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Advice on creating a "finger snap" patch?

Gregory Blakeborough

Gregory Blakeborough

Larry Beethbrof
Hey guys I'm looking for some advice on how to create "finger snaps"?

It can be just the one "snap" since I can do two instances and pitch/pan them differently, as well as flam them.

Right now I'm creating a track with UAD PolyMAX for the KVR OSC, and would really love to incorporate some snappier snaps for a quiet section, instead of a snare.

Thanks in advance!
Click to read more...
 
I'd think the easiest, and probably best, method would be... to sample it! I've recorded and layered my own finger snaps many times, it's one of the easier things to DIY in a recorded production. :) You could probably even do it with a smartphone with decent enough results.

Not sure how to come close to this with pure synthesis, but I'd love to hear a more capable synthesist's advice on that front.

If I'm traveling or otherwise entirely ITB for whatever reason, I'll usually go to one of the many "claps" kits in one of the zillions of NI Battery expansions... lots of great snaps in those, and easy to tweak to taste.
 
proggermusic said:
I'd think the easiest, and probably best, method would be... to sample it! I've recorded and layered my own finger snaps many times, it's one of the easier things to DIY in a recorded production. :) You could probably even do it with a smartphone with decent enough results.

Not sure how to come close to this with pure synthesis, but I'd love to hear a more capable synthesist's advice on that front.

If I'm traveling or otherwise entirely ITB for whatever reason, I'll usually go to one of the many "claps" kits in one of the zillions of NI Battery expansions... lots of great snaps in those, and easy to tweak to taste.
Click to expand...
Agreed. But the point here seems to be that OP want to partake in the One Synthesizer Contest on KVR, which requires them to make the snap with UAD Polymax.
 
Aha, gotcha, I didn't realize that! I thought "OSC" meant oscillator. :) Well then, I'm also very curious about the solution.
 
With only PolyMAX? You're not going to pull off a convincing finger snap with it.

I'd start with the default Snappy Snare preset to get basic settings for the transient, add both oscillators as the low body and higher frequency of the sound and reintroduce a bit of noise. Tweak the filter, amp and env to taste.
 
I’d take a look at how analogue claps are generated and just tighten up the timings. There is a really old Sound on Sound tutorial on this but it‘s basically a short sequence of randomly spaced noise pulses. You might need a stupid number of PolyMax instances to pull it off though you could repeatedly hit a couple with very closely spaced MIDI notes.
 
I just tried doing it with Diva, using just what the Polymax has. All I can say is...good luck!

You're not going to get anything that sounds like a finger snap, but you can make something that has the effect of one. Basically what has been mentioned about taking noise and shaping it.

You'll have to keep a little different mindset- think how the programmers of 8-bit music made the effect of different instruments with only a few sounds available to them.
 
Also keep in mind that a lot of the decay of a recorded finger-snap sound comes from the room! If you recorded one in a super-dry vocal booth you’d have basically a transient and not a whole lot more. Maybe some reverb would help you here.
 
Here's a quick attempt with Vital - I think I'm within the limitations of PolyMax. I'm just going off the picture on the product page so I don't know, for example, how much the pitch can be modulated - which could be a rather important limitation!

Basically it's a triangle wave with a very fast downward pitch modulation coupled with pink noise. The amplitude of both is also modulated with the same quick decay. I've included a version without the noise - you can hear the bulk of the sound comes from the triangle wave.

The important part is dialing in the decay time and pitch modulation amount.

There's also the trick of creating two transients by duplicating the track with a slight timing offset (10-30ms). The track that plays first has about half the amplitude and slightly different pitch and decay settings.

EDIT: Forgot to add that there is a high pass filter as well!
 

Attachments

  • Snap - with pink noise.mp3
    68.5 KB
  • Snap - no noise.mp3
    68.5 KB
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brek said:
Here's a quick attempt with Vital - I think I'm within the limitations of PolyMax. I'm just going off the picture on the project page so I don't know, for example, how much the pitch can be modulated - which could be a rather important limitation!

Basically it's a triangle wave with a very fast downward pitch modulation coupled with pink noise. The amplitude of both is also modulated with the same quick decay. I've included a version without the noise - you can hear this is where the bulk of the sound comes from.

The important part is dialing in the decay time and pitch modulation amount.

There's also the trick of creating two transients by duplicating the track with a slight timing offset (10-30ms). The track that plays first has about half the amplitude and slightly different pitch and decay settings.

EDIT: Forgot to add that there is a high pass filter as well!
Click to expand...
Nice
 
brek said:
Here's a quick attempt with Vital - I think I'm within the limitations of PolyMax. I'm just going off the picture on the project page so I don't know, for example, how much the pitch can be modulated - which could be a rather important limitation!

Basically it's a triangle wave with a very fast downward pitch modulation coupled with pink noise. The amplitude of both is also modulated with the same quick decay. I've included a version without the noise - you can hear the bulk of the sound comes from the triangle wave.

The important part is dialing in the decay time and pitch modulation amount.

There's also the trick of creating two transients by duplicating the track with a slight timing offset (10-30ms). The track that plays first has about half the amplitude and slightly different pitch and decay settings.

EDIT: Forgot to add that there is a high pass filter as well!
Click to expand...
Beautiful, this is exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully I can recreate it!

Thank you!
 
Again, thank you so much all, just wanted to ping-back and hit you guys up with how the finger snaps turned out, if you're willing to give it a listen:

My quirky funk submission for KVR's OSC featuring UAD's PolyMAX Synth

Hi guys, I just submitted my entry to the awesome One Synth Competition over at KVR, where, this month you can choose any one synth to work with. So I chose PolyMAX because 1) I love the way it sounds, and 2) I wanted to really sink my teeth into it and learn all of its ins-and-outs. Special...
vi-control.net vi-control.net

Cheers!
 
Long time ago I made a track containing a fake handclap/finger snap sound using u-he Podolski. This synth is as basic as it gets.

(skip to around 1'00)

Lots of the sound comes from getting the filter right, irregularly staggering a few instances and putting the snaps/claps in the beat where people expect them to sit (on the 2 and 4 in 4/4 time).
 
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