Part 3: Native Instruments Razor
Figure 16
principles of Additive Synthesis from the "ground up." In Part 2 we used the versatile and extremely competent Alchemy. With this synth, we could further implement the practical implementation of Additive Synthesis, but do so in a much more efficient manner than building our AS synth oscillator by oscillator. Now, in this part of the series, we have an instrument that uses an Additive engine, but does not require us to fuss over individual partials and their parameters. Razor is therefore closer to what may be called a holistic approach to Additive Synthesis, an approach that allows us to benefit from the clean, natural sound of AS, yet use it as easily as any synth out there. The fact that Razor includes Formants and an excellent Vocoder is just icing on the cake. In keeping with the spirit of this series, we will now build a patch from scratch.
Figure 17
Refer to Figure 16 to initialize Razor. Here we have a simple synth using Osc 1 and Filter 1. I click on one of the modulation knobs under Filter 1's Cutoff control (Figure 17) and assign Envelope 2 to that knob. Turning the modulation knob all the way up, I then adjust the Cutoff control to about 60. Since Razor has a built-in Scope, I select that.
September 2011
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