Altair 4 The SciFi Sounds Lab Wobbles & Drones - public beta / demo video

[Fortune]

Something for Wobbles & Drones

This soundbox is more of experimental type mainly for spacey & wobbly stuff, drones and scapes i.e FX-sounds, and it is quite good at doing bell like sounds
In a way it has some similarities to 'circuit bent' musical tools or noise boxes but with some more and fairly sophisticated controls - but not too much.
You can do a lot of crazy stuff with it



A little demo video


last public beta is here for dowload (little manual included)
http://www.mediafire.com/?sp55d1chb45j36j

As it is still unnamed yet you may come up with suggestions - preferably with Box at the end.

The winner will have free choice for one VSTi Plugin from my range
2nd and 3rd choice will get registered version of this one.

And yes you may send patches too ... more than 20 useful patches will be honoured with a Pro version of this plugin.

have fun and please comment
thanks
HG

[Karmacomposer]

Looks great. Will get you presets when I have some time to play.

Name: Burble

Mike

[BlueMax]

Hey HG thanx Ive been real busy but i did play with it last night.Very cool sounds ill try and get some patches too ya soon.Thanx again HG

[Fortune]

Hey HG thanx Ive been real busy but i did play with it last night.Very cool sounds ill try and get some patches too ya soon.Thanx again HG

Great

[tERMoBLUe]

[arachnaut]

This is a delight! Thanks, HG.

[Fortune]

This is a delight! Thanks, HG.

You are welcome

cheers
HG

[arachnaut]

Would be nice to have a randomize feature.

[Fortune]

Would be nice to have a randomize feature.

yes, I know. Even tried to implement my Lazy system but it did not work safely enough as it was resetting values on startup of the dll ... so I had to remove it again.

cheers
HG

[arachnaut]

I have bought the VST and read these postings and the previous ones during the beta phase and also read the manual. I am making a detailed study of the VST as I make my own presets. I am currently studying each of the VST parameters and what they modulate - there are a few peculiarities that I will describe in a later post here. For now I have some basic misunderstanding of the inner structure of the VST. So I would like some comments on these first few questions, and perhaps some more to follow.

I don't think I understand the Resonator Mix at all. I know it mixes the left resonator and the right in some way, but the description sounds more like it mixes the controllers for the left and right resonators and controls the polarity. Could you elaborate? An example may help.

The next thing I don't understand is the Control mode for each resonator. The manual says that it selects control for the pitch B - either the keyboard MIDI pitch or the mod sources. But this seems to conflict with the mod source for pitch B which may be Off, L1, L2, etc. I assume a manual setting here means keyboard?

And I am very confused about Mod span and repeat - the manual is not very clear about this. Can you elaborate?

Thanks.

[A block diagram of the inner modules and the modulation routings would really help out. Maybe in the next manual revision?]

[arachnaut]

// Altair 4 cheat sheet and MiniHost Randomizer script
//
// Graphic modulation display:
// L1 = dot 1; L2 = dot 2; L12 = dot 3; L13 = dot 4; Snh = dot 5; L3 = dot 6; Aft = dot 7
// Manual Modulations:
// Ball 1 = H = left Pitch A; V = right Pitch A
// Ball 2 = H = left Pitch B; V = left Pitch B amount
// Ball 3 = H = right Pitch B; V = right Pitch B amount
//
// VST Parameter:
//
// Delay
// 3 - Off/On (<.5 = 0ff, >.5 = On)
Par 3 0.0 1.0
// 1 - Level
Par 1 0.3 1.0
// 4 - Pan (.5 = center)
Par 4 0.3 0.7
// 0 - Feedback
Par 0 0.0 1.0
// 47 - BPM (8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2) in 16ths
Par 47 0.0 1.0
//
// Reverb
// 41 - Off/On (<.5 = 0ff, >.5 = On)
Par 41 0.0 1.0
// 40 - Mix
Par 40 0.3 1.0
// 44 - Width
Par 44 0.0 1.0
// 43 - Size
Par 43 0.0 1.0
// 42 - PreDelay
Par 42 0.0 0.4
// 2 - Direct (Dry) Pan (.5 = center)
Par 2 0.3 0.7

