Cytomic "The Drop" Resonant Filter

[Aloysius]

An OTT example ...

[Aloysius]

Bruise

[spunkmuffin]

My normal use is this: I play my guitar DI into the computer, process it with EQ and compression and a long-tail reverb and then run it into my Sherman with both filters set to LPF, low resonance on the first filter, the second filter set to one of these harmonic offsets (3 and 6 are nice) and the second filter also set to LPF with medium or high resonance.

n9 maybe:
In your DAW route your guitar into 2 separate channels each with an instance of The Drop.
Adjust the filter setting for each instance as you describe - LPF on both.
Set the cutoff on filter 2 as Andy says for 'harmonic offset'.
For sweeps automate filter 1 and filter 2 freq knobs as one in your DAW.

[andy-cytomic]

Andy - I've never reached out to thank you for all the great work. Thanks a million. The Drop and the filters and Glue in live get a lot of use here and have done wonders to enable me to be able to work "in the box," which I love.

You're welcome!

My last Out Of the Box equipment is a pair of Sherman Filterbanks, a v1 and a v2, that I've had for a very long time. I prefer using The Drop 100x to the Filterbanks but there is a signature sound I can get using them that I cannot easily get from The Drop and I wonder if you'd have interest in the feature as a possible addition to The Drop. The implementation would be two changes to The Drop. I present this to you just in case you are interested and with total respect for what you have created.

The Filterbanks have two multimode filters that you can link, Herman calls it "sync." When you link the filter cutoff frequencies you have a control called "Harmonics" that manages the offset. The thing that is great about this knob is that it is stepped, not free. So if you set the harmonic knob to "Free" both your cutoff freq knobs are independent, but then you can set it to other settings: 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16. These slave the second frequency to the first with harmonic offsets: 1 = same freq, 1.5 = 1 fifth down, 2 = 1 octane down, 3 = 1 octave and a fifth down, etc. (you can look at page 12 of the manual here: http://www.sherman.be/index.php/support/downloads )

The problem is that as resonance increases the effective cutoff tuning decreases by multiple semitones, so any frequencies you dial in will only be approximate, which means this won't work with The Drop. Like I just posted I can add special text entry modes on the freq knobs e.g.: x3 to mean three times the other cutoff knob, or /5 to mean 1/5th of the other cutoff knob. Snapping the knob itself isn't ideal since then all modulation of that knob will be stepped and you can't fine tune it further.

Can you please post some audio examples of self oscillation of the Filterbank? Increase the resonance to just on self oscillation, then slowly increase the resonance to full. Then do this again with the filters linked with one 5 times the frequency of the other (or 1/5th).

I've programed some things (poorly) in Max4Live and Reaktor and TouchOSC over the years to give me this ability with The Drop and Volcano and Live's built in filters, but it's never quite right and it is far from easy to keep things working when controlling VST plugins.

But, here's the thing: the effect is very, very musical. My normal use is this: I play my guitar DI into the computer, process it with EQ and compression and a long-tail reverb and then run it into my Sherman with both filters set to LPF, low resonance on the first filter, the second filter set to one of these harmonic offsets (3 and 6 are nice) and the second filter also set to LPF with medium or high resonance. The effect is marvelous. The high res on the lower filter pulls up lower frequency tones and overdrives in a pleasing way. Sweeps are controlled with the first filter's freq knob and you can hear the filters sweep in sync, which emphasizes the offset. It's really good.

So, if you had interest in this, here would be the changes needed:

1. allow filters 1 and 2 to both be LPF (used to be this way, right?)
2. implement the stepped harmonic offset link control described.

Mea Culpa if you hate these kinds of suggestions or if I've missed a good way to implement this myself. I love your work, man: your code is truly beautiful.

Most likely the harmonic thing is specific to the topology of the Filterbank, since this same thing just won't work with all filters in general. They most likely have very little "core" non-linearities that cause the cutoff the change and mainly have a non-linearity on the bandpass output of the SVF, this will keep it in tune better.

[masterhiggins]

Excited for the new version of the drop. Are you going to release that before the new glue? I remember you saying you were going to add new functionality but nothing specific was mentioned (iirc).

[Guenon]

"Nuke" is very good, it instantly got me going "yeah that's a great name for it" , and it has more personality than "clip" for example. And yep, Andy, thanks for all your hard work! I've accumulated a load of plugin licenses through the years, but The Drop and The Glue are both in that rare handful of tools that really, really matter.

[andy-cytomic]

Excited for the new version of the drop. Are you going to release that before the new glue? I remember you saying you were going to add new functionality but nothing specific was mentioned (iirc).

I'm getting work done on The Drop at the moment, so while the inspiration is with me I'll continue on it. I'll release a new build of The Drop without the new filter models, but with some other enhancements that will be compatible with existing projects before doing the v2 release.

[metalifuxx]

-The C-Bomb
-Tsar Bomba (the worlds most powerful hydrogen bomb that was ever detonated)
-The Dirty Bomb

[Aloysius]

Durty Bum

[metalifuxx]

Cytomic WMD (Weapon of Mass Distortion)

[klinik]

Andy, any words about the n9 suggestions earlier?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=319495&start=2760#p6507448

Thanks.

This won't work since the cutoff changes with resonance and with incoming signal level. Also there is a HP followed by LP filter, so you can't have two LP filters offset anyway.

It is possible to allow for entry of harmonic ratios on the freq knobs though, that's easy. You could type in "1000/2" and you get 500, or "1000*3" and you get 3000. Just set the other cutoff to 1000 as well and that's it. Then use the Shift knob to move both cutoffs together.

Thanks for your reply Andy,

Using ratios as text entry for the knobs is a great idea!

[n9]

I absolutely agree. I'm on holiday this week so cannot sent sound examples, but I think that the ratios would get me there.

Absolutely no way to do LPF -> LPF, though? Sounds like the answer is no, so I will still be controlling two instances of Drop to do the thing... so, in that case could I make two identical instances, set the second's LPF to x/2 (or however that would work) for 1 oct down and then automate both LPF settings with an Ableton map and have the second sweep with the first, just 1 oct lower?

Is that what you're thinking? Because that would be lovely, actually!

[sqigls]

schralp
skidmarks
jive
fugazi

[Aloysius]

MAX

MAX-IT

Max Bygraves

[andy-cytomic]

Thanks for all the suggestions! It's not easy naming things, but I think I'm happy with a choice between:

[*] Nuke
[*] FSU

When I've posted some audio examples I'll let people vote.