Synthesis

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General

See also Sampling, Audio#Synthesis (for speech synthesis), Audio (in general), Groovebox, etc.

todo; touch-ups, more links, more text

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer - often abbreviated as synth, is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals that may be converted to sound. Synthesizers may imitate traditional musical instruments such as piano, flute, vocals, or natural sounds such as ocean waves; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals (sounds). Among the most popular waveform synthesis techniques are subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis, frequency modulation synthesis, phase distortion synthesis, physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_synthesizer - a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of vacuum-tube (thermionic valve) and electro-mechanical technologies. After the 1960s, analog synthesizers were built using operational amplifier (op-amp) integrated circuits, and used potentiometers (pots, or variable resistors) to adjust the sound parameters. Analog synthesizers also use low-pass filters and high-pass filters to modify the sound. While 1960s-era analog synthesizers such as the Moog used a number of independent electronic modules connected by patch cables, later analog synthesizers such as the Minimoog integrated them into single units, eliminating patch cords in favour of integrated signal routing systems.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_synthesizer - a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital recordings of acoustic, electric, or electronic instruments. Some digital synthesizers emulate analog synthesizers others include sampling capability in addition to digital synthesis.




  • Synthtopia - a portal devoted to electronic music.



Elements



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-frequency_oscillation - LFO - The primary oscillator circuits of a synthesizer are used to create the audio signals. A LFO is a secondary oscillator that operates at a significantly lower frequency (hence its name), typically below 20 Hz. This lower frequency or control signal is used to modulate another component's value, changing the sound without introducing another source.




Learning

  • Synth Zone is an attempt to ease the search for synth resources on the Internet . If you can't find links to the information or resources here then please check out the full list of synth sites on Synth Zone's Synth Sites Links & Resources page.




  • Synth.tk - Sound Synthesis Education. Various article and video series. [1]
  • Advanced Programming Techniques for Modular Synthesizers - intended to provide the advanced user of the Clavia Nord Modular synthesizer with a toolbox of techniques for creating complex and interesting patches. Although the emphasis is on the Nord Modular, the techniques described in this document can be applied to any modular synthesizer, from a modular Moog to the Native Instruments Reaktor softsynth.
  • The Synthesizer Academy - a site dedicated to help you learn about synthesis and the creation of electronic music. If you’re looking for a synthesizer tutorial, this is the site for you! You can either start at the very beginning and work your way through each lesson one-by-one, or use the red bar at the top to jump in wherever you want. We’ll also be adding links to various synth resources to help you learn more and get your hands on some gear to play with. New lessons will be added frequently, so check back often.




Modular



  • ModularGrid - a database for modular synthesizers with an integrated planner where people gather information and sketch out their modulars.


  • Synthesizers.com - Fine modular analog synthesizers featuring classic styling and world-class customer service





Control voltage / gate & trigger


  • S-trigger | Electronic Music Wiki | Fandom - type of gate circuit used by many vintage Moog synths. Instead of providing a high and low voltage output to indicate the pressing and releasing of keys, it uses what is known as an "open collector" output, which basically opens and closes a switch. It requires that the entity that is receiving the signal apply a voltage to the cable, in order to detect the switch opening and closing at the sender's end. Most Moog models that use the S-trigger circuit indicate its presence through the use of an unusual connector known as a Cinch-Jones connector, which resembles a smaller version of a U.S. two-prong power plug.S-trigger is not compatible with conventional gate circuits. Trying to send a conventional gate signal to a synth that is expecting an S-trigger may cause circuit damage; however, a simple adapter circuit can be purchased or constructed. S-trigger should not be confused with the inverted gate signals used by some Korg and Yamaha synths.






  • GZD - attempts to find the frequency with the biggest magnitude in an audio-signal. This frequency is then transformed into a control voltage.




DIY





to sort

  • Synthesizer Manuals Collection - Collecting several hundred manuals in one location, this collection of information about Music Synthesizers spans over 40 years of technology and products. Most consist of information about programming, usage and operation of synthesizers, as well as software products that emulate synthesizers. Additional scans are always welcome.




  • Open Theremin V3 - an open source hardware and software project with a great community of musicians and people interested in the world of electronic music instruments . The aim is to build a next generation, digital version of the legendary music instrument. With more than 1000 Open.Theremins in the world the new version 3 was built based on many community ideas and inputs.





