Introducing Modus by Physical Audio - A Physical Modelling Playground

[EvilDragon]

Would be nice AT weren't hardwired as such ^_^;

[aMUSEd]

Would be nice AT weren't hardwired as such ^_^;

Yeah especially to fake vibrato. Would prefer it to be mappable, then if I want vibrato I can create real vibrato by mapping AT to pitch and using my fingers

[cthonophonic]

I've found the hardwired mappings to be a real source of frustration of the Physical Audio synths when it comes to MPE. The choice to map MPE Y-position to strike force is especially disappointing. The rationale given for this in the documentation is that on the Seaboard, velocity is hard to control, while Y-position is easy. I don't know the Seaboard well, having only played around on one briefly, but on the Linnstrument, I find velocity pretty easy to control while Y-axis position (especially at the point of impact) is much less forgiving. This, combined with the limited pitch bend range on Preparation and Derailer (only +/- 2 semitones), makes the MPE setting basically pointless on those synths (for me, anyway). Modus at least has a wider pitch bend range, and I appreciate having pressure mapped to connection strength in some modes, but the velocity control is still a real sticking point. Why not give people the option to map some things themselves?

To a certain extent, I'd guess the hardwiring is just working within the limitations of the synth architecture itself, because there really aren't very many parameters where real-time expression could have an effect. After note-on, the physical parameters (damping, tone, mass, stretch etc.) are fixed for each note. [EDIT: I see the plate parameters are actually quite modulatable in real-time, though the strings are not] However, there are still things that could be used as MPE targets, like the connection parameters (that are already LFO targets) and the gains of the various strings and plates. If the filter was polyphonic per note, that could be used too.

I have Derailer and Preparation, and I'll probably pick up Modus too at some point (it sounds fantastic!), but I really hope Physical Audio implements some kind of macro controls or mod matrix in the future that would allow for more customized expression (MPE and otherwise).

[muki]

...speaking of:
there are 2 LFOs, correct ?
how and where do i connect them to ?
...or are they also hardired (and if so: what to ?) ?

[kraster]

...speaking of:
there are 2 LFOs, correct ?
how and where do i connect them to ?
...or are they also hardired (and if so: what to ?) ?

LFO 1 is connected to the er...connector parameters... Strength, Speed and Gap.

LFO 2 is connected to the Filter parameters...Cutoff, Res and Drive

There's a pull down menu beside each LFO.

[cjwseven7]

I've found the hardwired mappings to be a real source of frustration of the Physical Audio synths when it comes to MPE. The choice to map MPE Y-position to strike force is especially disappointing. The rationale given for this in the documentation is that on the Seaboard, velocity is hard to control, while Y-position is easy. I don't know the Seaboard well, having only played around on one briefly, but on the Linnstrument, I find velocity pretty easy to control while Y-axis position (especially at the point of impact) is much less forgiving. This, combined with the limited pitch bend range on Preparation and Derailer (only +/- 2 semitones), makes the MPE setting basically pointless on those synths (for me, anyway). Modus at least has a wider pitch bend range, and I appreciate having pressure mapped to connection strength in some modes, but the velocity control is still a real sticking point. Why not give people the option to map some things themselves?

To a certain extent, I'd guess the hardwiring is just working within the limitations of the synth architecture itself, because there really aren't very many parameters where real-time expression could have an effect. After note-on, the physical parameters (damping, tone, mass, stretch etc.) are fixed for each note. [EDIT: I see the plate parameters are actually quite modulatable in real-time, though the strings are not] However, there are still things that could be used as MPE targets, like the connection parameters (that are already LFO targets) and the gains of the various strings and plates. If the filter was polyphonic per note, that could be used too.

I have Derailer and Preparation, and I'll probably pick up Modus too at some point (it sounds fantastic!), but I really hope Physical Audio implements some kind of macro controls or mod matrix in the future that would allow for more customized expression (MPE and otherwise).

Hi, thanks for this! Indeed, MPE is an aspect deserving improvements in our synths. There are multiple reasons that make this difficult, primarily the stability of the underlying time-stepping scheme when changing parameters in real-time. In our framework, the physical models aren’t created via delay lines, filtered noise or tables. The underlying sound engine in Modus, Prep and Derailer is a massive nonlinear physical system, basically a lot of nonlinear dynamical equations with feedback. Delivering a plugin that is both “solid” (i.e., stable) and flexible in an MPE sense is not trivial in this context, and we agree that the current setup may be dissatisfactory to some. We are exploring ways of overcoming these problems to make our synths more customizable.

[plexuss]

I like Modus, interesting complex high quality textures. I some ways it reminds me of Modelonia but Modus has it's own unique thing going on.

https://nusofting.com/plugins/modelonia ... ynthesize/

[cjwseven7]

Hi,

We've just updated Modus to v1.0.6 with a fix for a critical bug that leads to the plug-in not producing sound.

Grab the update from https://physicalaudio.co.uk/downloads/

This update also includes the following fixes since the initial release:

- Fix for plate control parameter synchronisation on the UI.

- Fix for MPE mode setting when loading a saved project/session.

- Fix for MPE pitch glide motion.