Corpus: Balance the Strike and the Resonating Body

Start with the strike still audible

This example uses an original eight-second synthesized drum pattern. It is not a recording of somebody hitting a plate. Plate selects one set of modal frequency ratios inside Corpus; the drum audio supplies the excitation. Dry/Wet starts at 65% so you can hear the percussion beside its added resonance.

First compare Dry/Wet at zero and 65%. Follow the trailing ring after the brighter hits. Tune sets the base frequency of the body, initially 220 Hz, rather than detecting the drum's pitch. Move it toward 330 Hz and notice how a fixed percussion pattern acquires a different resonant center. Return to 220 Hz before comparing body types.

Material names describe different partial patterns

Try String, Plate and Tube with the same tuning. String begins with harmonic partial ratios; Plate uses an irregular sequence; Tube uses odd harmonics. Beam, Marimba, Membrane and Pipe provide other fixed ratio patterns. Their names are useful listening cues, not a claim that every physical property of a real object is simulated.

TuttiDAW implements this as twelve bandpass modes per channel, weighted and tuned together. It does not include separate exciter, MIDI or LFO sections in Corpus. You do not need another device to make this example sound, but you do need incoming audio: a resonating body with no excitation does not generate a new performance on its own.

Damping has two listening questions

Return to Plate. Lower Decay from 65% toward 25% and ask how quickly the body stops ringing. The control changes resonance Q, so its percentage is not a calibrated time in milliseconds. Long settings can connect sparse strikes into a metallic layer; they can also turn a detailed rhythm into a nearly continuous pitch. Back off when the next strike no longer feels distinct.

Now restore Decay and lower Bright from 55% toward 20%. Ask which partials remain prominent, rather than how long the whole sound lasts. Bright changes the weighting of higher modes; it is not a separate high-frequency decay-time control. Lowering it can suggest a darker body without pretending that it physically damps every mode in the same way as a real material.

Inharm stretches higher partials increasingly away from their starting ratios. Try a modest increase, then zero. On String this breaks up the initially harmonic structure; on Plate the starting structure is already irregular. If the added ring fights a bass note, restore low Inharm and settle Tune before trying to hide the conflict with less brightness.

Move the listening point, then restore perspective

Listen X weights the modes as though listening at a different position along the body. Move slowly from 0.63 toward 0.5: some partials weaken while others remain. It is not a stereo pan knob. Spread separately detunes left and right in cents; begin at zero to judge the body, then add a little width only if the arrangement benefits from it.

Bleed lets some raw input into the processed branch. Consequently Dry/Wet at 100% does not mean resonance alone when Bleed is above zero. To inspect the ring, set Bleed to zero and briefly go fully wet; to regain impact, restore the original dry blend or a little Bleed. Avoid increasing both reflexively, since extra direct signal can make the comparison mostly about level. The aim is a convincing relationship between attack and tail, not the longest or loudest resonance the controls can produce.