#madrona labs

Who doesn't want to know what a selfie sounds like?

Just realised that I hadn’t written about this project of mine here, so thought I better make a post sharing this video and a few thoughts.

I sort of put this project on the backburner for a bit and not a lot has changed with the patch since this video was made back in July, but it’s prompted me to go back over it and think about a few ways of improving the patch, though I fell it’s pretty close to where my inital idea was to take it, without further building and implementing this as a part of a larger instrument/synth.

As said in the video, it’s more or less an oscillator patch heavily inspired by the Verbos Electronics Harmonic Oscillator Eurorack and Buchla format modules with a few unique ideas. So it really takes an additive approach at it’s core with a bank of eight sine waves, the first being the fundamental with the rest tuned to proceed through the harmonic series. The amplitude levels of each harmonic can be adjusted independantly allowing for a range of different organ like timbres.

Where it gets interesting though is that each harmonic gets it’s own wavefolder, where higher order harmonics and distortions can be generated through folding the simple sines back in on themselves. There is an oscilloscope implemented for each harmonic so that the wavefolding can be visualised. There are two outputs running from the sine bank which can be balanced with a crossfader. One of these is simply the summed output of all the harmonics, but the other is the output from what’s called the harmonic scanner. This allows crossfading between the eight harmonics and when modulated with the incorporated LFO, makes for nice shifting harmonic and melodic effects. The master output also has it’s own oscilloscope where the signal is plotted on both x and y axis.

Again I’d also like to thank both Randy Jones and Roman Thilenius for their help and design contributions with some of the more tricky aspects.

Madrona Labs' Kaivo

I recorded this little video as basic kind of introduction to Madrona Labs' more recent offering - Kaivo.

I've been pretty excited and enthusiastic about this instrument since Randy released it in early 2014, mainly because it's really unique and at this point it occupies it's own little space amongst the vast sea software instruments. In short, it's based on an interesting combination of granular sampling and physical modelling packed into a tight semi-modular package. The GUI is strikingly similar to Aalto which is somewhat comforting to those already familiar with this.

The video basically explains most of functionality of the components, and demonstrates some of the sonic territory the instrument lends itself to. The physical models produce remarkably natural sounds, but the modulation possibilities expand and push these sounds into new and experimental contexts and directions. If you're just wanting tried and tested kinds of timbres, it may not be your cup of tea, but those that are a little more sonically adventurous and enjoy challenging sounds, it's a fun and rewarding tool. The amazing sound quality comes at a cost though, and has a pretty hefty hit on the cpu, is some pretty complex math going on under the hood in relation to the physical models. It's not based on IR's or sampling in that regard.

This patch was built up in Madrona Labs' Aalto VSTi, a fantastic little synth inspired by Buchla's modular instruments. Through the development of this patch I delve into ideas of extreme FM, exploring both free-running and triggered oscillators and modulations with a focus on musically expressive, but atonal sounds. I hadn't saved this after putting this video together, but have remade the patch (or something similar), so use this code.

Chaos Driver - Aalto Patch Code (Copy From Clipboard)

The Core is Getting Soft.12: Goldbaby for Less Silver

Goldbaby is the stage name of a dude named Hugo down in New Zealand who makes fantastic sample libraries of drum machines, sound fx and synthesizers processed through choice outboard analog gear and tape machines.  Denziens of online forums like Gearslutz revere him, and his friendly responses in those nether regions suggests he’s a nice guy to boot.

I’ve been using his Dirt and Layerspack for…