Sculpture string overview in MainStage

The string is responsible for the basic tone of your sound. You can define its material—what it’s made of—and determine its behavior when bowed, plucked, struck, and so on.

The string itself doesn’t make a sound unless it is stimulated—excited or disturbed—by at least one object. Up to three different types of objects are used to excite, disturb, or damp the string (make it vibrate or affect its movement). See Sculpture objects overview.

Sculpture’s string and the excite/disturb objects are similar to the oscillators in traditional synthesizers. The string is considerably more sophisticated in concept than simple oscillators, however.

In essence, you are creating the waveform, or base timbre, by mathematically describing the string properties, and the properties of its environment. These include, among others, the material the string is made of; the thickness, length, and tension of the string; its characteristics over time; the atmosphere it is being played in (such as water or air); and the way it is being played—struck, bowed, and so on.

Sculpture goes far beyond the mere creation of an infinite number of base timbres, however. One of the key differences between the Sculpture string and a traditional synthesizer waveform is that the base timbre provided by the string is in a constant state of flux. For example, if the Sculpture string is still vibrating for a specific note, retriggering that same note interacts with the ongoing vibration. This is not dissimilar to the effect of repeatedly plucking a guitar string, where the string is still vibrating when the next note is played. This alters the harmonic spectrum each time—which is why acoustic guitars sound organic when a note is played repeatedly, and sampled guitars don’t.

This is quite different from other synthesis methods where the base timbre waveform, even if modulated, does not harmonically interact with currently audible notes when retriggered. What usually happens in traditional synthesizers is that the waveform is restarted—from mid-cycle, or from the beginning—with the result being an increase in volume, or a slight cyclical wave shift.

The string parameters apply on a per-voice basis. A number of parameters can be morphed between up to five morph points. These are indicated in the parameter descriptions. See Sculpture morph overview.

String parameters

Hide, Keyscale, and Release view buttons: Show or hide different groups of parameters.
Material Pad: Determine the basic tone of the string by setting the stiffness and damping properties.
String parameter sliders: Shown on the outer ring of the Material Pad, the String parameter sliders further define the properties and behavior of the string.
- Resolution sliders: Determine the maximum number of harmonics contained in the sound at C3 (middle C). Spatial resolution is also changed.
- Media Loss sliders: Emulate the amount of string dampening caused by the surrounding environment (air, water, and so on) at C3 (middle C).
- Tension Mod(ulation) sliders: Determine the momentary detuning of the sound at C3 (middle C).
  All sliders are set relative to middle C. As you play above or below this note, tuning and other elements of the string can, and will, change.

Download the guides:

MainStage User Guide: PDF

MainStage Instruments: PDF

MainStage Effects: PDF

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