cwm: Atze

[roy thinnes]

Any self-respecting additive synth should be able to manage a minimum of 32 harmonics. Any less and the proper term for it is 'an organ'. (Paul Wiffen, SOS Magazine Oct.1997)

despite Paul's carved-in-stone words I dared to make an additive synth (Organ ) which just can handle half of Paul's minimum requirements! here it goes:



characteristics:
2x8 multiOSCs sine/tri/sawUp/sawDn/pulse
4 VCAs which can be controlled by EGs or LFOs
4 pan and panMod controls
2 stereo 12dB multi filters (serial or parallel) with filter drive
4 adsr EGs
4 multi resp. sine LFOs (switchable; use simple sine to save dsp resources)
1 VCA at the end of the signal chain ( EG1-4 switchable)

preset lists for
Harmonics, Detune, Level; Filter settings; Harmonics 1-8; Harmonics 9-16; Detune 1-8; Detune 9-16; Harmonic levels 1-8; Harmonic levels 9-16

special features:
- randomize function for Harmonics, Detune and Harmonic levels
- 8 preset "Variations": all parameters controlled by blue knobs (Harmonics, Detune, HLevel, pan, Gain1-4, filter settings) are stored in "Variations".
in other words you have sudden access to 8 variations of a preset.
- smooth fading between Variations. if wanted, parameter values can smoothly change their state when you select a new Variation.
the fade time can be controlled by the "dez" and "dezH" (for Harmonics) controls in the General settings area on top of the synth.

audio examples (pure synth output w/o fx):
DarkMachine
HopePad
Perc seq
Pulse pad
Saw synth
Sine pad
Strange Organ
all examples show different *variations* of one preset.

download: here!

[next to nothing]

From the audio examples, this sounds VERY good! I'll jump on it when i get back home from work.

[David]

Wow! Thank you. This sounds amazing and it's a good small size too.
The preset lists are comprehensive, I'm having loads of fun flipping between them all to get as many combinations possible. The switchng between them is so smooth.
I get some real mean sounds out of this and then with a few changes it becomes dreamlike. I'm lost in it. Cheers

[dawman]

Boy I am glad I don't have a job........
This looks really nice Roy. I got a big cup of Java and hours to go before I sleep.......

Thanks.

JAV

[netguyjoel]

I love the OSC switches...this looks really nice! Thanx

[dawman]

I have never had an Additive synth, but did really like the Camel Audio Chameleon demo my friend did for me.
This is really very cool and reminds me of a Hammond Organ, except it's a synth.
I always was asking people what made those synth sounds and the beginning of the movie " Terminator ", and nobody ever knew, but it had to be a form of Additive synthesis because this has that sound quality.
I took the Saw Pad and then starting re assigning the harmonics and gains to have their own EG's.
It's fairly easy to understand after a little trial and error attempts.
Very tailored sounds can be made and damn this thing has some high output I guess because your adding everything instead of subtracting.... ........Really now.
I found that the Atze Level 1-8 had a blank Bank name, so after looking at the preset file structure I figured I would name the bank Harm1-8....seemed appropriate.

untitleda.JPG

Very Nice Synth Roy.....Thanks So Much.

[next to nothing]

Nice fresh sound here!

One niggle; i just can't seem to tame the Voices selection button. I can't push-and-drag, Double click gives me DSP overload, one click then arrow makes me able to type the number of voices. Could this be improved?

[greenbluegold]

Thanks Roy! You've made so many great contributions to the scope platform. I'm looking forward to playing with the new synth.

[hifiboom]

cool, i love the sound of the pulse pad... its kind of fat.
reminds me of pads like andromeda or something like that.

[JLS]

Many thanks Roy

This is great synth

[David]

Nice fresh sound here!

One niggle; i just can't seem to tame the Voices selection button. I can't push-and-drag, Double click gives me DSP overload, one click then arrow makes me able to type the number of voices. Could this be improved?

I've had this same problem adjusting the voices too but ended up thinking it was a one voice synth as it was already creating many harmonics.

I've spent the afternoon enjoying the synth with just one voice and now you've said it has more voices (and I've just noticed there were 3 voices used on the picture) it's like a whole new synth.

