I took another whack at the Venom HQ patch, only this time with VCO Unit as my main voice. It was fun to use audio-rate feedback AFTER feeding the audio through reverb (Galaxy). It resulted in a “gritty” but “smooth” sound.
I also added Sapphire Chaops as a sort of chaotic sequencer for Frolic. I had to manually enter 16 different starting locations into Chaops memory before recording this patch video, so that Frolic could teleport to locations I thought sounded good.
I’m calling it Cartesian Modulation. I don’t think this has been done before and I’m excited to slap a MIDI input and Envelope on this and make a playable synth!
Yeah, Inspiring stuff. 3D Modulation sources combined with harmonic series and FM/AM.
I’ve been patching up some stuff using some of the 3D Sapphire attractor modules (Frolic, Glee, Lark, Chaops) and Venom HQ to control 3 modulated and inter/cross modulating Bogaudio FM OP oscillators (…integrated ADSR).
Ever changing notes, harmonies and timbres. Chopped up and spread over time units using Bernoulli switches and Sample&Hold.
Resulting in way too many hours of fun…
Patch examples/elements:
An attractor controls the (output)levels for each of the 3 FM OP’s (using offset and scale to prevent to much low amplitude/silence). The FM OP’s outputs are fed forward into the FM input of another FM OP (circular), thus intermodulating each other where the FM amount is effectively the FM OP output level and the ratio and note is determined by frequency (via HQ and V/Oct) of the modulating FM OP’s output signals (FM amount limited to the max amount set on by FM OP Depth).
So, depending on each of the FM OP’s output levels at any time you will have 1, 2 or 3 operator stacks where each FM OP is both a carrier (sent to audio output, audible) and a feedforward modulator for each ‘next’ FM OP, and effectively a full feedback loop if all levels are non-zero.
An attractor output p (xyz) fed into HQ In to select harmonic ranks and thus control the V/Oct of each of the 3 OP’s, selected/changed via Sample&Hold, triggered by Bernoulli switches. Effectively changing the relative ratios between the FM OP’s when triggered. Thus changing timbre/spectrum with emphasis on varying harmonic rank related regions.
One of the Attractors output channels is fed through a VCA and Quantizer and used to control musical pitch (and pitch range) for all FM OP’s (via HQ) Root. For fun some slew can be added after the quantizer. All this determines notes played. Other Bernoulli switches clocked at other rates do the selecting/changing of notes (using S&H) and the gating/triggering for each FM OP ADSR Envelope.
The FM OP’s outputs are all mixed. And some stereo delay and some L/C/R channel spread is added.
An attractor can control other parameters like panning of the FM OP’s and/or feedback amount (limited to avoid to much chaos/FM-digital noise).
For fun, the FM OPS outputs are also (in parallel) fed into 2 ML Octatimes where the FM OP output signals are multiplied (AM) in various configurations. The final result can be multiplied by a pure sine tuned by the same V/Oct as the FM OP’s, but musically/harmonically detuned (e.g. octave or octave-and-a-half below). Both panned out toward L/R. All this still follows harmonic/musical ratios.
Some Lowpass filtering might help with taming possible shreeking highs that might occur at higher harmonic driven modulation/timbres. You could also introduce inverse V/Oct controlled VCA’s at the FM OP’s inputs and/or outputs to control some of the highs. Or add VCF or (fast) slew to modulation signals in the chain to restrict excessive highs (due to FM induced even higher sideband frequencies). Or just restrict the FM Depth some more.
Finally output of FM OP’s (via mixer) and the Octatimes (bottom output) are sent towards the audio output where some generous reverb is added.
For some visual fun, connect the FM OPS outputs to Saphire Tin/Tricorder and watch the dancing interrelated 3D wavepatterns.
I would really like to see some video and/or patch examples. It sounds interesting, and having a patch to compare with your text would be much more instructive. Probably deserves its own topic as well.
I don’t always save patches, but I just created and uploaded a YouTube video of some random save state. This state can probably be simplified by exploiting polyphony more.
20250226 Kwurqx - 3D Modulation and Harmonic ratios FM AM
Timbres/spectra in the example patch state in the video don’t vary wildly. If you connect some FM OPs and Octatimes up more like this temp.vcv example it will generate way more variation in timbres/spectra.
EDIT. First forgot to add AM (Octatime). Then Forgot to add a gate for the FM OP sine into Octatime. This temp POC is more complete. Octatimes has a x1 or /10 switch. Switch that to x1 for more AM effect (watch amplitudes…)
