But I wanted something that more closely emulated the features of the Moog hardware. Boy what a can of worms! The Labyrinth does not self resonate, so swapping in a State Variable filter for a Steiner Parker was easy. Creating my own anti-aliased wave folder with two stages of folding followed by saturation wasn’t too bad. But creating the sequencer – Oh My! The sequencer alone more than doubled the size of Omri’s original patch. By the time I was finished, only the VCO section remained – everything else had been replaced or heavily modified.
The end feature set is very similar to the actual hardware. There are some features missing, especially the option to chain the two 8 step sequencers into one 16 step. But there are also some enhancements. The differences are all described within the patch notes.
The emulator is a joy to work with – I have gotten lost “within the Labyrinth” for hours. I imagine it would be even more amazing if mapped to a midi controller.
Have fun exploring…
P.S. - I am seriously considering using this emulation as a prototype for creation of a complete “Generative Maze” all-in-one module. I am hoping this will be my first attempt at creating a premium module (not free). I’ve thought about splitting it out into a set of modules, but everything is so interconnected that I struggled with how to do that.
Let me know what you all think.
Don’t worry, I still have lots of ideas for free Venom modules.
You are getting some sweet sounds out of this. And I love the idea of prototyping complex modules using a patch made of simpler modules. Using PatchMaster to create a simplified interface is cool too; I intend to study and use it more in the near future.
Thanks. Yeah, My folder is much cleaner and more symmetric than the hardware. I tried a bunch of wave shapers, and couldn’t find anything similar.
When I watch demos with scopes, it looked like two stages of folding with saturation afterward. But the steep fold “ramps” are jagged - kind of stair stepped. After saturation sets in there is a sudden bit of shallow additional folding near the extreme setting.
Most of the folders I looked at had either way too many fold stages, or else too much sharp folding at the onset of folding. The Repelzen Re-Fold is similar to what I built, but it is even smoother, and the saturatioin affects the shape even when no folding is applied.
One other thing I want to change is the envelope. Moog claims the rise is instantaneous, but that can’t be. My emulation is too clicky when listening to the pure sine wave. I think I will set the attack to a bit over 0.01, and also apply a minimum to the decay.
The envelope attack was a contributing factor for the unwanted clicks, but the biggest culprit was the sharp velocity changes. Adding a bit of slew via a low pass filter solved that problem.
Is it possible that they wait for the waveform to be zero before the attack, so that it can be “instantaneous”?
Also, so the mini moog was famous for the “snappy” envelopes, that actually have a flat top between the attack and decay. I did that in “Kitchen Sink”. Don’t know if Moog kept doing that…
(when I want to eliminate clicks I go for “befaco slew”, sliders at minimum, exp. response all the way CW)
I tried to recreate the envelopes of the original Moog Labyrinth, here the results of my tests:
VCV Rack 2 Pro standalone - ES-9 ASIO - 96 Khz - 64 samples (0.7ms)
on the original Moog Labyrinth env.1 is identical to env.2 (tried at mininum,9,12,3 o’clock and maximum)
Thanks Alessandro. Sheesh - the Moog manual says the envelopes have a max decay of over 5 seconds, but what you have shown is almost 10! I don’t understand why envelope timings in documentation are so often so imprecise.
I’m not too worried about exactly reproducing the sounds, so I simply expanded the EG range to the Bogaudio max of 10 seconds. I ended up applying slew to both the envelope CV (derived from the trigger strength), and the final envelope via low pass filters. I am much happier not hearing those annoying clicks while listening to a sine.
I’m curious what you can come up with for the wave folder, though again, I’m not too worried about it. Even though my emulator wave folder doesn’t sound like the Moog, I like the sounds it is producing.
Version 1.1 is now available with the following changes
Eliminated envelope clicks that were especially noticeable when listening to a pure sine. Also lengthened the maximum envelope length.
Added new patch bay inputs for Save, Restore, and Randomize triggers
Set the sequencer minimum length to 2 due to limitations of the UI step lights design
Increased the maximum amount of fold gain
And I have a fun short video featuring the new version (though it doesn’t really showcase any of the changes in v1.1)
This is the exact combination I used in my emulation, based on descriptions of the hardware being a state variable filter that does not self oscillate. I agree it does sound great.
Interesting that band pass filter is used for all colors, so noon is not quite white noise.
You have combined the oscillators with the mixer functionality.
Nice to have Labyrinth component patch examples that closely emulate the sound of the Moog hardware, but I am happy with what I have for the oscillators and noise.
I especially like the distortion that the Squinky Labs Colors red noise provides when mixed with the oscillators.
Yeah - the wave folder is a tough nut. Visually the double fold looks closer to me than the single fold. But I don’t have the hardware to live compare.
The folder should not modify the signal if fold amount is fully counter-clockwise. So I attenuate the input a bit to keep it sinusoidal to start (assuming sine input).
Rather than average the three signals, you might try using a mixer and attenuating them. I should think the mix should favor the folder.
The VCA should definitely come after the wavefolder circuit (same with the filter) - that is how the Moog manual schematic shows it. I think that would solve some of your issues, such as lost transient, and changing behavior based on input.
in the real machine, the only way to avoid listening to the WF section is to BLEND the signal totally to the VCF.
if some signal is sent through the WF, even at level zero, you will hear it
Oh I know it still passes through the folder, but in the review videos it looked to me like it does not modify the signal when the fold amount is at zero. Starting with your patch I was able to achieve that by using the mixer as I said, and attenuating the input a bit.
I was looking for tutorials about this Moog Labyrinth, just to understand how it works. And I discovered your patch. Excellent! What a huge work you made. And it works perfectly. Thank you that.
I’m working now on your modules, how it works. Really interesting.
Thanks again. Alain (Synthé Buel)
and the interface is extremely cool as well…I love it!
