Program a sustained synthesizer sound in Sculpture in MainStage

First, load the default setting—the very simple sound consisting of a plucked string that vibrates and fades away. This sound needs some drastic changes to become a sustained or extended pad sound.

Examine the three objects. Notice that only Object 1 is active, and acts on the string with an Impulse object type: the string is briefly excited when the note is played, then the sound decays. A sustained pad sound requires an exciting agent that constantly acts upon the string. The appropriate object types are Bow or Bow wide (the string is played with either short bow strokes or long, extended bow strokes), Noise (excited by a random noise signal), or Blow (excited by being blown—much like a clarinet or flute).

Test the above mentioned object types one after the other. Drag the Object 1 Pickup slider, responsible for the exact position of the exciting agent, up and down the string while you’re playing. You will come to two conclusions: First, the sound is now sustained for as long as you hold down a key. Second, dragging the Object 1 slider with the Bow type selected results in the most pronounced sonic changes. This setting promises the most rewarding possibilities for varying the sound, and that’s why this type has been chosen.

The sonic variations created by the Bow type are very appealing when the virtual bow stroke is moved along the string. You can control this movement by using an envelope, thus creating the foundation of your pad sound.

It makes more sense and is more convenient to record the envelope rather than program it, even if it is easy to program it with the graphic display.

Record an envelope in Sculpture

In MainStage, make sure you have loaded the default setting, then drag the Object 1 slider all the way to the left. Starting from this position, where it generates only an overtone-rich scratch, start animating it by using the envelope.
Locate the Envelope section in the lower-right corner of the Sculpture window. Select the first of the two envelopes by clicking the envelope 1 button to select it. In the left part of the Envelope section, notice the two routing possibilities that are used to assign a modulation target to the envelope.
Click the 1 button to activate the first routing link, and choose Object1 Position from the Target pop-up menu as the modulation target. Drag the amt slider all the way to the right to set the modulation intensity to its maximum value.
The envelope can now be recorded. It is assumed that your MIDI keyboard has a modulation wheel that outputs the corresponding MIDI controller message (CC number 1) and that option 1 ModWhl is selected for control of Envelope 1 (choose 1 ModWhl from the CtrlEnv 1 pop-up menu in the dark bottom edge of the Sculpture window).
Click the R button near the top of the Envelope section below Record Trigger, to prepare the envelope for recording. Choose Note + Ctrl Movement from the Record Trigger pop-up menu.
This option specifies that the recording of the controller messages from the modulation wheel begins the instant the first note is played.
Play a note when you want to start the recording, and move the modulation wheel slowly upward while keeping the key on the keyboard depressed. Notice the sound variations you create while moving the modulation wheel.
At the end of the recording, return the wheel to its initial starting position and, after you release the depressed note, click the R button to deactivate the recording mode.

Increase stereo breadth and chorus in Sculpture

To give the very dry-sounding “0001 raw pad” setting a little more stereo breadth and chorus effect, modulate the Pickup positions, and assign them to the left and right channels.

In MainStage, load the “0001 raw pad” setting.
Drag the Spread Pickup semicircle upward until the light blue dots come to rest near the line that separates both semicircles.
This separates the stereo pan positions of the Pickups.
Click the 1 and 2 buttons to activate both of the modulation links in LFO1.
For the first link, choose PickupA Position from the Target pop-up menu, and then drag the amt slider to a small positive value of about 0.03 Hz to modulate the position of Pickup A.
For the second link, choose PickupB Position from the Target pop-up menu, and then drag the amt slider to a small negative value of about −0.03 Hz to modulate the position of Pickup B.
You can hear a pleasant beating or chorus effect in the sound, which makes it broader and more full, alleviating the unpleasant, dry character. Another unpleasant aspect is that the sound is too strong in the mid frequency range and could use some equalization. You can use the Body EQ to correct this.
Activate the Body EQ, and experiment with the Lo Mid Hi model—the standard setting. Try reducing Mid to −0.5 and dragging the Mid Frequency slider to 0.37.
To give the pad a little depth, activate the Delay. Set the Delay Time to 1/4 and adjust the Xfeed knob to 30%.
The pad now has a pleasant and unobtrusive ambience; you can leave the other Delay parameters at their original values.

Make the sound more lively using the jitter modulators in Sculpture

You can make the sound more animated with some subtle modulation, which makes the jitter modulators the perfect tool for the job. The jitter modulators are basically LFOs that use a random waveform.

In MainStage, click the Jitter button below the LFO section to activate the display for both of the jitter modulators.
Click the 1 button to turn on the first link in Jitter 1, and choose Object1 Timbre from the Target pop-up menu.
Drag the slider below the Target pop-up menu to −0.40 to adjust the Intensity, and reduce the Rate parameter to 1 Hz. There should be subtle inconsistencies in the pressure applied by the bow to the string. To better recognize this effect, temporarily increase the Intensity level.
You can use the second jitter modulator for random position deviations with the modulation target Pickup Pos A+B (pickup position A and B).
Activate Jitter 2 and choose the Pickup Pos A+B setting from the Target pop-up menu.
Drag the slider below the Target pop-up menu to an Intensity of about 0.2, and adjust the Rate knob to 1.5 Hz. As you increase the Intensity, the sound develops a distinct clinking or rattling—adjust this effect to taste.

You now have a satisfactory pad sound, which you should leave alone at this point, even though a few Sculpture features such as the Filter and the Waveshaper lie idle—not to mention the two additional Objects—but sometimes it’s a good idea to quit while you’re ahead.

Download the guides:

MainStage User Guide: PDF

MainStage Instruments: PDF

MainStage Effects: PDF

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