Synclavier-inspired synth with new phase-mod RazorBlade oscs

[k brown]

. . . Decided not yet ready for prime time, for now, at least.

[R&R]

Spent some time tweaking on it though...

I did notice a few things, probably not even to consider unwanted behaviours. Especially in contrast to my own "only" plugin, which is just FULL of issues

The thing recall right now is...

Clicks.jpg (55.12 KiB) Viewed 23138 times

Seems high resonance creates a click when MEG gets going, which atleast on my laptop sounds more like a unwanted click rather than like a fast attack filter mod.

[k brown]

One of the things being worked out is envelope behavior.

Not sure what you mean by 'high resonance' though, there's no control to increase resonance.

[R&R]

Not sure what you mean by 'high resonance' though, there's no control to increase resonance.

Oops, sorry...
Hmmm. My eyes are giving up. At a glance it looked like resonance input, but I see now when looking again that the green resonance input was unconnected
Figured it was the filter making the click due to resonance increase but I guess not since you are using a selector for resonance...
So it's the actual mod amount then?

[k brown]

It may be the clicking with EG Attack set to minimum that is the issue I'm working on - trying different envelopes.

[k brown]

OK, this is in releasable shape now. FM-Sq.

A simplified approximation of just the FM synth in the Synclavier, not the sampling, workstation, etc.

GUI based on the Yamaha CS-80.

Released just before the DX7, New England Digital's take on FM was just the opposite of Yamaha's. NED in the Synclavier went with sine-only modulators and complex oscs for the Carriers (using additive synthesis). Whereas Yamaha decided on sine-only Carriers (in their first several FM instrumants) and complex wave Modulators made from mixing and/or stacking operators.

With FM-Sq, I went with the RazorBlade oscillators for the Carriers, so one has all the simple-to-complex waveforms of the SQ-80 to serve as the complex oscs for the Carriers (in fact, many of the SQ waves were actually created with additive synthesis). I built a version with RB oscs for the Modulators too, but it was unwieldy CPU-wise, so I went back to sine; closer to the original instrument anyway.

The overall structure here that's from the Synclavier is four Modulator/Carrier pairs that each have their own dedicated Vibrato and Tremolo/Pan LFOs. Plus the powerful feature that NED called 'Chorus' which was actually a second copy of each Carrier that's detuned from very slightly, to intervals from two octaves below to several octaves above.

Also each Mod/Carr pair has dedicated Portamento, Transpose, Keytrack (I also added Pan to each pair).

Other than the use of SQ-80 waves in place of additive oscs for the Carriers, my main deviation is the inclusion of a simple filter for the Carriers, as many of the SQ waves are quite bright. The Modulator EG can be used to sweep the cutoff.

The Delay is capable of Frippertronics; up to 6 sec. The decay time on MVerb 7B has been extended to approximate that of the Taj Mahal.

And, hey - 48 (if not very impressive) presets! To get the MJ "Beat It" sound on the preset "Can't Beat The Thrill", you have to tap a single key, and immediately release it. If you hold the key down the sound will die very quickly.

The forum isn't letting me upload the schem, so you'll need to get it via the Sync.com link.
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/34b8de920/3hfum ... i-ewxw3jvp

[k brown]

For those giving this a quick spin, I thought I'd add here for convenience, the list of the band-lmited waves, which are the most practical and effective ones to use in the Carriers, due to their lower level of upper harmonics:

- PULSE2
- SQR2
- 4OCTS
- PRIME
- BASS2
- EPNO2
- OCTAVE
- OCT+5
- SAW2
- TRIANG

In fact I believe these were originally generated using additive synthesis; one could almost consider these as additive oscillator 'presets', which still give a huge range of FM possibilities.

[k brown]

:D
Spent some time tweaking on it though...

I did notice a few things, probably not even to consider unwanted behaviours. Especially in contrast to my own "only" plugin, which is just FULL of issues

The thing recall right now is...

Clicks.jpg

Seems high resonance creates a click when MEG gets going, which atleast on my laptop sounds more like a unwanted click rather than like a fast attack filter mod.

The click is caused by the EG pushing the cutoff far beyond the fully open point. A range limiter on the filter's mod input has pretty much fixed this.

[R&R]

Top!
Will try it out some more as soon as I get a chance...

[k brown]

For any that may find FM-Sq a bit intimidating, I did this version of NeuOld FM with RB oscs in both the Modulators and Carriers (also much easier on the CPU).

This is structurally closer to the Tone2 Nemsis' 'NeoFM'.

Lordy, I love those Nixie tube displays - I wish more people would put their names inside such cool modules so they can be given credit.

NeuOld FM-s copy.jpg (46.91 KiB) Viewed 22279 times

I am again not being allowed to post the schem for some reason, so will have to get it via the link in my signature.