  • https://github.com/MrBlueXav/Dekrispator - Experimental Music synthesizer based on an STM32F4 Discovery board (ARM Cortex M4F from STM32 series) with USB MIDI Host function for interaction and automatic mode.
  • https://github.com/MrBlueXav/Dekrispator_v2 - New Experimental Music synthesizer based on an STM32F4 Discovery board (ARM Cortex M4F from STM32 series) with USB MIDI Host function for interaction and automatic mode. Updated with Cube/HAL.



  • https://code.google.com/archive/p/forbinlfo - a project to build a Low Frequency Oscillator module for an Analog Synthesizer using a simple cheap Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The advantages that this gives you are many fold in that it will allow certain operations that are extremely difficult and expensive in the pure Analog domain such as phase differences that are continuously variable and completely arbiatary.


  • Mozzi - sound synthesis library for Arduino. Mozzi brings your Arduino to life by allowing it to produce much more complex and interesting growls, sweeps and chorusing atmospherics. These sounds can be quickly and easily constructed from familiar synthesis units like oscillators, delays, filters and envelopes. You can use Mozzi to generate algorithmic music for an installation or performance, or make interactive sonifications of sensors, on a small, modular and super cheap Arduino, without the need for additional shields, message passing or external synths.


  • x0x Clones - website for learning about vintage Roland machines as well as their hardware clones and software emulations, old and new, including Roland SH-101, TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909 Clones & XOX Emulations. dead.


  • x0xb0x - not just another MIDI-controlled TB-303 clone. x0xb0x is a full reproduction of the original Roland synthesizer, with fully functional sequencer. The sequencer can be programmed just like the original 303 (ok its actually a little easier, we think) and can be used to control other synthesizers via any of its various output formats. 128 banks of track memory and 64 banks of pattern memory are stored in onboard EEPROM, no battery-backup is needed!





  • JDXi Manager - an easy-to-use, intuitive, modern looking software patch editor for the Roland JD-Xi synthesizer. Currently editing of the Analog Synth part, the two Digital Synth parts, the Drums part and the Effects of the JD-Xi is supported. It is designed to run on Microsoft Windows and on Linux. The JDXi Manager is still work in progress and more features and functionality are being added with every new release.


  • Prynth - Our goal is to explore models for self-contained programmable synthesizers, gathering attributes from both hardware synths and computer-based systems.


  • https://github.com/eclab/edisyn - a synthesizer patch editor library written in pure Java. It runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows.Edisyn is particularly good at exploring the space of patches. It has to my knowledge the most sophisticated set of general-purpose patch-exploration tools of any patch editor available.


  • https://github.com/flok99/UTWIN6001 - software for the UTWIN6001 hardware. The UTWIN6001 is a "hat" for the raspberry pi allowing you to interface to a Doepfer A100 compatible system (eurorack modular synthesizer). This software allows you to do all kinds of "conversions": midi to control voltage AND control voltage to midi, audio-frequency to control voltage, and so on!

Methods

Subtractive synthesis

FM synthesis



Additive synthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis - a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together. The timbre of musical instruments can be considered in the light of Fourier theory to consist of multiple harmonic or inharmonic partials or overtones. Each partial is a sine wave of different frequency and amplitude that swells and decays over time. Additive synthesis most directly generates sound by adding the output of multiple sine wave generators. Alternative implementations may use pre-computed wavetables or the inverse Fast Fourier transform.

It’s difficult to go very far with additive synthesis using analog hardware. Each wave needs its own oscillator, and to get sounds that are very complex, it requires quite a few of them. This can get very bulky and expensive rather quickly. Most sounds found in nature would require hundreds or even thousands of sine waves to accurately reproduce them. Digital synthesizers make it easier to do additive synthesis. All the waves are just numbers in a computer, so you can add as many as you want if you have enough processing power.

Despite this potential complexity, simple additive synthesis is possible on quite modest analogue synths. So is 'sinusoids plus noise' synthesis. Indeed, I guarantee that anybody playing an instrument with two or more independently tuneable oscillators (and, maybe, a noise source) has created sounds employing tuned fifths, octaves, or whatever. As soon as you have done this, you've entering the weird and wonderful world of additive synthesis. So go and find a handful of extra oscillators, and get serious. Additives can be good for you, and it's great fun, I promise.

Wavetable / sample

See also Sampling


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table-lookup_synthesis or wavetable-lookup synthesis is a class of sound synthesis methods using the waveform tables by table-lookup, called "table-lookup oscillator" technique. The length of waveforms or samples may be varied by each sound synthesis method, from a single-cycle up to several minutes.




  • https://github.com/sneakernets/DMXOPL - New and improved DMX GENMIDI for Doom and sourceports, taking full advantage of the OPL3 waveforms. This takes things up a notch in terms of timbre.




