One Synth Challenge #101: Spiral Generator (Taron Wins!)

[] Peter:H []

ok taron, reported to Robin.

Robin: «Holy green banana synth, Batman. This Synth has a title bar that refuses to be a title bar to that synth...»
Na Na Na Na Na...Batman.

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Sorry for the off topic. For those of you that can't remember...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e ... s_by_Robin and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVfOguNWBw
I want a PowWhackBoffZowie-VST someday...

[Local Man]

Ok, so here is my submission.
Local Man - Spirit Machine
https://soundcloud.com/user-44872685/spirit-machine
This is my first time participating in this contest so please let me know if I am doing anything wrong. I did read and follow the rules very carefully though. This is also my first time using soundcloud so I apologize in advance for any technical difficulties that may result. My track is a pretty straight forward electro-pop piece. I used arpeggiation and layering to generate polyphony and I pretty much let my first interactions/inspirations with Spiral Generator guide the way for the composition.

My DAW is Logic Pro X (10.2.4)
All plugins used are stock Logic plugins with the exception of Limiter No.6 by Vladg.

The instances are as follows:

Spiral Generator x38

Logic:
Arpeggiator x6
Compressor x25
Adaptive Limiter x3
Channel EQ x37
Delay Designer x1
Echo x3
Gain x12
Space Designer x1 (send bus)
Enverb x1 (send bus)
Enveloper x7
Multipressor x3

Vladg:
Limiter No.6 x9

I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think

[Architeuthis]

Spirit Machine, this is a great piece. It has a 70s analog synth vibe, being mostly dry and punchy with funky themes. I could imagine doing a PrettyScope video where I have 4 PrettyScopes each dedicated to a different set of sounds.

[Local Man]

Spirit Machine, this is a great piece. It has a 70s analog synth vibe, being mostly dry and punchy with funky themes. I could imagine doing a PrettyScope video where I have 4 PrettyScopes each dedicated to a different set of sounds.

That would be awesome. While I was making it I was always trying to envision how it would look on the scope since that's kind of Spiral Generator's forte.

[Julian Ray]

Area 51 - my Entry for OSC 101
https://soundcloud.com/soundgalactic/area-51-osc-101

DAW: FL Studio
17 instances of Spiral Generator (including 3 instances for poliphonic pad)
FL Studio native effects (EQ, Reverb, Echo)

Best of luck to everyone
Big thanks to devs for such an interesting synth

[mehum]

Started a playlist to keep track of all the tracks. Have only added final submissions. I'll try to keep an eye on the thread and add any new submissions.

https://soundcloud.com/neophile/sets/on ... 101-spiral

[TrojakEW]

Oh nooo. Monosynth . The biggest problem for me. It is hard to make drums when next note steal prevous one (no drums ensemble ). I suggest to make this synth polyphonic . Why limit to mono. Make a switch to select mono if necessary. For me this is most limiting factor for any synth.

Just done some "first look" test and synth is interesting even quite limited. Interface is simple, easy to understand and type in values are great addition. Envelopes doesnt behave everytime as I would expect. Not sure but it looks like LFO and Envelope override original inst settings? I have expected multiplication from base settings. Velocity mapping to certain parameters also works strange. I also get problem with filters (both HP/LP) not work at all in some settings. Filters are not at end of chain or something like that.

But otherwise nice challenge and I'm afraid of the result (my ). Another interesting and hard round. So much fun ahead...

Some of you are quite speedy. I just test this synth and some have alredy finished tracks.

[Architeuthis]

I suggest to make this synth polyphonic .

The CPU usage would be insane, but maybe I can get Robin to throw in polyphony if it's easy. But I think throwing in polyphony now would be unfair to those who already created a track and I'm inclined to wait on this feature until after CPU usage is dealt with.

Just done some "first look" test and synth is interesting even quite limited. Interface is simple, easy to understand and type in values are great addition. Envelopes doesnt behave everytime as I would expect. Not sure but it looks like LFO and Envelope override original inst settings? I have expected multiplication from base settings. Velocity mapping to certain parameters also works strange. I also get problem with filters (both HP/LP) not work at all in some settings. Filters are not at end of chain or something like that.

I'll have to get some specifics to make any changes. But that would have to be for v3 as these are breaking changes. Also, the real problem is not being able to represent modulation in the interface. The interface needs to be better.

[] Peter:H []

By the way, has anybody watched this - that's where everything is coming from
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... FR-nkfklxw
Here's the Spirals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPUdhm2VE-o

And here's the guy behind the idea: http://www.jerobeamfenderson.net/

This guy and his creations leave me just speachless...

And here's darude sandstorm on Oscilloscope form another guy...this is a whole scene it looks like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMx4ZN3cRso

[generaldiomedes]

The CPU usage would be insane

I am running with probably 25+ simultaneous instances right now (to get polyphony and unison), at very acceptable CPU usage (<20%) at no oversampling on an I7-4720. People can leave oversampling off until final mixdown.

[] Peter:H []

Watch this...me stunned!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM5BW75CKJQ

[RuediRena]

Now this might lead somewhere — maybe ...

Play To The Rescue (Tiny Preview)

Nasty little synth SG! On the verge of going all crazy and clipped!

Have a nice day, guys.

Ruedi

[doctorbob]

@Ruedi .... YEAH!

dB

[zippy731]

Spiral Generator is a righteous beast!

Lots of potential, and beyond OSC I'll definitely keep this one up front in the toolbox for crazy noisemaking for resampling etc.

I've been having some struggles keeping it stable in FL Studio (version 12.4, 64 bit) where it has tended to crash just when it was getting really awesome. Usually when I was playing and tweaking at the same time, SG and FLS would just give up.

My solution to limit crashing in FL Studio at this point is to force it into bridged mode, with multithreading turned off and fixed buffer size turned on. So far so good... with all of these settings, SG seems to behave much better, and I'm back in tweaker heaven.

[Taron]

I must say, I'm having a good time with SG, really! The one thing that makes me smile pretty mischievously is that I'm running into CPU limits with this monophonic synth before I have reached the number of instances I've used with LotS...hmmm...
At least one sort of comforting aspect.

However, I really have no concerning difficulties designing sounds with it, especially percussion are good fun, too. It's almost ironic, considering that it's virtually the opposite of LotS, because you can hardly get a sine like sound with this one and everything sort of brings back memories of the dentist or some hive of insects. It's most definitely an awesome contrast.

I don't know, if I'm entitled to give any advice to you guys, probably because my track will sound likely rather tame, but if you don't want to go nuts, don't go nuts with SG. Just take it slowly and find the sweet spots of what could serve your intended purpose or strikes your liking. Then modulate with care to stay in character and not just sweep across universal madness... you'll find that it's quite an elegant sound source!

Funny tip I just realized: Auburn Panagement has an Oscilloscope built in, which REALLY helps designing "harmless" sounds! This visual feedback is enormously helpful. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, buying Spiral's own beautiful oscilloscope would very likely be VERY worth it!