Programming a dive-bomb sound...advice?

What synth are you trying to program this with?

Bob Bone

@Bob I've been trying it with different synths, most recently NI's Massive. Also thought about starting with guitar and running it through some effects like ring mod, etc. Pitch Envelope is what I was looking for, but I can't seem to find it in Sonar X2. I remember being able to right-click on a track and have a menu option to insert an envelope, but now I can't find insert envelope at all. Have they moved it, or am I just brain-fried?

Which doctor who theme do you have in mind?
Post a link if you can find it on youtube. This one ?

Steve

That sounds more like an LFO sweep to me like used in analog synthesis more than a pitchbend???

Ah the theme "sting"...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/index.shtml

If you used the BBC's recording, you'd probably need to obtain sample clearance if it were to be used commercially or for public performance to avoid copyright issues.

I suspect the original of that sound, many years ago, was probably created using an oscillator and simply turning a frequency pot to get the pitch swoop required, plus some e.q. and maybe compression.

The late Delia Derbyshire and the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop did an amazing job on Ron Grainer's original score for that theme, and turned it from an r'n'r/boogie kind of thing into an electronic masterpiece. All done with very basic equipment and a great deal of old-fashioned sticky-tape and razor blade tape editing. Often those edits were done a note at a time.

And I still think that the early version of the theme is the best :-)

Nowadays there are loads of ways to create that kind of sound. As well as the other suggestions here, I'd try oscillator sweeps (just turn the knobs) and resonant filter sweeps as well, adding some LFO to add a bit of vibrato or maybe some FM of the filter frequency. It's easier if you're not restricted to the stepping between notes of MIDI - if that's a problem, try using glissando to smooth things out.

Or get a voltage controlled analogue synth :-)

if you're using massive, just insert pitch automation envelopes that are linked to the pitch of each oscillator.  then you can draw the envelopes so the pitch changes at different rates and you get a much finer degree of control when using the nrpn range instead of the pitch bend range.  if you want to stick with the pitch wheel though, make sure to click on the osc tab in the patch overview settings and set the pitchbend down parameter to -24 which is the max.