Physical modelling synthesis


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_waveguide_synthesis -the synthesis of audio using a digital waveguide. Digital waveguides are efficient computational models for physical media through which acoustic waves propagate. For this reason, digital waveguides constitute a major part of most modern physical modeling synthesizers.


  • Yamaha VL1: Virtual Acoustic Synthesizer - Is 'physical modelling' set to become the buzz-phrase of '90s synthesis? MARTIN RUSS exclusively tests out Yamaha's innovative new synth and reveals all... Published in SOS July 1994.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_waveguide_synthesis - a physical modelling synthesis method to simulate sounds of dispersive sounding objects, or objects with strongly inharmonic resonant frequencies efficiently. It can be used to model the sound of instruments based on elastic solids such as vibraphone and marimba bars, singing bowls and bells. It can also be used for other instruments with inharmonic partials, such as membranes or plates. For example, simulations of tabla drums and cymbals have been implemented using this method. Because banded waveguides retain the dynamics of the system, complex non-linear excitations can be implemented. The method was originally invented in 1999 by Georg Essl and Perry Cook to synthesize the sound of bowed vibraphone bars (Essl Cook 1999).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karplus–Strong_string_synthesis - a method of physical modelling synthesis that loops a short waveform through a filtered delay line to simulate the sound of a hammered or plucked string or some types of percussion. At first glance, this technique can be viewed as subtractive synthesis based on a feedback loop similar to that of a comb filter for z-transform analysis. However, it can also be viewed as the simplest class of wavetable-modification algorithms now known as digital waveguide synthesis, because the delay line acts to store one period of the signal.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_synthesis - a group of sound synthesis techniques which modify existing sounds to produce more complex sounds (or timbres), usually by using non-linear circuits or mathematics. While some synthesis methods achieve sonic complexity by using many oscillators, distortion methods create a frequency spectrum which has many more components than oscillators. Some distortion techniques are: FM synthesis, waveshaping synthesis, and discrete summation formulas.


Hybrid modular


Virtual Analogue

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_modeling_synthesizer - a synthesizer that generates the sounds of traditional analog synthesizers using DSP components and software algorithms. Analog modeling synthesizers simulate the behaviour of the original electric and electronic circuitry in order to digitally replicate their tone. This method of synthesis is also referred to as Virtual Analog or VA


Patching / programming

See also Audio#Programming

  • Patchshare - A way to share modular synth patches.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_synthesis - provides movement in a sound by providing dynamic cross-fading between (usually) four sound sources. The four sound sources are conceptually arranged as the extreme points of X and Y axes, and typically labelled A, B, C and D. A given mix of the four sound sources can be represented by a single point in this 'vector plane'. Movement of the point provides sonic interest and is the power of this technique. Mixing is frequently done using a joystick, although the point can be controlled using envelope generators or LFOs.



  • JSynthLib - an Open Source Universal Synthesizer Patch Editor / Librarian written in the Java Language. Beside a bunch of commercial synths, it provides an editor for MIDIbox SID V1 and MIDIbox FM, which gives you access to all sound parameters and the wavetable sequencer. Since the official beta release of JSynthLib as well as the MIDI API of Java v1.5 has some flaws, I created this short guide in order to describe the required steps to setup JSynthLib for a MIDIbox properly.


Bass

"take one square wave, one pulse wave, detune slightly. run to resonant 12db lowpass filter (you want 12db because the more gentle rolloff curve is much more suited for basses). A slight bit of env mod on the filter cutoff is acceptable, but don't go crazy with it, you're not trying to make a 303 here. A really low cutoff with a relatively high resonance will give you alot of crazy harmonics spun off into neverneverland, which once you hit on a nice sweet spot with give the impression of deeper bass." [6]



Drums


Noise

Chiptune

See also Audio, Tracker


  • https://github.com/PaulSlocum/cynthcart - A synthesizer program for the Commodore 64 computer designed with live performance in mind. Includes arpeggiator, portamento, stereo SID and MIDI support, realtime filter control, many other features. The program is written in 6510 assembly language. Over 700 Cynthcart cartridges have been sold making it one of the most popular Commodore 64 homebrews.


