Designing Sound in SuperCollider/Fire

Fig 34.3: simplest random hissing sound {WhiteNoise.ar(LFNoise2.kr(1))}.play Fig 34.4: square it Squaring the noise gives it a more useful dynamic range, with rare loud bursts {WhiteNoise.ar(LFNoise2.kr(1).squared)}.play Fig 34.5: more Add another .squared for even stronger effect on the dynamics, and use a high-pass filter to make the hiss more hissy {HPF.ar(WhiteNoise.ar, 1000) * LFNoise2.kr(1).squared.squared}.play Fig 34.6: a simple single crackle {WhiteNoise.ar * Line.ar(1, 0, 0.02, doneAction: 2)}.play Fig 34.7: many crackles If we use a proper envelope generator instead of a simple line, we can retrigger it randomly with Dust to give random crackles of a controllable density {WhiteNoise.ar * EnvGen.ar(Env.perc(0, 0.02, curve: 0), Dust.kr(1))}.play Fig 34.8: more variation Add more variation by modulating the duration and the filter frequency for each event ( { var trigs, durscale, son, resfreq; trigs = Dust.kr(1); durscale = TRand.kr(1, 1.5, trigs); // vary duration between default 20ms and 30ms resfreq = TExpRand.kr(100, 1000, trigs); // different resonant frequency for each one son = WhiteNoise.ar * EnvGen.ar(Env.perc(0, 0.02, curve: 0), trigs, timeScale: durscale); son = son + BPF.ar(son, resfreq, 20); }.play ) Fig 34.9: woof Simple attempt at the low "woofing" noise made by the flames themselves {LPF.ar(WhiteNoise.ar, 30) * 100}.play Fig 34.10: woosh // another component we could use to build up a flamey sound {BPF.ar(WhiteNoise.ar, 30, 0.2) * 20}.play Fig 34.11: shape Shaping the dynamic range and discarding some of the lower frequencies, allowing a little clipping to give a less static sound. {LeakDC.ar(LeakDC.ar(BPF.ar(WhiteNoise.ar, 30, 0.2) * 50).clip2(0.9)) * 0.5}.play Fig 34.12: putting it all together ( ~firegen = { var trigs, durscale, resfreq; var noise, hissing, crackles, lapping; // A common noise source noise = WhiteNoise.ar; // Hissing hissing = HPF.ar(noise, 1000) * LFNoise2.kr(1).squared.squared; // Crackle trigs = Dust.kr(1); durscale = TRand.kr(1, 1.5, trigs); // vary duration between default 20ms and 30ms resfreq = TExpRand.kr(100, 1000, trigs); // different resonant frequency for each one crackles = noise * EnvGen.ar(Env.perc(0, 0.02, curve: 0), trigs, timeScale: durscale); crackles = crackles + BPF.ar(crackles, resfreq, 20); // Flame lapping = LeakDC.ar(LeakDC.ar(BPF.ar(noise, 30, 0.2) * 50).clip2(0.9)) * 0.5; // Combine them: ([crackles, hissing, lapping] * [0.1, 0.3, 0.6]).sum * 3 }; ~firegen.play ) Fig 34.13: poly Let's have four of the above, each filtered differently, for a composite effect ( { BPF.ar(~firegen, 600, 1/0.2) + BPF.ar(~firegen, 1200, 1/0.6) + BPF.ar(~firegen, 2600, 1/0.4) + HPF.ar(~firegen, 1000) }.play )