PureData tutorials - rich synthesis (11) - Kick drum synth

This tutorial series looks at going beyond the basics in Pure Data to create richer synthesised sounds.
In this eleventh tutorial, we start our series on drum synthesis, starting with the kick drum.
For patch downloads, visit reallyusefulpl...
This kick sound is adapted from the very nice Otophilia SuperCollider kick synth

[@djpersonalspace2406]

brilliant tutorial

[@Swagseneyer]

Why you changed the voice? 😭
But that end tho 🤣

[@andyyyy4102]

2:10 vline
4:30 pitch_env
5:50 filter

[@mattscohouston]

I love all the tutorials! I recommend them to my students and friends who are learning pd.
I have a quick question about the square wave. Right now, the [expr~] is generating a signal that bounces back and forth between 0 and 1. Is there any reason not to scale that so that it instead goes from -1 to 1, which would be more typical for a signal?

[@ghy201]

I don't personally see a reason to scale it to be from -1 to 1 but if you want to, go ahead. [phasor~] goes from 0 to 1 for a variety of reasons so that's why the square wave goes from 0 to 1 too.

[@liamorourke9685]

hey... great tutorial. thanks. one question... the message going into the amplitude envelope [vline~] is as follows: [0.5, 1 5, 0.5 60 5, 0 $1 65<
I'm a little confused because you didn't explain what the 5 just after the 60 milliseconds is for and you didn't explain what the 65 just after the $1 at the end is for either.
any chance you could elaborate on these please?
Thanks again

[@reallyusefulplugins]

Hi Liam. Yes, good question. The [vline] syntax is annoying. This message essentially says: "start at 0.5. Go to 1 in 5 ms. Then after 5 ms, go to 0.5 in 60ms, then after 65 ms, go to 0 in X ms." The 5 and the 65 are essentially time offsets for each of the individual ramps. The 0.5->1 happens immediately. The 1->0.5 doesn't start for 5 ms. The 0.5->0 doesn't start for 65 ms. The [vline~] helpfile might be worth looking at for more info

[@switchingworlds8751]

why do you often put an input into both inlets of a multiply object?

[@reallyusefulplugins]

It's a quick way of squaring the output. For something like an envelope that means we get a smoother curve that drops initially very quickly, but approaches zero more slowly (but in the same amount of time if you see what I mean). Where a linear ramp from 1 to 0 would be at 0.5 by the halfway point, the squared ramp will already be down to 0.25 (0.5 x 0.5) at the halfway point. I might be making this more rather than less confusing...

[@switchingworlds8751]

@@reallyusefulplugins so it makes it more of a curve than a ramp?

[@reallyusefulplugins]

@@switchingworlds8751 Exactly. There's a bit more info in tutorial 2 on envelopes

[@d3nt391]

2:20 what does the last number 65 mean?

[@d3nt391]

Also why do you multiply the vline object by itself before multiplying it with the kick?

[@reallyusefulplugins]

@@d3nt391 The 65 is a delay to the line message, so after 65 ms the line will go to 0 in $1 ms. E.g. if this was 100, the line would wait 100 ms from when the message was triggered before starting to go to zero. The [*~] is squaring the output, giving a steeper but smoother decay curve instead of a linear one.

[@d3nt391]

@@reallyusefulplugins Thank you!

[@calumoconnor7794]

hey are you from Glasgow?

[@reallyusefulplugins]

No, Manchester, but the voice is "Stuart" - a generic scottish male apparently.

[@djpersonalspace2406]

@@reallyusefulplugins lol got so excited when i heard a scottish voice

[@leden123]

12:15

[@casim8842]

Buy a microphone! 😉