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Anyone got some tips on synthesizing ocean waves? I've got sorta close by using white noise on massive, color turned to about 1 o' clock with the standard 4 env on the volume, added a touch of reverb and delay....but I can't quit get that randomness in the mix, so that it sounds unique each time...

well... make it unique each time? and don't just use white noise. layer it with sampled ambience (or even better, recordings of the seaside) and whatnot, don't use an envelope but instead automate the volume.

It's funny you should ask that as I have one of these:





http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007/05 ... -1200.html

It's an analog white noise generator. The white noise is modulated with a speed dial and there is a tone dial. 1/4 in output in the back. It's pretty cool actually.

For your synthesis, try modulating the sound with a semi slow moving lfo perhaps.

hasezwei wrote:well... make it unique each time? and don't just use white noise. layer it with sampled ambience (or even better, recordings of the seaside) and whatnot, don't use an envelope but instead automate the volume.

I'm trying not to use samples, but i kinda need that layered random effect, I'll keep mucking around with it

i tell you, samples surely help. i have made some field recordings of water, but anything goes. wind in the trees etc. the trick is not cutting loops but letting the whole thing loop throughout the track even if it doesnt fit any grid. then use subtle fx on different layers like timestretching/granulizing, automate these randomly (and really really subtle) and have the whole thing low in your mix, automate the volume to let it ebb and flow.

of course you can still add the actual ocean wave you're gonna synthesize and let the above stuff just compliment it subtly. stuff like that can make an otherwise sterile seeming track really engaging because it's everchanging extremely quiet stuff that keeps the listeners' subconscious perception busy.

Also, to give it some movement, add a reeeeaaaaallllllyyy slooooooooooooww tremolo, with one channel delayed (so it sounds like the waves move from left to right or vice versa).
I did this in a track.

But the main thing is to actually sample it.

If you want to add some randomness to a patch in massive have one of the lfos set to noise 1 and bring the lfo speed far left so it's real slow, have it modulating the noise's colour along with a slow sine wave lfo also modulating noise colour to create that "coming and going" wooshing kinda wave sound
Howard scarr goes on about creating sounds like this in the Virus synth programming booklet you can grab off the net.

chewie wrote:If you want to add some randomness to a patch in massive have one of the lfos set to noise 1 and bring the lfo speed far left so it's real slow, have it modulating the noise's colour along with a slow sine wave lfo also modulating noise colour to create that "coming and going" wooshing kinda wave sound
Howard scarr goes on about creating sounds like this in the Virus synth programming booklet you can grab off the net.

DOnt underestimate the power of a wide, slow lfo on the osc amp/intensity either, waves arent gonna crash with the same for everytime, and this is my answer to low tide vs/ high haha...

Chewie knows whats up though, lfo' the lfo's and then assign them subtley to adjust little variables everywhere.

It's not that difficult tbh. I stumbled across one effective way of doing it the other day when i was trying to recreate wind atmos for a sound design project i was working on. I created a patch in Massive, one osc saw pitched down as far as it could go and a noise osc (I picked white noise) layered. This was then routed though a bandpass and bandreject filter, the bandreject if i remember rightly was only really cutting off the high frequencies and the bandpass was being modulated by an lfo to filter cutoff (Quite a slow setting). I had a very wet reverb on it and a small amount of flange. The idea of the effects and modulation was to try and imitate the movement of the atmos i was creating.. Anyway to cut a long story short this was the basis of the wind atmos, to achieve the sea waves sound i put it through the waves doppler and it worked really well!

Hope this helps

some white noise, stick a lowpass filter on it and automate the cutoff slowly but before putting the lpf on put some reverb on and stick the mix or "wet" to about halfway get some good verb on there then the filter aftwards. hopefully this was helpful

for randomness, look into pure data, you could send control values via a virtual midi port to control the parameters you want on massive.

pure data is free aswell

remember to get a full effect you have to think about everything you are hearing, like the wind, waves crashing on water/rocks/whatever, water rippling etc

i find that splitting a sound up into its individual components helps a lot when re-creating a specific sound.

awesome topic, bump for bookmarks sake