How about STR-1 engine ?

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:27 am

Hello there,

I've got the Kronos 2 for about 1,5 year and I didn't have a real look at STR1 engine. Coming from analog synthesis and DX7, I'm more familiar with substractive synthesis (AL-1, Polysix, MS-20) and FM synthesis (MOD-7).
I've had a look at the parameter's guide on STR-1 and find it very complex.
I've found only one tuto, made by David Champagne, on Youtube. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFMXCpVxg7M )
Do you know some good tutos for STR-1 ?

Thank you very much.

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:00 am

Well, I see that my question doesn't have any success !!

Does ayone have an answer to it ?

Thanks

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Mon Aug 20, 2018 2:43 pm

Liviou2004 wrote:Well, I see that my question doesn't have any success !!

Does ayone have an answer to it ?

Thanks

I have expressed this opinion a few times- overall there is little high level ( Korg or Hotop level) development of the various Kronos engines.

Possibly the complexity of STR-1 has contributed to its lack of development and/or progress. In addition to development I include sophisticated programming.

19naia · Post by **19naia** » Mon Aug 20, 2018 3:35 pm

Low polphony synth.
It is the lowest polyhony of all engines in Kronos.

It is a favorite of mine but i simply use the great presets from it, to add to Combi layers. Not much synth engine work that i do.

Lightbringer · Post by **Lightbringer** » Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:35 pm

I have searched pretty exhaustively for tutorials on STR-1 in the past and reached the same conclusion you did - there is only the one, and I'm not sure that video is really playing to STR-1's strengths. It was more exploratory, and he caveated that up front.

Would love to see some good tutorials made for this as I think it's one of the more powerful synths in the Kronos. In a nutshell, it's a modal synth engine - exciter and resonant cavity (or string as they refer to it). I've had some good luck getting some very organic sounds out of it, and not just string sounds, but blown type sounds, percussive type sounds. The parameter guide is pretty good, but what it seems to lack is a high level way to approach STR-1 when designing a sound.

To start exploring it, I would focus on one element at a time. For example, initialize a patch, and make adjustments only to the exciter, and only the built-in noise generator exciter. Go to the excitation mixer and set the levels for all the other exciters to 0. See how you can start to shape the sound using only the noise generator exciter by adjusting the filter cutoff and envelope. Then once you've done that, turn off the noise generator exciter, and explore only the pluck exciter.

Once you start to get a feel for how the different elements affect the sound in isolation, it starts to paint a bigger picture.

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:50 pm

The STR-1 engine is a fantastic engine, once you understand how it works. Years ago i created a sound set for it that you can download for free from my website (you probably already have this).

This sound set takes a different approach, instead of emulating string instruments i used the engine to modify ordinary synth sounds to special sounding sounds. For instance the second sound in the video below is called Sad Whale Lead. This is done by using the features of the STR1 to modify the sound in realtime and it's one of my favorite kronos sounds because it has a characteristic in the sustain phase of the sound that makes the sound really alive.

I would suggest to look into this sound set and investigate how i applied the different techniques. I think there are lot's of tricks in this set that could help you understand why the sound is behaving like that.

The best way to do this is indeed what lightbringer suggest. Take one element at a time and experiment with it.

Here's the demo video of the sound set
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zxe6hGSJxXs" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media"></iframe>

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:13 am

Thank you all. Good suggestion to take each element one after another.

Yes Qui, I've already downloaded your soundset. I remember this sound Sad Whale Lead. So beautiful and expressive, indeed.
I will look at this sound more accurately, as you suggest.

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:13 pm

Yes, 19naia, STR-1 has the lowest polyphony (along with MS-20 ex)
Thus, 40 voices of polyphony is quite comfortable !!

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:57 am

I've not done that before but know I'm studying the STR-1 engine and it seems some parameters are missing.
A long time ago I played guitar and I remember that each string of a guitar doesn't sound the same way. The low "E" string is thicker than the high "E" string and doesnt behave the same way.

I gave a look at the parameters guide and I didn't see such a paramter. As if the STR-1 engine considered there was only one string !

The second missing parameter is the depth of the guitar body : is it a full or an half body guitar ? I didn't see any parameter like that.

Did you see them in STR-1 engine ?

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:08 am

Liviou2004 wrote: A long time ago I played guitar and I remember that each string of a guitar doesn't sound the same way. The low "E" string is thicker than the high "E" string and doesnt behave the same way.

I gave a look at the parameters guide and I didn't see such a paramter. As if the STR-1 engine considered there was only one string !

in the the str-1 engine you are modelling 1 string. It isn't a full guitar modulation engine. I also play the guitar (and bass guitar) and you can mimic the behavior of the Low E string by using the Excitation section. A low E string is thicker and needs more force to vibrate. In this section you can modify the behavior of the string to do that.

Another important part is the tone of the string, you can modify those in the exitation section and the pickups section (which is obvious for guitar players).

You can modify a lot of these parameters by assigning AMS sources, that way you can dynamically change the string behavior for instance based on keyboard position (like different kind of tone or pressure behavior when you play high notes).

The second missing parameter is the depth of the guitar body : is it a full or an half body guitar ? I didn't see any parameter like that.

Did you see them in STR-1 engine ?

That is not available, the STR-1 engine is limited to the String behavior, things like guitar body, material, thickness aren't available

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:25 am

Thank you Qui for this detailed answer.

Lightbringer · Post by **Lightbringer** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:57 am

Have a look at page 298 of the parameter guide. STR-1 has a few AMS sources to support modeling 6 different strings as well as an AMS source for fret number. Admittedly I have not experimented with these yet but they sound like what you are looking for.

I would think that the guitar body variances might be approximated by some detailed EQ work.

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:37 pm

Yes, absolutely, Lightbringer. I just red this at the moment !
Is is possible to set the 6 different strings in Damping settings and in Dispersion settings.

Plus, on Dispersion setting, it is said that dispersion "models the rigidity of the string. Higher values correspond to thicker-gauge strings". (page 273)

So, that's what I was looking for !!

Concerning the guitar body, I'm not a guitarist and I'm not an expert so I don't think I would be able to choose good EQ for that !!

Lightbringer · Post by **Lightbringer** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:49 pm

Liviou2004 wrote:Yes, absolutely, Lightbringer. I just red this at the moment !
Is is possible to set the 6 different strings in Damping settings and in Dispersion settings.

Plus, on Dispersion setting, it is said that dispersion "models the rigidity of the string. Higher values correspond to thicker-gauge strings". (page 273)

So, that's what I was looking for !!

Concerning the guitar body, I'm not a guitarist and I'm not an expert so I don't think I would be able to choose good EQ for that !!

I’d be interested to hear how you get on with the AMS sources.

I’m not sure detailed EQ work requires being an expert - just some ears. I would have a recording of the type of guitar you’re trying to model available for comparison, if possible. Set up a 21 band EQ as described on p. 917 of the parameter guide. And just experiment boosting and attenuating different bands.

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:50 pm

great info guys!