Cheers

[Tau]

I can confirm the number of voices issue. I actually thought that button and number had to do with the MIDI channel, so when I tried to change it to channel 3, my system crashed... Otherwise, everything seems to be working very well, and it does have a very nice sound!

Thanks, Roy!


T

[Gatam]

To change the number of voices is ok here.
i tried up to 5 voices (Select, type a number and hit enter) on a 2 Scope pro + 1 Pulasr II systeme
Very nice and evolving sounds
Thanks a lot

[netguyjoel]

How much DSP is this thing using on your rig??

I have never had an Additive synth, but did really like the Camel Audio Chameleon demo my friend did for me.
This is really very cool and reminds me of a Hammond Organ, except it's a synth.
I always was asking people what made those synth sounds and the beginning of the movie " Terminator ", and nobody ever knew, but it had to be a form of Additive synthesis because this has that sound quality.
I took the Saw Pad and then starting re assigning the harmonics and gains to have their own EG's.
It's fairly easy to understand after a little trial and error attempts.
Very tailored sounds can be made and damn this thing has some high output I guess because your adding everything instead of subtracting.... ........Really now.
I found that the Atze Level 1-8 had a blank Bank name, so after looking at the preset file structure I figured I would name the bank Harm1-8....seemed appropriate.

untitleda.JPG

Very Nice Synth Roy.....Thanks So Much.

[roy thinnes]

thanks to all for your comments!
-yes Jimmy, I forgot to name the harmonics 1-8 preset list, thanks for the hint. btw I too once tried the Camel demo and was quite impressed (and a little bit embarrassed that I cant do something like that with ScopeSdk).
-and yes, maybe the Voices input was a little bit confusing, so I changed the GUI a little bit (download under the same link, see first post).
..and hey, I forgot to thank some people: Shroomz (MidiPrgmChange a.o.), zangsta (early beta testing), and, last not least: Kamil (for his everlasting Modular ideas - without some ModularSynth knowledge I wouldn't be able to develop Scope devices).

@netguyjoel:
just saw your reply. the downside of additive synthesis is: you need loads of dsps. for a single Atze voice + DynamicMixer you will need ~4 dsps.

[Shroomz~>]

Cool synth Roy!

How much DSP is this thing using on your rig??

You'll get 1 voice on a 3 dsp card & 2 voices on a 6 dsp card, although on 6 dsps it's only using about 4.5, so there's some room to spare.

Edit:- Roy answered the question first.

~Mark

[netguyjoel]

I NEED MORE DSP!!!!! MORE I SAY!!! MORE!!!! MORE!!!!! MORE!!!!!

[dawman]

BrothaRini Joel,

I started w/ a single Project card w/ a mixer for Gigastudio and FX provided by management and a KeyTech years ago. His custom effects and some stock CWare mixers impressed me so much I started using the B2003.
I knew my days w/ management were drawing near so I started replacing hardware effects and synths/B3 w/ more Scope cards.
I only have 2 x SE-1X's and a hardware reverb w/ Rotary Cabinet now.
One can understand my excitement about this as I have a fine replacement for a large hardware touring rig by using 9 x Scope Pro's eventually.
But this set up covered synths, effects, an entire FOH and Monitoring crew, etc.

To really enjoy these great creations you really need another single Pro. But trust me, you will still want more as they are truly addicting.
Just to enjoy high quality mixing and synths you should really get 2 x more Pro's to bolster your Project card.
But that's if you want to record everything in one pass. Just adding another Pro would get you a good start.

I can use 6 voices of Atze which is perfect actually as I usually use 4 or 5 voices, but really enjoy the free running envelopes by having the extra headroom to avoid voice stealing and envelope shut offs.

BTW Roy, this is your finest creation IMO, and to all who were involved....Thanks Again.

[next to nothing]

For DSP usage, I am maxing out 9 DSPs with 4 voices (plus a spacef mixer in the projectwindow) which is fine considering the qualities of the synth.

[nightscope]

Hi Roy,

Thanks muchly for this gizmo. I really like it, sounds great to me. Just what I needed at this point in time.

Great stuff.

ns