DUNE 2 is out now!!

[Biscotto]

Here are some example user wavetables made with Audio-Term 2.16 (for download link see my signature):

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/w0qe5q5r175elc ... tables.zip

Wow this is great news! Only a couple days and already a superb wavetable editor that writes our wavetables files. Thanks so much for adding Dune 2 support to it!

Richard

Now if I can only figure out how to use it.............

[Teksonik]

Why the head banging ? Careful your brain will bounce around in your skull like a marble inside a basketball.......

I just haven't had time to work with the App........

[blackflag]

I'm really loving this synth! My only complaint is that I wish it had more than 1 filter...besides that it's perfect.

[Teksonik]

I'm really loving this synth! My only complaint is that I wish it had more than 1 filter...besides that it's perfect.

DUNE 2 can have 8 filters.......8 different filters.....each with their own modulation......

[cytospur]

16 if you include the effect filters.

[Teksonik]

16 if you include the effect filters.

True..............

[blackflag]

Yes I know, but I meant more than one filter in serial or parallel routing per voice. (not including the effects filters unless they plan on adding resonance knob)
Is that currently possible? Not a big deal though, I have other synths that cover that area.

[blacktomcat666]

Same here... I've sort of got a grasp on it, I managed to create SOMEthing, but it was all happening way too slowly. I'd like to be able to pick key waves, hit "interpolate", maybe choose between different types of interpolation, then export.

Yep, this is the result of a long list of additional feature and format requests over the past years. The very first version was a batch converter without GUI and with two parameters. But the results sounded often like random and very similar. Creating results beyond "sine-saw-square" or "random waves 45" requires a bit more work to get the best out of the input data.

AT was intentionally made for my personal use and "just for fun" to learn how to code in C - my version of "Hello world". There never had been 'seroius' plans for making it public when I started this project. Maybe this explains why it's so 'strange'. Due to very limited time and some health issues I used all of my energy for the program itself and not for writing a manual.

AT consists of different sections, KTERM<> is the one for creating wavetables for Dune2 and other products. KTERM<> is an additive synth: 33 slots with 64 bipolar sine partials each. It's an emulation of the Terratec Komplexer wavetable osc, all other formats are derived from that model.

I chose this model because it has the right ratio of data amount and quality. Further many products beside Komplexer can use the results (converting wavetables which make full use of proprietary features of a certain product is much more difficult than converting normal audio data for different samplers).

AT has an automated file recognition and sorting system. It can distinguish a Komplexer *.WT file from a Dune2 *.WT file or from a Surge *.WT file... . Different file types are stored in different directories to keep track of which *.WT file belongs to a certain synth. Damaged and/or unknown formats are moved to a special 'recycle bin' folder (button RECBIN<> in the start page).

Regarding the proprietary wavetable formats (Surge, WaveGenerator, Dune2, EPS/ASR, Blofeld): AT can only load it's own files. This is a required limitation, because the formats are VERY different (in data type, size, content, number of slots). All of these formats hold special synthesis data for reloading and instant playback in the browser pages. In some cases this additional dataset is encoded in the wavetable data itself (Blofeld, Komlexer). In other cases it's appended. Editing these files outside Audio-Term will destroy these data, so don't try that if you want to reload them later in AT.

Regarding the GUI: The lower button row holds the main pages and the playback buttons. The upper row holds the functions of a page and further sub pages / input options ( in that case the button name has an <> appendix)

The KTERM main pages:

SYSTEM<>

Here you can access the playback volume and playback speed of a wavetable. you also can empty all loaded data in RAM using FLUSH.

DISK<>

Depending on the file type you have different options. For all files you can switch the pages, search for a file name (FIND<>), rename and delete a file. You further can switch between the directories of the different file types using F_TYPE<> and call the windows explorer to get direct and full access to the current directory.

Further options depend on the file type. Wavetable files can be loaded directly, samples have to be analysed first. Single cycle waves are loaded from the assembling page ASSEM<> (see below).

VIEW<>

Here you can have a look on the ram data in different modes (waveform and spectral data). Some eye candy...

SLICE<>

This is the slice editor. You have access to the 64 bipolar partials (log scaling). WDRAW<> is a sub menu to draw the content as wave. The drawing then is analyzed and resynthesized. TOOLS<> hold some makro options for the partials (like normalizing or inverting). You should try the buttons and see what happens - the app won't get broken. If you don't like the result you see/hear, press UNDO - it keeps track of the last 512 changes of the partial data.

ASSEM<>

Here the single cycles and wavetables in the different directories are used as 'library' to assemble new wavetables. Select source and destination slice with the SRC and DST buttons and transfer the data with SRC>DST.

