Enchanting Instruments 84 - U-he Filterscape VA Review 3 Noise

In this article, I will look at a noise generator that generates white noise for the software synth from u-he, the Filterscape VA.

NOISE Noise Generator

Noise has been an essential part of sound creation since synthesizers first appeared and continues to be an important generator today. Early analog synthesizers used circuitry such as Zener diodes to generate white noise.

Zener Diode, CC BY 3.0 (Wikipediaより引用)

There are several types of noise, but the most widely used is white noise, which contains all frequencies equally. In software, white noise can be generated in several ways, mainly using random numbers. In Filterscape VA, the noise level is adjusted with the knob labeled NOISE below. The basic way to operate it is just by adjusting the knob.

Let's try outputting only white noise with the above settings. The waveform and frequency response are shown below. The Filterscape VA noise generator tends to lower the high frequency range slightly, but all the frequencies included that are within the range can be reproduced. It also contains even frequencies, so there are no pitches. Also, the noise is the same no matter which keyboard key it’s played on.

This is the sound of actual white noise. It is a familiar sound as inter-station noise on TV and radio.

Types of Noise

The white in white noise means white, but there are other types of noise as well. Everyday noise types include pink noise (1/f noise), Brownian noise (1/f^2 noise), and blue noise (3 dB increase per octave). Each noise has a frequency bias and is analogous to a color; Filterscape VA has EQ, so you can EQ white noise to represent these color noises.

Here is the sound of each noise. Pink, Brownian, and Blue, in that order. The difference between the noises is more significant when heard in sound than what is seen on the frequency spectrum.

Why Noise is used

The uses of noise are many and varied. Some may wonder how noise, which has no sense of pitch, can be used in music, but the actual sound of musical instruments contains noise components to a greater or lesser degree. Percussion instruments, in particular, have little sense of pitch, and the noise component makes up the majority of the sound. Even a piano, with its excellent sense of pitch, contains noise in its attack. Guitar picking can also be considered noise. The bow of a violin and the breath of a wind instrument also contain plenty of noise. Noise is an indispensable element in sound creation, as it makes the sound more expressive.

The presence of noise in instruments means that noise is also present in music as a whole. For example, in popular music where percussion instruments are prominent, the noise ratio is quite high. Also, depending on how you look at it, the noise component may even outweigh the noise.

Creating Sounds Using White Noise

I created sound effects and instrument sounds using only noise with Filterscape VA. I focus on techniques that have been commonly used for a long time, but can also be handled more effectively by using VA's unique EQ. I will also touch on some key points of tone creation.

Water drops, wind, rain, waves, and thunder

Until about the 1980s, synthesized nature sounds were often used, but in the 1990s, it seems that more and more real sounds were recorded and used. In my opinion, I think it is more interesting to deform a synthesizer to make it sound like a painting rather than to make it sound like the real thing. The wind uses a random LFO for the filter. Rain has similar settings, but I use a rand hold to get the graininess. The waves have similar settings, but I used a different filtering method to make them sound like that. The last one, thunder, uses Filterscape VA's unique EQ to change the balance of the white noise and increase the attack. It may be difficult to make the thunder sound the same way on other synths. The settings are as follows.

Hi-hats, bass drum, snare, shakers, and other percussion instruments

This is an ensemble of only percussion instruments using only white noise. Since white noise contains all frequencies, it can be processed with EQ to create a variety of sounds. It’s suitable for percussion instruments because it has no sense of pitch. Hi-hats and cymbals are relatively easy to reproduce because of their frequency response similar to white noise. It was used in analog drum machines such as the early 808. The setting below is for hi-hat.

Effective use of noise in OSC

The sample imitates the sound of an organ, but by adding noise, it reproduces the noise sound when pipes are blown. In the same way, noise can be added to wind instruments and violins to increase their realism.

Noise Generator Summary

The above is a typical sound creation using noise, but it is only one example. Depending on what sound you’re trying to create, you can create a wide variety of sounds using Filterscape VA's flexible EQ, allowing you to create an even wider range of sounds than with regular analog synthesizers.

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