CAIN ++

Karplus Strong Oscillator
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Cain++ is an oscillator which can be used to emulate plugged string sounds. It is based on concept introduced by Kevin Karplus und Alex Strong. The ++ in this oscillator comes from playing with the inventors names and a the little extra (plus) I put into the oscillator.

A Karplus-Strong oscillator is an oscillator, that creates a musical tone through a tuned feedback. It is fed by a burst of noise and then harmonizes the initial chaos through the tuned feedback loop.

The feedback loop is controlled by a low pass filter and also by an attenuator.

As initial exiter for the feedback loop, there is of course a white noise burst. In addition you can blend the noise over to one of 94 waveforms, coming from the internal wavetable.

Besides the initial exiter you have the possibility to add a continuous exciter to the oscillator. Again this can be a blend of noise and the selected waveform.

Last but not least the frequency of the exciter waveform can be altered (20 = in tune with the oscillator) to change the timbre of the continuous signal.

Try to set param1 (pluck) to somewhere between 90 – 99, param2 (vol) to around 50 and param3 (freq) to 12. Play it in the base range and please feel free to leave a comment.

Version 1.0.0

Here are some ideas on what you could donate if you are thinking…

“Thank you for your efforts, but I am currently broke. Still I want to support you the best I can.”

0€ – but please put a link to the unit you used in the comments of your published work

 

“I’ll buy you a coffee for your efforts” 2€
“Did I put my pants on before leaving the house?” 5€
“Improves my minilogue XD by 1 %” 6€
“Improves my prologue by 1%” 10€
“I’ll buy you a minilogue XD, so you can work out the details on the parameters for that unit.” 600€

Alpha-Version:

Here are some ideas on what you could donate if you are thinking…

“Thank you for your efforts, but I am currently broke. Still I want to support you the best I can.”

0€ – but please put a link to the unit you used in the comments of your published work

 

“I’ll buy you a coffee for your efforts” 2€
“Did I put my pants on before leaving the house?” 5€
“Improves my minilogue XD by 1 %” 6€
“Improves my prologue by 1%” 10€
“I’ll buy you a minilogue XD, so you can work out the details on the parameters for that unit.” 600€

13 Comments

  1. Hello! The examples in your video sound great, I downloaded the oscillator on my monologue XD and I can’t seem to get it to sound like much at all. Do you have any tips for recreating any of the sounds in your video?

    Thanks in advance, and thanks for posting these!

  2. Hi Alex,
    thank you for your comment. I have it on a Prologue now:
    Env Mod: +81%
    Env Speed: 13
    K Attack: 1
    Harmony: 1
    HiPass: 7
    Decay:1
    Play with the Shape in the lower range between 8 and 9 o’clock.

    I also added the Submarine effect. ( It hat to impress some of the folks, 😉 )

    Please provide feedback, if it worked out for you!

    • Sorry, the above was for the KRYSTAL.

      C++lavinet
      Pluck: 1
      S Volume: 1
      S Color: 1
      Frequenzy: 20
      Waveform: 1
      Shape & Shape Shift all in.

      C++Guitar
      Pluck: 43
      S Volume: 1
      S Color: 1
      Frequenzy: 20
      Waveform: 1
      Shape & Shape Shift all in.

      Soft C++ Bass
      Pluck: 98
      S Volume: 32
      S Color: 100
      Frequenzy: 41
      Waveform: 1
      Shape & Shape Shift start with all in and play

      does this help?

  3. Yes thanks that helps a lot!

    Is there anything I can read about what each parameter does?

  4. PAUL MOSELEY

    Cain…
    I am trying to download the CAIN++ however there is no Download button as with the other Downloads and I can’t get the link to work.
    The other Oscillators sound great but it really is the CAIN++ that is of interest to me.
    Advice please…Stay Safe clever dudes x

    • Hi Paul,
      sorry, for the inconvenience. The files were hosted on a different server and Chrome updated the security policy, so that the link to the other url is blocked. (Which kind of makes sense from a security standpoint, but made my files unreachable unless you copy the link and open it in a separate browser tab. Anyway I have fixed it now, since I found a way to embed the files directly on this server here.

      Please try again and get back to me, if you succeded or not.

      Cheers,
      Pete (cain)

  5. What do Shape and Shape Shift do specifically?

    • Hi Jon,
      sorry for the inconvenience. Usually I provide a detailed description for all plugins. I missed that.
      Shape – Lowpass filter cutoff on the Karplus Strong feedback signal. (Shortens and dampens the sound)
      ShiftShape – Amount of feedback for the Karplus Strong algorithm. (Influences the decay of the inital impulse, without coloring the sound)
      Param1 (Pluck) – Mixes the noise burst signal with a continuous exciter.
      Param2 (S_Volume) – Volume at which the continuous exciter is added to the algorithm.
      Param3 (S Color) – Mixes the continuous exiter with noise after the initial burst.
      Param4 (Frequency) – Changes the frequency of the continuous exciter. (The frequency of the oscillator is defined by the feedback of the algorithm. Altering the exiters frequency changes the color of the sound in this case)
      Param5 (Waveform) – Selects one of 90 possible waveforms to act as exciter.

      I hope this was helpful. I will revisit the module in the next weeks, to do some more fine adjustments on some of the parameters. Doing that I will also provide a description to accompany the oscillator.

      Cheers,
      Pete

  6. Hey love your work. I have scoured the internet for a side chain compressor for the nutekt. I was wondering if I could ask you to build that software for me? I could imagine with your expertise it would be a pretty easy job. What would your going rate be to create that?

    Having one knob for intensity and one for mix? Super simple.

    • Hey Quinn,
      thank you for the flowers:) Currently I am busy with some oscillators and effects, which I hope to release soon, but they are not there, yet. My approch on a compressor would be to calculate the average total ABS(signal) and then apply an AR envelope to that… I thought about it for some of my oscillators, to have more reliable results… Those are my thoughts concerning a compressor in general. But when we are talking side chain, then how do you imagine it? Do you want the external signal to impact the compression of an NTS-1 or do you want to have the left channel to impact the right one (or vice versa)?
      Anyway I would need to play with the parameters a bit, since I have not tried it, yet.

      cheers,
      Pete

      • Hey Pete, your question spurred a lot of thought on my end. I’m running a dawless, portable, electronic set up. I will be using headphone splitters as a (as im using the bastl dude as my mixer) to join the kick (which ideally is added to the mix instead of silently sidechaining) going into the nutket as my final fx unit. So yeah left channel to impact the right sounds great.

        I’m on my ghetto grind, I know it seems kind of convoluted but your patience and time is appreciated.

  7. hey this seems to be the most active thread but some of your download links on other oscillators are dead or broken.

    • Hi Uzmaki,
      I had to switch the download positions, since I hosted them on a different server. Sorry, that you found a broken link. I would highly apprechiate it, if you would just give me the link, which is not working, so I can fix it.
      Kind regards,
      Pete

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