Tone2 Rayblaster: OUT NOW! (demo version available)

[pdxindy]

@Ingo,
Yeah RB is a great atmospheres/pads machine, however, it would help to have at least one multi-stage envelope and/or a smoothing parameter for the Arp/gate steps to get a smooth transition between all steps (something like this is available in Halion Sonic's arp).

1 multi stage envelop would be really useful cause even if you have a smoothing on the arp steps, the smoothing would be for all steps whereas the MSE you can make each step smooth or sharp.

I'd kinda like to have a regular filter too... Sometimes I end up with a sound I really like and would like to sculpt it more but the formant and damp control in that case may not be at all useful for that

I find it kinda hard to get predictable results. But I think part of that is from working with a demo and not being able to save and work further on a sound than the 20 minutes...

[Sendy]

I've been wanting a simple filter as well. Sometimes you get an interesting sound from certain settings but it's too bright, or you want the sound to start bright and end dull. If your oscillator is tied up making a different timbral effect, you don't have many options. The damp knob works well sometimes, and I actually like the steppiness of it (lo-fi fun), but even a nonresonant LPF would make things a bit easier in these cases.

Same thing with PD synths and anything else where the filtering is done in the waveform. Sure you don't "need" a filter, but sometimes you get an interesting sound and just want a darker version of it.

I'm going to try putting the Drop after it, that should be pretty amazing. The Drop responds really well to sending it the same midi as the instrument it's on, it's pretty much like bolting a filter onto any synth with it's own LFOs and envelope, the caveat being of course that you can only do paraphonic-style filtering.

I'm also a fan of the three types of noise you can add in Rayblaster. Things can get even nastier if you set the window type to "off", you can hear all the grunge and artifacts that the windowing normally removes. With LFO's etc you can get a sort of rhythmic fizzing. See, this is the sort of thing that just begs to be filtered... a nice VA filter slicing through that fuzz... mmm

[Frantz]

Yep, I want also want a low pass filter on RayBlaster. I programmed a new sound last night but feel like it may be a touch too bright and digital and don't want to damp all the life out of it either. I am going to try sending the RB sound through my hardware tube compressor tonight. Maybe it will get some analog mojo happening.

[himalaya]

I've suggested a separate EQ (separate from the one available in the FX section). One single parametric band would help greatly as the damp parameter is often not enough (or rather, it's too 'drastic'). When it comes to the FX section, the two slots could often be occupied by other effects with no space left for the eq...but if I have one FX slot free I use the EQ there. The mid band has a frequency parameter so that helps.

[himalaya]

You mean the three noise options? I like those too, the 'Formant Noise' especially.

I didn't mean those specifically... just that even without noise added, it is easy to have some nice noise that modulates and works with the overall sound...

I get you. Yes, a lot of subterranean noise can be unearthed there. I've found that negative envelope send values can give some very interesting sounds with lots of 'dark' detail.

[Frantz]

Well, that was a pretty frustrating way to program a sound. I spent two days creating my second patch in Earblaster -- I mean Rayblaster. It took me forever to find the right combination of oscillators, harmonics, windows, modulations, etc. to get the sound I wanted. But no matter what I tried, I couldn't tame the digital brightness without losing the sizzle. So I sent it through TubeStation, a real analog compressor, with a fair amount of distortion and am now reasonably satisfied with the outcome.

However, I have a nagging feeling I could have gotten a similar result with Z3TA+2 in a couple of hours and stayed ITB.

[himalaya]

Have you disabled the psychoacoustic option in the 'Setup' menu? It helps, sometimes. Perhaps reducing the 'Damp' parameter could help too? Obviously, it won't replace a good H/D tube effect.

[Frantz]

Have you disabled the psychoacoustic option in the 'Setup' menu? It helps, sometimes. Perhaps reducing the 'Damp' parameter could help too?

Yes, I shut off psychoacoustics and tried damping but damping can easily remove the good stuff. Thanks for the suggestions.

The problem was this patch wasn't a pad. This patch was for a 16th note arp-like part. I could have programmed a basic sound on any virtual analog and used low pass filtering and external phasing/flanging and gotten a similar result.

I was excited about the RB pad I posted here earlier and wanted to see what I else I could do with it. It was probably a mistake to attempt this kind of sound with RB. It really shines on sustained notes, less so with arps.

[Fritze]

The end of the world according with Rayblaster
Happy ending to all of you, and watch your speakers

IMS Madness


Talking of sounds that can be hardly created on other synths these are just 3 patches playing one after the other picked from some stuff I'm working on.

Really cool! The first two patches really do it for me.

And hey Fritz:

https://soundcloud.com/sendy/blastin-so ... with-tone2


You were saying Sendy should do something with RayBlaster?

Yeah thanx, some interesting sounds in there.

Fritze - since you asked, here's some more stuff I've done:

https://soundcloud.com/sendy/timesplice-industries-test

Is Rayblaster a new type of synthesis? To me, not really.