Graphics synthesis

See also Audio#Sonification



Variophone

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variophone - developed by Evgeny Sholpo in 1930 at Lenfilm Studio Productions, in Leningrad, the Soviet Union, during his experiments with graphical sound techniques, also known as ornamental, drawn, paper, artificial or synthetic sound. In his research Sholpo was assisted by the composer Georgy Rimsky‐Korsakov. The Variophone was an optical synthesizer that utilized sound waves cut onto cardboard disks rotating synchronously with a moving 35mm movie film while being photographed onto it to produce a continuous soundtrack. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a normal movie by means of a film projector. Being read by photocell, amplified and monitored by a loudspeaker, it functions as a musical recording process.

Oramics

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics - a drawn sound technique designed in 1957 by musician Daphne Oram. The machine was further developed in 1962 after receiving a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation. Oram's composition machine consisted of a large rectangular metal frame, providing a table-like surface traversed by ten synchronised strips of clear, sprocketed 35mm film. The musician drew shapes on the film to create a mask, which modulated the light received by photocells. Although the output from the machine was monophonic, the sounds could be added to multitrack tapes to provide more texture.

UPIC

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPIC - (Unité Polyagogique Informatique CEMAMu) is a computerised musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris, and was completed in 1977. Xenakis used it on his subsequent piece Mycènes Alpha (1978), and it has been used by composers such as Jean-Claude Risset (on Saxatile (1992)), François-Bernard Mâche (Hypérion (1981), Nocturne (1981), Tithon (1989), Moires (1994), Canopée (2003)), Takehito Shimazu (Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994)), Mari King, and Curtis Roads. Aphex Twin talked about it in an interview

Physically, the UPIC is a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display. Its functionality is similar to that of the later Fairlight CMI, in that the user draws waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet, which are rendered by the computer. Once the waveforms have been stored, the user can compose with them by drawing "compositions" on the tablet, with the X-axis representing time, and the Y-axis representing pitch. The compositions can be stretched in duration from a few seconds to an hour. They can also be transposed, reversed, inverted, and subject to a number of algorithmic transformations. The system allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet. The UPIC system has subsequently been expanded to allow for digitally sampled waveforms as source material, rather than purely synthesised tones.

Coagula

  • Coagula is an image synth. This means that it is both a simple image editor, and a program for making sound from those images.

HighC

  • HighC - a graphical music creation tool. It is a synthesizer, a sequencer and a mixer. Its goal is to make music composition as simple and direct as sketching.

Graph-O-Spect

  • Graph-O-Spect - This program embeds images into sound files. It creates a .wav file whose spectograph matches the input .ppm file.

SpectroBits

Virtual ANS

  • Virtual ANS is a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS - photoelectronic microtonal/spectral musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1938 to 1958. Murzin named his invention in honour of the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin. The instrument was used by Stanislav Kreichi, Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edward Artemiev and other Soviet composers. You can hear the sound of the ANS in Andrei Tarkovsky's movies Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker. In 2004, the British experimental group Coil released CoilANS, a boxed set of experimental drone music performed on the ANS.

Virtual ANS (2)

AEO-Light

  • AEO-Light - a new generation of optical sound extraction software developed by the University of South Carolina in close cooperation with Tommy Aschenbach. The project is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The official project webpage contains additional information about the project’s history.

SoundGrid


ARSS

  • The Analysis & Resynthesis Sound Spectrograph - analyses a sound file into a spectrogram and is able to synthesise this spectrogram, or any other user-created image, back into a sound.ARSS is now superseded by Photosounder, which makes use of most of the techniques offered by ARSS in a simple to use and powerful graphical user interface and built in editor.

Photosounder

  • Photosounder - the first audio editor/synthesizer to have an entirely image-based approach to sound creation and editing. Thanks to its powerful and omnipotent synthesis algorithms, it is capable of creating any sound possible. Powerful built-in image editing tools, some yet unknown to general image editing programs, are specifically tailored to enable you to create and edit sounds with ease in ways and with results simply impossible with other programs.

steg

Hardware DSP

Zynthian

  • Zynthian - a new class of machine. A kind of swiss army knife of synthesis, equipped with multiple engines, filters and effects. Completely configurable and upgradeable. An Open Platform for Sound Synthesis. Based on Raspberry Pi and Linux, its hardware specification is public and software is Open Source. It is fully hackable! DIY (Do It Yourself!). A community-focused project where you can choose between build everything from scratch or use one of the kits that we offer, adapted to the different skill levels. You can use it for live performing, studio production or as a tool for experimental sound exploration.

