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opus.quatre
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PCMSynth is a synth.. (Polyphonic PWM)

Caustic Song file (optional): 

So.. On a different thread, it has been said, today, that PCMsynth is not a synth, but a sampler..

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/node/13636

That's not so false, especially when we know how we use it..

But let's look at the front panel.. What do we have ?? :

A sound source.. (The sample reader)..

Modifiers (Filter and Amp)

Time variable commands ( 1 LFO, 2 ADSR envelopes)..

Doesn't it sound like a basic synthesizer ? But with a more complex waveform..

Instead of loading a large instrument sample, we can load a square wave, a triangle or a sawtooth, or a sample of white noise, and we get a (basic) synth.. Like the Korg MS10 ?? Ahem.. No.. This one was nothiing interesting.. Let's say.. Like the KAWAI 100F.. That was a good simple synth..

But of course the sample can be a more complicated waveform.. Say, like on Ensoniq ESQ'1, one cycle of a piano waveform.. Or one cycle of a female choir waveform..  Can even be multisampled.. Except that ESQ'1 had 3 oscillators.. And a bunch of LFOs and Envelope generators..

So what I did this afternoon is :

1) Open the bassline.. Select the square waveform.. Set the PW knob to its middle position.. Direct the LFO to PWM.. Adjust LFO rate and level .. Set the filter cutoff to its maximum, and resonance to zero so that I keep a maximum of harmonics.. And envelope depth to zero too..

Now I had a monophonic unfiltered PWM.. Nothing so exceptional.. Especially in the high notes, where there is some aliasing.. I would have been wiser, using the modular ? Probably..

2) Open the "TOOLS" tab, and select "Merge Rack to Instrument"..

Export the PWM sound to PCMsynth.. I choosed to export from C2 to C5, every 2 semitones.. Sound is called PWMWMWM.. That's graphically nice..

I multisampled, to avoid having a PWM rate that would follow the note plaid on the keyboard.. (ie, a PWM that would be 2 times faster when you play one octave higher.. ANd 4 times faster when we play on the even higher octave.. etc..)..

3) Then I opened PCMsynth, loaded the PWMWMWM preset, worked on the loop, so that I only keep one cycle of LFO, on each sample..

Now.. It's done and saved.. I can apply low pass, band pass, high pass filters on my polyphonic PWM sound.. I can also have this filter,, modulatd by LFO, and ADSR.. I can also have the amp modulated by LFO, and the other ADSR.. I can even modulate the pitch with the LFO..

So.. Is it not a synthesizer ???

The caustic file included in this post, contains the bassline "PWM" preset which I made and used.. It includes the PCM PWMWMWM sound that I made by importing samples of the bassline's "PWM" preset.. And a few examples of the same PWMWMWM sound , modified by the filter, envelopes and LFO.. But these are just examples, other sounds can be made with this base..

Because of the size of the file, it has less instruments than on the ogg file.. They were done with the same PWM sample.. But at least, you have the bass..

You can download the caustic file and save those sounds and use them the way you want.. You can use PWMWMWM as a base that you will edit, to create your own sounds..  

Have a nice evening..

Thierry

 

 

 

opus.quatre
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omg..So many lines ? I talk

omg..So many lines ? I talk too much..

mike
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Joined: 12/18/2011 - 15:53
I was just going to ask how

I was just going to ask how many words you can type a minute(as I was scrolling through "this" post). cheeky

anickt
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Love it!

Love it!

anickt

skarabee
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Joined: 05/15/2012 - 07:52
Nice one, Thierry. It's a

Nice one, Thierry. It's a good example of what I told in another thread about "magic" waveforms in subsynth. There are a bunch of little wav files converted by Rej for the subsynth, somewhere in the forum,  that can be also used in the PCM as generators. Yes, the PCMsynth is a synth too, CQFD.

Jason
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Joined: 03/23/2012 - 21:32
Ummmmmmmmm, say what?

Ummmmmmmmm, say what?

The PCMSynth can be anything you want it to be, within the scope of its parameters and capiabilities...... be it an instrument player, a sample player, an "audio track" player, a drum machine (hello PocketKit Project) an effects or atmospheric or pad machine or all mashed together (hello Builderz Project)

The beauty of it, or any synth module or any DSP module in Caustic, is that you can look beyond the original design intent, and make it do whatever your imagination is limited to......   I have, over the past four years, and I may drop a new suprise to everyone here this summer, that I am still working on building and presentation etc....

Don't limit yourself, or be constrained by unwritten "rules" for what you use Caustic for.   you can't break it.   Test it, tweak it, make it work FOR YOU -- and when you make something cool out of it and share it with the rest of us, it helps spur the imagination even more and we are all better as a community of independent artists (on the mobile platform to boot!) because of it.

