Fun with waveforms in Zebra (Patches)

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New computer arrives tomorrow, and to celebrate I thought I'd upload some of the proof-of-concept patches I've discussed here. They're somewhat academic and not finished patches (as such), just ideas I've come up with (or craftily borrowed/adapted) for smashing waves together for fun. An oscilloscope and optional spectrograph are recommended ;)

The it: http://www.sendspace.com/file/fimu02

The patches:

Windowed Sync

This is a three oscillator setup meant to be controlled by the pads on the Performance page which have been meticulously set up. What this patch does, is create smooth "windowed" sync effects by amplitude modulating Zebra's normal synced waveforms with a variable waveshape (the windowing function) at the same frequency and with locked phase.

Oscillator one is the basic sync wave, which can be mildly LP'ed and HP'ed, swept around, and can smoothly morph into all waveshapes (Tri, Saw, Square, Pulse, Impulse).

Oscillator two is the windowing oscillator and acts effectively as an audio rate envelope or "window". This can be morphed thru a variety of shapes which have all been designed to smooth out the discontinuities and extra jittery harmonics of the nornal sync effect to various degrees, and generally alter the character of the formant effect. Notice that oscillator two has to be symmetrical, i.e. it's effectively two cycles, one pointing upwards and one pointing down (opposite polarity). This seems to be required to preserve the zero level of the waveform due to the fact that Zebra waveforms can't have DC offset (another way around it is to compensate with volume changes on the RM and clean lanes, but this only works if you know what waveforms are going to be present, and in this situation any wave is selectable). One downside of this is that each after each cycle of the master frequency the outputted wave changes polarity, and consequently the base saw waveform now sounds like a square due to the alternating 'teeth' - but this is only when at zero sync level (and as this is for making sync sweeps, it's a reasonable workaround!).

Oscillator three is a sub-oscillator which can also be any waveshape. The idea of this is that you can HP the synced waveform a little and use the subosc to fill in a stable fundamental.

Additive Squarewave Saw-Jiggler

This is an octave stack of four squares balanced to create an 8-bit-ish sawtooth. Pressure alters the pulsewidth of all the waveforms in unison, creating beautiful fractal-like waveforms which lets you dissolve the saw into a cloud of pulses and then re-form it. The modwheel does the same thing, but with sync to all waves instead, creating a very busy sweep.

AM Duty Cycle Noise

Using the AM cancellation trick to cut regular and variable width holes in some noise. This has a really raspy crunchy tone to it which I enjoy. It's like the sound of stepping on snow squeezed into a note. I'm using an envelope to drive the PWM just because I like enveloped PWM effects ;)

AM Hyper-Sync

Just two sync sweeps in opposing directions AM'ed together so that they cut holes in each-other. Move the modwheel and watch the waveform dance :)

Barberpole Harmonics

A patch showcasing one of my (painstakingly hand crafted) spectroblend wavetables with constantly rising harmonics.

Ever Falling Wrapform

It's supposed to give a sync-effect which is constantly falling. Works best on the higher half of the keyboard. Basically the wave is being stretched out, and at a certain point, new wave crests form in-between. Both of these opposing "forces" are created with Wrap FX with their own MSEG. You hear a constantly falling sync pitch with a cyclically rising formant (created by the 'new' wavefronts being drawn out). This explanation doesn't quite nail what's happening, but it gets the gist of it.

Plastic Filter

I mentioned this a while ago. It's a filter constructed out of Osc FX, complete with goofy PD-style resonance. Very unique sound I think... quite grungy and fizzly... The ironic thing is that after creating my "filterless filter", I had to bring in a notch filter to kill the rez when it's at it's highest point, because I didn't want the open filter sound to have a high-pitched tone all the time. Oh how I laughed! :roll:

Tall Story

This is an actual finished patch of mine. Just a demo of what you can do with one oscillator and a stack of coinciding MSEGs. Hold it for a long time. I'm going for complexity and intricacy rather than making one osc sound like 47.

Triangle Wrap PWM

Very simple example of how the Wrap FX can make PWM-type sounds. The trick is to modulate within a range that does not create any sudden jumps in timbre by introducing extra discontinuities (or removing them). You can increase the modulation amount slightly to see what I mean.

Vector Maze Tonal

Vector Maze is the patch I put on Soundcloud with the recursive and random vector mixing going on. Hold a note and play with all four X-Y pads! Now keep doing it!

