Knife Carving Stroke

How it's made

Source

a thin, very sharp blade drawn through soft tissue. The edge shears fibres continuously, which sounds like band-limited noise rather than air: a narrow band (Q ≈ 2.5) that glides from ≈ 1.2 kHz up to 3–6 kHz as the stroke gathers speed, then eases down as the cut opens.

Body

a damp, low "wet" layer (pink noise at 300–900 Hz, softly fluttering at 18–35 Hz) for the flesh around the blade; no bone, no crunch.

Ring

when the blade leaves the cut, the thin steel rings briefly in free-bar modes (≈ 1 : 2.76 : 5.40, plus a close twin of the fundamental for a slow shimmer), 0.15–0.6 s, upper modes fading first; the pitch is a parameter so a series of strokes can sit in one key.

Settle

optionally the parted piece slumps away: a low-passed noise fall (700 → 120 Hz, 0.3 s).

Envelope

stroke 0.15–0.9 s, swelling to ≈ 60 % then easing out; the ring starts at the end of the stroke.

Variation

`rng` varies stroke length (±12 %), sweep height, flutter rate, ring tuning (±1 %), the ring's mode balance and the stereo position, so repeated strokes never sound identical.

The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.