Ring Modulation... What's The Deal???

thedjnifty

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Jan 14, 2009
Ez people, so for a long time now I've pretty much ignored ring modulation, mainly because I have no idea what it actually does...

But recently I've heard of a few top guys using it here and there, mostly on synth / bass sounds...

I just wondered if anyone could shed some light on how this modulation affects the frequency spectrum of a sound, maybe some tips on the best scenarios to use it / how to get the most out of it?

Big ups
 
Well, Ring modulation in most cases is just amplitude modulation, similar to how fm works, but instead modulating frequency it modulates amplitude
 
I'm pretty sure ring modulation is similar to frequency modulation, in that you use one waveform to modulate the frequency of another waveform. It produces the sum and the difference of the 2 frequencies, creating inharmonic tones if the 2 frequencies are not harmonically related.
 
I use it to add filth to basses.
I think it's a sort of sub category of amplitude modulation.

You don't really need to know exactly what frequency, amplitude/ring and phase modulation actually all do: just think of them as combining two waves to give the pitches of both plus some extra harmonics.
Obviously if the two waves are harmonically related, it won't clash, and if they're unrelated then it will.
That's about it. You can get really deep into the theory if you like, but it won't really help you that much unless you really like maths.
 
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