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Dreaming on a complex oscillator synth

I find myself using @brambos Ripplemaker almost exclusively these days. I like the simplicity of it and I like the sound that comes from it without almost no tweak: changes in the wave form, fold and push knobs. It is perfect with a sequencer but unfortunately it doesn't play well with live midi notes.

It kind of reminds me of Madrona Labs Alto. I was daydreaming with a similar synth, with a similar complex oscillator (sine to saw to square) and Ripplemaker's simple one screen interface, push and fold buttons and also its two envelopes.

4, 6 voices polyphony (better 6) with mono/legato option. MPE support.

Nothing else. There are plenty of effects and filters one can add later.

Just thinking out loud.

Comments

  • My main suspects would be Continua, SynthMasterOne, Factory and Spectrum for interesting exotic timbres.

  • Out of curiosity - what problems do you have with live midi + Ripplemaker?

  • @Monome said:
    ... I was daydreaming with a similar synth, with a similar complex oscillator (sine to saw to square) and Ripplemaker's simple one screen interface, push and fold buttons and also its two envelopes.

    Changing the oscillator waveform continually (Sine to Saw to Square) was the basic idea behind the original wavetable synthesis by PPG, but was extended to any waveform.
    A wavetable is a sequence of short waveforms (the 'table') from which the oscillator is loaded.
    The loading process can be modulated, so the oscillator switches waveforms in multiple ways.

    Another method is called waveshaping, which recalculates the oscillator waveform according to math rules.
    You may like EG WaveSHAPER, which features a very lean control surface. Here's the Lite version, which is free to try out:
    „EG WaveSHAPER Lite“ von Elliott Garage
    https://apps.apple.com/de/app/eg-waveshaper-lite/id1463377289

  • @Monome said:

    4, 6 voices polyphony (better 6) with mono/legato option. MPE support.

    Complex oscillator and polyphony......nop, thanks.

    You have Audulus for everything else!

  • In addition to Spectrum, Shockwave is closest to a complex oscillator on iOS. Another option is using miRack.

  • Yeah using a wave table synth with either an envelope, or LFO, on the wavetable position can produce interesting results. I really like using an envelope on wavetables that go from simple (e.g. sin/triangle) to complex. Then set up the envelop so that it starts on the complex wave form and gradually morphs to the simpler wave form. Can get really nice sounds that way.

  • @0tolerance4silence said:
    Out of curiosity - what problems do you have with live midi + Ripplemaker?

    I play with the Linnstrument (Ripplemaker, of course in regular MIDI mode) and you have to be very precise in your playing. Actually is not a "problem", just that it makes you think twice before pressing a key - it's not as natural as playing other synths. Maybe it's just a question of practicing more.

    With the attack-decay envelope I tend to play with the index fingers, as it were a percussion instrument. If I want more complex melodies I have to change to the ADSR envelope.

    Continua is my go-to synth for MPE/polyphony on iPad and Mac. Factory on Mac but without MPE I don't use it that much. Both are great synths but don't have the "immediacy" I find in Ripplemaker. I will have a look at EG Waveshaper. Does it have MPE support?

    Oh yeah, Spectrum is great. Nice timbres too!

    Audulus and miRack are the opposite of simple. I have modular enough in an AUM environment.

  • @auxmux said:
    In addition to Spectrum, Shockwave is closest to a complex oscillator on iOS. Another option is using miRack.

    Yes but I just go mad every time I touch a knob in Shockwave and the modulation pops up. No thanks.

  • Also another thought. FM synthesis often has a bad rap because terrible Yamaha interfaces/cheesy 80s sounds. But you can get some phenomenal sounds out of a decent flexible FM synth.

    I like NFM a lot. Currently on sale, has a nice interface (stolen, I mean borrowed, from FM8). Put it in apeMatrix and add a few LFOs, and you have a monster on your hands.

  • @Monome said:

    @auxmux said:
    In addition to Spectrum, Shockwave is closest to a complex oscillator on iOS. Another option is using miRack.

    Yes but I just go mad every time I touch a knob in Shockwave and the modulation pops up. No thanks.

    with the latest update you can turn the popping up off

  • Just checked EG Waveshapper, it seems ok.

    @cian said:
    Also another thought. FM synthesis often has a bad rap because terrible Yamaha interfaces/cheesy 80s sounds. But you can get some phenomenal sounds out of a decent flexible FM synth.

    I like NFM a lot. Currently on sale, has a nice interface (stolen, I mean borrowed, from FM8). Put it in apeMatrix and add a few LFOs, and you have a monster on your hands.

    Yeps, that's another good one too.

    @dreamrobe said:

    @Monome said:

    @auxmux said:
    In addition to Spectrum, Shockwave is closest to a complex oscillator on iOS. Another option is using miRack.

    Yes but I just go mad every time I touch a knob in Shockwave and the modulation pops up. No thanks.

    with the latest update you can turn the popping up off

    Well, that's good news. How do you access modulation then?