PreenFM2

Axoloti Patcher

hardware - $

Kyma

The first version of Kyma, which computed digital audio samples on a Macintosh 512K was written in the Smalltalk programming language in 1986 by Carla Scaletti in Champaign, Illinois. In May 1987, Scaletti had partitioned Kyma into graphics and sound generation engines and ported the sound generation code to a digital signal processor called the Platypus designed by Lippold Haken and Kurt J. Hebel of the CERL Sound Group. When the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign eliminated the funding for the PLATO laboratory in 1989, Scaletti and Hebel formed Symbolic Sound Corporation in order to continue developing Kyma and digital audio signal processing hardware.

Patchblocks


Teenage Engineering oplab

  • teenage engineering – oplab - the musical switchboard for all your electronic instruments. it allows you to interconnect virtually any electronic musical instruments and music software. no more hassle with one box for MIDI and another for CV or a third for USB. just connect your cables, set the appropriate scenario and experience a perfect sync.

PC Speaker

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_speaker - a loudspeaker built into most IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a piezoelectric speaker instead. The speaker allows software and firmware to provide auditory feedback to a user, such as to report a hardware fault. A PC speaker generates waveforms using the programmable interval timer, an Intel 8253 or 8254 chip.


  • https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PC_Speaker - more commonly referred to the speaker located on the motherboard. Nowadays this speaker is usually a simple piezoelectric speaker providing just enough speaker hardware to distinguish simple frequency and tones of beeps. Beeps usually occur on error, but can be customized as this article will document.


echo -e '\a'



beep -f 200 -f 300
  # beep at 300Hz.


  • https://github.com/przemoc/pcspk - PCSpk is a set of command line applications for playing simple sounds and melodies using the PC speaker. It is inspired by simple, but really great Johnathan Nightingale's beep.





  • What’s up with the Beep driver in Windows 7? - Earlier today, someone asked me why 64bit versions of windows don’t support the internal PC speaker beeps. The answer is somewhat complicated and ends up being an interesting intersection between a host of conflicting tensions in the PC ecosystem.


  • https://github.com/dbatbold/beep - Beep sound library and utility for alerting end of a command execution. Beep can also play MIDI or text music score. Written in Go.


Songs

Modular softsynths

See also DAW#Modular synth tracker

gAlan

  • gAlan - The Graphical Audio Language. A modular synthesiser - drum-machine - sequencer - effects-unit for Linux and Win32. Like Buzz.

AlsaModularSynth

  • AlsaModularSynth is a realtime modular synthesizer and effect processor. It features MIDI controlled modular software synthesis, Realtime effect processing with capture from e.g. "Line In" or "Mic In", Full control of all synthesis and effect parameters via MIDI, Integrated LADSPA Browser with search capability, JACK Support


ams-lv2

  • ams-lv2 - set of LV2 plugins is a port of the internal modules found in Alsa Modular Synth. These plugins are used to create modular synthesizers and contains: VCO, VCF, VCA, LFO, Slew Limiter, Envelop, Sample & Hold, etc.

avw.lv2

  • avw.lv2 - A port of the AMS internal modules to LV2 plugins. It provides VCOs, LFOs, Filters and other modules controlled using Voltage Controls. They are designed especially to be used with Ingen to create Modular Synths.

Fomp

  • Fomp is an LV2 port of the MCP, VCO, FIL, and WAH plugins by Fons Adriaensen. There are 13 plugins in total: 1 auto-wah, 1 EQ, 3 chorus, 5 filters, and 3 oscillators.

controlfilter.lv2

Omnifono

  • Omnifono is a mixture of various simple utilities in one plugin: amplifier, panner, noise generators, etc. LV2.

BLOP

  • BLOP comprises a set of LADSPA plugins that generate bandlimited sawtooth, square, variable pulse and slope-variable triangle waves, principally for use with one of the many modular software synthesisers available. They are wavetable based, and are designed to produce output with harmonic content as high as possible over a wide pitch range.
  • Bandlimited Sawtooth Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Square Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Variable Width Pulse Oscillator
  • Bandlimited Variable Slope Triangle Oscillator
  • Random Wave Generator
  • Mono Amplifier
  • 4 Pole Low Pass Filter with Resonance
  • ADSR Envelope Generator
  • ADSR Envelope Generator with Gate and Trigger
  • DAHDSR Envelope Generator with Gate and Trigger
  • Sequencer
  • Quantiser
  • Clock Oscillator with Gate
  • Clock Pulse Oscillator with Gate
  • Frequency Modulator
  • Control to Audio Interpolator
  • Signal Tracker
  • Signal Sum
  • Signal Difference
  • Signal Product
  • Signal Ratio
  • Signal Branch
  • BLOP-LV2 - a mostly faithful port of blop-0.2.8, except plugin variants have been eliminated via the use of morphable Control/CV ports. This way, users do not have to choose from several versions of the same plugin, but the host can configure controls to be control-rate or audio-rate as appropriate. This mechanism is backwards compatible, so these ports will simply appear as normal LV2 control ports in hosts that do not support port morphing.

