2CAudio Kaleidoscope | It's A Trip | Latest Update 1.1

[Kalamata Kid]

From what I gather we will be able to use our images and our own audio samples in Kaleidoscope. Is this so?

It doesn't use audio samples to produce sound as such, you can use 64-Bit wav files to generate tuning tables which then quantize the resonators tuning-wise. So you feed it with either an external audio signal or internal white noise or mix both together.

So Kaleidoscope is considered more like a VST effect and less so as an instrument or maybe is both. Will it appear in the DAW as a VST effect or a VSTi?

Can we use our images?

I have Absynth 5 and Komplete 8 so why am I still looking? I wasn't really looking but when something like Kaleidoscope lands on your laptop/KVR it is very difficult to ignore.

[Sampleconstruct]

Yes, it's an effect, you don't play it on a keyboard, it doesn't have Midi In, but it can generate sound without external input using the internal white noise generator to make the resonators resonate. And if you follow the formatting rules, yes, you can import your own pics, an easier way of importing simple jpegs is also planned, as I understood Andrew.

[Beatworld]

Yes, it's an effect, you don't play it on a keyboard, it doesn't have Midi In, but it can generate sound without external input using the internal white noise generator to make the resonators resonate.

Can you use it as an effect on an audio (or MIDI) track with the track playing in real time ?
If so, do you simply select the source of the input to KS in KS, a bit like you would select an input for sidechaining ?
I'm guessing it works best as in insert effect rather than a send ?

[jackmazzotti]

This is a free experimental drawing program that is exceptional at making abstract shapes with mirror imaging capabilities as well.
http://al.chemy.org

[lnikj]

This is a free experimental drawing program that is exceptional at making abstract shapes with mirror imaging capabilities as well.
http://al.chemy.org

I thought the phoenix had risen from the ashes for a moment, remagined as imaging software

Guess there is no naming confusion going forwards now ...

[jackmazzotti]

let's all hope Andrew bought camel audio

[Sampleconstruct]

Yes, it's an effect, you don't play it on a keyboard, it doesn't have Midi In, but it can generate sound without external input using the internal white noise generator to make the resonators resonate.

Can you use it as an effect on an audio (or MIDI) track with the track playing in real time ?
If so, do you simply select the source of the input to KS in KS, a bit like you would select an input for sidechaining ?
I'm guessing it works best as in insert effect rather than a send ?

You can use it on a Bus or directly on a track, audio and Midi, in real time just like any other FX. I often use it on a Bus, send various sources at different send levels into it, and then process the Bus signal with something else maybe or even another instant of KS. If you insert it on a track directly you can balance it very well with the dry/wet sliders.

Watching some of the videos will give you an idea what it's all about:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... 2PxoUbW05k

[jackmazzotti]

video of live painting with alchemy
it gives an idea about the geometric possibilities
http://vimeo.com/55729571

[lnikj]

Andrew says that Kaleidoscope "plays nicely with others".

If you like generative soundscapes then try it with Molekular, which thinks it has died and gone to heaven when fed some of the static and ambient patches. Even some of Molekular's factory presets are made to sound good; Simon's DNA bank is superb with it.

[jackmazzotti]

great sculpting eq for taming KS
http://photosounder.com/splineeq/

[Sampleconstruct]

Andrew says that Kaleidoscope "plays nicely with others".

If you like generative soundscapes then try it with Molekular, which thinks it has died and gone to heaven when fed some of the static and ambient patches. Even some of Molekular's factory presets are made to sound good; Simon's DNA bank is superb with it.

+1 for the combo with Molekular, another fantastic combo is KS and crusherX, granulating KS-ed material and creating those more or less huge, insane grain clouds from it is really amazingly mindblowing, overstressed terms which perfectly fit in this case though.

[V0RT3X]

let's all hope Andrew bought camel audio

I would prefer if 2Caudio just stuck to making their own stuff, instead of trying to resurrect other peoples stuff.

[Sampleconstruct]

The king is dead, long live the king.

[Andrew Souter]

From what I gather we will be able to use our images and our own audio samples in Kaleidoscope. Is this so?

Yes, absolutely, as long as they follow the specs listed above and in the manual.

Audio samples, means waveforms I assume? Waveforms are used for tuning, as explained, not audio data. But if you have 64bit wavs, you can use them yes.

[Andrew Souter]

I agree with what some others were saying, we don't see enough resonator VSTs around. This effect is very nice, it can make quite a diverse range of sounds, different from other plugins I'm used to seeing.
I have noticed that the input material really isn't the important thing to the resultant sound; seems the main thing is just get some sort of sound that continues along, to continue exciting the resonators using the tuning and image mapping. Even the note/notes played don't matter so much - at least that's my experience. Not a bad thing, but bears mentioning, would be interesting to hear if anybody else experience is different.

This is an important point:

A resonator can be BOTH/EITHER a filter or effectively an oscillator.

The difference between the two is merely the amount of feedback you use. At low feedback the effect is like that of a filter. At high feedback it is more like an oscillator.


So, if feedback is set to high levels (and I would say 50% of the knob value is already a high level) KS will behave mostly like a bank of oscillators that get excited by the input and start ringing. If the input is something that is sufficiently broad/wide spectrally, it excite them all. And if feedback is high, the micro details of the input will have less influence on the total output sound you here.

When making most of the factory presets, I was actually using white noise signals, even before we had added the white feature, which was a later addition. Mostly I did this simply so I had a controlled signal so I knew what to expect while were we still tracking down tons of bugs during development.

To be perfectly honest, I've probably only really have had two months now to really start exploring using KS on all variety of musical inputs in real projects... My time was mostly spent making sure everything works correctly up until recently. In some ways I am jealous of the beta testers, as they prob had more time to explore it in real world use than I have so far.

So, something I notice now: I tended to set Feedback values pretty high for most of the factory presets as this is what is good when applied to white noise and for purely generative purposes.

If you want to preserve more of the characteristics of the input signal when applied to normal musical signals, make feedback smaller.

Generally:
0-25% or so, is filter territory.
25-50% is short but distinct resonance
50-75% is strong resonance
>75% is gonna wipe out the input transients completely and make instant ambient stuff

In summary, a good thing to try is to explore shorter feedback times compared to what I used for a lot of the factory presets when applying to real music signals.