Xhun Audio : ResonHeart - mechanical synthesizer - updated to version 1.0.7 (sound design toolkit)

[xhunaudio]

Just a side-note : with ResonHeart you *cannot* simulate all existing acoustic instruments - eheh - , it's not its purpose.

Not a "magic machine" capable of everything, but an "aerophone machine" - and thanks to its sound generation architecture, several acoustic instruments "organic flavours" can be achieved.

[xhunaudio]

I would like is to subscribe to an email newsletter for updates on availability.

No problem, if you wish, just send to me your request by email and I'll happy to add you to the mail list manually - currently I have no publicly accessible forms for newsletter subscription.

Or, alternatively (better), you can subscribe on any of Xhun Audio social media (they are also updated much more frequently) - and, seen my small numbers on Twitter and Facebook, any new "follower" is well accepted

[BlackWinny]

Just a side-note : with ResonHeart you *cannot* simulate all existing acoustic instruments - eheh - , it's not its purpose.

Not a "magic machine" capable of everything, but an "aerophone machine" - and thanks to its sound generation architecture, several acoustic instruments "organic flavours" can be achieved.

Of course.
For me it seems evident, especially for winds which are some of the most complex timbres to reproduce with all their dynamics specifically due to the materials, their "molecular" responses to some constraints, their textures, their elasticity, their dimensions, the type of breathe or percussion (yes there are percussions also with wind instruments), the angle of the air flow, the blast at an attack, etc.

And I think that it could be interesting to imagine with ResonHeart not only aerophons but also lithophons, etc.

An instrument as ResonHeart must be seen, as I understand it, as a kind of "laboratory" to model what could be an instrument having this and that property, by playing with physical static properties and with dynamical properties.

[xhunaudio]

ResonHeart is an "aerophone" expressely built not to emulate other aerophones (REMEMBER : RH does not use pipes and/or reeds, but it uses Helmholtz resonators only). It's a natural-born "tool-machinary" for very experimental and organic sound generation, while maintaining a "realistic" architecture, something that could be realistically, physically built in our real world.

Indeed, for example with ResonHeart it's easier to design a replica of a marimba-like or cymbals sound instead of a pipe-based instrument. You can definitely produce a lithophone sound/flavour in ResonHeart but in its "inner-physics", it remains an (Helmholtz) aerophone. Simulating the physics of actual "lithophones" is a completely separate story and it won't find a place inside ResonHerat itself...

[xhunaudio]

...And, in order to simplify the sound designing process, since at the beginning there's a learning curve to follow to familiarize with its architecture, I put ALL ResonHeart parameters and controls on its main panel, within a single view - including spatialization controls (I'll talk about this in the next Step/Episode).

[perpetual3]

I would like is to subscribe to an email newsletter for updates on availability.

No problem, if you wish, just send to me your request by email and I'll happy to add you to the mail list manually - currently I have no publicly accessible forms for newsletter subscription.

Or, alternatively (better), you can subscribe on any of Xhun Audio social media (they are also updated much more frequently) - and, seen my small numbers on Twitter and Facebook, any new "follower" is well accepted

I followed you on YouTube, SoundCloud and Twitter. Don’t get notifications though so will be sending you an email too.

[veloheinz]

RESPIRO
Physical Audio

[Stefken]

It's an interesting idea.

Something I throw in here:
In my country we have a comedy series called: What if... showing episodes with absurd premises. One episode was dedicated to the question: what if we had no electricity, but everything was powered with a dedicated combustion engine. From your smartphone, to your computer, ...everything had it's own combustion engine.

I don't know if you can do something with it, but when you said: no electricity, and only old skool mechanical systems, it just popped into my mind.
The series actually got an Emmy award. It's really good.

You could model an new instrument, driven by a combustion engine I guess.

[xhunaudio]

You could model an new instrument, driven by a combustion engine I guess.

It would be cool indeed

It would be cool also to see other devs to join this "strange approach" to original acoustic instruments designing...

I'm extremely honest when I say that I love (for example) multi-wavetable synthesis (as well as any other synthesis system). Very interesting, really.

