Amaranth Audio updates Cycle to v1.6

Amaranth Audio has updated Cycle to v1.6.

Changes:

• New Reference Samples tutorial.
• Improved pitch tracking on samples.
• Folder navigation features in Preset Browser.
• Deformer feature: random phase offset.
• "About" window.
• 18 new presets.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed when an envelope had a component deformer curve, it's gain was unsaved.
• Fixed Windows 0xc0000142 error on AMD CPUs.
• Fixed after loading reference sample, the phase spectrogram was sometimes blank.
• Fixed case when loading a new sample while one playing back could cause crash.
• Preset/sample browser now shows displays files of all supported sample formats (wav, ogg, flac, aif[f]).
• Fixed inaccuracies for low pitches with Swipe pitch-tracking algorithm.
• Pitch envelope visualization is more accurate in waveform surface.
• Audio samples at different sample-rates now play back properly.

Deformer feature: random phase offset

This is a solution to a sound design problem: how to create sounds where there's a lot of chorused voices, each having their own irregular pitch envelope? For example, a choir or ensemble of brass or string instruments.

Normal unison or chorus effects are not good enough, because they create regular phasing artifacts that sound distinctly synthetic.

To solve this, among its other uses, this feature lets the user make a Deformer curve as the looping part of the pitch envelope, and when the phase randomness value is increased, the irregular curve will be randomly offset for each unison voice. This is the effect visualized, with basic unison on the right:

Some sound examples using this feature: brass chords and choir

The random seed is unique in each unison voice and MIDI note, so each note of a chord will be different. This feature can also be used on the scratch envelope in pads for a nice fluttery effect.

Improved pitch tracking on samples

A new post-processing step improves the pitch tracking accuracy so one needs to do less work fixing the pitch envelope.

Here Cycle is precisely tracking the vibrato of a cello sample:

Folder navigation features in Preset browser

Added features to the Preset Browser helps navigate for samples within Cycle, avoiding the need to choose samples from a dialog window each time.