  • @cian said:
    Also another thought. FM synthesis often has a bad rap because terrible Yamaha interfaces/cheesy 80s sounds.

    And dubstep basses too. 😛

    @Monome You may want to pick up Nanostudio 2 to have a go at its Obsidian synth. It's also on sale at the moment. Here's an in-depth video about it by @jakoB_haQ

    It has wavetable and FM, is pretty easy on your processor, and is pretty easy to tweak.

  • For FM synths, use KQ Dixie and use less operators - 4 or less and try different routing algorithms, it's an alternative take on complex oscillators and you can get some sweet sounds once you add FX.

  • edited March 2020

    @Monome

    continuous change sine-saw-square (ot other combinations, or even more complex waves) easy likw breeze in Nanostudio 2 Obdidian... you can automate that change, or modulate it with LFO or Envelope

    unfortunately no MPE support and it's not AUv3.. but it is one of most complex synth, with extreme amount if modulation capabilities, with many synthesis types (VA, wetable,FM, PD, sampling, various noise types, supersaw)

  • I like more to mix waveforms to get what i want.
    F.e. i tried hard to get a nice guitar timbre with single OSC then wavetable and at the end it worked best to just mix some common analog waveforms, played with the amount of them to get a much better result.
    Of course it could be also just a happy accident.
    But indeed Obsidian is a fantastic synth as well. I still prefer some more power as in the Model D but Obsidian really can do even nice analog like sounds as well as nice complex digital things and sample OSC on top.
    But what i might like the most within Obsidian is the save and load settings everywhere, a really great modulation system which makes it easy to bring things to life and one of the biggest plus are the envelopes. They are really snappy, precise and ultra fast. Envelopes are underrated in general. Envelopes and how they work are so important for a timbre.

  • I just picked the EG synth bundle, I like the sines in EG Waveshapper.

    I would think about Nanostudio 2 but it is a closed environment and I'm happy with the modularity of AUM (or ApeMatrix). For DAW like experience, Xequence is great.

    In the end I can do all this with Continua: FM, skewing wave shapes, extensive modulation, MPE... the good thing with Ripplemaker is that is so simple, just one oscillator and it sounds so good!!

    Anyway, thanks for the suggestions! Appreciated.

  • @auxmux said:
    For FM synths, use KQ Dixie and use less operators - 4 or less and try different routing algorithms, it's an alternative take on complex oscillators and you can get some sweet sounds once you add FX.

    While anyone is free to use what they like, I maintain that routing algorithms are awful. Everytime I see a new FM synth using them (instead of a simple grid like FM8) I get depressed. Just let me put the feedback where I damn well want!

    I need to play with Continua. I bought it, got distracted by my new book on afro-cuban rhythms and, erm, yeah...

  • @Clueless said:
    I like more to mix waveforms to get what i want.
    F.e. i tried hard to get a nice guitar timbre with single OSC then wavetable and at the end it worked best to just mix some common analog waveforms, played with the amount of them to get a much better result.
    Of course it could be also just a happy accident.
    But indeed Obsidian is a fantastic synth as well. I still prefer some more power as in the Model D but Obsidian really can do even nice analog like sounds as well as nice complex digital things and sample OSC on top.
    But what i might like the most within Obsidian is the save and load settings everywhere, a really great modulation system which makes it easy to bring things to life and one of the biggest plus are the envelopes. They are really snappy, precise and ultra fast. Envelopes are underrated in general. Envelopes and how they work are so important for a timbre.

    Obsidian has a lot of envelopes. But really does it have enough. I'm always running out of envelopes.

    Also, I wish you could do complex envelopes with multiple points in Obsidian. Those can be great for nice evolving pads/drones. Fortunately plenty of other synths do support this.

  • edited March 2020

    @cian
    Also, I wish you could do complex envelopes with multiple points in Obsidian. Those can be great for nice evolving pads/drones. Fortunately plenty of other synths do support this.

    I'm using for this "random pattern" LFO .. it's basically like multipoint envelope, just not completely free to edit but with predefines sequence of points which is loopoing ... there is 16 different patterns, you can set length from 1 to 16 (or even modulate which pattern LFO plays by other other LFO !) - almost endless posibilities for long complex evolving soundscapes ..

  • Hmm, given that's basically how I use multi-stage envelopes anyway, that might work. Thanks Dendy.

    I still think there should be more envelopes though. Like 40 :wink:

  • edited March 2020

    @cian said:
    Hmm, given that's basically how I use multi-stage envelopes anyway, that might work. Thanks Dendy.

    I still think there should be more envelopes though. Like 40 :wink:

    can't say i disagree :)) and LFOs !! there is never enough of them muehehe (evil laugh)

  • @dendy said:

    @cian said:
    Hmm, given that's basically how I use multi-stage envelopes anyway, that might work. Thanks Dendy.

    I still think there should be more envelopes though. Like 40 :wink:

    can't say i disagree :)) and LFOs !! there is never enough of them muehehe (evil laugh)

    I mean maybe if I had 1000. Well 1001. Well actually 1002 would be...

    No, you can never have enough.

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