KVR Audio

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 5:11 am

YouTube - SFX Demo

Made this video to demonstrate a synthesizer concept I'd like to bring to reality. Just wondering what kind of responses I'll get.

Edit: This could be a fully featured synth, full midi control (like a monophonic/polyphonic synthesizer). There's a few ways to get the chaos to remain in tune. Either have a preset per midi key, or manipulate the parameters as you go up or down the keyboard. OR simply change the master frequency, usually it will stay in tune by default. You would get interesting behaviors such as octave jumps, harmonic series/locking effects, etc. The sound is unpredictable, but in a good way. Unpredictability could be minimized as well.

Edit2: If you want to try it out or read more: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=140661

Edit3: Just uploaded this: YouTube - Musical Demo

Edit4: By the way if any artists or programmers happen to see this post and feel inspired to help create a VST, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be stumbling around in C++ world, slowly but surely.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:19 am

Man, I'm with you. Had similiar idea for years, but never really found a time to realize it. Not sure, however, how to keep fractal waveform in tune.

I once saw someone on Synthmaker forum make Van der Pol oscillator and it got crazy during frequency sweep, mostly because behavior of chaotic oscillators is nonlinear and cna vary from stable to totall noise.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:25 am

very interesting sounds.

If you managed to turn that into some kind of oscillator, i imagine it could be quite the interesting drone generator.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:41 am

From what I read, you just connected two oscillators in feedback loop, which generates noise different than white noise with classic feedback setup.

My idea was a little bit different: have a function of chaotic map and just sample it across one dimension.

But it doesn't really matter, the question is how to turn that into musically useful synth.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:14 am

DJ Warmonger wrote:But it doesn't really matter, the question is how to turn that into musically useful synth.

Easy, just add midi control, convert midi note to frequency. It may have limited range in some settings, but that is solved by creating key-dependent parameters, so depending on the midi key, it will adjust parameters if needed.

I'll have to do a basic midi demonstration, so I can show that it's not as big of an issue as one might think.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:34 am

some sick shit, mate! will it stick to js or will it see the light as a conventional vst plugin?
can´t wait to get my hands on this baby... oh, and, yes - give it the possibility to be conventionally controlled to also get stable sounds per midi keyboard.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:26 am

brok landers wrote:will it see the light as a conventional vst plugin?

I hope, if I ever have time. I just want this idea to get more exposure. I think a synth like this hasn't been made.

The point of this synth is that you don't spend much time with knobs before you get awesome sonic character and movement. I would add multipoint envelopes, lfos, and whatever else, so that you could use this as a percussive synth, a sound effect synth, and of course, musically. Imagine a chaos bass drum. You could design the patch so at the impulse has a burst of chaotic noise at the transient, then transitions to a more sine tone, but inbetween you get distortions which gives it the "kick." This would also work great for snare sounds.

I would add a "choatic midi generator", so you could ping the chaos... chaotically, for use in atmospheres, drones, and cinematic effects.

I would want this to also be semi-modular, where you could customize the chaos circuit.

Created new video to demonstrate chaos being used for musical purposes: Elan's Chaos Generator - Musical demo

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:36 am

I dont quite get how its controlled, but its making some cool sounds I wouldnt mind playing with..

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 4:02 am

highkoo wrote:I dont quite get how its controlled, but its making some cool sounds I wouldnt mind playing with..

lol uhhhh.... dang... maybe I need to do a video dedicated to explaining the controls. Firstly, I'm not entirely sure how it's controlled either, because it's chaos... but that's kind of the point. That being said, if I was to make a fully-featured VST, there would be a big emphasis in:

"twiddle some knobs... do you like what you hear? SAVE! twiddle some knobs again. SAVE! now morph between those two presets up and down the keyboard, or trigger them with keyswitches, or morph via LFOs or envelopes"

In other words, it may not be obvious how to get this or that sound, but I would do my best to make it easy to control once you do hear something you like. Edit: Oh and of course, it'd come with plenty of presets!

There are some general tricks/rules when working with this synth. There's already so much sonic exploration you can do with this simple design.. but I do want to add additional oscillators and filters, and allow for switching between different "chaos" setups. This would add even more sonic possibilities.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:43 pm

This looks like an interesting concept. I hope it gets to see the light of day!

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:47 pm

This is really cool! Is it on the REAPER stash? Will it be?

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 5:10 pm

I could put it on the REAPER stash, are you having trouble downloading from my webspace? Link is at the top now. It used to be at the bottom of the post. I updated yesterday. It's easier not to have to go through REAPER stash for updates.

Edit: Referring to this post: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=140661

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:28 am

Oh, sorry. Didn't see it was available on the forum. The question behind my question was, "is it available to try?"

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:43 am

By the way if any artists or programmers happen to see this post and feel inspired to help create a VST, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be stumbling around in C++ world, slowly but surely. (will add this to first post)

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:03 am

WORK IN PROGRESS GUI (for VST)

comments, criticisms?

-ADSR knobs will be dual purpose, will control shape and time. Those knobs are the default ones from SkinMan, placeholders.
-Screens on the right will select the target
-Box screens in the bottom middle will be to select LFO shape sine/square/saw/etc. But the shape knob will be for additional shaping. I even want to do a CHAOS LFO! The shape control will then give you various chaotic behaviors.
-The 8 controls at the upper left will be nice and big so you can get extremely fine control which is really important.
-The giant screen at the lower left will house all the extras, controls, options.

This is just the first iteration, nothing compared to what I have in my head.

Chaos synthesizer for musical and fx application *video*

Chaos synthesizer for musical and fx application video