Out is a good way to achieve expressiveness as that controls the main feed into the BP filters - the instruments "resonant body".

Altering the waveshape is another method, the one I used in previous examples.

One other is to slightly feed the FM of one WG.

Each method will produce different types of timbres so there is some flexibility there, especially used in conjunction to changing velocity, attack time etc.

Probably several other ways to add a sense of realism, kinda cool to think about.

Yeah, I suspect you're over-thinking lol. I highly doubt all stringed instrument types, say all violas, are going to have the exact same resonant frequencies, probably if you tested 10 of the same model you'd have variations. Plus you can't dial that exact freq up in any of Caustic's synths to a fraction and the BP filters aren't that precise. But ears, those glorious semi-appendages, they're pretty remarkable. Or you can do the sine wave honking thing.

As an example... as soon as you move the Cutoff knob you'll hear the difference, especially the second ModS. Dumbass me used noise before I read the whole article and of course as soon as I came to the honking it was like doh! I knew that, I've accidentally done it countless times.

So I noticed that when the cello hit the 8th measure each time, a low D not so surprisingly, it kinda resonates too much (osc, too loud etc) so by tweaking that specific BP filter, In 2 of the 6 channel, just a tiny bit back, it makes a big difference. Very sensitive.

Edited 2 minutes later when I realized you can use the Res knob for it's intended purpose instead of twaddling with the mixer, or if it suited, alter the tuning(s)

Would be cool to look up the resonant freq of different instruments, models, whatever is out there. I'm finding this area really fascinating in terms of kinda faux modeling in the Modsynth.

Like this - " Resonance and Radiation of Acoustic Instruments"

http://www.co-bw.com/Audio_resonance_radiation.htm

Apparantly the "wolf tone" I referred to happens to be an actual problem with the cello. Interesting article.