Sweet Berta

The way down after a peak: one tap and a wash of noise and low saws falls an octave and a half over five seconds, the ladder closing and the level fading as it goes, into a long hall. Tap a single note on the bar's last beat. Macros: Fall, Length, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A tearing build: osc 2 is hard-synced and the envelope drags its pitch up three octaves over five seconds, so a held note rips from a growl to a scream, saturated and thrown into echoes. Hold through the build; play it an octave lower for a darker tear. Macros: Rise, Bite, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A jet passing overhead: pink noise and a low saw through a resonant ladder swell in over a second and a half, a flanger's jets rushing through them and opening up as it passes, the pitch sagging and the sound sweeping across the speakers as it goes, then fade into the distance. Tap a low note and let it ring. Macros: Speed, Roar, Space, Rush. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A wind-up air-raid siren: a saw and a square an octave up rise from a growl to a wail as the level winds up over two seconds, then sweep slowly up and down while the key is held, and wind down when it is let go, into a wide hall. Hold one note for as long as the siren should sound. Macros: Sweep, Wind Up, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A two-note emergency siren: two squares hop between a note and the fourth below it about once a second, through a narrow, horn-like band and a touch of saturation. Hold a note; each new note starts on the high tone. Macros: Rate, Horn, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

The fast yelp of a patrol car: a triangle and a saw whoop half an octave up and down five times a second, a short echo behind them. Hold a note; a higher note yelps higher. Macros: Speed, Depth, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A small robot talking to itself: the sample and hold throws both oscillators and a resonant ladder to a new random place eleven times a second, so a held note babbles in blips and vowels, scattered into ping-pong echoes. Hold a note to make it talk; a higher key raises its voice. Macros: Speed, Range, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A ship's tractor beam locking on: osc 1 frequency-modulates osc 2 for a hollow, metallic hum that fades in, the pitch and the ladder swaying slowly while a harmonic tremolo throbs through it, chorused wide. Hold low notes; two notes a fifth apart make a bigger beam. Macros: Throb, Metal, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Beamed away: a hard-synced saw sparkles upward as the envelope falls, a fast shimmer on osc 1 beneath it, scattered across bright ping-pong echoes into a big plate. Tap a note and let the sparkle rise and fade; tap several for a crew. Macros: Sparkle, Echo, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

An engine spooling up to jump: low saws and brown noise through a resonant ladder, the LFO throbbing on the cutoff faster and faster over four seconds as the envelope opens, with a sub under it and a warm saturation. The Pedalboard runs it twice in parallel: one lane clean, the other through a driven amp into a steep high-pass, so the engine gains a whine and a grit on top that rise with the throb. Hold a low note until it screams; let go to drop out. Macros: Spool, Throb, Weight, Grit. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

An old computer thinking: osc 2 hard-synced, the sample and hold jumping its pitch fourteen times a second, so a held note chatters in bright, random tones of one family, with short echoes. Hold a note for a stream of data; each key is a different machine. Macros: Speed, Tone, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Waves on a beach: pink noise through a soft ladder, the cutoff and the level rising and falling together every eight seconds or so, into a wide hall. Hold one note as a bed; a higher key brings brighter spray. Macros: Swell, Spray, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

One strike of lightning and the thunder after it: white noise cracks open through the ladder and rolls down into darkness. The Pedalboard splits it at 200 Hz: the gate kicks a set of springs on the band above for the crack, while a sub swells under the band below for the rumble, all into a long, dark hall. Tap a low note, once, and let it roll. Macros: Crack, Rumble, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A fire crackling: white noise through the ladder, the sample and hold flinging the cutoff to a new place twenty-five times a second for pops and hiss, under a low brown rumble of the flames, in a small room. Hold a note as a bed; higher keys crackle brighter. Macros: Crackle, Glow, Room. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

Tuning across a distant radio: the ladder whistles on the edge of self-oscillation over pink static, drifting slowly in pitch, through a narrow, saturated band and a fluttering fade. Hold a note and let it wander; move between keys to retune. Macros: Drift, Static, Band. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A buffer stuck and skipping: a saw and a square chopped hard twelve times a second, the sample and hold giving every slice its own brightness, with short echoes repeating the stumble. Hold a note or a chord for a stuttering stream; tap for single glitches. Macros: Chop, Colour, Echo. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A toy with its wires crossed: osc 1 frequency-modulates osc 2 while the ladder's own output is fed back into osc 1's pitch, so the patch squeals, chirps and lurches unpredictably, into a fuzz. Hold notes and listen to it change; each key behaves differently. Macros: Chaos, Fuzz, Feedback. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

The big hit of a film trailer: a deep triangle and saw drop an octave and a half in pitch with a burst of brown noise. The Pedalboard splits it at 180 Hz: the boom under it is saturated dark with a sub added, the burst above stays clean, then the springs are kicked over the whole hit and a huge hall carries the tail. Tap a low note on the downbeat. Macros: Drop, Weight, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A heavy steel door slamming in a corridor: osc 1 frequency-modulates osc 2, tuned apart for an inharmonic clang, over a burst of noise, with the springs kicked and a hard, metallic room. Tap a note; lower keys are bigger doors. Macros: Clang, Ring, Space. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A computer thinking out loud: short sine-like bleeps in a random order over three octaves, each step a new random filter colour, with a gritty echo. Hold any cluster, the wider the busier; the speed follows the song. Macros: Res, Bright, Echo, Length. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A volley of laser shots: every step a saw and a square diving three octaves into the note, firing in sixteenths up two octaves of what you hold, bouncing across the sides in a ping-pong echo. Hold one note for a steady barrage, a chord for a firefight. Macros: Dive, Snap, Echo, Res. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A drum loop from the ringing ladder: a burst of noise pings the self-oscillating filter, tuned to each note, so low notes are toms and kicks and high ones are clicks and blips, played in a random sixteenth-note order. Hold a spread of low and high notes for a groove. Macros: Ring, Tone, Room, Hit. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A ratcheting sci-fi riser: thirty-second notes climbing a chromatic octave through a hard-synced, snapping pulse, echoing in sixteenths, then starting over. Hold any key and let it climb; hold it longer and Seq 2 falls back down. Macros: Snap, Cutoff, Echo, Gate. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.

A ticking clockwork mechanism: the ladder ringing on its own as short wooden pings, tick high and tock low, with a little ratchet of gears winding at the end of the bar, in a small room. Hold C6 for it as written, lower for a bigger clock. Macros: Tune, Ring, Room, Gate. Macro 8, Master, is the output level.