Plus, if you love PWM, formant and sync effects like I do, you can't go wrong really

Thanx a lot Sendy. Very cool stuff, as expected! You summed it up pretty good for me.

A dark pad - lost on a planet, surrounded by infinite desert.

Hopefully this sound demonstrates that RB is capable of darker timbres.

Dust and Bones

What I like about RB is that it is very easy to bring out those formants ...

Beautiful, I like that.

Here's my first RayBlaster patch. It's a pad sound and I'm just playing a few random chords. I like how much movement you can get within a sound. The patch uses RayBlaster's internal effects. The only external effect is compression.

Fragile Gods "RayBlaster Demo" (2 min 4 sec @ 320kbps)

Nicey!

Overall I like the beautiful lofi sounds that Rayblaster can create. This interesting combination of PWM, Sync and wavetablish things plus the musical noise and alising are really interesting. This reminds me a lot of the things I did with Reaktor in 2000. As I don't have Reaktor anymore available I will give Rayblaster another shot.

[himalaya]

Those three noise options...good for a Sci-fi horror movie perhaps?

(don't play it too loud!)

Fractured Space

That's processed by a compressor, as without it the peaks were a bit too frightening (seriously).

[Fritze]

Those three noise options...good for a Sci-fi horror movie perhaps?

(don't play it too loud!)

Fractured Space

That's processed by a compressor, as without it the peaks were a bit too frightening (seriously).

Aliens Invasion!!! Gorgeous...

[Sendy]

Those three noise options...good for a Sci-fi horror movie perhaps?

(don't play it too loud!)

Fractured Space

That's processed by a compressor, as without it the peaks were a bit too frightening (seriously).

Haha, awesome

Really sounds like space is tearing up. RB is great for abstracts! (just watch out for those crazy volume peaks!)

[himalaya]

Thanks guys. The peaks can be very strong indeed.

I've been sitting here making patches and I'm continuously struck by the fact that when the sweet spot in RayBlaster is found it is absolutely amazing. Sometimes just one oscillator/one wave will produce a huge evolving sound, and I start thinking "how the hell is it doing it"?

One hint to those trying RB. To get some interesting movement and to hopefully uncover new timbres do this:
1. set the ENV1 knob to a minus value (about 9 o'clock)
2. Set the ENV1 Attack knob to about 3 o'clock, Decay to about 3 o'clock, same with Release.
3. Set the Release of the main (Amp) envelope to a similar value as the one in ENV1.
4. Lower the Formant parameter to a suitable setting - one which you find pleasing.

This should result in a very cool sweep. It all depends on the wave loaded. For example 'BellFutrurama' wave is a good start. It may need the Harmonics set to a minus value and the Damp parameter set to reduce the high frequencies...so a lot of fine tuning is needed, but I found that the negative envelope send is a gateway to some very deep sounds.

[Ingonator]

Thanks guys. The peaks can be very strong indeed.

I've been sitting here making patches and I'm continuously struck by the fact that when the sweet spot in RayBlaster is found it is absolutely amazing. Sometimes just one oscillator/one wave will produce a huge evolving sound, and I start thinking "how the hell is it doing it"?

One hint to those trying RB. To get some interesting movement and to hopefully uncover new timbres do this:
1. set the ENV1 knob to a minus value (about 9 o'clock)
2. Set the ENV1 Attack knob to about 3 o'clock, Decay to about 3 o'clock, same with Release.
3. Set the Release of the main (Amp) envelope to a similar value as the one in ENV1.
4. Lower the Formant parameter to a suitable setting - one which you find pleasing.

This should result in a very cool sweep. It all depends on the wave loaded. For example 'BellFutrurama' wave is a good start. It may need the Harmonics set to a minus value and the Damp parameter set to reduce the high frequencies...so a lot of fine tuning is needed, but I found that the negative envelope send is a gateway to some very deep sounds.

Hi Raphael,

thanks for the tips. Already tried some of those but not all together.
Rayblaster is a synth where i seem to learn something new every few days and that after having done a big amount of presets already.

Anyway soon (maybe not too soon) i have to take a little time off from RB and start working with ElectraX again.


UPDATE:

Here is an audio demo based on a preset i just created. It uses two of my own waveforms (created with DNR Wave Designer) and your envelope settings mentioned above (at least for one oscillator):

RayBlaster - Growling Wavelets

This is a single preset and no external FXs added.

The preset does not include any kind of waveform morphing, it just uses envelope modulation of the Formant values (and a little Ring modulation...).



Ingo

[pdxindy]

Here is an audio demo based on a preset i just created. It uses two of my own waveforms (created with DNR Wave Designer) and your envelope settings mentioned above (at least for one oscillator):

RayBlaster - Growling Wavelets

This is a single preset and no external FXs added.

The preset does not include any kind of waveform morphing, it just uses envelope modulation of the Formant values (and a little Ring modulation...).



Ingo

That is a fine sound!