ENV<>

On this page you also have access to the partials (bipolar, log scale), this time not 64 of a slice but a single partial over 33 slices of a wavetable. This is the envelope of a partial. The selected one has a fat line, all others are represented by thin lines. Very similar to the harmonic envelopes of the Fairlight CMI. On complex sounds this can look annoying. In this circumstance you can use VIEW to focus on the selcted envelope.

TEF<>

This is a special page which holds a lot of sub functions regarding

• - polarity of the partials (PLOAR<>),
  
  - amplitude scaling (SCALE<>),
  
  - slice reordering (ORDER<>),
  
  - a filter (FILTER<> - basically an additional "filter" slice with 64 partials, an envelope for shifting and access to the 'library' on disk to import spectral data)
  
  - a formant shifter (SHIFT<>),
  
  - a generator for filling the table with symmetry-modulated waves (SYMOD<>),
  
  - and the interpolation function (IPOL<>).

The latter is very flexible - the goal is alwas to create a fully filled table from waves on arbitrary positions - even from a single wave. There are two interpolation algorithms: IPOL simply fills empty slices. STRETCH+IPOL fills the table by scaling the time base, which can be important especially for analyzed samples.

Two further additions:

OPTIMIZE button:

KTERM has an internal resolution of +-127 steps, but the dynamic of a 64 partial additive engine is much larger. Too large to use it without artificial limiting, a saw would be 50 times the amplitude if a single sine. OPTIMIZE adapts the partials to the limited waveform amplitude. In most cases this can be done automatically, but sometimes manual correction is required to get the best results out of the limted dynamic range.

POL_LOCK button:

KTERM uses bipolar sine waves, which improves the quality especially on sample resynthesis (otherwise everything would have a 'sawtooth touch'). POL_LOCK tracks each of the 64 envelopes and corrects polarity jumps. In most cases this is usefull as it makes the spectral evolution over time more stable, but it changes the sound slightly. So whenever this button appears, you should try if it sounds better with or without POL_LOCK.



Okay, this short explanation isn't a manual by far, but it explains some of my thoughts when I coded Audio-Term. I hope it was understandable a bit - I'm not a native speaker and also no sound engineer.

@Richard: It became a bit longer than planned... sorry for hijacking your thread that way.

[cowby]

I'm really loving this synth! My only complaint is that I wish it had more than 1 filter...besides that it's perfect.

DUNE 2 can have 8 filters.......8 different filters.....each with their own modulation......

I also found only one filter in the demo. may I know how to use the rest of the 7 ?

Cheers!
Cowby

[koalaboy]

I also found only one filter in the demo. may I know how to use the rest of the 7 ?

There is one Filter per voice. It works in the Demo.

[Richard_Synapse]

Yes I know, but I meant more than one filter in serial or parallel routing per voice. (not including the effects filters unless they plan on adding resonance knob)

You can have up to 8 different filters in parallel. On the right side of the interface, there's an area "Voice Edit" where you can select individual voices. Make sure Unison Voices is set to at least 2, and now you can set different filters for the first and second voice, for instance. You can also change any other voice parameter, e.g. set different oscillator types, different wavetables etc.

Richard

[Richard_Synapse]

Their service@synapse-audio email address bounces back.

We get quite a lot of service emails so it must be related to certain email servers only. We'll look into it, to see if we can improve this further.

Note you can also PM me here or on the Synapse Forum if you have any questions.

Richard

[pdxindy]

Yes I know, but I meant more than one filter in serial or parallel routing per voice. (not including the effects filters unless they plan on adding resonance knob)

You can have up to 8 different filters in parallel. On the right side of the interface, there's an area "Voice Edit" where you can select individual voices. Make sure Unison Voices is set to at least 2, and now you can set different filters for the first and second voice, for instance. You can also change any other voice parameter, e.g. set different oscillator types, different wavetables etc.

Richard

He is asking about 1 voice with 2 filters in a serial configuration...

[blackflag]

Yes I know, but I meant more than one filter in serial or parallel routing per voice. (not including the effects filters unless they plan on adding resonance knob)

You can have up to 8 different filters in parallel. On the right side of the interface, there's an area "Voice Edit" where you can select individual voices. Make sure Unison Voices is set to at least 2, and now you can set different filters for the first and second voice, for instance. You can also change any other voice parameter, e.g. set different oscillator types, different wavetables etc.

Richard

Yea I totally understand how it works, I was just suggesting adding a second filter per voice bringing the total to 16 filters, so you could have two filters in serial per voice. This can already be done by also using the effect filter but it would be nice if it had a resonance parameter. Either way this synth is brilliant!

[Richard_Synapse]

Ah ok We could add resonance for the lowpass 2-pole, highpass 2-pole and perhaps the notch filter inside the filter FX section, shouldn't be too difficult to do, and there's enough space.

Richard