TAIKO THUNDER Development Blog — Part 5: Customizing Sounds with the Instrument Editor
In this fifth installment of our TAIKO THUNDER: The Ultimate Collection development journey, we examine the sound-customization parameters on the library’s Instrument pane.
Sonica Instrument’s mission for the Virtuoso Japanese series is to create libraries that faithfully reproduce the instruments’ real, authentic sounds. At the same time, we know sound creators want to explore new sonic possibilities, which is why we design functions to customize the sound of the instruments.
For TAIKO THUNDER, we took our technology and know-how from previous libraries and further refined them to create even more flexible, natural-sounding controls over the instruments’ physical characteristics and sonic signatures.
Below is our guide to some of the customization parameters.
Parameters for taiko instruments
The 16 taiko instruments have controls for the stick, rim, and head that are independently adjustable for the left and right hands.
Tuning is an important aspect of percussion instruments. This is why we sampled several common taiko sizes as separate instruments for TAIKO THUNDER. Nevertheless, sometimes you want to fine-tune an instrument to suit a particular piece of music.
The most sample packs use pitch-shifting to adjust tunings or reproduce different tunings. The drawback with adjusting the tuning with this method is that it also alters the attack, making it sound more like a change in pitch than in tuning.
To get around this problem in TAIKO THUNDER, we used our proprietary sound-generation mechanism developed for KABUKI & NOH PERCUSSION 96k MASTER EDITION. This mechanism makes it possible to adjust the tuning while preserving the instrument’s attack component. Alternatively, you can leave the pitch unchanged and adjust only the timbre of the attack (the drum hit). In a time where transient control is more important than ever, this mechanism lets you bring out nuanced transients that are impossible to achieve with a compressor.
To illustrate the difference between regular pitch-shifting and TAIKO THUNDER’s Tune control, we created example phases with the Tsukeshime-daiko 1.22 and Ohdaiko 3.4 instruments. The tuning is changed by plus or minus two semitones from the original samples. The difference, particularly the attack, is quite clear.
Tsukeshime-daiko 1.22
Original
Raised 2 semitones with pitch-shifting
Raised 2 semitones in TAIKO THUNDER
Lowered 2 semitones with pitch-shifting
Lowered 2 semitones in TAIKO THUNDER
Ohdaiko 3.4
Original
- Raised 2 semitones with pitch-shifting
- Raised 2 semitones in TAIKO THUNDER
- Lowered 2 semitones with pitch-shifting
Lowered 2 semitones in TAIKO THUNDER
The library also uses a newly developed Instrument Modeler to simulate sound variations caused by different body depths and different stick materials and sizes.
Another playing control function is the Mute / Choke key. Hitting this key while a sound is playing will reproduce the choke technique that immediately stops the drumhead from reverberating. If you hold down this key first and then play a sound, it will reproduce the sound of the head being struck while muted with the hand. You can adjust the muting strength for endless experimentation.
Parameters for metallic percussion instruments
The three metallic percussion instruments — Chappa, Shoko, and Kagurasuzu — have fewer controls than the taiko instruments. But they do feature Character and Tone controls to complement independent tuning, attack, and reverberation adjustments.
The Character parameter, which is selected from Normal, Fat, and Bright, determines the Chappa’s fundamental sound character. The Tone setting has three positions — Vintage, Modern 1, and Modern 2 — that change the instrument’s tonality. Together, the two controls give a total of nine variations.
We have taken care to ensure the parameters are useable in all settings, providing natural tonal changes rather than gimmicky effects. The TAIKO THUNDER instruments are set to standard tunings by default for load-and-use simplicity and convenience. But we encourage you to experiment with the parameters and find your own tone.
Watch out for our next post that will look at the library’s mixer specs and features.