I’m on a roll! Here’s another one I finished today, it’s an automatic volume swell which adds a couple of quantised synth voices when you play a note. Wait, there’s more! Special offer! For a limited time only, get these dodgy effects completely free, and also get a free patch-from-scratch VCV ‘shimmer’ reverb.
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Oooh - I need to try the sync effect with my Native American flutes. I’ll post something if I get good results. I suspect it will work well, given that the flute waveform is very sine like. I think I will try using the flute as an FM operator as well - it might work really well with the Neoni.
I don’t think the volume swell makes much sense with my flutes - they naturally swell with breath control. But it sounds gorgeous with the guitar.
Thanks, I would love to hear that. I was thinking flute or violin could work, anything with sustain really. Lots of fun to be had patching audio into modulation inputs! You mentioned FM, that’s another good one, also using the instrument signal to change filter cutoff at audio rate, etc. Quite often you just get noise or distortion, but it’s always worth exploring. Flute into a clock divider is worth a try, makes a really filthy octave effect. All my effects are guitar orientated, but most of them would work with other instruments. The next video will be guitar into tuned resonators…
Cheers,
Ed
Many Yamaha synths had Breath control.
The DX7 (and subsequent SY and other synths) had it
Yamaha DX7 with Breath Controller (BC1)
They actually created one of the first physical modeling synths with Breath controll in mind, the Yamaha VL-1
Yes, a demo with japanese language comments. But the sound is language independent. And he has many other great demos on Youtube.
YAMAHA VL1 Demo & Review
I tried the sync effect on one of my Native American flutes, and… … I like it! I recorded a hastily prepared loop just as a proof of concet. I definitely want to dive deeper into this territory. Thanks Ed!
I also tried the swell effect, and that was surprisingly satisfying as well. Before trying it out, I forgot how much dynamics affect the pitch of the Native American flute. So besides giving a wider dynamic range then pure acoustic, it also changes the character of the swell. So I may explore this some more as well.
Indeed, sounds very interesting. Adds an extra layer of intricate details without distorting the original beyond beauty/recognition.
The complex and dynamic characters of many acoustic instruments are indeed great as a modulation source.
Too bad I never learned to play any ‘real’ instruments…
But thankfully, there is sampling/recording, so we can (re)use other peoples musical skills…
Yep the flute sounds great through that patch, thanks for posting Dave! Kwurqx, with some of my patches you don’t really need any ability, that’s the best part - the patch does the work. The auto swell is a good example, you can just play one note, even an open string and it generates a big ambient sound automatically. I tend to focus on sound design more than music, because I’m fairly crap at basic concepts like writing melody, chord progressions or playing in time!
Here’s the shimmer patch if anyone just wants the reverb on its own:
Ed
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Thanks for the links. That VL1 is amazing!
I am imagining the expressive control that would be available if a breath controller were combined with the Haken Continuum!
As far as I can tell, the EaganMatrix (sound engine for the Continuum) has yet to be combined with a breath controller. But it is coming (has arrived?) to Eurorack!
Somehow, Breath Control (CC2 in MIDI) did not really take off. Still, surprisingly few Breath Control devices. And (maybe because of that) still pretty pricy too.
Though there is second hand/pre owned supply too (ebay.com and such).
But, in VCV/Modular, we does not have to translate audio to MIDI first. You could use audio into and pitch and envelope followers and such, to transform from audio to V/Oct and other control signals.
Entrian Pitch and Envelope Follower seems to do both (have not tried…)
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I found the pitch tracking didn’t work very well with the Entrian module, but the envelope follower was my favourite. Try Nysthi P2V instead, that’s actually usable if you play carefully. I’ll probably do a guitar synth patch with it at some point!
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Yes, I found the same - Entrian did not track pitch particularly well, but P2V was amazingly good. Surprisingly, the Hot Tuna from Nysthi also can track pitch and output V/Oct, but it does not track as well as P2V.
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I’m gonna have a good look into this thread. Thanks (all) for (all) past and future contributions!
Since I’m terribly incompetent in the field of playing any physical/acoustic instruments, I am pretty much limited by what is achievable with synth/FX programming/control controlled by DAW/sequencers and such. And in VCV all sorts of more basic/elementary constructive and generative concepts as well.
Generally with all this precise machine control, it takes all sorts of tricks to make sound/music more dynamic/interesting. Generally a balancing act between predictability and unpredictability, order and chaos, applied to the time, amplitude and frequency/spectral domains. Also doesn’t help that I have no formal background in any music theory.
But…
Of course there is the fun, curiosity and learning aspect of all this. Alas, just getting yourself all the right tools is not enough. As always, it’s as much about the cook as it is about the kitchen. Getting yourself the highest quality canvas, paints and brushes does not make you a high quality painter.
At some point you need (ever more) knowledge and experience to get you where you wanna go. To both fill your toolbox and know how to use these tools. In all sort of intended and/or unintended ways. This thread definitively supports and promotes this kind of creative process.
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Many variables determine the usability for each tool for specific scenario’s. Each has its pros and cons even if ‘at first sight’ they would ‘do the same’.
E.g. in the thread (below) on PWM / PDM, the PWM implementation of various oscillators yield very different results. In this case probably because of unintended use: PWM at audiorates.
An interesting effect BTW…along with many other signal encoding/decoding algorithms (that can be used and abused).
In another thread I used Sckitam WaveguideDelay, so you can use any oscillator (and potentially any signal) as a Phase Modulation (“FM”) carrier/operator.
Maybe give that a try as an effect.
This module can be a building block for many other effects.
