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  #1  
Old Apr 10, 2022, 04:48 PM
SynthBarnacle SynthBarnacle is offline
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Question What to call synth effect from Stickerbush Symphony

Hey everyone, just joined the site.

I've always loved the synth that comes in at around 0:26 playing those descending notes. My musical vocabulary is a bit illiterate, so I have no idea what to call this effect where the synth itself seems to move from an "ah" sound to an "oh" sound as it descends.

I'm trying to learn how this effect is created in general.

Here's a Youtube link to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lndBgOrTWxo
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  #2  
Old Apr 11, 2022, 09:34 AM
ommadawnyawn ommadawnyawn is offline
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Sounds like phase modulation, the bass is also doing this but in the opposite direction. I was curious about this myself a while back and remember reading somewhere that what Wise used was a bunch of tiny samples with gradually different instrument settings to simulate a real-time effect on a synth, which works since it's repeated notes rather than one sustained note.

SNES does have pitch modulation support in hardware where one channel is used to modulate another, but I don't think it's used there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06zXa85tlU0

You can do the effect pretty easily in FM synth, this track from the genesis game Time Trax has a lot of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFd6M_6Nto

A similar effect called pulse-width modulation was often used in C64 music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYQ9zUWVG4o
You can hear the lead's waveform going back and forth from a sharp to a dull sound in the intro there on the sustained notes.
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Old Apr 11, 2022, 05:29 PM
SynthBarnacle SynthBarnacle is offline
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I had no idea the SNES was actually capable of pitch modulation. If I remember correctly, Wise took 5 weeks to write the music and program in each tone used in Aquatic Ambience.

I'll definitely do some research into phase modulation, thank you for the help (and also for introducing me to Tim Follin's work!)
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Old Apr 13, 2022, 11:18 AM
ommadawnyawn ommadawnyawn is offline
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Nice, Follin was really proficient during that time and a few years prior. Lots of great music to discover aross various platforms even if most of the games themselves weren't particularly good.
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