KVR Audio

baconpaul · Post by **baconpaul** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:36 am

Folks

This evening, I'm happy to release version 1.0 of Six Sines, a new synth I've been working on for the last 40 days or so. The synth is free, and also open source.

Six Sines is so named because each voice has six sines, with some clever combinations thereof. You might call it an "FM" or "PM" synth (but it also does "RM"). There's lots of modulation options. It comes with some great presets. If you pine for the TX81Z, it may be right up your alley. But it does more than that.

It works as a CLAP, VST3, AUv2 (mac) or standalone, supports Windows, Mac and Linux, and has screen reader support on win/mac. It can use quite a bit of CPU if you turn up unison, but its not insanely inefficient.

Some people really like it! Some others call it purposefully obtuse. Many people are indifferent. (A very small number of people really like it and call it purposefully obtuse).

Which camp will you fall in? To find out (unless you are pre-committed to indifference) you can

- Download it here: https://github.com/baconpaul/six-sines/releases
- Read the manual here: https://github.com/baconpaul/six-sines/ ... /manual.md
- Read my thanks to the early team here: https://github.com/baconpaul/six-sines/ ... doc/ack.md

If you want to hear what it sounds like, sound designer Kinsey Dulcet made this lovely track with a beta version: https://soundcloud.com/kinseydulcet/ret ... sines-demo.

And I made this less lovely test track with the final version: https://soundcloud.com/baconpaul/six-sines-test-track.

Kinsey had to use drum samples in her track, but everything else is Six Sines. By the time I made my track I had expanded the engine to make drum-adjacent-sounds semi-tractable, so my track is 100% Six Sines. Oh plus some post-synth FX of course.

Welcome feedback as GitHub issues or in the #baconpaul-sidequests channel of surge discord!

And hope you have fun making music with Six Sines!

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:35 am

Thanks. Sounds great

Andreya_Autumn · Post by **Andreya_Autumn** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:40 am

It's awesome.

emef · Post by **emef** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 2:37 am

wow it's fantastic, great presets too, cheers

ChanceB · Post by **ChanceB** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:09 am

Thank you for this. I like it

JoeDeF · Post by **JoeDeF** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:10 am

Thanks! I already got some nice sounds by modifying presets. It seems pretty straightforward (for an "FM-ish" synth

).

Korg Supporter · Post by **Korg Supporter** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:33 am

It's a CPU hog, but it otherwise sounds really nice and could be a good Sytrus replacement for those that don't have FL Studio. As someone who loves ring modulation, I am happy to see that all operators have that mode. It is so underrated!

menthol · Post by **menthol** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 5:19 am

Kinsey’s tune reminds me of late Scritti Politti.

baconpaul · Post by **baconpaul** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:05 pm

Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:33 am It's a CPU hog, but it otherwise sounds really nice and could be a good Sytrus replacement for those that don't have FL Studio. As someone who loves ring modulation, I am happy to see that all operators have that mode. It is so underrated!

Yeah cpu can go high with high unison all ops on. If you have super piggy presets t oss em on GitHub and I’ll poke at them in a profiler.

Nug Wrangler · Post by **Nug Wrangler** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:43 pm

Noice!

gentleclockdivider · Post by **gentleclockdivider** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:48 pm

Nice twist for the negative feedback ( square ) , I kind of did the same thing for a reaktor ensemble.
If I am not mistaking it's the operator's output squared ( power 2 ) , absolute value also works ( altough a different kind of square )
An averaging filter in the feedback loop for that typical yamaha feedback would also be great

NOt really a fan of the separate feedback envelope , on the old fm synths the amount of gain that is fed back to the operator were determined by a static fb gain coefficient and the operator's output * envelope .
Kind of a hassle to adjust the fb envelope to get the same behaviour .
All in all , great freebee

gentleclockdivider · Post by **gentleclockdivider** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:40 pm

I also have some doubts about the tx waveforms , yours look literally like the miniature legends found on the tx1z , which afaik is not the case in real life
There are no hard spiked waveforms whatsoever .

baconpaul · Post by **baconpaul** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 2:08 pm

gentleclockdivider wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:48 pm An averaging filter in the feedback loop for that typical yamaha feedback would also be great

Yup it does that already. https://github.com/baconpaul/six-sines/ ... rce.h#L233

gentleclockdivider wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:48 pm NOt really a fan of the separate feedback envelope , on the old fm synths the amount of gain that is fed back to the operator were determined by a static fb gain coefficient and the operator's output * envelope .
Kind of a hassle to adjust the fb envelope to get the same behaviour .

One request we got was easier copy-and-paste between operators. "Set feedback node to be same as output node" is a good one to add to that list.

gentleclockdivider wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:48 pm All in all , great freebee

Thanks!

Korg Supporter · Post by **Korg Supporter** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 2:09 pm

baconpaul wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:05 pm
Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:33 am It's a CPU hog, but it otherwise sounds really nice and could be a good Sytrus replacement for those that don't have FL Studio. As someone who loves ring modulation, I am happy to see that all operators have that mode. It is so underrated!
Yeah cpu can go high with high unison all ops on. If you have super piggy presets t oss em on GitHub and I’ll poke at them in a profiler.

I'll try to make one from scratch. At least the CLAP version is better on my CPU than VST3. I also don't see the TX81Z waveforms. An additive waveform editor would be nice.

baconpaul · Post by **baconpaul** » Mon Jan 20, 2025 2:10 pm

gentleclockdivider wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:40 pm I also have some doubts about the tx waveforms , yours look literally like the miniature legends found on the tx1z , which afaik is not the case in real life
There are no hard spiked waveforms whatsoever .

Yes they are based on that manual not the scope. although I watched that scope video and it seems i wasn't that far off. They are the same patterns we have in surge basically, with a dc blocker for the asymmetric ones

Six Sines - a New Synth