5 ms·

The 808 has specialized synthesis circuits for every sound. Nowhere does it use a traditional VCO+Filter circuit AFAIK.

by effn 15y ago

wazoox 15y ago
That's true, but on the other hand the principle of operation for these specialized circuits was actually a traditional (though of course simplified) bunch of oscillators or noise generators, with simple filters, all controlled by simple envelopes. There may have been a ring modulator (for the bell?) somewhere too :)
- JonnieCache 15y ago
  I was mainly thinking of the bass, which is simply a big fat sine wave with a lowpass, and then a short clicking noise at the start, which is basically just a sine as well. You can replicate it well enough with just those two elements anyway. The snare is just some white noise and a highpassed sinewave. The bell definitely sounds like it has ring modulation. I seem to remember the cowbell being the hardest one to rip off. The toms were tricky as well. On the other hand, my fake 808 had a dub siren built in, a tape delay, overdrive and it could do triplet beats. It was awesome. That whole lab class was most amusing.
  - effn 15y ago
    The bassdrum is just an impulse exciting a lowpass filter at very high resonance. The clicking noise is generated by a specialized envelope that raises the pitch of the filter for the first few ms. The whole thing is then slightly overdriven to color the sound. Filtering a sine wave makes little sense, as you'll only end up altering the volume (unless you take the phase respone of the filter into account but this should be barely audible).
    - wazoox 15y ago
      That reminds me of the phase change synthesis of the Casio CZ :) I'm wondering if there's something (software or else) still able to do it?
      - akx 15y ago
        Xoxos has a couple phase distortion synthesis VSTs. http://www.xoxos.net/vst/vst.html http://www.xoxos.net/vst/vst.html If you lack a VST plugin host, http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm is very bare-bones but does the trick for doodling away and http://reaper.fm/ http://reaper.fm/ by Justin Frankel (of Winamp fame) et al. is a more full-featured DAW that supports VSTs.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

The 808 has specialized synthesis circuits for every sound. Nowhere does it use a traditional VCO+Filter circuit AFAIK.

by effn 15y ago

The 808 has specialized synthesis circuits for every sound. Nowhere does it use a traditional VCO+Filter circuit AFAIK.

That's true, but on the other hand the principle of operation for these specialized circuits was actually a traditional (though of course simplified) bunch of oscillators or noise generators, with simple filters, all controlled by simple envelopes. There may have been a ring modulator (for the bell?) somewhere too :)

JonnieCache 15y ago
I was mainly thinking of the bass, which is simply a big fat sine wave with a lowpass, and then a short clicking noise at the start, which is basically just a sine as well. You can replicate it well enough with just those two elements anyway. The snare is just some white noise and a highpassed sinewave. The bell definitely sounds like it has ring modulation. I seem to remember the cowbell being the hardest one to rip off. The toms were tricky as well. On the other hand, my fake 808 had a dub siren built in, a tape delay, overdrive and it could do triplet beats. It was awesome. That whole lab class was most amusing.
- effn 15y ago
  The bassdrum is just an impulse exciting a lowpass filter at very high resonance. The clicking noise is generated by a specialized envelope that raises the pitch of the filter for the first few ms. The whole thing is then slightly overdriven to color the sound. Filtering a sine wave makes little sense, as you'll only end up altering the volume (unless you take the phase respone of the filter into account but this should be barely audible).
  - wazoox 15y ago
    That reminds me of the phase change synthesis of the Casio CZ :) I'm wondering if there's something (software or else) still able to do it?
    - akx 15y ago
      Xoxos has a couple phase distortion synthesis VSTs. http://www.xoxos.net/vst/vst.html http://www.xoxos.net/vst/vst.html If you lack a VST plugin host, http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm is very bare-bones but does the trick for doodling away and http://reaper.fm/ http://reaper.fm/ by Justin Frankel (of Winamp fame) et al. is a more full-featured DAW that supports VSTs.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]