I love this oscillator sync knob so very much. Desperately want to be able to do this in Max. Any ideas?
The analog synth oscillator in Phase Plant by Kilohearts has a sync knob that sounds so badass on all the included basic waveforms - saw, triangle, square, sine. I really really want to know how to implement this in Max.
I recorded a quick 60 second demo here so you can hear it and see the nice oscilloscope display.
Here's what I know:
- The sync knob goes from 1.000 to 12.000
- The manual says: "Sync: Simulates oscillator sync by running the oscillator at a higher frequency, but resetting its phase back to zero at the normal frequency."
I know that some of the objects like saw~ have a sync inlet and the help file does show an oscillator sync example but I haven't had any luck making it sound like the implementation of this particular knob.
There were some cool patches posted in this thread but none of theme seem to do quite what this knob does. Anyone want to take a stab at it? Pretty please?
Any suggestions or patches would be very appreciated. Thanks so much!
SOLVED! in case anyone else needs an example of this cool sound, here ya go:
Here's what's going on to get this cool sound:
1. We have an incoming frequency from a kslider representing a midi input. We're converting the note number to a frequency value. Call this the Base frequency.
2. This base frequency is sent to a sync oscillator - this is the phasor~ object. We don't hear it directly. It is resetting the phase of the sawtooth wave, which we do hear.
3. The base frequency is multiplied by the sync knob, which is a range 1.000 to 6.000 even though it is displayed as 1-12 because it kinda sounds like an octave. I just figured that out by ear.
4. The product of the base frequency and the sync knob is actually controlling the pitch of the sawtooth wave.
What's awesome is that if that sawtooth oscillator wasn't being reset by the phasor~, it would sound like the pitch was increasing when we turn the sync knob. But because the phasor~ is resetting the phase of the sawtooth at the base frequency, it just sounds like we are adding harmonics when we turn that sync knob up. We change the shape of the sawtooth wave by increasing its frequency, making the waves closer together, but by resetting it X times per second as controlled by the keyboard - the lower frequency still sounds like the real pitch to your ear.
and now you are going to mix the synced oscillator against the unmodulated original, then the real fun begins.