Making calm, humming sounds

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi all.

I bought an A4 on a whim, and I’m loving the extra sounds I now have aside from samples. I have a sound in my head that I’m trying to make, which is basically like if I was humming. I can get gnarly sounds out of the A4 easily, but nice smooth sounds I struggle to get. Aside from many more hours playing, is there anything you suggest I read/watch? I have sound packs I take apart and play with but they are beyond me, I’m very new to this.

I could fire up a soft synth but… I’m really trying to not do that.

I’ll try to find some examples.

#2

I am not sure if I know what you mean by a humming sound, but my best guess would be to try some of the following stuff.
On the OSC pages, try using the triangle wave forms to soften things. Using filter one cut out some of the harsher high end and maybe tweak the resonance to prevent things from getting too mellow/low-end-muddy. On the AMP page set a slow attack and decent length release. Add some delay and reverb sends too and make sure to play with those settings on the FX track. You can probably get some interesting sounds from the ENV and LFO pages, but I would recommend doing really subtle movement stuff like LFO panning or volume changes. I hope this helps, let me know if I can clarify anything.
I would suggest finding some of the ‘A4-making a sound from scratch videos’ on YouTube although I don’t think I’ve seen any that cover the kinds of sounds you’re looking to make.

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#3

That got me amazingly close, thanks :slight_smile:

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#4

When they add a “thread of the day” feature, I would have voted for this one.

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#5

Can’t win em all :slight_smile:

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#6

I wasn’t being snotty though. I loved what you asked for, and I loved that someone was able to get you 90% of the way there. It’s a great forum!

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#7

*goes upstairs humming and starts A4 up…

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#8

Sorry. I jumped to a conclusion. On other forums… anyway. :slight_smile:

I’m off to figure out what note I’m humming.

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#9

“*goes upstairs humming and starts A4 up…”

That’s just exactly how I start every new song!

OP: I know it’s a strange request, but could you possibly upload a sound of your vocal humming for reference?

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#10

No :slight_smile:

I think in Bloom near the start you can hear Thom Yorke making little humming sounds. That.

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#11

What BPG88 said, but also : try a band pass for the second filter, with a fair amount of resonance, and a lot of env modulation (slow attack)

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#12

I understand you :slight_smile:
But I love “translate” vsti presets to a4. If its easier for you patch this sound on vst, while translating, you’ll learn the a4 and make this patch. You can win them all:)

Edit: better English

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