Explore Sculpture overview in MainStage

The following sections contain information to assist you as you start to explore sound creation in Sculpture. See Explore the Sculpture string, Explore Sculpture objects, Explore Sculpture pickups, and Explore other processing options.

The creation of basic instrument sounds is discussed in Basic sound programming in Sculpture. For a more detailed look at programming particular types of sounds, see Electric bass programming in Sculpture and Synthetic sound programming in Sculpture.

Given the flexibility of the Sculpture synthesis core, you can take a number of different approaches to sound design.

If you prefer to build sounds from scratch—parameter by parameter—you can.
If you prefer to use Sculpture morphing capabilities to create new sounds, you can. See Randomize points in the Sculpture Morph Pad.
If you prefer to tweak existing settings, it may be more suitable to use features that affect the entire instrument. See Sculpture Body EQ overview, Sculpture filter parameters, Use Sculpture Waveshaper, and Sculpture modulation overview.

Whatever approach you favor, you can achieve new and interesting results. Experiment and familiarize yourself with each approach. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and often a combination of methods may strike the best balance for your needs.

When programming a sound from scratch in Sculpture, the best approach is to work on each component of the sound in isolation. As you’re probably new to Sculpture, you won’t be familiar with the impact of each parameter on your end results. See String and object interplay in Sculpture.

To start, you need a plain vanilla setting. When you first open Sculpture, this is exactly what you get—a default set of neutral parameters. It is sonically uninteresting, but provides a starting point for most examples. This setting is saved as the “#default” settings file. It is best to save a copy of this setting before starting.

Save a default setting in Sculpture

In MainStage, choose Save Settings As from the Settings pop-up menu, then enter the name you want—maybe “neutral” or “vanilla”—and click Save.
This setting can be reloaded as you work through the examples.

Download the guides:

MainStage User Guide: PDF

MainStage Instruments: PDF

MainStage Effects: PDF

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