But also here on KVRAudio Forum, literally tens/tons of threads talking exclusively about wavetables happened in the last 5 months (still today) and it seemed that nobody was talking about anything else...

Obviously, I have nothing against them or nothing against the multi wavetable approach and all the Dev Companies releasing wavetable synths (as always, all my respect and admiration to them for releasing such good productws), but it would be valuable also to see something original over the horizon, something bolder and wilder.

Often, "Diversity" is Music's best friend...

[xhunaudio]

The final step of this sneak preview tour of ResonHeart is about the spatial disposition of the whole machinery and the ambient/room simulation.



The Ambient Disposition Engine

The Room simulation in ResonHeart has a fundamental role in the sound generation process. ResonHeart is a very big, bold, bulky machinery and it needs a proper space to be placed. As I stated in my previous posts, each voice in ResonHeart corresponds to a Resonator Block. Each Resonator Block can be placed in a specific position of the room. The engine used to place each resonator block inside the room is a derivative of a ray-tracing based (audio) engine I made years ago for similar purposes.

ResonHeart resonator blocks (1 per voice) can be disposed in 4 ways / 4 spatial arrangements :

1- all resonator blocks are merged together following no specific rules, in a sort of default status

2- resonator blocks are disposed from lower to higher notes (freq), from left to right on the room's back wall (similarly as an acoustic "piano" strings disposition)

3- the same as the previous arrangement but inverted (from right to left)

4- resonator blocks are disposed from lower to higher notes (freq), from center to the left and right sides on the room's back wall

It is also possible to modify the disposition "width". The resonator blocks will be disposed on the back wall from 1 meter to about 60 meters wide.

Then, it is possible to vary the room size, response, width and the distance of the auditor (from the acoustic machine). The room engine is resonator-based, and produces accurate results, simulating different scenarios varying from very small chambers to huge cathedrals and beyond.

PS : if the distance of the auditor from the machine is set to zero, the room simulation is bypassed, and ResonHeart is assumed to be placed in an anechoic room (while, also in this case, the resonator blocks "disposition" engine is still active).

[xhunaudio]

A new audio demo is out (a complete track this time).

All comes from ResonHeart's mechanical tone generator : nature, crickets, wind, marimbas, choirs, cymbals, kotos, woodsticks, amazon forest flutes, etc.

I also included some details about ResonHeart as track's comments.

https://soundcloud.com/xhun-audio/reson ... f-the-wind

[BlackWinny]

Wow ! Great !

Bass frequencies perhaps a bit missing in the equalization.

But wonderful !

[xhunaudio]

There's no equalization, it's an audio demo - any kind of EQ or dynamic processing is strictly forbidden !

ResonHeart has no big "low-end punch" as you can find on an electronic synthesizer. It is a natural-born, unique "clockwork-style" mechanical tone generator - one of a kind.

For example, in its tone generation process it involves other kind of saturations (fluid dynamics constrictions) than vacuum tubes, it has a slower reactivity than an electronic synth (typical air-pump/valves reactivity/response timings) and it will never replace your current "bread-and-butter" gears.

It is not the aim of this product. It has been made to take a niche spot *beside* your current gear: to experiment, or to check what a mechanical tone generator is capable of, or to have evolving, organic pads or to reproduce the sound and feel of acoustic cymbals etc.

Yes, it is definitely a very strange thing...

[tatanka]

Wow, this sounds absolutely great, kind of "imaginde-dreamt-real-organic-natural-fantastic" kind of stuff

From the descriptions I have read from time to time I thought it would be much more, ähmmm "strange" and I am really glad it is NOT (enough strange things around). This is really something absolute useful for the kind of music I am intending to make and so versatile, I never thought you could use it to make a whole complete song, again and

Any ideas when this will be out ? (I hope not after ironaxe 64 bit cause that would mean ..... loooooong )

Really concratulations for this one, seems it could be as unique as ironaxe in another way

[xhunaudio]

Hi,
no long waiting times, it will be out very soon. I promise.