doubleDip is a percussion synthesizer inspired by the dynamic behavior of acoustic drums.
Rather than attempting to model the sound of acoustic drums as they resonate, I decided to take inspiration from the way acoustic notes behave.
Part of the timbral and dynamic variety of acoustic drums comes from the properties of resonating bodies: they generally behave quite differently based on whether they are already ringing when being struck.
A cymbal that is completely silent will make a particular sound when initially struck, and any subsequent strikes that occur while it is resonating will both generate new tones and alter the character of the already-ringing tone.
With conventional drum synthesis such dynamic interplay between notes is impossible.
The vast majority of drum synthesizers use a monophonic architecture, allowing for only one voice to sound at a time. On a classic drum machine like the Roland TR-909, triggering the synthesized snare sound while it is already ringing will simply cut off the currently sounding tone, and re-start the same synthesized sound from the beginning.
As a result, only one tone is ever resonating, and the context of the note in the sequence has no bearing on how it sounds. There is no interaction between notes, regardless of whether one occurs while its predecessor is still decaying.