//
// Envelope
//
// 5 - Attack
Par 5 0.0 0.5
// 6 - Release
Par 6 0.3 0.7
// 7 - Hold last played note(<.5 = 0ff, >.5 = On
Par 7 0.0 0.0
// 8 - Bass Boost
Par 8 0.0 0.4
// 17 - Volume
Par 17 1.0 1.0
// 48 - Volume mod source (Fixed, Vel. Aft+, Aft-, Wheel)
Par 48 0.0 0.2
//
// LFOs
//
// 9 - L1 Rate
Par 9-16 0.0 1.0
// 10 - L1 Wave (Sin, Saw, Ramp, Tri, Sq, Pls1, Pls2)
// 11 - L2 Phase Mod (Symmetry)
// 12 - L2 Rate
// 13 - L2 Wave (Saw, Sq, Sq-Saw, Dbl-ResSin, Reso1, Reso2, Reso3, Reso4)
// 14 - L3 Rate
// 15 - L3 Sub Mode (small Ramp jitter) (<.5 = 0ff, >.5 = On)
// 16 - L3 Wave (Sin, Saw, Ramp, Tri, Sq, Pls1, Pls2)
Par 45-46 0.0 1.0
// 45 - SnH Rate
// 46 - SnH mode (Rnd1, Rnd2, Up, Dn, UpDn1, UpDn2)
//
// Resonator
//
// 18 - Resonator Mix amount (no mod = .5)
Par 18-39 0.0 1.0
// 19 - Resonator Mix source (Man, L1, L2, L3, Aft, Whl)
// Res 1
// 20 - Control Mode (<.5 = Key, >.5 = Mod)
// 21 - Repeat (Osc B)
// 22 - Mod Span (Osc B)
// 23 - Pitch B amount
// 24 - Pitch B Mod source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 25 - Pitch A amount
// 26 - Pitch A Mod source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 27 - B amount
// 28 - B amount source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 29 - Pitch B Offset
// Res 2
// 30 - Control Mode (<.5 = Key, >.5 = Mod)
// 31 - Repeat (Osc B)
// 32 - Mod Span (Osc B)
// 33 - Pitch B amount
// 34 - Pitch B Mod source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 35 - Pitch A amount
// 36 - Pitch A Mod source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 37 - B amount
// 38 - B amount source (Off, Man, L1, L2, L12, L13, Snh, L3, Aft+, Aft-, Whl)
// 39 - Pitch B Offset

[someone called simon]

I like the sounds in the video. Windows only I assume?

[arachnaut]

Windows only I assume?

Yes.

[Fortune]

ok , trying to explain it:

I don't think I understand the Resonator Mix at all. I know it mixes the left resonator and the right in some way, but the description sounds more like it mixes the controllers for the left and right resonators and controls the polarity. Could you elaborate? An example may help.

Yes, Mix is really mixing the or belancing the audio signal of both soundsources i.e. resonators. And you can modulate this mix, where "Man" setting is refferring to the actual position of the knob while with other mod sources it determines the amount of modulation.

The next thing I don't understand is the Control mode for each resonator. The manual says that it selects control for the pitch B - either the keyboard MIDI pitch or the mod sources. But this seems to conflict with the mod source for pitch B which may be Off, L1, L2, etc. I assume a manual setting here means keyboard?

Control mode simply switches between keyboard control of pitch B or otherwise modulated control of pitch B. So with keyboard control it will play the pith related to the keys played overriding the other mods, while with other mod sources these control the pitch of B, where of really means Off as next is Man using the amount of the knob setting and with selected other mod source the knob determines the amount of modulation.

And I am very confused about Mod span and repeat - the manual is not very clear about this. Can you elaborate?

well, this is a fairly experimental feature, actually the signal of a selected mod source is fed through a delay thus using preferably a ramp wave this will produces echos of modulation amount. Does not be efficient with Sine or Tri waves as there is no sudden change in mod signals polarity.

hth
HG

[arachnaut]

well, this is a fairly experimental feature, actually the signal of a selected mod source is fed through a delay thus using preferably a ramp wave this will produces echos of modulation amount. Does not be efficient with Sine or Tri waves as there is no sudden change in mod signals polarity.

hth
HG

How is the modulation source for this feature selected? Is it the source controlling Pitch B?