Berlin Modular (ancient thread)

[Howard]

NEXT / PREVIOUS PRESET button's!

I agree with this too. Me wants

Bazille is a proof-of-concept testbed... these obvious improvements simply haven't been added (yet).

[elxsound]

ACE is basically an "advance" to Berlin Modular. If you have ACE, you can buy your Berlin Modular license for the exact difference in price.

Berlin Modular will then contain Bazille, ACE XL and either that L.u.s.h. idea or that modular drum machine idea or maybe even a sample thing. 3 things though, at least.

Sorry for not noticing earlier, but ACE XL?? Very, very, very cool.

[dusted william]

ACE is basically an "advance" to Berlin Modular. If you have ACE, you can buy your Berlin Modular license for the exact difference in price.

Berlin Modular will then contain Bazille, ACE XL and either that L.u.s.h. idea or that modular drum machine idea or maybe even a sample thing. 3 things though, at least.

Sorry for not noticing earlier, but ACE XL?? Very, very, very cool.

yeah, totally!

I really can't wait for this stuff to get released

dw

[Urs]

Just as a recap: ACE was supposed to be the "little MS-20 type synth to bridge the gap between back then and release of Berlin Modular". Berlin Modular will have a full featured modular subtractive synth, which naturally is about twice an ACE.

(the original concept was a bit different, but Bazille was too great a temptation to stick to the old concept)

[BuddhaMaster]

^
<Please explain benefit from synth with audio buffer control here>


@Urs - I really enjoy your synth, but can you explain me how to logically set up more than 2 oscillators?

I'm very new to "modular/patch cord" synth, still!
Thanks.

[Urs]

BuddhaMaster, in Bazille you don't typically *hear* all Oscillators. Like in an FM-synth you would use some as modulators for others, e.g. to control phase or waveform. It's however absolutely valid to just use 1 oscillator if that's all you need. If you need all oscs, just patch them into a multiple.

The whole modular thing isn't there to make things more difficult. It's there to allow for the unusual. You can use it in the most straight forward manner, but you can also think out of the box.

Controlling audio buffers can do all sorts of things. I have always found mangling delays loops fun. Check out the MFM2 demo video on YouTube for crazy stuff: - in addition you'd have modular sampling and physical modeling approaches...

[vinz89]

Berlin Modular will have a full featured modular subtractive synth

Mmmhhh.... just what i was expecting from BM, 2 great modulars with one in the substractive field and the other in the digital field...

This is so great! Can't wait for this bundle to be released...

For the moment i'll stick with ACE and with VAZ modular which i just discovered and thinks it's great too... but i really want a virtual analog modular that looks like the real thing (with patch cables notably...) and sounds like the real thing!!!

[BuddhaMaster]

BuddhaMaster, in Bazille you don't typically *hear* all Oscillators. Like in an FM-synth you would use some as modulators for others, e.g. to control phase or waveform. It's however absolutely valid to just use 1 oscillator if that's all you need. If you need all oscs, just patch them into a multiple.

The whole modular thing isn't there to make things more difficult. It's there to allow for the unusual. You can use it in the most straight forward manner, but you can also think out of the box.

Controlling audio buffers can do all sorts of things. I have always found mangling delays loops fun. Check out the MFM2 demo video on YouTube for crazy stuff: - in addition you'd have modular sampling and physical modeling approaches...

Ok I patch an oscillator to one of those 1 2 RM 3 4 bars, connect this to output.

A few questions:

• When I use the sequencer, only the first beat loops. How can I get all 4 beats playing?
  What exactly is RM?
  What is Midi->+5V?
  What is Fractal Resonance?

The GUI is perfect: Readout is great! Knob handling and design are awesome! Hint popups are useful! Midi-automation is included! Very productive. I will probably upload a few patches soon

[Urs]

When I use the sequencer, only the first beat loops. How can I get all 4 beats playing?

Only plug something in to the very right output jack. Using the first three jacks divides the sequence into 4, 8 or 12 steps, with the remainder(s) being accessible on the other jacks.

What exactly is RM?

Ringmodulation to inputs 1+2, scaled by left gain pot (0 = dry, 1 = all RM)

Amplitude modulation to inputs 3+4, scaled by right gain pot (0 = dry, 1 = Inputs * (1 - RM)

It's tricky but serves a lot of purposes. You can read it up in the ACE manual (inside the .zip that contains the demo version)

What is Midi->+5V?

