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354 Chapter 23 Ultrabeat
Programming in Building Blocks
As you become familiar with drum sound programming, you may begin thinking in
“building blocks”. By this we mean that you might realize that drum sounds usually
consist of different components. Once you’ve mentally, or physically, written down your
“list” of components, you should try to emulate each component that contributes to the
sound’s character—making use of the different sound generators available in Ultrabeat.
Assigning dedicated (amplitude) envelopes to the different components allows you to
control their temporal behaviour individually. As an example: You can emulate the
body of a drum with Oscillator 1, the sound of the stick hitting the skin (or first
transient) with the noise source, additional overtones and harmonics can be provided
by Oscillator 2 and/or the ring modulator. Once you begin thinking that drum sounds
consist of several building blocks or layers, the design of the Volume controls in the
individual sound generators might make more sense to you, as this is the place where
the blocks are combined, balanced, and controlled.
We hope to have given you a few insights into the interplay of Ultrabeats’s functions
and parameters. We also hope that you’ve gained some inspiration and insights for
programming your own sounds. We would also ask that you further explore all of
Ultrabeat’s functions at your leisure. The included settings will afford you some
interesting insights and hopefully, further stimulation. Spend some time analyzing
Ultrabeat’s presets and ask yourself “How did they do that?”—then figure it out.
Have fun creating your own Ultrabeat sounds and sequences!