KVR Audio

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:03 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:Just looked up what paraphonic means. Now that I know, why is that a good thing? Seems more like a limitation...

It was a good thing at the time, back in the day, now it makes a "true" emulation

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:11 pm

It's a characterful limitation.

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:52 pm

Am I the only one who can't look at this name without thinking it's missing an M? Eeek.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:57 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote: Just looked up what paraphonic means. Now that I know, why is that a good thing? Seems more like a limitation...

The first paraphonic synth (and maybe first analog synth ever) was the Hammond Novachord back in 1938:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novachord

There are very nice Kontakt instruments based on it done by Soniccouture (this has a scripted GUi to work like the real synth) and Hollow Sun. So far nobody managed to do a full emulation of it which would maybe kill most existing CPUs.

The Novachord synth engine consists of 3 "Resonators" (which are resonant BP filters at certain frequencies) and different filters so basically it is a bank of differnt filters where not the Cutoff but the relative output volumes of those multiple filters are adjusted. Besides that there is a vibrato, a filter color control and an envelope.
I had tried to recreate this filters configuration using Mutools MUX with a nice first approach. Here is a screenshot:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... d%2001.png

A real polyphonic synth uses the whole synth engine (Oscs, filter, VCA) for each voice which technically is quite complex and at the early stages was also quite big.

Ingo

DrewDale · Post by **DrewDale** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:58 pm

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:59 pm

Thanks for this Full Bucket ... looking forward to having a play.

fluffy_little_something · Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:13 pm

Ingonator wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote: Just looked up what paraphonic means. Now that I know, why is that a good thing? Seems more like a limitation...
The first paraphonic synth (and maybe first analog synth ever) was the Hammond Novachord back in 1938:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novachord

There are very nice Kontakt instruments based on it done by Soniccouture (this has a scripted GUi to work like the real synth) and Hollow Sun. So far nobody managed to do a full emulation of it which would maybe kill most existing CPUs.

The Novachord synth engine consists of 3 "Resonators" (which are resonant BP filters at certain frequencies) and different filters so basically it is a bank of differnt filters where not the Cutoff but the relative volumes are adjusted. Besides that there is a vibrato, a filter color control and an envelope.
I had tried to recreate this filters configuration using Mutools MUX with a nice first approach.

A real polyphonic synth uses the whole synth engine (Oscs, filter, VCA) for each voice which technically is quite complex and at the early stages was also quite big.

Ingo

Um, was that paraphonic or polyphonic? On your Wiki page it says polyphonic

But it sure was a monster at half a ton

The three resonators you mentioned remind me of the Deputy of the same developer.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:30 pm

Novachord wasn't paraphonic, AFAIK. On second note, it did have divide-down oscillators going into resonator circuit... But I think there wasn't one global resonator for all keys - rather each key had its own set of 3 resonators.

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:43 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Novachord wasn't paraphonic, AFAIK. On second note, it did have divide-down oscillators going into resonator circuit... But I think there wasn't one global resonator for all keys - rather each key had its own set of 3 resonators.

wow!!!

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:31 pm

Thank you

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:30 am

Numanoid wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote: just to see what it sounds like
You need to use your ears for that

oh wow!!! all this time collecting many many great looking plugins and never once ever thought to try to listen to them!!!!

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:36 am

A few thoughts, fwiw ...

String machines, like my VP 330, offered full polyphony when the polyphonic analog monster synthesizers of this era offered limited polyphony for unlimited price.

TOD engines ( Top Octave Dividers ) designs were almost certainly the consequences of economic considerations, but they give these instruments a specific sound. Whether people desire this precise sound, or not, is just something that everyone can judge after trying the real instruments, or emulations of these instruments.

These instruments were usually called 'String machines'. Wether they emulate real strings in an accurate way is irrelevant, like wanting an analog *bass* to sound like a real Precision Fender, a Rhodes sounding like a Bosendorfer etc. Name is a legacy thing in this cse. Music/Diversity.

Sounding 'thin', or 'phat' is imo equally irrelevant. Sometimes thin you need, and most of times several phatt instruments together will just kill themselves. Associations between phat and thin can be cool. Clavinets are thinner than Rhodes or PolyMoogs, but Stevie Wonder knows how to use them. Thin, phatt, its only sounds good if one can make them sound good.

Just my 0.002

MRT · Post by **MRT** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:48 am

While I love the sound of Nabla I do have one request for future versions.
I'd like to see the jump to position knob/pots replaced with ones from the MonoFury parts bin. Or possibly a user option on how the knobs function?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:58 pm

Lotuzia wrote:Sometimes thin you need

Most def we do Yoda, most def we do

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:00 pm

Numanoid wrote:
Lotuzia wrote:Sometimes thin you need
Most def we do Yoda, most def we do

Full Bucket Nabla