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Table Of Contents
402 Chapter 24 Ultrabeat
To refine the snare drum sound using FM synthesis:
1 Turn on Oscillator 1 in FM mode. Use Env 1 to control the volume of Osc 1 as well.
2 Choose a pitch for Oscillator 1 that’s about an octave lower than Oscillator 2.
Consciously avoid even intervals between the oscillators and detune them slightly from
each other. As an example, try a pitch setting of F#2 in Osc 2 and E1 in Osc 1, then fine
tune Osc 1 a few cents higher by holding Shift while adjusting its Pitch slider.
3 Experiment with FM Amount, and add more tone (low FM Amount value) or noise
(more FM Amount) as desired. Also try modulating the FM Amount with a fast LFO.
Note: An exemplary snare drum sound that makes use of FM can be found in the
Tutorial Kit at a pitch of F1. It is called Snare 2.
Higher FM Amount values lead to considerably more overtones and a very electronic
sound character. If you want to make the sound more acoustic, feed Oscillator 1 (and
possibly Oscillator 2 as well) into the main filter. Use these settings to start: LP 24
mode, a Cutoff value of about 0.60.
The 808 Snare
The famous 808 snare is based on two resonating filters and a noise generator, fed
through a highpass filter. The mix ratio of the two filters and the volume of the noise
generator can be adjusted. This structure cannot be 100% replicated in Ultrabeat.
To clone the 808 snare sound:
1 Load the Standard Tutorial setting.
2 Replicate the resonating filters of the 808 snare by two cleverly programmed phase
oscillators:
 Assign slightly different Slope values to them, and detune them by almost an octave.
 The tonal relationship between the oscillators should also be uneven here—from E3
to F2, for example.
3 Control the volume of each oscillator with a different envelope. The envelope for the
lower tuned oscillator should have a longer decay time than the very snappy envelope
setting for the higher oscillator.
4 Feed the output of both oscillators into Ultrabeats main filter, and hollow out the
sound with a highpass filter. Activate the filter bypass button in both oscillators.
Choose the HP 12 setting in the filter, a Cutoff value around 0.40 and a Resonance value
of about 0.70.
You have just very cleverly emulated both of the 808’s resonating filters. Shifting the
pitch of both oscillators simulates the behavior of the 808’s Tone control by the way.