Omins

  • Omins is a collection of LADSPA plugins geared at modular synthesizers. The name comes from Om, but these plugins are not Om specific in any way, and Om does not require them. However most (not all) of them are only really useful in modular systems.

SpiralSynthModular

  • SpiralSynth Modular is an object orientated music studio with an emphasis on live use. You can use it in a fairly straight forward way to make tracks with, or get very experimental. Audio or control data can be freely passed between the plugins. Data can also be fed back on itself for chaotic effects.

vModSynth

Zyne

  • Zyne - a Python modular synthesizer using pyo as its audio engine. Zyne comes with more than 10 builtin modules implementing different kind of synthesis engines and provides a simple API to create your own custom modules.

Synth-A-Modeler

  • Synth-A-Modeler compiler, enables musicians to synthesize binary DSP modules according to mechanical analog model specications. This open-source tool promotes modular design and ease of use. By leveraging the Faust DSP programming environment, an output Pd, Max/MSP, SuperCollider, VST, LADSPA, or other external module is created, allowing the musician to hear the sound of the physical model in real time using an audio host application.

TX Modular

  • TX Modular system is a modular software synth which is written in the SuperCollider language. It can be used to build interactive audio systems such as: digital musical instruments, interactive generative compositions, sound design tools, live audio processing tools, and group improvisation performance tools.

SynthForge

VCV Rack






  • https://github.com/mschack/VCV-Rack-Plugins - 3 Channel 16 Step Programmable Sequencer. Mixer 1x4, 2x4 and 4x4 (with EQ, 4xAUX buses, and 2 x amplification ). Triad Sequencer ( v0.4.10 and above will not load notes properly from pre v0.4.10 builds ). Synth Drums. Ping Pong Delay (with Gnip Gnop mode). 3 Channel Oscillator with Filter and Amp Envelope


Axiom

  • https://github.com/monadgroup/axiom - an extremely flexible node-based realtime audio synthesizer. It was originally designed for size-constrained environments such as PC intros in the demoscene, but is entirely open source and is becoming an excellent free tool for any musician. [10]

XODULAR

  • XODULAR - a new modular synthesizer system in Pure Data. Where the first XODULAR system was a collection of simpler synthesis building blocks, the ecoSYSTEM is a much more personal instrument. The modules are more specific and complex. I wanted to create an instrument with a unique workflow and sound. For this reason, I do suspect that it might not be as easy to dive straight into as the previous XODULAR system, but the sonic possibilities are much, much wider.

Automatonism

  • Automatonism - a modular synthesiser that runs in the open source programming language Pure Data. It features a large library of 81 modules (version 2.1). Modular synthesis is akin to musical gardening: modules can spring to life and their interconnections suggest the formation of a sonic ecosystem. The act of patching is no different to playing any other instrument: it affords the opportunity to express oneself and directly engage with other people. It is towards that goal of performability and communication that Automatonism was created. It mimics the signal flow of a physical modular but features dynamic preset management and advanced parameter mapping tools on an open-source platform.

Twist

  • Twist - a node-based audio synthesizer that lets you create sound effects and soundtracks. Its modular nature makes it possible to produce any kind of sound by just "connecting the dots".

PatchScript / MidiPatch

Flow

  • https://github.com/eclab/flow - a fully-modular multitimbral and polyphonic additive software synthesizer written in pure Java. It runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows. I have used it to play individual patches and to play many simultaneous patches for a full song controlled over MIDI via a DAW.Flow has almost 70 modules of different shapes and sizes, and currently supports up to 32 voices at up to 256 partials and 44.1KHz with a rate of one new partial update every 32 samples. Flow is a very computationally expensive program and will keep your laptop quite warm and your fan busy. You need to have some fairly good hardware to run Flow at full blast successfully (for reference, Flow was developed on a 2.8Ghz i7 2015 Macbook Pro Retina). There are options for reducing Flow's footprint (such as reducing the number of voices or partials).

Moselle

  • Moselle Software Synthesizer - for making music. Connect a MIDI keyboard to your computer, design sounds, and play them. Moselle uses the modular synthesizer paradigm of connecting modules any way you want. Unlike hardware modular synthesizers, Moselle is polyphonic and lets you load and save patches. Program it not with graphics but with a simple programming language. The fully-functional, stand-alone "alpha" version can be downloaded for free.

