MPowersynth 9.0 - Aliasing Issues

[miegler]

Hi Meldas,

currenty I am diving deeper into sound design for the MPowersynth. Your preset exchange policy kind of inspired me. Unfortunatley I encountered some inherent aliasing problems (and some other parasitic noise) I would like to be sorted out in future releases.

First of all: I think this synth has a great potential. The oscillators sound brilliant and are aliasing-free in deed.
Well, aliasing-free unless you start modulating them. I could get great and high quality sounds out of this synth as long as i didn't touch any oscillator modulations. After all modulation is a source of building lively and interesting soundscapes, especially for this modulation monster synth. But it doesn't work out well.

1. When using the Transform function nasty aliasing occurs. It starts in the mids as a deep rumble and totally messes the sound in the highs. This can be repaired to some extend by cranking up the Quality or using over-sampling. But then the cpu load is getting way to high. When you start modulating the Transform parameter things are getting even worse. Therefore the Transform function is only applicable for low bass sounds.
2. Modulation also causes bad noise. I automated the blending between Mainshape and Stepsequencer with the mod wheel. During blending parastic noise occurs in the low frequency area and messes up the sound.
3. Interesting fact: If I tweak the oscillator within the Advanced area via the Shape function no aliasing is introduced. But if I start automating this the CPU totally runs havoc. Which makes this option also unusable for automated soundscape movements.

My conclusion so far:
For low frequency sounds (basses low rumbles, drone fx) the modulation possibilities are higly usable.
All other sounds shouldn't use any oscillator modulations unless you definitely want the dirt. Some sounds are usable in the mide range if you set the Quality parameter high enough at the expense of high CPU load.

I hope you can confirm my issues and will work on them. Because this synth has the potential to "smoke them all".

Max

[kokotte]

i prefer a low quality(in global tab) for less aliasing when manipulate the wave(transform), it s strange but it work for me, my cpu like it too

[miegler]

i prefer a low quality(in global tab) for less aliasing when manipulate the wave(transform), it s strange but it work for me, my cpu like it too

Hi kokotte,

You are right! Noise which is induced by manipulating with Transform is reduced on low quality setting (funny enough)! But then the aliasing in the higher registers becomes really nasty. This might be interesting as an effect (dirt etc.), but when playing chord progressions the aliasing noise becomes so overwhelming in the higher registers that the harmonic structure is destroyed.
By the way: I did some further research in this topic. I tested other soft synths (z3ta2, zebra) which also offer modulated wave shaping. Everything is fine here. Modulation noise is not present es well.

Max

[kokotte]

i own zebra, and you can have some noise with ripping too, i think we can have 2 differents noises ,one cause by manipulation(not good) and another come from a non windowing transformation (normal)

[MeldaProduction]

Hi miegler, could you send me some settings? Just click copy in the right bottom side of MPowerSynth (V9.01!) and paste it here or via email (info@meldaproduction.com).
Note, MPS lets you do hardcore things, much more hardcore than any other synth I'm aware of, so at the end it is not that hard to dial settings, that will indeed do something so extreme, that it will just create noise... So I need to check a preset of yours and check if there's a way to make things nicer .

[miegler]

Hi miegler, could you send me some settings? Just click copy in the right bottom side of MPowerSynth (V9.01!) and paste it here or via email (info@meldaproduction.com).
Note, MPS lets you do hardcore things, much more hardcore than any other synth I'm aware of, so at the end it is not that hard to dial settings, that will indeed do something so extreme, that it will just create noise... So I need to check a preset of yours and check if there's a way to make things nicer .

Thanks for the reply. I sent the patch settings to you. I would say, the patch is far from hardcore or extrem.

Max