Rock on, sir -- life is good, don't think too much cool

Wellsley
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Opus.Quatre...some great work

Opus.Quatre...some great work here, quite inspiring, I already have an idea bouncing round my head, so I am going to download your file and see whag I can come up with, magic

opus.quatre
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NDLR.. Skarabee said "CQFD"..

NDLR.. Skarabee said "CQFD".. If there is one or maybe two, non-francophone user reading, he might wonder what this shortcut means.. It is the shortcut for "Ce qu"il fallait démontrer".. That helps ?

 

Next time, we will explain what NDLR means.. 

 

@mike.. who said I'm typing fast ? I type a lot, that's right.. and even too much.. but maybe very slowly.. Anyway,; my computer is soooo sloooooooooooooow, what would be the use of typing at the speed of a running horse ?

@ jason.. Everything you said here is right and wise.. Except for the last phrase.. Cause it's not when I'm dead, that I will start thinking, so I prefer doing it now..

@ wellesley.. Thanx, and anyrhing you would do with those files, you're welcome..

 

Have a nice time..

Thierry

 

mekanism
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I just dont think its a true

I just dont think its a true synthesizer as it doesnt actually create a base sound, it modifies sounds that have been loaded into it, just like a sampler.  When you first load in a PCMsynth you dont get any sound at all as you have to load samples into it.  The same goes for the Beatbox, its a sampler.  There are no waveform generators in either the Beatbox or PCMsynth.

opus.quatre
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In a way you're right.. In a

In a way you're right.. In a way..
But loading a waveform is like slecting an internal waveform..
But sure, if you don't have any wav file, theb you cant use this machine..

mike
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Yeah BUT, what is the point

Yeah BUT, what is the point of calling a sampler a synthesizer when it's called a sampler? 

This is the same debate when the grooveboxes were popular in the late 90s. They were not synths, the were ROMplers. In a pure defined scope, a synthesizer creates it's own waveforms and a sampler plays back a wave form.

You cannot say a sampler is a sound synthesizer using the true definitions of what synthesizing means. Loading a waveform is not the same as on the fly creating a waveform from variables in Math or regulating electrical voltages.

mekanism
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Come to think of it, the

Come to think of it, the subsynth might not technically be a synth either as it uses loaded waveforms.  The modular actually creates sound from scratch, I think, so that is the true synth in Caustic, IMO. 

mike
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@mek The subsynth is a

@mek The subsynth is a subtractive synth, it does synthesize and audio stream because a subtractive synthesizer uses a base wave and subtracts out frequencies, so the SubSynth IS synthesizing waveforms from a base single cycle foundation.

opus.quatre
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Yes.. The subsynth is

Yes.. The subsynth is standalone.. The PCMsynth is not..

The subsynth has its own waveforms.. I can input waveforms at the .wav format, but it can also draw them by itself (with the help of my fingers).. But you can consider this import as a jack socket..

On the same way, the modular can input machines like the subsynth of the FMsynth or or or... But it also have its own waveforms so that it can stand alone..

The PCM synth has no sound generator by itself, it needs external imported waves.. ok..

mike
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The funny thing is.... The

The funny thing is.... The subsynth uses single cycle predrawn, or draw them your self whatever. What do you think a real digital "synth" does anyway.

They use math and periodic cycles to DRAW THE WAVEFORM. :) If you argue from a standpoint of where does the chicken come from, you hit the chicken egg paradox forever. Regardless a real synth in my eyes creates the fundamental single cycle or multiple cycles that are then transformed by filters and LFOs.

A sampler, does not work on periodic Math to calculate anything. It is playing back the periodic wave created by a real synth. 

My comment is to no one, just saying this.

opus.quatre
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Ah ah.. You're younger than

Ah ah.. You're younger than me, Mike.. And you're a programmer/developer..
You talk of oscillators as function calculators.. I talk about them as real electronic circuits, those DCO being simulations of the real thing..
And in a way, none of them (VCO s and DCO s) should be called oscillators.. None of them really oscillate.. Both of them produce a virtual oscillation, a simulation, that is then converted into variable air pressure, ie sound..
VCOs produce a cyclic variable voltage, DCOs produce a cyclic suite of numbers..
Only the loudspeaker oscillate..
But fact is that I always think those virtual synths as virtual synths.. Simulations o f the physical electronic machines.. Artefacts..

mike
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Yeah, I said voltage above

Yeah, I said voltage above and we are talking about digital synths with Caustic so that is why I rambled. But electricity is still governed by mathematics and the virtual analog digital synths are recreating the math that is produced by voltage. And yeah voltage's end product is converted to air pressure and then heard but a sine wave in light, or a sine wave calculated with math is still the same sine wav! :)

The only that that differs with virtual analog signals is the variation in randomness and resolution of the frequency. That is why analog can squelch and digital can't yet, there is too high powered math involved to simulate nature with the processors we have right now.

mekanism
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Yeah I forgot about drawing

Yeah I forgot about drawing the waveforms in the subsynth, makes sense.  This is a cool topic!  I guess it doesnt really matter whether its a true synthesizer or not, it makes cool sounds, plays back samples.  Its a cool machine regardless!