Windows

XSRDO Patchwork Modular System

  • XSRDO Patchwork Modular System - a true modular synthesizer. You can choose what modules you want, where to put them and how many of them you want. Each module is independant of any other and only becomes active when you start to patch them together in your own creative way. Features... 36 virtual 'racks', 50 virtual 'modules', Insert any module into any rack (except Effects, System and Output [of which only one instance of each type is allowed]), Insert multiple modules, Movable modules. Windows VST.

Kamioooka

  • Kamioooka - a polyphonic Full-Modular synthesizer with patch cable system. You can freely combine modules and make patches. 10 module slots and 7 types of modules (VCO/VCF/VCA/ADSR/LFO/MISC/SEQ) are available. Windows VST.

WREN

  • WREN - an open source modular soft synth for Windows

Cynthia

  • Cynthia - monophonic VSTi, very Old School, but will still be able to keep in tune throughout the song, patches can be stored and it is of course fully MIDI controllable. Cynthia is free to use and will send you 30 years back in time to the dawn of modular synthesis... As the name implies its inspired from the old EMS SynthiA. Windows.

KX77FREE

  • Kx-PolyM-CSE - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer with CV/GATE sequencer and CS70M* emulation.
  • Kx-PolyMod - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer with stereo SF2 player. To build analog 70's leads!
  • Kx-Modulad - Analog modular synthesizer with stereo SF2 player and an additive synthesis WaveTracer to build high quality waveforms. 128 KX presets (70's and 80's).
  • KX-SYNTH-X16-V5 - Vintage modular polyphonic synthesizer.

u-he Beatzille

  • Beatzille - a compact version of our monster modular synthesizer Bazille. Although its condensed feature set makes it the ‘little brother’, Beatzille is still an engaging and capable synthesizer. Power and style run in the family. Digital oscillators, analogue-style filter and flexible patching will keep you busy for a good while before thinking about tackling Bazille.

4klang

  • https://github.com/hzdgopher/4klang - a modular software synthesizer package intended to easily produce music for 4k intros (small executables with a maximum filesize of 4096 bytes containing realtime audio and visuals). It consists of a VSTi plugin example songs/instruments as well as an example C project showing how to include it in your code. Or if you dare to compile it yourself also the source code for the synth core and VSTi plugin.

64klang

  • https://github.com/hzdgopher/64klang - a modular, nodegraph based software synthesizer package intended to easily produce music for 64k intros (small executables with a maximum filesize of 65536 bytes containing realtime audio and visuals) or 32k executable music. It consists of a VSTi plugin, a few example songs/instruments, as well as an example C project showing how to include it in your code for playback.

Drum synths

Geonkick

Stegosaurus

  • Kick - C4
  • Snare - D4
  • Closed hat - E4
  • Open hat - F4

Currently uses MIDI channel 1 rather than 10. [11] patch in milkmiruku/stegosaurus

DrumSynth

Features:

  • 32 voices polyphonic
  • 24 drum notes (2 octaves mapping)
  • 1 tone with sweep
  • 2 overtones
  • 3 noize generators
  • envelope editor
  • midi automatable with learn function
  • import/export of DS files


Rudolf 556

  • Rudolf 556 - Rudolf 556 is an analogue-sounding drum machine. It has six separate drum engines, two of which are bass drums, two are snares and two are hihats. Each engine has three parameters: L (Length) - pretty obvious what this controls. The higher the value, the longer the drum will sound. H (Hardness or Harshness) - when this value is small the drum will sound "soft" and when it's large it will sound "hard". Basically it controls the amount of noise that is mixed in. V (Volume) - basic gain control.

Smack

  • Smack is a drum synth, 100% sample free. It intends to emulate a large number of famous drum machines (TR/others) as well as sample code for physical modeling. It's built with LADSPA plugins and the Om modular synth.

"Yes, Smack was based on Om, a modular synthesis environment. Ingen is the successor to Om. If we are lucky, Ingen will see a release soon and finally make the step from brilliant in theory to awesome in practice :) The Om codebase is as dead as can be and Smack's author pretty much dropped out of LAU/LAD. Ingen's author David is interested in porting Smack's patches from Om to Ingen, but that clearly has no priority." [12]

KickMaker

Required VST SDK 2 to build 

g++ -fPIC -c -I. -I../vstsdk2.4 -I../vstsdk2.4/public.sdk/source/vst2.x -I../vstsdk2.4/vstgui.sf/vstgui -Iplugincore -Igui -Ieffects -D__cdecl="" *.cpp      

g++ -shared -Wl,-soname,KickMaker.so -o KickMaker.so *.o

doesn't register?