A static modulator. Used to create DC-offsets. When used in conjunction with Multiples, you can make LFOs unipolar, invert signals and what not.

What is Fractal Resonance?

It's like teh resonance waveforms in Casio's CZ/Cosmo synthesizers, but instead of a sine it uses the actual waveform of the oscillator. One of the greatest sources for Sync sounds known to plugins.

[GeorgeZ]

Man, I can't wait for FX to be added to this beast

[News From The Sky]

Berlin Modular will then contain Bazille, ACE XL and either that L.u.s.h. idea or that modular drum machine idea or maybe even a sample thing. 3 things though, at least.

My vote for the next Berlin module is LUSH, mainly because I love ACE but want something more CPU friendly that's optimized for big sweeping pads:

1. I'd like it to draw inspiration from some of the great modulation-rich polysynths of the past - in my case, this means the Oberheim Xpander and Matrix 12, the Octave Plateau Voyetra 8, Elka Synthex, and the like - plus string machines like the Arp Solina. I'm sure other people would point to things like the Roland Jupiters as well.

2. I'd like at least two oscillators (I'm fine with just two, personally) and they should have dynamic waveshapes, hopefully. My ideal would be oscillators that allow for a dynamic mix of sawtooth, pulse, and triangle waves. One way to do this would be to have a parameter that adjusts the balance of sawtooth and pulse waves, and then have a symmetry parameter for each of those - so adjusting sawtooth symmetry lets you sweep from descending saw to ascending saw, with triangle at 50%, and adjusting pulse width gets you pulse width modulation, with square at 50%. This gives you an incredibly variable sound with just 3 axes of control.

3. It might also be good to borrow a page from the old string machines and have some sort of "supersquare" wave that would be a modern interpretation of divide-down technology. Could have supersaw too, of course. This could be an extension of unison mode, also essential.

4. I'd like each of the oscillators to have its own suboscillator with at least square waves. Perhaps this would come from the "supersquare" function as well.

5. A sweepable wavetable option would be nice but maybe is too much to ask (especially since this can be done with Zebra).

6. A lush string machine needs a good chorus and phaser. I'd suggest that the chorus have an ensemble mode with at least 3 phase-offset LFOs (this apparently was the secret to the Solina sound).

7. Filters! Need at least two multimode (LP, HP, BP, bandstop, peaking, allpass/phase-shift), variable slopes (up to 4 pole), variable routing (series, parallel, or split, ie, per oscillator), with a blend between filters and the option to link them together. Multiple bandpass/formant and comb filters also nice.

8. Modulation is key to good pads - I'd really like at least one 8-stage loopable envelope generator with rate/time controls. Ideally there'd be multiple envelopes (3-5), multiple LFOs (3-5) and things like tracking generators, ramp generators (or a one-shot mode for LFOs), a lag processor, sample-and-hold, etc. I don't know if the map generator can do some of this stuff, but it's good to have too.

9. Complex LFO shapes are good - the Xpander had 64 options - and LFO contour/symmetry is good (sine morphs between triangle and square, sawtooth has symmetry like in #2, square has pulsewidth of course).

10. A modulation matrix with lots of paths (including the envelope levels and times as destinations) is really nice to have. I guess if LUSH has the same modular cabling as ACE and Bazille then that could work too, if there are some multipliers to allow additive modulation.

11. All of this comes at a price. Polyphony should be higher / CPU hit lower than with ACE, which probably means you can't update everything at audio rate. FM might have to go, but ring mod is pretty popular for pads...

You could build Zebra patches to do most or all of this, but I'm hoping for something that trades some flexibility for a synth that has the sound quality of ACE but is optimized for high-polyphony sounds.

I'm very curious to see what Urs comes up with next - especially with DIVA floating around now...

[Howard]

My vote for the next Berlin module is LUSH...
...
7. Filters!

I'd like one of these in LUSH:

[Urs]

I'm thinking of adding divide down oscillators (constant phase relation between notes) to Zebra and Diva maybe...

(need sleep before I can digest the full post )

[Urs]

My vote for the next Berlin module is LUSH...
...
7. Filters!

I'd like one of these in LUSH:

Arrrrgh, did you see how cheap that Polymoog went on eBay?

[Howard]

Arrrrgh, did you see how cheap that Polymoog went on eBay?

Nope...