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Fun with waveforms in Zebra (Patches) 2012-01-11T05:22:43+00:00 New computer arrives tomorrow, and to celebrate I thought I'd upload some of the proof-of-concept patches I've discussed here. They're somewhat academic and not finished patches (as such), just ideas I've come up with (or craftily borrowed/adapted) for smashing waves together for fun. An oscilloscope and optional spectrograph are recommended ;) The it: http://www.sendspace.com/file/fimu02 The patches: Windowed Sync This is a three oscillator setup meant to be controlled by the pads on the Performance page which have been meticulously set up. What this patch does, is create smooth "windowed" sync effects by amplitude modulating Zebra's normal synced waveforms with a variable waveshape (the windowing function) at the same frequency and with locked phase. Oscillator one is the basic sync wave, which can be mildly LP'ed and HP'ed, swept around, and can smoothly morph into all waveshapes (Tri, Saw, Square, Pulse, Impulse). Oscillator two is the windowing oscillator and acts effectively as an audio rate envelope or "window". This can be morphed thru a variety of shapes which have all been designed to smooth out the discontinuities and extra jittery harmonics of the nornal sync effect to various degrees, and generally alter the character of the formant effect. Notice that oscillator two has to be symmetrical, i.e. it's effectively two cycles, one pointing upwards and one pointing down (opposite polarity). This seems to be required to preserve the zero level of the waveform due to the fact that Zebra waveforms can't have DC offset (another way around it is to compensate with volume changes on the RM and clean lanes, but this only works if you know what waveforms are going to be present, and in this situation any wave is selectable). One downside of this is that each after each cycle of the master frequency the outputted wave changes polarity, and consequently the base saw waveform now sounds like a square due to the alternating 'teeth' - but this is only when at zero sync level (and as this is for making sync sweeps, it's a reasonable workaround!). Oscillator three is a sub-oscillator which can also be any waveshape. The idea of this is that you can HP the synced waveform a little and use the subosc to fill in a stable fundamental. Additive Squarewave Saw-Jiggler This is an octave stack of four squares balanced to create an 8-bit-ish sawtooth. Pressure alters the pulsewidth of all the waveforms in unison, creating beautiful fractal-like waveforms which lets you dissolve the saw into a cloud of pulses and then re-form it. The modwheel does the same thing, but with sync to all waves instead, creating a very busy sweep. AM Duty Cycle Noise Using the AM cancellation trick to cut regular and variable width holes in some noise. This has a really raspy crunchy tone to it which I enjoy. It's like the sound of stepping on snow squeezed into a note. I'm using an envelope to drive the PWM just because I like enveloped PWM effects ;) AM Hyper-Sync Just two sync sweeps in opposing directions AM'ed together so that they cut holes in each-other. Move the modwheel and watch the waveform dance :) Barberpole Harmonics A patch showcasing one of my (painstakingly hand crafted) spectroblend wavetables with constantly rising harmonics. Ever Falling Wrapform It's supposed to give a sync-effect which is constantly falling. Works best on the higher half of the keyboard. Basically the wave is being stretched out, and at a certain point, new wave crests form in-between. Both of these opposing "forces" are created with Wrap FX with their own MSEG. You hear a constantly falling sync pitch with a cyclically rising formant (created by the 'new' wavefronts being drawn out). This explanation doesn't quite nail what's happening, but it gets the gist of it. Plastic Filter I mentioned this a while ago. It's a filter constructed out of Osc FX, complete with goofy PD-style resonance. Very unique sound I think... quite grungy and fizzly... The ironic thing is that after creating my "filterless filter", I had to bring in a notch filter to kill the rez when it's at it's highest point, because I didn't want the open filter sound to have a high-pitched tone all the time. Oh how I laughed! :roll: Tall Story This is an actual finished patch of mine. Just a demo of what you can do with one oscillator and a stack of coinciding MSEGs. Hold it for a long time. I'm going for complexity and intricacy rather than making one osc sound like 47. Triangle Wrap PWM Very simple example of how the Wrap FX can make PWM-type sounds. The trick is to modulate within a range that does not create any sudden jumps in timbre by introducing extra discontinuities (or removing them). You can increase the modulation amount slightly to see what I mean. Vector Maze Tonal Vector Maze is the patch I put on Soundcloud with the recursive and random vector mixing going on. Hold a note and play with all four X-Y pads! Now keep doing it! Vector Maze Atonal Same as above, except Pad 4 modulates things which disturb the pitches of the drone elements, creating something more cacophonous, less musically useful, but more amusing :) Sendy https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=236000

trance_lucent trance_lucent https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=82512: KVRist; 431 posts since 27 Sep, 2005

Post by trance_lucent » Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:18 pm

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Very interesting ideas in these patches, thank you Sendy, 3ee!
3ee, switching ModMapper1 to "Map Smooth" mode in your "Sequencer " patch makes its sound drunky.

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