The KRYSTAL is coming…

For the KRYSTAL my vision is to build an oscillator, which is capable of capturing the different phases of an object, which is being shattered into pieces.

I imagine the initial chaotic sound, when all the pieces are very close to each other to be chaotic and that the collision of the objects will disrupt the natural decay of each other, to be very suitable for percussive sounds.

As we move along the timeline these interactions will be less, so the already shattered pieces will have more time to decay.

I am assuming an infinite room for this, so there will not be a sudden stop phase, where all shards end up on the floor with a thumping, non harmonic sound.

Due to the processor limitations of the NTS-1, which I own, I had to reduce the number of fractured pieces to 6.

But I am emulating more, by changing the size of the pieces….

Nevertheless, I hope, if you use this sound on a polyphonic synth (which I cannot afford at the moment and why I am asking for a donation), then you will have the illusion of much more.

When ever a crystal slot is free, it is re-triggered with a random initial volume and a random pitch. (Where the random pitch is taken out of a table with currently 8 slots with different musical intervals ranging from a few cents off to +2 octaves)

I am especially interested in comments concerning:

  • which kind of intervals should be available for the crystals
  • is an envelope needed to control the shape, which is the proximity of the crystals
  • what kind of envelope for the shape would be needed? Would decay and sustain be sufficient?
  • shift shape controls the timbre of the crystals … should I add discrete steps here and if so, which ones?
  • what other controls would you like to have?

CAIN CZ – New Version Available

Finally I can announce the release of the improved version of the CAIN CZ.

It is now more and more a synthesizer on its own. Under the hood I implemented an 8-step-envelope with sustain and loop as modulation source.

Exposed to the user are eight predefined envelopes, which can be influenced in terms of depth ( -100% – +100% … John I hear you) and in terms of speed ( 0 – 4 times the original speed).

There is no LFO implemented, …. but try to run envelopes 6 and 7 with different speed settings.

Please feel free to post your ideas on what kind of envelopes you would like to have.