The Quilcom TOMSNARE: Guess what this one does!

[Spogg]

Hi all!

This adds to my Beater 2 (B-2) series and is a synth/sampler combo similar in design philosophy to my B-2 KICK:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20093

The TOMSNARE name should tell you a lot! The design focuses on simulating the sounds produced by rigidly supported circular membranes, which is a fancy way of saying “drums”. Of course it also includes a flexible SNARE generator.

Keeping with the philosophy, you can load up any sample or part of a sample or loop, and layer the synth sound with it (or just use the sample with the filter). When you have something you like you can export the whole sound via the inbuilt audio recorder, for use in your favourite drum machine and/or DAW. Of course you can use the VSTi plugin directly in the DAW and then you’ll have the possibility to have subtle variations between each hit.

The presets included should be considered as generic starting points, and they cover a wide range of instrument types.

As with my B-2 KICK, I’ve included 32 and 64 bit executables and VSTi plugins.

I made a video demo here:

https://youtu.be/DgAAwFGhL_M

If you wish to experiment with it, I strongly recommend you read the User Guide. If you’re interested in the theory, I’ve included papers and links which cover the theory.

Download the zip here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7ucp24piocqu ... 7.zip?dl=0

Cheers

Spogg

[trogluddite]

Hmmm. I love tricky brain-teasers like this, so I'm not going to cheat by reading more or watching the video. I'm sure that I'll be able to work it out before anyone else if I put my mind to it!

"Tomsnare"... Hmmm... "Tomsnare"...

"Tomsnare"... Mmmm, it is a tricky one... "Tomsnare"... Umm... Aaah ... "Tom's" something!...
"Tom's"... Err... "Nare"... Oh! ... "Nare"?!?

Ah yes, I see it! "Nare" is an archaic/latin/medical word meaning "nostril" - so my guess is that it simulates the sound of a male cat asleep on one's lap (i.e. the sound of a "Tom's nare")!

Am I close?

[EDITED IN]
Well, that's odd; I've watched the video now, and it seems to be about some kind of drum simulator - albeit an astonishingly versatile and flexible one, with a rather nifty additive section based on physical models. In fact, it sounds rather nice from what I can make out so far.

I'm struggling to see the connection with breathing cats, though (something to do with Shrodinger's Cat maybe? Hmmm... this is going to bug me all day now until I get to the bottom of it...)

[Spogg]

[Phil Thalasso]

Thank you Spogg.
As always, I very much appreciate you sharing things with everyone in the forum. There's always good stuff to learn from your work.

Best regards
Phil

[martinvicanek]

Hey Spogg, I finally got round to see your video. Excellent work as always! I particularly like the timpani.
The name does not do justice to the enormous scope of the product, maybe that is why it got so little attention.

One technical remark: notice that because of circular symmetry, most of the vibration modes are degenerate, i.e. they come in pairs. However, because the symmetry of real things is never perfect, the two modes of each degenerate pair will have slightly different frequencies. This adds life to the tone and could be easily accounted for in your synth.

[Spogg]

Thank you so much Martin!

I confess that the Timpani was my favourite too, which is why I started the video with it.

As always with pure synthesis the results will rarely fool anyone, but to me that’s the whole point of imitative synthesis; to create sounds which have the essence of the instrument but deviate in interesting ways. It’s the equivalent of the “uncanny valley effect” of computer face generation.

And after all, if you do seek convincingly real sounds, why not just use multi-sampling with Round Robins?

I got the default ratios from the literature and represent idealised values derived mathematically from Bessel functions (so I read). I also read that no real membrane will ever be ideal due to imperfect tension, mounting and non-homogeneity of the skin used (even Mylar isn’t perfect). It was that consideration that led me to providing the fine detune knobs which can indeed add something to the recipe.

Cheers

Spogg

[martinvicanek]

I mean two oscs per mode detuned by a few cent. That gives some nice beating and results in an ever evolving tone. You have thatin bells, cymbals, even guitar strings. Circular symmetry, degenerate vibration modes.

[Spogg]

I mean two oscs per mode detuned by a few cent...

Oh I seeeee!

That should be easy to retrofit but I'm onto cymbals at the moment! Tricky blighters

Cheers

Spogg

[Spogg]

Tonix Musumi just made a brief demo track using only my TOMSNARE and I'm gobsmacked!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0ldf4qfakcei ... 0.mp3?dl=0

I got a real "kick" out of that!

Cheers

Spogg

[Duckett]

Nice work indeed, and a great demo by Tonix to showcase the flexibility of TOMSNARE!
May your continued delving into the realm of percussion models prove ever-fruitful