Don Cross / CosineKitty / Sapphire

Sounds great! I love physical modeling!

2 Likes

Cthulhu calling. Nice deep sounds. Love it! I’m waiting for release these Kraken :slight_smile:

1 Like

Love it, well done u! Great pagan gods await your beckoning or summat like that!

1 Like

Actually, Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by HP Lovecraft. Apparently, he is depicted as an ‘octopoid Great Old One of enormous power who lies in a death-like slumber in his sunken city of R’lyeh beneath the Pacific Ocean.’

Coincidentally, I looked this up after someone else mentioned it in a WhatsApp group!

Anyway, this module sounds great. Can’t wait to abuse it completely. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Some rhythmic fun, with just a little radioactive fallout for flavor. Headphones recommended, lead shielding optional.

10 Likes

Nice, sounds a bit like a vocoder.

1 Like

I’m starting to experiment with 2D water wave simulations. I have a feeling this could be turned into an interesting audio synth.

5 Likes

Interesting, that visualisation is great! A visualiser module would be good if you can’t make it into a synth.

P.S. Not sure if you’ve seen this, but it uses a similar idea:

1 Like

Very cool rhythms.

1 Like

It would be super-cool if you could add “microphones” at various X/Y points in this square. Each one would emit the current sum of all waves at this point for further processing.

1 Like

I’m thinking along the same lines. I will at least have stereo output, with some user control over the location of the microphones. There are so many other ideas and possibilities regarding the shape of the boundaries, whether to make a 2D or 3D model, how to optimize using SIMD, etc. The hard part will be to sift through all the ideas and choose a workable subset that gives the most interesting results. Also, people are rightfully sensitive to CPU usage, so it has to be efficient. This kind of research and development is the fun part for me!

1 Like

WaterTable looks interesting! I will check that out.

I’m focused on modules that make sounds, but if someone else wants to make a visualizer out of the water wave simulation, that would be a great idea. The video description contains a link to the Ten Minute Physics video where I got the formulas. That video is excellent in clarity and explaining how it works, along with complete source code.

2 Likes
3 Likes

Since you (@cosinekitty ) sort of represent physical modeling / waveguide synthesis in VCV Rack :wink:

First of all: thanks a lot for your Physical Modeling modules (Elastika, Tube Unit). They open up so many new dimensions in sound design/processing to experiment with.

Have you ever checked out Reason Objekt? Objekt | Modeling Synthesizer | Shop | Reason Studios. And maybe some of the product demos (YouTube)?

Reason Object is basically reviving the Physical Modeling concept in a basic Exciter / Resonator combo solution. Where resonator bit is represented by a Modal Synthesis component (a handfull of resonant bandpass filters) and 2 Waveguide components (either coupled or uncoupled).

In VCV Rack we don’t need an all-in-one module like Reason Object. We just need the components. We can construct our own stuff by combining all sorts of modules. But…we do have the fixed 1 sample latency per cable issue when constructing time/phase critical stuff like (coupled) Waveguide matrices/models.

We already have plenty of options to construct Exciters. We also have several options for Modal synthesis and 1-D Waveguide / Tuned Delay options (Karplus Strong like).

I guess we (or I…) would be very happy with a ‘limited’, ‘basic’ but above all flexible Waveguide matrix resonator with flexible coupling and reflection options. Implementing a 6 ‘band’ setup like Reason Objekt offers seems achievable.

Basically constructing a matrix using a handful Waveguides (e.g. 1 to 8) in 2-D space. Maybe just offering some basic 2-D matrix shapes like square/rectangular and round/oval and/or fixed nodes you can use to draw matrices. And some control over the amount of coupling per node. And over damping/reflection at the endpoints. This is already more complex then the Reason Object models. And would offer a world of functionality / sonic potential.

In short…a tool to experiment with various 1-D and 2-D (or even 3-D) Waveguide models to emulate ‘basic’ resonator models for flutes, strings and membranes.

A bit like a more fancy implementation of Dance This Mesh Around (by Frequency Domain) VCV Library - Frequency Domain Dance This Mesh Around (vcvrack.com)

Not sure how much/fast complexity of a solution increases for additional functionality and/or variety in (possible) models… Digital Waveguide Models (stanford.edu)

That is a lot of food for thought. Thank you! I am definitely interested in waveguides for generating sounds. I would love to create models that can produce a wide variety of interesting and realistic sounds.

Haha.

