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Ring-Mod Drift Texture

Sounds like: A cold, clangorous wash whose metallic beating slowly drifts and shifts.

Sound type: texture · Genre: Ambient, IDM, Experimental · Style: slowly detuning ring-modulated atmospheric wash

An atmospheric bed built from ring modulation between two voices whose relative pitch slowly drifts, so the clangorous beating itself is never fixed: more extreme and more atmospheric than a played ring-mod pad, closer to an unsettled sound-design texture.

Open this patch in the interactive Patchpad

Digitone II

Exact match: WAVETONE MOD = RING MOD, drifting

SYN page 1 · WAVETONE

SYN page 2 · WAVETONE

FLTR page 1 · Multi-mode

AMP page

WAVETONE's MOD RING MOD makes Oscillator 2 ring-modulate Oscillator 1, with LEV2 at 0 so only the modulated sound is heard, the same mechanism as the library's played ring-mod patches. What makes this a texture rather than a lead is DRIF: WAVETONE's own slow random pitch-drift applied to Oscillator 2, so TUN2's interval (and therefore the beating character) never settles, plus a very slow AMP envelope (ATK 100, REL 120) so it reads as a bed, not a note.

Syntakt

Exact match: SY RAW WAV2 = Ring modulator, drifting

SYN — SY RAW

FLTR PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 1

AMP PAGE 2

LFO PAGE 1

SY RAW's WAV2 has a real ring modulator setting: Oscillator 2 ring-modulates Oscillator 1 even at LEV2 0. Rather than a fixed DET offset, the track's own LFO page targets DET via MACHINE: parameter 2, DET's own position on SY RAW's page, so the ring-mod interval (and its beating) drifts continuously instead of sitting at one fixed dissonance.

Novation Summit

Exact match: Mixer Ring Mod knob, LFO-drifted detune

OSCILLATOR 1

OSCILLATOR 2

MIXER

LFO 2

MODULATION MATRIX

FILTER

AMP ENVELOPE

Summit's MIXER has a genuine Ring Mod level knob (Osc 1 x Osc 2): turned up high as the main character, with both oscillators' own dry levels kept low but present. Mod Matrix Slot 1 routes LFO 2 into Oscillator 2's pitch (the same Osc2Ptch destination the library's played ring-mod patches use to set a fixed interval), so here the ring-mod interval itself slowly drifts sharp and flat instead of sitting fixed.

Arturia MiniFreak

Exact match: Osc 2 FM/RM engine RingMod, LFO-drifted

OSCILLATOR · Osc 1

OSCILLATOR · Osc 2

ANALOG FILTER

ENVELOPE

LFO

MODULATION MATRIX

Osc 2 is the FM/RM engine (Osc 2 only): Osc 1 modulates it, Shape is the ring-mod amount, kept high here, Wave sets its pitch/character relative to Osc 1. MiniFreak's Mod Matrix has no fixed destination menu for this: hold an Assign button and turn the Osc 2 Wave knob to assign it as a target, then route a slow LFO 2 into it to drift the ring-mod interval continuously. Values are on MiniFreak's native 0-100 scale.

Dreadbox Typhon

Approximation: No ring mod: slowly modulated detune and resonance instead

FRONT PANEL

AMP ADSR

SET

Typhon has no ring-modulation circuit and only two VCOs: TUNE 2 detuned to a non-harmonic interval and RESON pushed high are the main sources of inharmonic edge, and since TUNE 2 has no assignable LFO destination on this hardware, the slow drift has to be performed by hand on the TUNE 2 knob rather than automated. Expect a warmer, less alien result than true ring-mod gives. Front-panel knobs are physically unmarked, so values above are clock positions.

ASM Hydrasynth Desktop

Exact match: Mixer RING VOL, LFO-drifted detune

OSCILLATOR 1

OSCILLATOR 2

MIXER

FILTER 1

ENVELOPE 2

LFO 1

MOD MATRIX

Hydrasynth's MIXER has a genuine RING VOL knob: true ring modulation between Osc 1 and Osc 2. Routing a slow LFO 1 into Oscillator 2's pitch (the same Osc 2 Pitch destination the library's played ring-mod patches use to set a fixed interval) drifts the ring-mod interval continuously here, so the dissonance itself moves rather than sitting fixed.

Patchpad is a free reference of drum patterns, synth patches and modular hints written for a selection of real hardware.