The Quilcom NINE: A synth that scans 9 waves

[Spogg]

Hi Flowstoners!

Here is my latest synth, the Quilcom NINE.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9u5k3rdknegbe ... m.zip?dl=0

It was inspired by tulamide’s drawing my attention to the Nostromo Rack Effect for Reason. It’s not the same but it allows for experimentation with the principle of scanning through up to nine waveforms. You can choose between regular waveforms, drawn waves and waves from a graphic additive oscillator.

I found it fascinating to explore the degree of control you can have over the stages of sonic evolution using this method, and the wide range of results obtainable. I’ve created 28 presets which you can audition to give some idea of what’s possible with this system of synthesis.

Rather than go into the details here, the download includes my user guide which I hope will help if you want to experiment yourself.

Update 14.7.16: Martin Vicanek has very kindly done some excellent work and optimised the CPU performance so the link above will download the new version 1.03. Many thanks to Martin for this

The VSTi plugin is on http://www.flowstoners.com under Quilcom and I recommend auditioning using the plugin. This is now at version 1.03 with Martin's optimisation included.

Any feedback you may offer is always precious to me.
I hope you enjoy playing around.

Cheers

Spogg

[BobF]

Hi Spogg,

I like this synth a real lot. Some of the sounds are the best I have heard in a long time. Really good work. I took a quick look on the inside, but was wondering if you could give a light tutorial on how the scanning is implemented?

Again a really great work! Wish I played keyboards better than I do. Will have to turn my California friend on to this one.

Later ten, BobF.....

[Spogg]

Hi Spogg,

I like this synth a real lot. Some of the sounds are the best I have heard in a long time. Really good work. I took a quick look on the inside, but was wondering if you could give a light tutorial on how the scanning is implemented?

Again a really great work! Wish I played keyboards better than I do. Will have to turn my California friend on to this one.

Later ten, BobF.....

Hey thanks Bob

The scanning system is quite straightforward really. Each wave source has a DSP module on its output. Each module has lower and upper limit floats set to respond to appropriate ranges of the control signal (LFO, env etc.). There is a linear "triangle" transfer function then created so as the control signal increases the gain goes up then down. The trick then is to set the floats' values so they overlap by 50% in successive modules. This means that as wave (n) starts to decrease from max, wave (n+1) starts to increase from zero, giving a linear cross-fade.
On the INIT preset, which has the LFO running at max scan level, if you turn the Mono - Stereo knob fully to mono you don't hear any transitions between waves (but there can be a little phase drift in some situations on very long hold times).

You could use any number of these modules in a schematic as long as you set the float values accordingly. Also you could experiment with different overlaps (I didn't try this).

Hope that's explained it!

Cheers

Spogg

[TeslaTronik]

Spogg! this is very very nice, i played around with in for some time and got some really good sounding patches made, it reminds me of the N.I Razor synth in the way it sounds, do you plan on finishing this? in terms of a good gui/gfx? i would love to do some banks for it if so.

i tried something similar a few years back using wave-morphing but it didn't even come close to how this sounds.

[Spogg]

Spogg! this is very very nice, i played around with in for some time and got some really good sounding patches made, it reminds me of the N.I Razor synth in the way it sounds, do you plan on finishing this? in terms of a good gui/gfx? i would love to do some banks for it if so.

i tried something similar a few years back using wave-morphing but it didn't even come close to how this sounds.

Hey Mr. Tronik!

Thank you so much for your positive comments; I really appreciate it very much

To answer your question on GUI: I have absolutely no graphic design skills so what you see when you download one of my Quilcoms will not be visually enhanced by me at any time in the future. My passion is to experiment with techniques and priciples in the technical aspects of instrument and effect design and doesn't extend to making the results look pretty. In fact I don't really enjoy the preset design stage that much either; the development phase is easily the most rewarding for me.

I've always said that anyone can do what they want with my output, including re-skinning. So if you or anyone else wants to do that please go ahead. It would be nice to see the end result and also if you have made some nice presets I'd love to hear them, but I have no expectations. It happened once that one flowstoner did re-skin one of my synths and the result looked amazing (he uploaded a screenshot).

Cheers

Spogg

[martinvicanek]

Amazing sounds!
Here is a little optimization (Chorus, Delay, Blend Ranges, ...). Hope I haven't broken it.

[RJHollins]

MV optimized is working fine here

[Spogg]

Amazing sounds!
Here is a little optimization (Chorus, Delay, Blend Ranges, ...). Hope I haven't broken it.

Hey Martin thanks for doing that!

However there is a problem. The effects chain was left channel only. There seems to be a problem with your stereo pack/unpack modules. I replaced them with your older 4 channel ones and everything worked fine. Otherwise excellent.

If you can fix the stereo pack/unpack issue I'll update the version in the first post and the flowstoners plugin, otherwise let me know and I'll use the 4 channel ones and update using them inside.

Once again, I really do appreciate your input and help very much.

Cheers

Spogg

[martinvicanek]

doh.gif (265 Bytes) Viewed 34868 times

Fixed in my post above.

[Spogg]

doh.gif

Fixed in my post above.

That's simply fantastic Martin
You are my hero and I really appreciate you spending that time to help out.

I've given it version number 1.03 and linked it in my original post and put the plugin on flowstoners (together with a mention for your input).

Cheers

Spogg