More Chicken Heads and Quad Sync!

[k brown]

Again with the chicken head knobs (I love 'em) and Martin's Sync Oscs. With this one, up to four oscillators can be sync'd at once and at different pitches for some very complex waveforms (but without the complexity of a full four-osc synth).

Based primarily on the obscure (I love 'em) synth, the Teisco 110F (made by Kawai), with features added from their 100F and the SX-400. The quad sync bit was inspired by a pretty unique (AFAIK) feature of the SX-400 (a single-osc poly) which had a mode where rather than it's four 'internal' oscillators merely allowing four-note polyphony, could be mono with all four osc set to different pitches, over a several octave range. So I gave this function to VCO II of the 110F-based emulation, so each key-down can sound five different pitches (four of them with the same waveform; the fifth one can be different). Where this really becomes monster is when sync is engaged and all four of VCO II's outputs are at different pitches - crazy! None of the Teiscos had sync for some reason!

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Another pretty unique 110F feature was the eight-band Filter Bank, which could be either a multi band-pass or peak filter - something usually only seen in modulars.

Only thing really borrowed from the 100F was the very handy envelope 'preset' modes - ADR, AD and AR, which I added to the 110F's ADSRs.

Thanks to modules borrowed from Spogg projects (again !!), I was able to give this both mono and poly Portamento and Glissando.

The 4-pole low pass can select one of three 'flavours' - Spogg's Moog, a double SVF or Martin's Complex low pass. Three quite different resonance characteristics.

The 110F didn't have any wheels, but in their place three bipolar pressure pads - one applied vibrato when the top was pressed and LFO mod to the filter when the bottom was pressed. The second one opened or closed the filter and the third one raised or lowered one or both VCO pitches. I've adapted all that to be controlled by either p-wheel or mod-wheel, aftertouch or footpedal. When mod-wheel is assigned to filter and pitches, one can select normal or bipolar operation (with small dead zone at center), which is similar to the bipolar pads.

[Duckett]

Looks great! Always appreciate your sensibility as to what to keep true to the original, and what to modernize.

[k brown]

Thanks - definitely part of the fun.

[trogluddite]

That's a very "big" sound for what seems a simple architecture- and you're right, it does get massive when you sync the quad oscillators!

Sadly, I do have one problem to report; but it's only a cosmetic one. The font that you've chosen for the labelling doesn't seem to be one that Windows has installed by default. Judging by your screenshot, you've used a "condensed" font, and unfortunately, Windows' automatic substitute (Arial most likely) is way too wide to fit the label areas - it makes a horrible mess of a panel that otherwise looks really smart (I'm a bit of a chicken-head fan, too!) It's easy to do when you have all sorts of other app's installing their own font collections; I've done it myself a few times.

BTW) For authenticity, I tested it using genuine "pressure pad" controls (courtesy of my little X-key keyboard). I used to have the "baby" of the Teisco family, the 60F, so I remember the pads well - though not especially fondly, as I've never found them easy to use (mind you, it was a very beaten up old thing, so maybe they weren't working properly).

[k brown]

Yeah - I was afraid of that, and I LOVE that font too - It's Twentieth Century MT Condensed. Came installed in my old Lenovo ThinkPad, running Win XP. Anyone know if there is a similar font that comes with newer machines? Is there a way to put that font in the Sync download folder, so folks can install it in their computer?

Here's a better look at it.

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Even worse, tula says that newer Windows won't even have Ariel as a default font.

[tulamide]

Judging by your screenshot, you've used a "condensed" font, and unfortunately, Windows' automatic substitute (Arial most likely) is way too wide to fit the label areas

Arial is unlikely to be the substitute font. Since Windows 8, Arial is no system font anymore. It was replaced completely by Segoe UI, which comes in more than one style.
I would start to not rely anymore on Arial. It is still installed with current Win 10 installations, but won't be used by Win 10 itself, and might even be missing somewhere in the future.

[k brown]

Maybe Segoe looks better on a newer machine, but on mine it looks terrible; hard to read - I would never use it.

Here's TW Cent MT Condensed if anyone know how to install it.

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[tulamide]

Yeah - I was afraid of that, and I LOVE that font too - It's Twentieth Century MT Condensed.

That font can still be downloaded from Font repositories all over the web. But its license is for personal use only, so I wouldn't use it in your synth.

If you're looking for completely free license fonts (that is, allowing the use in your own works and even commercially), I recommend "FontSquirrel". On the usual sites, the "free" fonts they offer, are always restricted and NOT really free. On FontSquirrel you never have to worry. All fonts there are really unrestricted and free to use in any way you like (incl. shipping it with your synth so that the end user can install it).

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/

[k brown]

See my previous post.

I'll have a look at Squirrel, thanks.

[k brown]

So, I gather you wouldn't recommend replacing it with Ariel either.