Gutter Synthesis
![](https://cycling74-web-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/5926c2e0d5374cf822907baa/2018-04-22T11:25:11Z/gutter-synthesis - image small.png)
![](https://cycling74-web-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/5926c2e0d5374cf822907baa/2018-04-22T11:27:24Z/Duffing_Chart copy.png)
![](https://cycling74-web-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/5926c2e0d5374cf822907baa/2018-04-22T11:29:17Z/LCMF copy.png)
Gutter synthesis is a synthesis process that creates very physical, acoustic-like sounds with purely digital synthesis processes. Importantly, the system behaves a lot like the acoustic instruments: it can be unpredictable and unstable, but rewards longer term engagement with a diverse array of different sounds and behaviours that can be teased out and explored.
The synthesis is based around a discrete implementation of the damped, forced Duffing Oscillator, a nonlinear dynamical system that has been studied extensively, and often serves as an introductory example to the subject.
The standalone for Mac or Windows is available for download from the project link.
Video example included in slideshow. Audio example:
This is an amazing project.
Very awesome!
Indeed. Very cool.
Thanks Tom, this is excellent.
Slight issue opening the standalone on Mac. See the screenshot. Maybe it needs packaging?
Thanks Andrew. Is this on 10.13?
I can't seem to solve that one... It seems to work fine on earlier OS versions.
I'm working in Max 6.1.9, although a Max7 build didn't seem to solve the problem either. Is there something I'm missing?
I'm having the same problem on Mac OS 10.13.4. Got a pop up at first saying I needed to install legacy java, but doing that didn't actually help (and I've never seen that pop-up again despite trashing and re-downloading the app).
Anyway, an amazing project regardless. I'm looking forward to digging in to the album.
Ack. Thanks. I did post it to the forum a few weeks back, but haven't heard anything, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to be able to fix it for 10.13! It seems more fundamental than the java thing, which also happens on some earlier versions.
The original forum thread is here:
https://cycling74.com/forums/standalone-app-not-finding-any-objects-or-opening-in-presentation
Hi Tom, yes it's 10.13.4. I'll take a look at your thread and see if I can help. Will see if I can get Max 6 running too.
If anyone wants it, I can just send you the actual patch instead of the standalone, which seems to work fine on 10.13.x. Send me a message and I can send the patch over!
Cheers Tom, keen to check it out.
kvp2kxpv7z at sneakemail.com
Sent!
Hi Tom! Would love to get my hands on your patch as well, to see your workflow. My email is arockman@berklee.edu.
Thanks!
Also sent. If anyone else wants to get in touch, send me an email at bunktrunk at gmail.com!
I'd love to check it out as well Tom,
datababy at mac.com
great stuff. it is long ago that someone actually made an interesting new synth in MSP.
maybe it is only a matter of taste, but i love this kind of pseudo-physical-modelling a lot.
there is that old idea of mine for an effect which can add the sound of a rattling glass door responding to bassdrums, or the flapping sound of a sheet of paper beeing held in front of the loudspeaker, which i unfortunately never finished.
Thanks Roman.
Sounds like a good plan. That description sounds exactly like some of Roberto Crippa's work, although I don't know what he's using to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JplC7RfCsc
i never did some kind of serious research about how it works in reality, i just played with it on a naive layer. it is a mixture of FM which in the end is playing samples or triggering the actual "oscillator", and of course it has an analysis input based on (frequency selective) dynamics. the problem is that the transients are less important than the question how often a wave of frequency X repeats. pretty multi-layer however.
I'd love to take a look at the patch, it sounds awesome!
jespernoerbaek at gmail.com
hello, I downloaded the standalone windows version but no sound is coming out of it, the interface and everything else work fine but I can't put finger on what causes the malfunction. any help is appreciated, thanks!
Hi Lorenzo. You could try downloading the actual patch to see if that works. That should be easier for you to troubleshoot at least. It's available here:
http://entracte.co.uk/projects/tom-mudd-e226/
Hey Tom, huge thanks for sharing this. It's a fantastic, gritty sound generator.
For info, I also couldn't get the windows (using windows 10) standalone to work. It does open but no sound. Just opened the mxr. file in MAX and it works great.
Paul
Thanks Paul! Useful to know where it is and isn't working. I haven't had time to go back to the standalone, but as long as people are getting it working in some form or other, that's fine for me for the moment.
thank you!
Year
2018
Location
London
Author