Jason
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now that you've opened that

now that you've opened that can, opus.quatre -- how old are you?

 

it's a good thing, nobody brought up vacuum tube tech......

opus.quatre
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@Jason.. My age ?? Well well

@Jason.. My age ?? Well well well.. You can think of me as an MK1 mellotron, you would not be wrong.. My inner tapes are a little bit used, they suffered from moisture and oxydation, but they still run..

opus.quatre
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I still talk, and think, in

I still talk, and think, in terms of VCO VCF VCA.. The subsynth on my 'pastel" skin betrays me..

mike
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> The subsynth on my 'pastel"

The subsynth on my 'pastel" skin betrays me..

Hehe I love your skin, I love purple and pastels, always have.

opus.quatre
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System Exclusive message..

System Exclusive message..

Well, Mike, if ever you want me to add a touch of purple to the front panel on one of your apps, just ask, I would probably be pleased to take some time to do it..

 

EOX..

mike
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Well, one app called groove

Well, one app called groove studio allows custom "plugins" that can have any UI you want and use that Macro stuff we were talking about so you could make your own plugin designs and I could include them. :)

Check this thread out;

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/node/13070

This the first plugin I made with it; That is 2 basslines and a subsynth (If you read the link above you will understand what I am saying)

opus.quatre
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Ok.. Probably I wanna try it.

Ok.. Probably I wanna try it.. But do I need your app ? and then which one ? Or what ?

Jason
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I cut my teeth on this

I cut my teeth on this computer in my single-digit age days..... when floppy disks were um...... floppy

128k baby, woop woop!

Jason
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You think too deeply into all

You think too deeply into all of this......  It's great to understand oscillators and manipuilation of them, but now we're in the digital domain, we just accept it for what it is and enjoy making the same type of sounds we did back in the good old days, be it with big knobs and switches or patch cables.....

I enjoy even older technology with the first true digital synthesizer dating back to 1935.....

demonshredder
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interesting

you may also find this interesting Jason. Though it's not a matter that is exactly related, and you probably already know the story if you know about computer science.         On Ray Kurzweil:      In 1963, at age fifteen, he wrote his first computer program.   He created a pattern-recognition software program that analyzed the works of classical composers, and then synthesized its own songs in similar styles.    In 1965, he was invited to appear on the cbs television program I've got a secret where he performed a piano piece that was composed by a computer he also had built.    Later that year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention.      this is pasted from wikipedia

opus.quatre
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@jason.. I suppose this is a

@jason.. I suppose this is a cue about your age.. Early 1980s ??

Jason
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Try 1975

Try 1975

stePH
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You talk of oscillators as

You talk of oscillators as function calculators.. I talk about them as real electronic circuits, those DCO being simulations of the real thing..

If you want to get that granular about it, then NOTHING in Caustic is a real "synthesizer".

anickt
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Just to clarify - a DCO is a

Just to clarify - a DCO is a Digitally Controlled (analog) Oscillator. Roland synths like the Juno-106 and others of that era had them. DCO's held pitch better than fully analog oscillators.

Caustic and other such apps are digital simulations of synths and samplers that may have been fully analog, fully digital or somewhere in-between in the "real" world.

anickt

Jason
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Caustic is a piece of

Caustic is a piece of software that does math calculations that mimic TG's and oscilators and the VCO, VCF, and VCA of such. "virtual voltage" or virtual signal generation and/or manipulation of a signal.

Some of you guys are thinking way too much into this..........

 

 

opus.quatre
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Yes yes yes.. I know that.. I

Yes yes yes.. I know that.. I remember Magritte.. "La Trahison des Images".. 1928-1929..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qsffb69bji96vzi/Ceci%20n%20est%20pas%20un%20vc...

 

It's just that when I started caring about synthesizers, they were unsing VCOs VCFs and VCAs.. I know that inside my cellphone, I didn't download resistors, transistors and chips, when I downloaded caustic.. I know it..

Simply I still use that old terminology.. But I promise I will work on myself..

 

stePH
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[Simply I still use that old

[Simply I still use that old terminology..]

Why shouldn't you? They behave pretty much like "real" synths so let's just take them at face value. All the rest is just philosophical hair-splitting; nobody has time for that shit when there's music to make.

opus.quatre
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YEEEEAH !!! I found out a

YEEEEAH !!! I found out a good alibi..
V stands for Virtually.. C means calculated..
So VCO in fact, means Virtually Calculated Oscillator.. VCF is for Virtually Calculated Filter.. And explaining what VCA means would be insulting, so I won't..
So.. Starting from now, I'm no more am old fashioned man..
Well........ Well yes, I still am.. But I can pretend that I'm not !!
Eh eh..
Eh eh eh !!