Saike's workshop [ JSFX | Synth | Creative FX | Nonlinear Filters ]

[Ears]

Originally Posted by sai'ke

Protosynth: Polyphonic synthesizer

Features:
- 8 oscillators
- 4 anti-aliased oscillator types (Harmonic DSF, SuperSaw, Formant DSF, Noise)
- Customizable signal mix nodes (Additive, Amplitude modulation, Ring modulation, XOR, XOR-diff, STFT convolution, audio rate frequency shifter, and 3 flavors of phase modulation with feedback).
- Two nonlinear filter modules with filters ranging from clean to dirty.
- Stereo widening effect.
- Basic reverb module.
- Pitch noise.
- Glide.
- Modwheel, MIDI velocity and pitch bend support.

Some less obvious usage notes:
- No sound likely means you didn't enable any oscillators.
- Unfortunately, this synth gets CPU hungry _fast_. I will still attempt to improve this a little, but most likely it will stay pretty hungry.
- Right mouse button allows you to type ratios exactly, or switch oscillator/filter/modulator type without having to drag through all the options.
- Pressing tab allows you to fine tune oscillators with absolute Hz differences that don't track to pitch.
- Don't go too crazy with the mix nodes.
- The nodes F3 and F4 support nonlinear filters.
- Remember, a nonlinear filter in F4 is shared between all voices, meaning it will lead to inter-modulation distortion and will only be affected by the envelope of the last voice. Note that this is also a lot cheaper than having per-voice nonlinear filters (even though you can do this by using a non-linear filter in F3).
- Feedback for mix nodes that support it is dialed in by dragging the bar underneath the mix node.
- Explore some of the presets

Wow, Protosynth looks awesome!

Yutani is one of my favourite synths, can't wait to dig into this one later.

I just had a little play around, and there's a really smooth and rounded off quality to the sound without it losing any of its edge. Sounds amazing to my ears.

A few things:
-Moving a fader or pot on a midi controller cuts off the sustain - even without assigning them to a parameter.
-I can't click anywhere to close an empty input ratio box, only pressing enter works.
-Some gain control would be nice on stage 1 (4 total) & stage 2 (2 total) of the signal mix nodes.
-Being able to solo an oscillator or a mix channel would also be nice.

Thank you for another amazing gift.

[sai'ke]

Originally Posted by BirdBird

Protosynth is the coolest synth I have used in years.

Yay.

Originally Posted by TonE

Long time not here somehow thought let me check quickly what is going on in Reaper forums, as if my heart connected to saike, saike posted another great coolness. Some bell melodies playing now. Great, thanks a lot friend saike!
Will check this later better. Now only preset switching. Gnarly! Ether!

Welcome back!

And glad you like it. Personally, I quite like how this variant of the shriek filter ended up. It decays kind of crispy/bitcrushery. Try Nonlinear Relaxation or blisssssful nonlinearity

Originally Posted by Ears

-Moving a fader or pot on a midi controller cuts off the sustain - even without assigning them to a parameter.

Good catch! Fixed.

-I can't click anywhere to close an empty input ratio box, only pressing enter works.

Fixed.

-Some gain control would be nice on stage 1 (4 total) & stage 2 (2 total) of the signal mix nodes.

Have to think about this one a bit more.

-Being able to solo an oscillator or a mix channel would also be nice.

Added in 0.06.

Thanks for the reports!

[Ears]

Thanks for the quick fixes and solo toggles. I've been glued to my keyboard and midi controller for hours playing with Protosynth, hehe.

It shares some similarities with Unfiltered Audio LION synth, where you can quickly descend into complete chaos if you want, but then with a very minor tweak to a parameter you can slip into a blissful pad or a sequence of gentle plucks, clicks, clacks and more. Lots of fun to explore with a controller, a sustained midi note, and some sanity control management.

And I've never really tried to create trance music, but this has to be one of the easiest synths to dial in those organic and euphoric trance sounds from the 90s. I don't know if it's the filters, osc, or analog infusion, but I keep ending up in that magic place.

^.^