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>")
.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>")
.sound("sawtooth").lpf("200 1000 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]>")
.sound("sawtooth").vowel("<a e i o>")

gain

$: sound("hh*16").gain("[.25 1]*4")

$: sound("bd*4,[~ sd:1]*2")

Rhythm is all about dynamics!

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

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

$: sound("hh*8").gain("[.25 1]*4")

$: sound("bd*4,[~ sd:1]*2")

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

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

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

$: note("[~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]]*2")
  .sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted").delay(.5)

$: 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?

Click to see solution

room aka reverb

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

Try different values!

Add a delay too!

little dub tune

$: note("[~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]]*2")
.sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted").delay(.5)

$: sound("bd rim").bank("RolandTR707").delay(.5)

$: n("<4 [3@3 4] [<2 0> ~@16] ~>")
.scale("D4:minor").sound("gm_accordion:2")
.room(2).gain(.5)

Let’s add a bass to make this complete:

$: note("[~ [<[d3,a3,f4]!2 [d3,bb3,g4]!2> ~]]*2")
.sound("gm_electric_guitar_muted").delay(.5)

$: sound("bd rim").bank("RolandTR707").delay(.5)

$: n("<4 [3@3 4] [<2 0> ~@16] ~>")
.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")

speed

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

modulation 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*16").lpf(saw.range(500, 2000))

What happens if you flip the range values?

We can change the modulation speed with slow / fast:

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

The whole modulation will now take 8 cycles to repeat.

Recap

name	example
lpf	note("c2 c3 c2 c3").s("sawtooth").lpf("<400 2000>")
vowel	note("c3 eb3 g3").s("sawtooth").vowel("<a e i o>")
gain	s("hh16").gain("[.25 1]2")
delay	s("bd rim bd cp").delay(.5)
room	s("bd rim bd cp").room(.5)
pan	s("bd rim bd cp").pan("0 1")
speed	s("bd rim bd cp").speed("<1 2 -1 -2>")
signals	`sine`, `saw`, `square`, `tri`, `rand`, `perlin` s("hh*16").gain (saw)
range	s("hh*16").lpf(saw.range(200,4000))

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