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The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 3:02 pm
by Spogg
Hello fellow FlowStone addicts!

I had the idea to see what would happen if I had a 16 partial additive synth (plus sub) where each partial could be amplitude modulated by a poly LFO, bipolar for phase inversion. What if each LFO ran at a different frequency and amount? What if the parameters could be randomised? What would 2 sound like in stereo? And so on…

The result of my experiments is manifested in the Quilcom Mystery synth. I focused on making pads and soundscapes for the presets because that seemed to be its natural destiny.

Of course you can make all sorts of pads on any synth, and many synths are very capable of making evolving, moving soundscapes, so this is an exploration of a very specific technique, rather than a do-it-all pad and soundscape maker.

Here’s the YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/sAwvUC8Uf0k

Here’s the download with all the usual stuff in the zip:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vcdvkx2cmf7r ... 1.zip?dl=0

I had a lot of fun actually playing this and especially on headphones. I hope you do too!

Cheers

Spogg

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 3:39 pm
by DigiTonix
Ough Rex. really mystical sound! :)
it seems cool for the new retro wave, you can make trap pads like in Korean bands, very useful)
THX!

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:47 pm
by Spogg
DigiTonix wrote:Ough Rex. really mystical sound! :)
it seems cool for the new retro wave, you can make trap pads like in Korean bands, very useful)
THX!


Thank you!

I have no idea about musical genres though, so I take your word for it. I always thought that a trap was for catching mice and stuff.

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:50 pm
by Duckett
Looks like my ADHDidi post had some use after all, if only inspirational ;)

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 6:24 pm
by DigiTonix
But it is really very suitable for a trap, it sounds like that, as if Rex had thought of it, maybe he works for 69)) I'm kidding, of course, but listen for yourself ... :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TBvISmc21s

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:57 pm
by tulamide
Spogg wrote:I have no idea about musical genres though, so I take your word for it. I always thought that a trap was for catching mice and stuff.

Hold on, I'm coming to the rescue!

When you take the low tempo music, people usually rap to, but have no vocals and replace the kick with a long decayed 808-kick (so, a sine wave with a fast pitch envelope decaying out on an actual bass note) - that's called trap.

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:15 pm
by kortezzzz
Fantastic idea. Working on a quite similar project in those days and I have to say that the new gadgets you use in this are pure inspiration. Thank you for sharing :D

I have one off topic question. In this synth you use a pure synthesis. No sampling. Let's say you would like to involve a single sample channel which would be mixed with rest. To create a proper continuous "infinite legato" pad sound with the sample, you'll need to loop the sample correctly by using crossfade points. I saw you already did it in your "Bridgit".

My question: Is there any way to find the perfect corssfade points where the looping legato sounds smoothly continuous with no typical amputations?

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 7:51 am
by Spogg
kortezzzz wrote:My question: Is there any way to find the perfect corssfade points where the looping legato sounds smoothly continuous with no typical amputations?

If there is a way I don’t know it! :oops:

What you could think about is using a granular technique but on a large scale rather than tiny fragments. When a grain is created it generally has a “window” whereby a section of the clip is faded in and out. The starting point of the grain in the clip moves forward and eventually wraps around, so each grain is unique and the grain creation rate determines the density of the sound, since grains overlap. This overlapping causes a blending of multiple grains which tends to reduce amplitude variations. It also means that when initially played you hear just the first grain fade in and the multiplicity then increases up to a point determined by the creation rate and the grain duration.

I don’t think that’s what you meant though. :lol:

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:33 am
by tulamide
Not sure if I understand that, but how I work with samples, when they have to perfectly loop is, that I record 3 times the length of it, then cut the part in the middle. It will be perfectly looped, especially with FXs applied, like echos or reverbs, who blend into the following beats. No need for crossfades.

If you're lazy and don't record your own soundscapes, but use one shots from other musicians, you have to go zero-crossing at similar rms. But that will never sound as good as above method.

Re: The Quilcom Mystery: Hopefully not a mystery to use!

PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:12 am
by DigiTonix
Interestingly, what Tom described, it looks like an RR algorithm, since it seems I created such samples in the Extreme Music Converter. but maybe I'm wrong ... :?:

I used Lethal (https://www.lethalaudio.com) rompler a little, many sounds are very dry in it, it even sounds cheap, But I like this sound, because there is a very clean gluing of samples, if you know what I mean, (About dryness and purity of sounds)
I also know that the synth core Lethal is a CWI Tech sampler (https://www.tx16wx.com), apparently they created it to order, for a small company ..)

After adding later:
It seems to me that if you cross Letal and this synth of Rex + add layers, it will be the best synth in the world, just not everyone chops the chip) But imagine how it would sound!

Sorry if I wrote a lot of things off topic) :roll: