Dawesome Novum (A Granular Synth for Creative Sampling)

[jules99]

Shift-clicking each layer to solo it is annoying, I'd rather right-click did that so I didn't have to keep taking my hands off the controller. I take it all the parameters are global and you can't adjust gain for each layer?

You can. Every parameter that has the little orange "link" symbol can be used per layer if you deactivate said symbol. Once deactivated, the gain (right-side of Timbre settings) of the current selected layer can be set independently.

not really tricks per say...they are part of his envisioned use cases for the synth...the walkthrough from the developer himself a couple days ago is way more useful

As someone who was part of the final round of beta-testing and bug reporting of Novum, I should know my way around it .

@01:09 Peter talks about the same technique as I described im the first trick.

[PetVor]

Shift-clicking each layer to solo it is annoying, I'd rather right-click did that so I didn't have to keep taking my hands off the controller. I take it all the parameters are global and you can't adjust gain for each layer?

I wish there was a better way of browsing presets. It's either nested menus or loading patches via file explorer. Would much prefer clicking the preset name to open a list of all presets in that folder.

Just from my initial noodlings this is absolutely amazing for sound design. I don't know what the hell I'm doing (where is the manual?) but it's spitting out very unique sounds.

Hey Vortifex,

Right-click to solo -> I like the idea. I have just implemented this, will be in the next version. Thanks for the proposal!

Many parameters including GAIN have a "link" symbol. When linked (orange) you edit all the layers with one slider. If you unlink it (gray) you can set values per layer. You can also add individual modulations to each of the layers.

For the manual: in the main burger menu in the upper left corner there is an "OPEN MANUAL", this is the easiest way to access it.

I hope this helps!
Peter V

[bradkvr]

There's a heck of a deal on Novum at JRRshop that someone posted on the VI-control forum.

[PetVor]

[...]
the VI-control thread also has ton of explanation right out of the developers mouth and much more enlightening audio examples of possibilities than the preset demo imo; as users submitted samples and objectives for the developer to try and achieve...

I will do a video about this, hopefully in a few days - this was a fun challenge. Users were asked to sent in challenging samples, and I made a handful of playable instruments from each of it. Amongst the samples were a crazy noise, a snippet from a Donald Trump rant and the opening of a 600 years old monastery door!

[bmanic]

Very nice concept and massive sound design potential here! Nicely done Peter!

There are however a lot of USABILITY issues with the synth. Doing rather mundane basic tasks takes a lot of extra mouse clicks and fiddling around. I hope it will be further developed in this area.

For instance:

If I assign a ton of stuff to the modwheel, there is no quick way of tweaking the amount of each modulation, even though there is a clear list of all the modulation destinations presented. If I click any of the items in the list, the only option I get is a "remove" option. I was expecting this to let me quickly tweak each destination. Why not simply add that same modulation amount "ring" next to each list item? This would make fine tuning and editing a lot quicker.

I also struggled to keyboard map the filter so that it perfectly tracks over an octave. Something I would assume would have "just worked" right out of the gate.

I would also like to be able to tweak the grain offset right on the graphical display itself, simply moving all grains and their corresponding loops and start points intact.

I'd also love to NOT have to click all the locks all the time but instead be able to simply offset a single layer by holding some modifier key down and then keep the lock so that this offset always moves relative to all the other layers.. and of course then double click + the offset modifier key down would reset that layer immediately to the position of all the other locked values.

There's ton of enhancements on the usability front that would make this thing absolute A tier.

Finally, it'd be great if we had a basic EQ that handles mid/side separately so that we could fine tune the stereo spread of our creation. Many of the sounds tend to become easily a bit too wide. It's nice of course but not always desirable. Having a mini "FabFilter Pro-Q" within the synthesizer would allow for a lot of crucial fine tuning of the final output tonality and width desired by the sound designer.

Still, this is a very impressive synthesizer already as is. Well done and congratulations on the release!

[aMUSEd]

a snippet from a Donald Trump rant

Like it! - I made a whole granular piece from snippet of a GW Bush 'speech' about the Iraq war back in the day so look forwards to see what I can do with this


https://soundcloud.com/kymeia/babelonia ... al_sharing

[bmanic]

I will do a video about this, hopefully in a few days - this was a fun challenge. Users were asked to sent in challenging samples, and I made a handful of playable instruments from each of it. Amongst the samples were a crazy noise, a snippet from a Donald Trump rant and the opening of a 600 years old monastery door!

I don't want to downplay anything here but with granular synthesis this is hardly a difficult task. That's kind of "the thing" with granular synthesis or anything that lets you loop portions of a sound and then pitch the grains or loop points. You can literally make anything playable and musical.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[Kalamata Kid]

Made with JUCE so I suppose it is multi-touch capable. Not a deal breaker if not but it is a very important feature for me.
Also missing randomizers. I am spoiled by the many randomizers on Home Grown Sounds for their Kontakt instruments. They are fantastic!
I prefer audio fx over instruments but then this Novum is an instrument based on samples but I still may pass.

I was thinking about passing but then Eric at JRR gave such a sweet price that now I will very likely buy.

[aMUSEd]

Made with JUCE so I suppose it is multi-touch capable. Not a deal breaker if not but it is a very important feature for me.
Also missing randomizers. I am spoiled by the many randomizers on Home Grown Sounds for their Kontakt instruments. They are fantastic!
I prefer audio fx over instruments but then this Novum is an instrument based on samples but I still may pass.

I was thinking about passing but then Eric at JRR gave such a sweet price that now I will very likely buy.

Hoping for a CLAP version then I can add per voice modulation in Bitwig.

[aMUSEd]

So can NOVUM create sounds that can be used in Abyss?

If so is there a crossgrade to Abyss from Novum (like there is the other way)?

[martiu]

So can NOVUM create sounds that can be used in Abyss?

The other way around is most likely, you can make a sound with Abyss, render it to sample and load it in Novum for granular mangling.

[Caine123]

are there some nice DRONE presets? lush drones too maybe?

[aMUSEd]

So can NOVUM create sounds that can be used in Abyss?

The other way around is most likely, you can make a sound with Abyss, render it to sample and load it in Novum for granular mangling.

Yes I can do that with any synth, but I was thinking more that Abyss comes with built in spectral models but it seems to me Novum may have the potential to create additional spectral models and it would be great to be able to import those into Abyss to expand its spectral palette.

[cb8rwh]

Nice is totally subjective, but yeah I think so. Why not givw the demo a whirl, all 90 days of it.

are there some nice DRONE presets? lush drones too maybe?