In this context a Formant is any of several frequency regions of relatively great intensity in a sound spectrum, which together determine the characteristic quality of a vowel sound.
At some point it was discovered that human speech vowels can pretty well be defined by just a few (3) of these frequencies/regions and their ratios/spacing. So, that’s pretty manageable.
There are many ways to create/generate and space/mix these characteristic peaks/regions. Using (resonant) filters is one way.
Here 's an extensive Sound on Sound article (2001) on Formant synthesis by Gordon Reid.
And, yes, THAT Gordon Reid, author of…
Gordon Reid’s classic ‘synthesis explained’ in-depth series ran in Sound On Sound every month, non-stop, over 5 years and is still used by Colleges and University courses as ‘essential reading’ when teaching the foundations of synthesis and sound design. We’ve collected all 63 episodes here, for ease and convenience
I uploaded/attached the patch in its current state in the original post. Might be slightly different from the video version (not sure), but basically the same.
Here is my “Even Angels Get The Blues” piece. This song is generative with Meander contributing the mode and root (Aeolian(minor) E) to Squinktronix Harmony and Arpeggiator and to SS Modules’ Melodygen. Meander sends the traditional 12-bar blues progression chord root notes to Harmony for the 4-part harmony choir voice generation. The voices are Arturia “Augmented Voices” VST via HOST. You could substitute your own voice VSTs in HOST if you want to play with the song.
Not a patch, but an actual choir, singing Ligeti György’s “Lux Aeterna”. It’s what I often imagine an “ethereal angelic choir” would sound like. A bit of dissonance to make it interesting. If it sounds a bit familiar, it was used in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
In contrast to the slow and/or continous voices, fhe faster ones are always a challenge to get right in terms of attacks and decays and pitch slewrates.
To me it also demonstrates (again) how Meander can help those with limited knowledge of musical theory…like myself.
I have played with Meander but somehow shy away from it because of its relatively huge presence and panel size (and a bit of a learning curve). Instead I then construct my own generative blobs that do not even begin to match Meanders functionality and flexibility. Not a very logical approach…
I guess I should (and will) use Meander more often.
My 3rd module “ModeScaleProgressions” or “MSP” is in the library build queue. It is basically Meander harmonic progressions without the melody, bass and fBm noise sections. It has been in the integration queue for a couple of weeks, so hopefully it will be in the build queue soon. Thanks for the compliments.
The choir voice is based on an implementation of Paul Nasca’s PADSynth algorithm (by docB in PAD2). Basically PADSynth is Additive synthesis where instead of individual single harmonics/partials, there are bandwidths of frequencies. Very effective for creating pad and choir type sounds. The PADSynth output is passed through a resonant Lowpass filter that only partly follows pitch.
The bass and pianoish sounds are both based on basic single FM/PM plugin patches (Bogaudio FM-OP) with some feedback. Although the bass output also slightly FM/PM modulates the pianoish sound.
It’s a short random excerpt of a forever playing generative patch. All gates and pitches (notes/chords/melodies) are generated by PurrSoftware Meander.
BTW, Meander was developed for doing this type of music. If you happen to listen to the poor quality albums on my SoundCloud from 1988-, you will hear that I was doing 30 minute journeys of pads, human voices and gongs. For that, my crude Meander set the pace and I played along live from my Roland alpha-Juno-2 synth. My tapes were in some local “new-age” bookstores at that time. I gave away far more tapes than I sold I also did background music for a series of guided meditation tapes by a clinical hypnotherapist and meditation guru.
So much for Meander, but, this topic has a lot of historical significance for me.
The Roland Alpha Juno in a meditative new age context. Sort-of in after-party mode?
The Alpha Junos are mostly known for their role in the Dance/Techno/Trance/Rave genre. Remember that ‘Hoover’ patch? BTW, that one and all presets by the legendary Eric Persing.
Underestimated synths, I guess. Single oscillator, but it had some unique oscillator shapes (DCO), e.g. chopped saws and squares with PWM on both. Also pretty unusual and versatile multi stage envelopes. Not just ADSR, but a series of Times and Levels: L1, T2, L2, T3, L3, T4, a bit like the Yamaha DX7 envelopes Rate/Level approach.
For those who are curious about the Roland Alpha Juno more unique features: here´s a Starsky Carr deepdive (direct link to the Oscillator section).
I could go on and on with angelic voices music, but probably should not Anyway, here is another variation of the “Even Angels Get The Blues” song but this time using the Arturia Augmented Voices - Light Voices - VST via HOST. I love mixing VST synths with VCV Rack standalone, but of course the downside is that no one can reproduce the patch unless they have that VST plugin.
Hi Alessandro, as you told me on youtube I ask you my question on the forum :.
I’m a newbie in VCV Rack and I would like so much to understand learn how you obtain this sound.
Do you think it’s possible for you to share the vcv file ?
the idea is quite simple: create an auto generative patch of 4 voices singing well together.
the voice generator is PINK TROMBONE (one module, one voice) and it’s modulated by some random value generators (of course with offset and attenuation).
the pitch of the voice is set from a quantizer connected to a “chord generator” (I don’t think HARMONY hit the library, so refer to this discussion to go to the github page and understand the idea behind the module).
if there are any missing modules you have to find out which one they are and install them, dont’ worry if you are a beginner, step-by-step you will get to the goal, just don’t write in this discussion, open a new one so we don’t pollute this one
