Korg Forums

[xmlguy]

Here's a couple pointers.

Ring modulation gives the bell a metallic sound, so use ring mod on OSC2.

Tune the ring mod to give the bell a specific harmonic, like a 5th, slightly detuned.

Synth bells are hard to get right over a large octave range, because in real life, big bells have a lot more kinetic energy and go "boooooonnnnngggg" while small bells have little energy and go "tiiing". So to synthesize them, they have very different envelopes, resonance, and rings based on the pitch. Use different programs for different octaves.

Bells have rather long durations, and they sound very unnatural if cutoff before they're finished ringing. This is a problem on a monophonic drum track like on the iMS-20. Your track has some notes that are too close together, which cause them to get cutoff. You'll need to use one or two more tracks to allow the bells to continue to ring on one track for the next note to ring before it's finished.

Bells don't have a lot of pitch modulation. You apparently modified a tom tom sound, which does have a lot of pitch modulation. That makes the bell sound unnatural. Bells and cymbals have more frequency modulation, in that they sound brighter when hit harder or rolled, as with a gong. There's a little pitch modulation, based on how much the bell stretches as it vibrates when it's struck.