Waldorf Edition - Manual (Page 28)

Waldorf Edition
User Manual 28 Waldorf
Simmons SDS-5 Bass Drum
The Simmons SDS-5 bass drum consists of an oscillator and a noise generator, both
routed into a low pass filter and an amplifier. An envelope controls the oscillator
pitch, the filter cutoff, and the amplifier volume. The envelope has a decay shape
that is in-between exponential and linear.
The oscillator plays a triangle wave whose pitch is controlled by a "Tune" control
and a "Bend" parameter that controls the influence of the amp envelope to oscillator
pitch.
A "Noise - Tone" parameter controls the mix between the oscillator and the noise
generator.
A "Noise" parameter controls the filter cutoff. (Very confusing, isn't it?)
A "Decay" parameter controls the envelope decay rate.
A "Click - Drum" parameter controls the most important aspect of the Simmons
drums: the mix between the original signal from the pad trigger microphone and the
triggered drum sound.
On the Attack, you can make this sound as follows:
Oscillator 1 plays a triangle or sine wave pitched at around 30Hz, and Envelope 2 is
used to modulate its pitch. Use the "Vel" control to simulate the velocity-dependent
pitch bend amount that you would find on the SDS-5. You can simulate the click by
setting FM Env to a medium value, with Envelope 1 set to a very short decay. Oscil-
lator 2 generates noise, and the pitch is set to center. The Filter Cutoff can vary bet-
ween 100Hz and 5000Hz, and Vel should be set at 25% or so. Filter Resonance
should be set to 10%. Envelope 2 should be set to an almost linear shape. Use Osc 1
and Osc 2 Level to adjust the mix of tone and noise, and use Osc 1 FM Env to vary
the click strength.
Roland TR-808 Snare Drum
On the Roland TR-808, the snare drum was made of two resonating filters and a noi-
se generator with high pass filtering. The "Tone" parameter controlled the output mix
from the first and the second filters, while "Snappy" controlled the volume of the noi-
se generator. The noise generator was routed through a separate envelope and a high
pass filter.
On the Attack, you can make this sound as follows:
Oscillator 1 plays a sine wave at around 150Hz, and you can use a little FM to di-
sturb the periodic character of the sine wave. This trick makes the oscillator sound
thicker, almost as if two oscillators were running at once.
Oscillator 2 generates noise, and you should use Pitch to high pass filter it.
In the Mixer, turn up Osc 1 to 50% and Osc 2 Env to 50%, set to Envelope 1.
Set Envelope 1 to a shorter decay phase than Envelope 2.
Use the filter with a low pass setting and add a little resonance to emphasize the
high frequency range.