Spiral Generator
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 1 posts since 16 May, 2017
Hi, Just wondering if there is a quick start guide for Spiral Generator...?
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- KVRAF
- 3417 posts since 28 Jan, 2006 from Phoenix, AZ
There is not. I was hoping to add more features before I write a guide. Also I could make a youtube video tutorial as well. I guess I will write a few tips now for you.
Spiral Generator creates a fractal spiral. That's why the tuning range is so large, so you can explore sub-sub-frequencies.
Density is your most important slider, that controls how densely packed the spirals are thereby increasing harmonic content. Go easy on this slider. Higher values are for when you are really trying to create insane sound at very low frequency. 32 Density was the max of the original design. I increased the limit it to 1000.
Edit: dam, would've loved to make an OVER 9000 reference... one day...
The signal often contains a lot of DC because of the 2D nature of the sound. Use Rot X/Rot Y to center the signal. You need a vector scope like PrettyScope to see what's going on, it's very helpful to see the signal in 2D. Finally use DC filter to center the signal for good if you want. Offset X and Offset Y simply add DC to left and right speakers, I would only use those as a last resort or if you're doing oscilloscope music and you want to move the "image" around.
Soft Clipper protects your speaks, you can't turn off soft clipping. With the potential for large DC I figured I should make soft clipping a permanent fixture. You can avoid clipping the signal by turning down the gain and/or centering the signal (removing DC). I would like to add a compressor option before the soft clipper to make the sound even more full/balanced and gnarly.
Div, Sharp, Bright Dist, not really sure how those work, but they tend to do a lot of sound shaping.
Morph is another really important slider. Keep it at 0.5 and put an LFO at full amplitude and use a saw or ramp. Target Morph. Now your spiral will look like it's infinitely zooming in or zooming out (or if you're not looking at a 2D scope then it will sound like a seamlessly forever morphing sound, shepard-tone like).
Using LFO smoothing will seriously dampen and lower the amplitude of the LFO, but it is very useful for creating gnarly sounds by using high LFO rate and smoothing it to create growls and gurgles.
ZDepth, not sure how that works, but ZAmount is your chaos control. Turn that up and things will quickly go insane. Uze Z Amount and put an LFO on Rot X or Rot Y, that products a lot of crazyness. Again you will want to look at a 2D scope to get a better idea of what is going on.
ZAmount will make your Spiral Generator quickly go out of tune. Increase the oversampling to get better tracking across the keyboard and re-tune using Tune slider. I believe there's another algorithm I can introduce that is a little less crazy and better for music, the spiral generator is a little better for SFX.
I want to add multipoint envelopes, flexible modulation routing, tempo-synced LFOs, phase control, and generally just make Spiral Generator better for all purposes. It has some potential as a percussion synth.
Spiral Generator creates a fractal spiral. That's why the tuning range is so large, so you can explore sub-sub-frequencies.
Density is your most important slider, that controls how densely packed the spirals are thereby increasing harmonic content. Go easy on this slider. Higher values are for when you are really trying to create insane sound at very low frequency. 32 Density was the max of the original design. I increased the limit it to 1000.
Edit: dam, would've loved to make an OVER 9000 reference... one day...The signal often contains a lot of DC because of the 2D nature of the sound. Use Rot X/Rot Y to center the signal. You need a vector scope like PrettyScope to see what's going on, it's very helpful to see the signal in 2D. Finally use DC filter to center the signal for good if you want. Offset X and Offset Y simply add DC to left and right speakers, I would only use those as a last resort or if you're doing oscilloscope music and you want to move the "image" around.
Soft Clipper protects your speaks, you can't turn off soft clipping. With the potential for large DC I figured I should make soft clipping a permanent fixture. You can avoid clipping the signal by turning down the gain and/or centering the signal (removing DC). I would like to add a compressor option before the soft clipper to make the sound even more full/balanced and gnarly.
Div, Sharp, Bright Dist, not really sure how those work, but they tend to do a lot of sound shaping.
Morph is another really important slider. Keep it at 0.5 and put an LFO at full amplitude and use a saw or ramp. Target Morph. Now your spiral will look like it's infinitely zooming in or zooming out (or if you're not looking at a 2D scope then it will sound like a seamlessly forever morphing sound, shepard-tone like).
Using LFO smoothing will seriously dampen and lower the amplitude of the LFO, but it is very useful for creating gnarly sounds by using high LFO rate and smoothing it to create growls and gurgles.
ZDepth, not sure how that works, but ZAmount is your chaos control. Turn that up and things will quickly go insane. Uze Z Amount and put an LFO on Rot X or Rot Y, that products a lot of crazyness. Again you will want to look at a 2D scope to get a better idea of what is going on.
ZAmount will make your Spiral Generator quickly go out of tune. Increase the oversampling to get better tracking across the keyboard and re-tune using Tune slider. I believe there's another algorithm I can introduce that is a little less crazy and better for music, the spiral generator is a little better for SFX.
I want to add multipoint envelopes, flexible modulation routing, tempo-synced LFOs, phase control, and generally just make Spiral Generator better for all purposes. It has some potential as a percussion synth.