Vector Maze Atonal

Same as above, except Pad 4 modulates things which disturb the pitches of the drone elements, creating something more cacophonous, less musically useful, but more amusing :)
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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Thanks a lot for sharing these sounds Sendy.
:)

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Thanks for sharing, very interesting stuff!
I have been experimenting with Zebra also... will post the examples asap!

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I love your experiments Sendy and I'll check these out as soon as I can. Thanks for sharing with everyone and I hope you enjoy your new computer! :)

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Thanks Sendy, I also enjoy your experiments and appreciate your
willingness to share them with us. Great stuff! :D

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rexlapin wrote:Thanks Sendy, I also enjoy your experiments and appreciate your
willingness to share them with us. Great stuff! :D
This :)

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Here are some of my recent experiments:
http://www.box.com/s/1mgenxt3cke9povan5j5

-70s Jet Car
A cool "bubbly" oscfx combination that sorta sounds like the Jetsons car or a Robocop NES SFX. ModWhl for rate (you don't have to max it out)

-Custom Resonant Peak
Deactivate OSC2 for a moment to get the picture ;) Prototype filter designer

-Impulse
Modulated pulse wave to get a cool suction punch :D

-Phaser to Chorus
Just found out that you can trick the ModFX phaser to sound more like a BBD? type chorus. No extra modulations are necessary.. but couldn't help myself modulating the Quad Phase with LFO1. Enable ModFX2 to get a thicker tone.

-Sequencer
MM1 for pitch and MM2 for volume... can use it as a vintage CV seq or for sketching chip sequences.
Control the rate with MSEG4 "loop". Change the sequence direction and revolution curve if you wish. Up to 128 MMap steps, mixable and pitch quantizable ^ ^
You have to play with this one... it's lots of fun! :)

-Star
Hold a note and look at an phase vector scope (stereo scope) some notes can be added to form more complex visual patterns.

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Thanks 3ee, those sound very interesting and will be duly checked out.

In other news, I recently also became a member of the "analogue snob club" as I purchased what I consider an amazing value for money synth called the Nanozwerg by MFB Synths, and I'm just about to pick up Diva, too. MFB have the best sounding and cheapest/best featured synths I've ever seen (though I'm far from an analog synth expert so may be wrong) and I expect many catfights between Diva and "Lil" (the Nano) :hihi:
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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Gotta check these out soon... hadn't had much time for the fun stuff lately :cry:

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@Sendy - just played through the presets, love them! You have a way with interesting harmonics and your info notes are great! I'm definitely going to examine these in more detail; I'm sure there's a lot of interesting ideas to be found in here. (Favorite - Vector Maze Tonal. You made it sound like sync was flying around my head!)

Enjoy your new Computer!

@3ee - Another fine set of sounds from you as well. I swear, the u-he community is the best! :hug: Thanks for sharing! :) (Favorite - Custom Resonant peak. Neat trick using OSC 2 to craft the resonance with an impulse to XMF FM Filter input!)

BTW, both sets are added to the PatchLib: http://www.u-he.com/PatchLib/zebra.html

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You're taking me to school again Sendy. This thread's a keeper - thanks for sharing! :)

p.s. have fun with the new 'puter!
ALL YOUR DATA ARE BELONG TO US - Google

https://soundcloud.com/dan-ling
http://danling.com

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Thanks both :) I'm glad you like them! I steal most of my inspiration from others so it's good to keep the cycle going ;)

Often I find I'm starting out from a technical point of view (i.e. experimental types of synthesis or sequencing) and I'm suprised how often that can get fleshed out with emotive-ness almost by it's-self. I've never understood people who say electronic music doesn't have that spark.

I'm tooling around with the ACE demo now... Plugged everything into everything, set poly to maximum, envelope decay to maximum and pressed every key and I'm getting 60% CPU on accurate quality setting... Is that good? (I'm OK with it :D )

Next to test: Diva :help:
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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Very clever patches and thanks for the descriptions, it's always another twist with Zebra.
Sendy wrote:I expect many catfights between Diva and "Lil" (the Nano) :hihi:
Tasmodia did a BASS Kitty sound for Diva ... I know I was able to get gentle, non-threatening mewing with the MS-20 filters but can't find it now. Perhaps the Moog filter is better for cat emulations.

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I would love to hear that! :)
ALL YOUR DATA ARE BELONG TO US - Google

https://soundcloud.com/dan-ling
http://danling.com

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Awesome patches Sendy! :)
I really have to explore the oscillators more! Thanks for the reminder!

Cheers
Dennis

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