Yeah, there’s huge potential in Digital Waveguides. So underrated. It’s like Additive and/or FM/PM synthesis. Mostly unloved due to their immense flexibility and thus their inherent complexity and time consuming ‘programming’. But even relatively simple implementations can be very usefull.

The subject of Digital Waveguides (and much more on sound and DSP) has been deeply researched by Julius O. Smith III (et al) at CCRMA at Stanford University. Much of this research is published in great detail, free of charge. Some of it may be licenced or even patented.

The VCV Rack Development guide on DSP at

also points to his homepage and work at CCMRA Stanford

Julius Orion Smith III
Professor Emeritus
Music and by courtesy Electrical Engineering
CCRMA Home Page
JOS Home Page
Global JOS Index
JOS-Hosted On-Line Publications
Taxonomy of Digital Synthesis Techniques

And CCRMA Stanford and Julius O. Smith are not the only ones researching and publishing great stuff…

Anyway…

Maybe just start with the basics of a small (1 x 1, 2 x 2…max 8 x 8) 2D Waveguide Mesh and its variables and configurations. Waveguides are computionally very efficient (in terms of Physical Modelling) but nonetheless, the computational resources needed can soon multiply (exponentially) with size and complexity of the mesh.

Physical Modeling with the 2-D Digital Waveguide Mesh

Recently I (re)tried my luck at plugin development. I actually did set up a VCV Development environment on my machine and messed with some code. The main trigger to do this was because as of last November (2022) AI (Large Language Models, notably ChatGPT at that time) seemed to be able to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and c++ coding skills…

I have been messing with the internals of some existing Modal/Waveguide plugins (e.g. NOI Sinesis, Sckitam WaveguideDelay, docB MVerb, Frequency Domain Dance This Mesh Around and such). But I just lack the technical skills (and time to invest) to realize my ideas (GUI and internals). Currently I can’t even adapt and combine existing modules/code with the help of AI LLM’s and resources on the Wild Wild Web towards something fundamentally adding something to what already exists…

Altough, about AI/LLM’s and developing/coding

The current AI’s/LLM’s are a lot more plentiful and powerful then a year or even months ago and are still making progress at exponential (and alarming) rates. They are not only becoming evermore helpful as a knowledge base and code generator (and verifier/optimizer). They are also more and more able to (cross) translate from/to other languages (both human spoken and programming languages). Thus opening up knowledge and projects in other languages then your own and c++.

Maybe I will give it another try later…by just using AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP)/LLM prompts and other modes. And just explain what i want and sketching GUI’s and have an AI generate the code. And use Voice Recognition/Processing modes to complain in realtime about unexpected results…

1 Like

Having more fun with my new chaotic oscillator modules Frolic and Glee.

I approached this as a fixed-rack performance: first I made the rack without knowing what it’s like to perform it. Then I saved the file and decided I’m only going to perform the patch, not change it. From now on, I must learn the rack as an instrument, for better or worse, and perform it as its own type of instrument, on its own terms.

The inspiration for this game was something I once read: “Constraints enhance creativity.” When your scope is limited and there are fewer variables for you to deal with, you have an opportunity to experience a creative flow with very fun results.

4 Likes

Another fixed rack design, this time focused on fun rhythms.

1 Like

So true. Constraints promote creativity. Constraints force you to get the most out of what you got. Also teaches you to look at stuff from the perspective of basic properties and behaviours to exploit those to the max. Instead of just working with dedicated tools and using stuff for what it is intended for.

Below, an extreme example of this ‘constraint’ concept by Jakub Ciupinski, who built a complete complex patch out of one single module: the stock VCV VCF.

2 Likes

I like your disciplined approach to explore what you can do with a single fixed rack. I know Omri Cohen, among others, recommends that approach. I’ve only done that with two patches, both being emulations of hardware: My Benjolin patch(es) and Subharmonicon patch(es). Both are definitely fun instruments on their own.

Your recent posts inspired me to explore Sapphire again. This video uses Frolic and Glee as the sole sources of both CV modulation and audio (with some help of Tube Unit, Venom modules, and Squinky F2 filter).

I don’t think I have ever created a satisfying patch without having some preconceived constraints, or fundamental concept that I want to explore. I think this is my most Draconian self imposed patch constraint to date - use nothing but AirWindows for VCP challenge #75. I ended up using 81 instances, nearly half of which are used to construct a 4 channel mixer with a pair of aux sends/returns.

But lately I am more interested on seeing what can be done with a limited number of modules (limiting both type and quantity), much like Don’s recent patches.

1 Like