Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Forum rules
READ: VSE Board-Wide Rules and Guidelines
If your Help request has been solved, please edit your first post in order to select the
Topic Icon to let others know your topic has been solved.
READ: VSE Board-Wide Rules and Guidelines
If your Help request has been solved, please edit your first post in order to select the

Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Hello, any idea's to get me in the ball park? I know noise will be a component but I'm just not getting a high pitched hiss sound. Thanks for any help. Cheers
- Weirdofromouterspace
- Active Member
- Posts: 337
- Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:30 pm
- Real name: Bodo
- Gear: MFOS SLMS+ & Ultimate, TTSH, DX7IID, DX21, Minibrute, Poly-800, microKORG, microSAMPLER, Volca Beats & Bass, JX-03, Tr-8, Kawai K1, Jasper
- Location: Germany
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
White noise (since it features all frequencies) through a HP filter
.


Don't forget to TURN ON THE SYNTHESIZER. Often this is the reason why you get no sound out of it. - ARP 2600 manual, 1971
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Thanks for your reply. I tried that this morning and has helped me get a bit closer. I still can't seem to get that sssss or well defined hiss sound. I'll keep tweaking, thanks again.
- Weirdofromouterspace
- Active Member
- Posts: 337
- Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:30 pm
- Real name: Bodo
- Gear: MFOS SLMS+ & Ultimate, TTSH, DX7IID, DX21, Minibrute, Poly-800, microKORG, microSAMPLER, Volca Beats & Bass, JX-03, Tr-8, Kawai K1, Jasper
- Location: Germany
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Don't know if that's what you're after, but high resonance settings can lead to really cool soundsdajones wrote:Thanks for your reply. I tried that this morning and has helped me get a bit closer. I still can't seem to get that sssss or well defined hiss sound. I'll keep tweaking, thanks again.

Don't forget to TURN ON THE SYNTHESIZER. Often this is the reason why you get no sound out of it. - ARP 2600 manual, 1971
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Thanks again. I'll play with that and see if I can get any closer.
- pflosi
- Synth Explorer
- Posts: 3620
- Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:14 pm
- Gear: more than 150 characters...
- Location: zürich
- Contact:
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Non-appropriate switching PSU powering any audio device? Bonus points for using unbalanced cabling.



- Big Gnome
- Active Member
- Posts: 412
- Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:14 am
- Gear: E-mu Proteus 2500
Ensoniq ESQ-1
Ensoniq VFX
SCI Prelude
Waldorf Blofeld - Band: The Nondescript
- Location: Oakland, CA
- Contact:
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
Hard to say without a clearer idea of what type of thing you're after. I can't think of a more appropriate approach than the aforementioned white noise through HPF thing for a static, undifferentiated hiss. (A BPF with high resonance--or a few in parallel--might be a useful variation thereupon.) For more of a mechanical/electrical whine, I'd suggest something similar with a comb filter to bring out some annoying resonances. Alternately you might try something with one or more narrow pulse waves through a BPF with noise modulating the cutoff frequency. Or you could experiment with FM using high/non-integer ratios; or sample rate reduction to generate aliasing artifacts...there are a bunch of ways to get those sorts of sounds. I hope that provides some food for thought.
"Sure that's fine in practice, but what about in theory?"
Some of my c**p
Some of my c**p
- iowagold
- Newbie
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 12:11 pm
- Gear: 4) korg RADIAS-R on big rack, 4) roland integra7, 4) SC-55 4 studio rooms.
- Location: Ottumwa, Iowa 52501 usa
- Contact:
Re: Help with synthesizing a high pitched hissing sound
hey dajones quick question, and a good one too!!dajones wrote:Hello, any idea's to get me in the ball park? I know noise will be a component but I'm just not getting a high pitched hiss sound. Thanks for any help. Cheers
what make and model of synth do you have??
Paul in Iowa