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 Forum index » Clavia Nord Modular » Nord Modular G2 Discussion
hardsync-sounds without using hardsync
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Tim Kleinert



Joined: Mar 12, 2004
Posts: 1148
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Audio files: 7
G2 patch files: 236

PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:39 pm    Post subject: hardsync-sounds without using hardsync
Subject description: developing alternative possibilities
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Hardsync "the analogue way" (patching one oscillator output into the sync input of another) is severly compromised quality-wise on the G2 (or any digital modular for that matter).

I sheepishly admit to loving those stereotype screaming hardsync solo leads Laughing , so I'm trying to get the same sound by a different method. (The approach based on DIY oscillators works of course, but is compromised by bad tuning resolution due to the integer-sample-oscillations.)

Here's my first attempt, resulting in a square sync oscillator. It's based on a sawtooth (providing the master osc) which is swept by a highly resonant bandpass filter (whose resonance peak represents the slaved osc), the result of which then is severly hardclipped to obtain the "square" sound.

I've only tried it on my laptop on the demo version, so I cannot really assess the quality. It sounds ok from the lowly laptop speakers, but I might be wrong. Gotta give it a spin later.

I also have a sawtooth version of the same procedure on the test bench, which uses a clever square-to-saw waveshaping method. But the whole thing is quite more costly dsp-wise.


cheers,
tim

Edit: Forgot to mention the "SYNC Sharp" control, which offers control over the steepness of the waveform flanks and thus the sharpness of the sound.


DIYSqrSyncOsc_TK.pch2
 Description:
getting that osc sync sound without using osc sync

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 Filename:  DIYSqrSyncOsc_TK.pch2
 Filesize:  1.35 KB
 Downloaded:  1313 Time(s)

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Tim Kleinert



Joined: Mar 12, 2004
Posts: 1148
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Audio files: 7
G2 patch files: 236

PostPosted: Tue May 12, 2009 4:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

OK, I tried it on the G2 hardware, and I find it WAY better than the true osc-sync in terms of aliasing. I like the sound too. Musically, it does the trick for me. Yesss... Smile

However, the circuit also comes to a point where aliasing kicks in, due to the fact that the sharp waveform flanks produced by the waveshaper (a feedbacked hardclipper) will be more and more jittered at higher frequency content. Solution: insert a levelscaler module into the feedback loop, which is controlled by the sum of the basic pitch and the slave osc sweep. This lets you manually set the breakpoint from which on the waveform brilliance (defined by the amount of feedback in the waveshaper) will be attenuated exponentially. Think of this as a manually adjustable anti-aliasing functionality. Just takes two extra modules. Neat. Smile

By injecting a DC offset into the feedback loop, one can also control the pulsewidth. However, this causes the circuit to silence out unpredictably at certain settings, so this feature wasn't included. But you can of course experiment with that.

Disconnecting the bandpass filter from all frequency control turns the whole circuit into a nice formant generator. Manually tune the filter to taste.

This was fun and is very useful to me. Smile

cheers,

(The patch is mirrored in the building-blocks section, with the controls explained precisely. Here:
http://electro-music.com/forum/post-243737.html)

EDIT: True hardsync retains more of the fundamental. To get this, just switch the filter from bandpass to lowpass.


DIYSqrSyncOsc2TK.pch2
 Description:
Produces sync-like sounds, without the sonically compromised osc-sync approach. Improved version with added anti-aliasing control.

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 Filename:  DIYSqrSyncOsc2TK.pch2
 Filesize:  2.02 KB
 Downloaded:  1366 Time(s)

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Tim Kleinert



Joined: Mar 12, 2004
Posts: 1148
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Audio files: 7
G2 patch files: 236

PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2009 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I managed to patch a workable sawtooth version of this approach. Has more aliasing, but oh well.

Here:
http://www.electro-music.com/forum/topic-34299.html
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