Suite 8 - Focal Press: Book companions

Figure 1.6 Collision
Resonator 1 tab.
Suite 8
The Excitator tab handles the parameters for the Mallet and Noise (oscillators)
sections, which determines the characteristic of the initial attack of the instrument,
creating a physical model of the mallet. Note that the Noise section also
generates white noise as part of its characteristic. You can use either excitator or
both excitators as the initial attack sound source to be fed into the resonator(s),
resulting in Collision’s characteristic sound.
The Resonator tabs handle the parameters of each resonator and determine what
object is used as the physical model (the strike surface) for the instrument’s
timbral characteristics. There are several resonator objects available for each
Resonator located in the Resonance Type chooser window (just below and to
the left of the Resonator 2 tab). Each of these resonant objects – beam, marimba,
string, plate, pipe, and tube – posses a distinct sonic quality that can dramatically
alter the Mallet and/or Noise excitator being used as the initial attack. Once you
start to adjust the variable resonator parameters – harmonics, tuning, decay,
and velocity – this will become very obvious. In addition, each resonator has an
independent X-Y controller and a mixer section. The Resonator Mixer contains
Volume, Bleed (dry/wet mix), and Pan knobs.
The LFO tab provides access to the routing and parameters for two lowfrequency
oscillators. These are used to modulate various parameters of the
excitators and resonators, or are used to modulate each other. Routings are
assigned by choosing a listed parameter in the Destination chooser.
The MIDI tab is for internally assigning Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and Aftertouch
data to Collisions parameters. Collision naturally works well with MIDI-assigned
control parameters, adding a real-time flexibility to the process of creating sound
design elements.
The Global section handles overall behavior and performance parameters for the
instrument. For example, you can use Resonator Structure to control how signal
flows through the resonators, by setting it to either Serial mode or Parallel mode.
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