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Yep, I already had plans to try the waveguide PM on my flute. Of course I have LOTS of plans. We’ll just have to see which ones see the light of day, and how long it takes
Haha, same here…
As the description of the WaveguideDelay already states, many effects can be realized using the humble Delay…
Both for a single oscillator/signal as relative phase for multiple (at least 2) oscillators/signals.
You could even do audiorate PWM with any pair of SAW’ oscillators by using the Delay to control the relative phase of SAW and inverted SAW.
Of course you ‘should’ use a pair of perfect SAW’s (to get nice and geometrically nice and straight and ‘rectangular’ pulses). But you could try relative phase shifting at audiorate for any pair (or more) of oscillators/signals.
Thanks, this is an amazing idea! I’ve used the Waveguide delay module before to make chorus/flange but didn’t know you could do this. Gave it a quick try earlier and with VCOs you can get really complex waveforms. With guitar, I just patched a sample in with an old loop and sent the audio output to the delay input, so the audio was modulating its phase with itself, if that makes any sense. I need to read up and understand what’s happening, but it sounds a lot like waveshaping. You get this kind of nice soft phasey distortion which is cool.
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Running the delayed/phasemodulated signal coming from the WaveguideDelay in parallel (mixed in) with the ‘raw’ signal? And phase modulating itself?
I assume the Waveguide output signal is phase shifting the input guitar signal at audiorate, controlled by the amplitude of the same guitar signal (by modulating the delay amount/time at audiorate). That would result in a ‘vanilla’ Phase Modulation (‘FM’) feedback loop, but with an unusual operator.
Refererring to in my beforementioned 'any oscillator as a FM carrier/operator video. You ‘just’ replaced the oscillator(s) with some other signal generator/source and created a feedback loop. Effectively resulting in just one ‘operator’ with feedback, being your guitar signal (I assume).
Mixing the result with the raw signal you do get phaser effects (though modulating/shifting at audiorate). Imagine you replace the ‘usual’ cyclic fixed shape and frequency sine/tri LFO (modulator) with an audiosignal. So, with the modulator running at audiorate. And in case of a guitar signal, the (modulator) amplitude, shape and frequency is changing all the time.
If are you using the output of the WaveguideDelay to modulate the Delay (amount), as I assume you do, you effectively have PM (‘FM’) feedback. Where, as is pretty usual in modulation, the amplitude of the modulation signal determines the amount of modulation, In this case the amount of ‘feedback’.
The resulting (feedback looped) signal (coming out of the WaveguideDelay) soon generates really complex spectral content, spectrally/shapewise very different from the original signal. So mixing that back in with the original can not really be called a phaser, since normally phasers relatively shift phase of 2 or more copies of the same signal, as opposed to 2 or more different signals. But definitely a phaser effect.
Relative phase shifting causes similar effects to PWM (sort of comb filtery effects). As mentioned before, relative phase shifting saw and inverted saw even translates to PWM.
Anyway…
Great to see creativity and exploration at work…
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Kwurqx, here’s how I patched it.
Moving the delay knob to the left produces increasing amounts of waveshaping distortion. Any chance you could share the patch in your video? I got some interesting sounds using VCOs but couldn’t see exactly how you’d patched it.
Cheers
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In my ‘Phase Modulation (any Oscillator) using Waveguide Delay’ video I just do ‘vanilla’ Phase Modulation. Where one VCO/operator modulates another (#3 mods #2 mods #1= carrier in that example).
Basic 2 operator/oscillator Phase Modulation: Connect an(y) oscillator into the In of the WaveguideDelay (acting as the ‘Carrier’) and connect an(y) oscillator to the Delay (input) of the WaveguideDelay (acting as the ‘Modulator’). The Phase Modulated output can be picked up from the Out of the WaveguideDelay.
In your patch, you have the guitar signal connected to the In input (as a carrier) AND to the Delay input (as a modulator). Effectively the guitarsignal replaces both of the usual VCO/operators (most often simple sine generators). Effectively can be seen as using 2 of the same synced complex and dynamic operator/oscillators. One (copy) as the carrier and one (copy) as the modulator at ratio 1:1.
As in my example video you could add a VCA between your signalgenerator (in this case the guitar signal) and the Delay. This way you can control the amount of modulation. Both static (set and forget) and dynamic (voltage controlled).
Might be that adding an (inverted) envelopefollower is an option here (following the amplitude of the guitarsignal) to help control the modulation amount. Louder input will result in more modulation, which could then be dampened by the inverted envelope follower. Modulating a complex signal with another complex (and high amplitude) signal will soon get you into FM Noise territory.
You can also create feedback loops. Connecting the Out back into In and/or into Delay (using a mixer before the inputs to sum/mix the original guitar signal and the feedback signal). You will need to add VCA’s controll-limit the feedback amount or you will soon get into FM Noise territory (even sooner). If you use something like the Fundamental mixer you get a VCA per channel and a VCA at the main output.
You could also put a compressor/limiter in the modulation path to dampen the modulation amount. And/of a Low pass filter (or crude fast slew limiter) to limit the high frequency amounts in the modulation signal.
Remember that Phase Modulation generates sum and difference frequencies for all frequencies in both signals (where difference frequencies ending up below 0 Hz are reflected back into the audible spectrum, but at inverted phase). So, spectral wise, things can get out of hand real quick when using complex spectra as carriers and/or modulators. Especially at (dynamic and potentially) high modulator amplitudes.
All this without changing the ratio beyond 1:1 yet, which you could try, e.g by using a pitch shifter or similar ‘detuner’ on the modulator signal
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