How to make a Kick Drum in PureData

I’ve been writing an article about PureData for HackSpace magazine. I sent it off on Friday and with a bit of luck and a following wind it will be in next issue. I didn’t have room for the above illustration, which is rather sad. I’ve put it up here instead.

The program on the left shows how a linear ramp is converted into a drum sound. The three graphs on the right hand side show how the waveform starts as a straight line before being converted into a curve and then finally a sequence of sound waves.

The sound wave graph is compressed at the left hand side because the first part of the drum sound will be high frequencies. The spaced out waves at the right hand end (so to speak) are the low frequency parts that give the drum its kick sound.