Thought it might be fun to drop a challenge on everyone… The premise is simple. Create a complete track starting from one sample only: white noise. All synthesis should be done with native renoise dsp. Resampling is allowed, waveform generation via the ringmod synthesis trick is allowed, all other forms of renoise native synthesis are allowed and encouraged. ALL percussion elements must also be generated from white noise. No other samples, starting waveforms, or plugins allowed at any point in the process!
The idea being that this can be an opportunity to explore the boundaries of renoise’s synthesis capabilities, tease out some amazing sounds from the most humble building block, and ideally, make some bangerz.
Anybody in?
No time limits, no prizes, all styles welcome, just some good old-fashioned nitty-gritty sample-based synthesis tweakery.
HONOR SYSTEM: By posting below, I hearby solemnly swear to use/have used only white noise as a starting point for native renoise synthesis and sound design in any piece of music posted in this thread.
I’ve got a piece in the works using only white noise as a starting point for every sound, and will post it here when it’s fully cooked.
Started building instruments for the challenge, all starting with the “noise_white_mono” renoise stock sample.
White noise might seem atonal first, but you can use a tuned/keytracked comb filter to make tonal/tuned sounds, or you can just cut a single cycle from it, and use this as (harsh but rich) oscillator.
I’ve got pattern kind of built up on this now. Currently 4 tracks all made from one of the renoise whitenoise samples. This has been a really fun way to explore. Looking forward to hearing people’s tracks.
Been makin some decent progress on a dark swamp psy track made entirely of white noise. Percussion is definitely challenging, especially natural sounding hi hats and a decent snare.
@OopsIFly Yes, keytracked comb filters, keytracked delay times on various dsp (chorus, flangers, etc.), keytracked ring modulators all can generated some good pitched sounds pretty quickly. it’s also fun to run a keytracker into a hydra to modulate the floor and ceiling of a phaser for some cool pitched sound.
There’s really tons of ways to generate interesting timbres and textures from white noise. Resonant filter banks keytracked make for some down and dirty modal synthesis, too.
Wow this is challenging! Having a rough time coming up with a decent kick drum made from pure wn.
Then, not only that; the ‘melody’ ran away and became more of a rhythmic chant hehehe.
But I’m totally: having fun with, and learning from, this; it’s kind of like a box of puzzles.
That said, might take more than the week i originally suspected it might take.
if you need a sine wave for crafting a kick, you could try taking a single sample of maximum amplitude out of the white noise, loop it, then run it thru a ring mod set to sine wave @ a low pitch. resample, quick pitch bend or add noise back in for the kick attack. waveshape/distort to taste
you can use the ring mod as a monophonic “analog” synth using this method
I grabbed a sine for my kick and a saw for my bass using this method
You could also try using the smooth sample function a bunch of times to get a sine-like wave, pitch it down and add some spice for the attack of the kick
Awesome, these are nice tips! And I have never seen, never-the-less,
tried the “smooth sample function”, going to look at that; sounds useful.
Afraid im a bit too far down the rabbit-hole with that first kick thing i sort of
jammed in there but yeah, it sure could use another kick layer to help it out.
Thanks for the tips and fun composition challenge!
A little lazy approach for this contest. Made in 30 minutes and it’s not really how to made wonderful sounds from white noise, but just half-chiptune made with only that whitenoise sample (and loops).
Yeah it’s way way better than ok, this is pretty alright!
And by that i mean really good
Totally dig the belchy bass line that starts in in the first
pattern on track four; this is a real cut gem, the panning
involved here works quite well.
And, not just that, the arpeggios on track eight sits
very nicely with the glide/vibe strings on track two.
But gosh… yeah just turning off track seven here and
there you can really see how much that is doing for
the song; I’m going to have to check out whats all
doin that there…
Small fix. And bigger fix (updated). When you made song in the middle of the night, you made mistakes. A lot of them in fact.
So second fix and now is complete.
BTW. Am I really first with song here?
And one more - it supposed to be fun and fast challenge. It’s funny challenge after all and I think nobody expect the same quality song based on white noise that based on professional VST instruments. So come on - publish your songs people, I don’t want to be the only one.
Yeah man definitely not making any super polished productions here! I’m hoping to have mine up later today or tomorrow. I’ve had no power for a week from snow. Total time spent is about 2 hours maybe. Just want to hear the mix through some speakers first cuz so far only in headphones. I’m writing from my phone so I haven’t had a chance to listen to your track yet but I will layer today!
And one more - it supposed to be fun and fast challenge. It’s funny challenge after all and I think nobody expect the same quality song based on white noise that based on professional VST instruments. So come on - publish your songs people, I don’t want to be the only one.
Ahhh, but that’s the challenge! I usually take about a month on a track, this one’s no exception. I’m curious to see some deep sound design come out of simple white noise
So come on - publish your songs people, I don’t want to be the only one.