3.1 KiB
Sources
The audio engine provides a variety of sound sources. Use the sound word (or s for short) to select one.
Basic Oscillators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
sine |
Pure sinusoid, smooth and mellow |
tri |
Triangle wave, warmer than sine, naturally band-limited |
saw |
Bright sawtooth with anti-aliasing, rich in harmonics |
zaw |
Raw sawtooth without anti-aliasing, lo-fi character |
pulse, square |
Variable-width pulse wave with anti-aliasing |
pulze, zquare |
Raw pulse without anti-aliasing, 8-bit feel |
pulse and pulze respond to the pw parameter (0.0-1.0) for pulse width. At 0.5 you get a square wave.
Phase Shaping
All oscillators support phase shaping for timbral variation:
| Parameter | Range | Effect |
|---|---|---|
size |
0-256 | Phase quantization (lo-fi, chiptune). |
mult |
0.25-16 | Phase multiplier (harmonic overtones). |
warp |
-1 to 1 | Power curve asymmetry. |
mirror |
0-1 | Phase reflection point. |
These are super useful to get the most out of your oscillators.
Sub Oscillator
Add a sub oscillator layer to any basic oscillator:
| Parameter | Range | Effect |
|---|---|---|
sub |
0-1 | Mix level |
suboct |
1-3 | Octaves below main. |
subwave |
tri/sine/square | Sub waveform. |
Noise
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
white |
Equal energy across all frequencies, bright and hissy. |
pink |
-3dB/octave rolloff, equal energy per octave, natural. |
brown |
-6dB/octave rolloff, deep rumbling, random walk. |
Noise sources ignore pitch. Use filters to shape the spectrum.
Live Input
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
live, livein, mic |
Live audio input from microphone or line-in |
All filter and effect parameters apply to the input signal.
Plaits Engines
The Plaits engines come from Mutable Instruments and provide a range of synthesis methods. Beware, these sources can be quite CPU hungry. All share three control parameters (0.0-1.0):
| Parameter | Controls |
|---|---|
harmonics |
Harmonic content, structure, detuning. |
timbre |
Brightness, tonal color. |
morph |
Smooth transitions between variations. |
Pitched
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
modal |
Struck/plucked resonant bodies (strings, plates, tubes). |
va, analog |
Virtual analog with waveform sync and crossfading. |
ws, waveshape |
Waveshaper and wavefolder. |
fm2 |
Two-operator FM synthesis with feedback. |
grain |
Granular formant oscillator (vowel-like). |
additive |
Harmonic additive synthesis. |
wavetable |
Built-in Plaits wavetables (four 8x8 banks). |
chord |
Four-note chord generator. |
swarm |
Granular cloud of enveloped sawtooths. |
pnoise |
Clocked noise through multimode filter. |
Percussion
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
kick, bass |
808-style bass drum. |
snare |
Analog snare drum with tone/noise balance. |
hihat, hat |
Metallic 808-style hi-hat. |
Percussions are super hard to use correctly, because you need to tweak their envelope correctly.