Apple MainStage 3 Instruments - MainStage 3 Instruments

Classic synthesizer programming examples
One of Sculpture’s great strengths is the ability to create endlessly evolving pad and atmospheric
sounds. It can also easily do fat synth basses, powerful leads, and other types of typical
synthesizer sounds.
Sculpture has an advantage over traditional synthesizers in that its core synthesis engine
produces a wider variety of basic tones, and these tones have an organic quality and richness
to them.
The tasks below provide programming guidelines, tips, tricks, and information to assist you in
creating classic synthesizer sounds in Sculpture.
Create a basic synthesizer pad sound
1 Load the #default (or your vanilla) setting file.
2 Set the Voices parameter to 16.
3 Set Object 1’s type to Bow.
4 Set Object 2’s type to “Bow wide.”
5 Drag the Material Pad ball to a position at the extreme left of the Pad, exactly halfway between
the top and bottom—on a line with the Material label.
6 Play a C chord (middle C).
You’ll hear a pad sound.
7 Move Pickup A to a position around 0.75.
The pad will become a little sweeter.
8 Move Object 1’s position to a value of 0.84.
9 Move Object 2’s position to a value of 0.34.
10 Click the Points icon that has five dots in the Morph Pad section.
11 Drag the Int slider in the Morph Pad Randomize section to a value of 25%, for example.
12 Click the Morph Rnd button one time.
13 Choose File > Save Setting As, and enter a new name, such as “vanilla pad,” for example.
You’ll be using this basic pad sound for several other examples. Don’t be shy about doctoring
the “vanilla pad”—anything goes, so make use of any of the Filter, Delay, EQ, and Waveshaper
parameters to quickly create new sounds.
Chapter 13 Sculpture 303