Muted Trumpet
A soft muted trumpet.
1: Use a sawtooth wave.
2: Brass instruments take a moment for the pitch to stabilize, and are initially raspy. Use a fast burst of rapid modulation to simulate this:
Send the trigger to VCA-B CV to create a fast blip.
The ring mod is already normaled to VCA-B in.
Patch VCA-B to VCO-A FM1.
Keep the amount of FM on VCO-A very subtle. Try it with positive and negative amounts of FM.
3: Use a low filter frequency. Brass instruments start low and increase frequency as the note stabilizes.
4: Set the filter to LP4 for a more muffled, mellow sound. Use LP2 for a brighter sound.
5: Set keyboard tracking to 50%. This mirrors the nonlinear increase in brightness on real brass instruments.
6: Patch velocity to filter QM. Just nudge the level up slightly.
7: Use the LFO to add vibrato, and mix it with an envelope created with the slew limiter:
Patch the LFO to the mixuverter, and attenuate it down.
Patch the mixuverter to on of the sum inputs.
Patch MIDI gate to the slew limiter to create an ASR envelope.
Patch the slew limiter to the other sum input.
Patch the sum to filter FM3.
8: Amp Envelope Attack: Brass sounds reach full volume quickly but with a slight buildup. Give ENV-A a fast but not instantaneous attack. This mirrors the time it takes for the player’s breath and lip vibrations to stabilize.
9: Amp Envelope Release: Use a short release time. Brass instruments cease producing sound abruptly after the player stops blowing.
10: Filter Envelope Attack: Set ENV-B’s attack time slightly longer than the ENV-A’s attack time. The note should reach full volume before it reaches full brightness. A brass instrument’s tone gets brighter as the player continues to blow. The harmonics build up over time.
Further Reading
Gordon Reid delves into the fundamentals of synthesizing wind instruments, explaining the similarities between vibrating strings and air columns in pipes, and how to recreate them.
Synthesizing Brass Instruments
Explains the principles of synthesizing brass instruments, using subtractive synthesis to recreate realistic trumpet-like sounds.
Roland SH101 & ARP Axxe Brass Synthesis
How to synthesize brass sounds on simple monosynths like the Roland SH101 and ARP Axxe by adapting idealized brass patches to suit their more limited capabilities.
Gordon Reid demonstrates how to create brass patches on the Minimoog.
A YouTube video where Steve Porcaro demonstrates how to synthesize a synth brass lead by focusing on shaping the attack using sharp, transient "blip" envelopes on one oscillator.