First Effects

We have sounds, we have notes, now let’s look at effects!

Some basic effects

low-pass filter

note("<[c2 c3]*4 [bb1 bb2]*4 [f2 f3]*4 [eb2 eb3]*4>/2")
.sound("sawtooth").lpf(800)

lpf = low pass filter

Change lpf to 200. Notice how it gets muffled. Think of it as standing in front of the club with the door closed 🚪.
Now let’s open the door… change it to 5000. Notice how it gets brighter ✨🪩

pattern the filter

note("<[c2 c3]*4 [bb1 bb2]*4 [f2 f3]*4 [eb2 eb3]*4>/2")
.sound("sawtooth").lpf("200 1000")

Try adding more values
Notice how the pattern in lpf does not change the overall rhythm

We will learn how to automate with waves later…

vowel

note("<[c3,g3,e4] [bb2,f3,d4] [a2,f3,c4] [bb2,g3,eb4]>/2")
.sound("sawtooth").vowel("<a e i o>/2")

gain

stack(
  sound("hh*8").gain("[.25 1]*2"),
  sound("bd*2,~ sd:1")
)

Rhythm is all about dynamics!

Remove .gain(...) and notice how flat it sounds.
Bring it back by undoing (ctrl+z)

stacks within stacks

Let’s combine all of the above into a little tune:

stack(
  stack(
    sound("hh*8").gain("[.25 1]*2"),
    sound("bd*2,~ sd:1")
  ),
  note("<[c2 c3]*4 [bb1 bb2]*4 [f2 f3]*4 [eb2 eb3]*4>/2")
  .sound("sawtooth").lpf("200 1000"),
  note("<[c3,g3,e4] [bb2,f3,d4] [a2,f3,c4] [bb2,g3,eb4]>/2")
  .sound("sawtooth").vowel("<a e i o>/2")
)

Try to identify the individual parts of the stacks, pay attention to where the commas are. The 3 parts (drums, bassline, chords) are exactly as earlier, just stacked together, separated by comma.

shape the sound with an adsr envelope

note("<c3 bb2 f3 eb3>")
.sound("sawtooth").lpf(600)
.attack(.1)
.decay(.1)
.sustain(.25)
.release(.2)

Try to find out what the numbers do.. Compare the following

attack: .5 vs 0
decay: .5 vs 0
sustain: 1 vs .25 vs 0
release: 0 vs .5 vs 1

Can you guess what they do?

Click to see solution

adsr short notation

note("<c3 bb2 f3 eb3>")
.sound("sawtooth").lpf(600)
.adsr(".1:.1:.5:.2")

delay

stack(
  note("~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]")
  .sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted"),
  sound("<bd rim>").bank("RolandTR707")
).delay(".5")

Try some delay values between 0 and 1. Btw, .5 is short for 0.5

What happens if you use .delay(".8:.125") ? Can you guess what the second number does?

What happens if you use .delay(".8:.06:.8") ? Can you guess what the third number does?

Lösung anzeigen

room aka reverb

n("<4 [3@3 4] [<2 0> ~@16] ~>/2")
.scale("D4:minor").sound("gm_accordion:2")
.room(2)

Try different values!

Add a delay too!

little dub tune

stack(
  note("~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]")
  .sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted").delay(.5),
  sound("<bd rim>").bank("RolandTR707").delay(.5),
  n("<4 [3@3 4] [<2 0> ~@16] ~>/2")
  .scale("D4:minor").sound("gm_accordion:2")
  .room(2).gain(.5)
)

Let’s add a bass to make this complete:

stack(
  note("~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]")
  .sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted").delay(.5),
  sound("<bd rim>").bank("RolandTR707").delay(.5),
  n("<4 [3@3 4] [<2 0> ~@16] ~>/2")
  .scale("D4:minor").sound("gm_accordion:2")
  .room(2).gain(.4),
  n("<0 [~ 0] 4 [3 2] [0 ~] [0 ~] <0 2> ~>*2")
  .scale("D2:minor")
  .sound("sawtooth,triangle").lpf(800)
)

Try adding .hush() at the end of one of the patterns in the stack…

pan

sound("numbers:1 numbers:2 numbers:3 numbers:4")
.pan("0 0.3 .6 1")
.slow(2)

speed

sound("bd rim").speed("<1 2 -1 -2>").room(.2)

fast and slow

We can use fast and slow to change the tempo of a pattern outside of Mini-Notation:

sound("bd*2,~ rim").slow(2)

Change the slow value. Try replacing it with fast.

What happens if you use a pattern like .fast("<1 [2 4]>")?

By the way, inside Mini-Notation, fast is * and slow is /.

sound("[bd*2,~ rim]*<1 [2 4]>")

automation with signals

Instead of changing values stepwise, we can also control them with signals:

sound("hh*16").gain(sine)

The basic waveforms for signals are sine, saw, square, tri 🌊

Try also random signals rand and perlin!

The gain is visualized as transparency in the pianoroll.

setting a range

By default, waves oscillate between 0 to 1. We can change that with range:

sound("hh*8").lpf(saw.range(500, 2000))

What happens if you flip the range values?

We can change the automation speed with slow / fast:

note("<[c2 c3]*4 [bb1 bb2]*4 [f2 f3]*4 [eb2 eb3]*4>/2")
.sound("sawtooth")
.lpf(sine.range(100, 2000).slow(8))

The whole automation will now take 8 cycles to repeat.

Recap

name	example
lpf	note("c2 c3").s("sawtooth").lpf("<400 2000>")
vowel	note("c3 eb3 g3").s("sawtooth").vowel("<a e i o>")
gain	s("hh8").gain("[.25 1]2")
delay	s("bd rim").delay(.5)
room	s("bd rim").room(.5)
pan	s("bd rim").pan("0 1")
speed	s("bd rim").speed("<1 2 -1 -2>")
range	s("hh*16").lpf(saw.range(200,4000))

Let us now take a look at some of Tidal’s typical pattern effects.