Beatfox

  • https://github.com/chronopolis5k/Beatfox - a free Csound generative beat tool. It will constantly create perfectly looped rhythms that can easily be dropped into a program like Ableton Live. Leave it running all night, and you'll wake up with hundreds of loops in your folder!

Kickblast

mbass

  • mbass - a feature rich analogue modeled bass drum synthesizer written for Pd, aka Pure Data. If you are unfamilar with Pd check out the Pd community website puredata.info. Pure Data is an object orient real-time music and multimedia environment, so versitile that it will wet your mother's knees.mbass features a nonlinear distortion filter, with level compensation; a trigger synced FM LFO with dual polarity modulation control; and two independent exponential envelopes with tight attack times.Written with entirely native objects, the mbass object may be used on any platform running a stock installation of PD, so there is no need to compile sketchy externals that come with broken make files; just click and go.

Windows VST

QuirQuiQ

  • QuirQuiQ - Punchy kick synth that fits in your shuttlecraft or in your pocket with a big sound and tiny cpu footprint. Utilizes digital envelopes allowing for precise control, and presented in a clear, resizable vector interface. Slam the dancefloor with sharp and pounding kicks, ooomph away with long breathy thumps, go for a grungy and snappy sound or find just that right balance that is perfect for your track. By Ocean Swift Synthesis.

Freqatic

Drumatic VE

  • Drumatic VE - inspired by several sounds of the TR-909 and TR-808 drum computers. It isn't just a sample player... It uses smart wavetable synthesis mixed with virtual-analouge synthesis to get the best results. Windows VST.

CM-505

  • CM-505 - a 12 voice drum synth. Windows VST.

TS-808

  • TR-808 - a software emulation (VSTi plugin) of the Roland TR-808. The TR-808 service notes provide full schematics for each voice. I used them to make SPICE simulations of the circuits. I also analysed the best samples I could find (The Tape808, by Goldbaby), and tweaked the sounds until the waveforms and spectral content were as close as possible to the real thing. Most of the voices have more parameters and a greater range than their hardware predecessor. Windows VST.

ES DGenR8

  • ES DGenR8 - a free virtual analog drum machine in the style of Roland's TR Series, in particular the Roland TR-909, with 11 voices and controls that mimic the TR-909: Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Low, Mid & High Toms, Rim Shot, Clap, Open & Closed Hi Hats, Crash & Ride Cymbals. Windows VST.

TW-Opkicker

  • TW-Opkicker - Analogue kick synthesis in digital form, but with some extra features. 4 Oscilators, tweaked and twisted to simulate analogue behavior. Multiple Filters and a Distortion to get the sound you want. Reverb, Echo, Delay and Auto Pan to create all sorts of unusual effects. Us an extra effect like a Maximizer or Compressor to get groundshaking kicks. Playing higher notes turns this machine in a regular synth. Windows VST.

TW-Percussion1

  • TW-Percussion1 - Synth designed for short and percussive sounds. 2 multiple waveform oscilators, 1 noise oscilator. Low Pass/High Pass/Band Pass filter to suit every need. 2 LFO's for the filters, to get that nice modulated sound. Stereo beat synced delay. Windows VST.

DC Bazz::Murda

EXD-80

  • EXD-80 - a flexible drum synth that can produce a wide variety of drum and percussion sounds, from emulations of classic drum machines to crazy, mangled glitch sounds – all synthesized, no samples here! It is suitable for many EDM styles including electro, glitch, industrial, ambient, dubstep, drum & bass and hip hop. Windows VST.

KICKWOrK

  • KICKWOrK - a kick drum synthesizer plugin. From deep hiphop basses to hard rave kicks - everything available with the turn of some knobs. A clear and easy GUI helps you to find your bass drum sound quick. No samples inside - pure analogue emulation. A minimum of knobs for a maximum of variations. Kick sound can be triggered by any incoming MIDI note or by an audio input (bass drum of a drumloop). Windows VST.

Drumatic 3

  • http://www.e-phonic.com/plugins/drumatic3.php - a virtual-analogue drum synthesizer. All sounds are 100% synthetic and allow an enormous flexibility and variation. Sounds: Bassdrum, Snaredrum, Handclap, 2 Toms, Hihats and a Rimshot / Bell. Key features: Graphical envelopes for amplitude and modulation, Load / save presets for single sounds, Simple but effective effect section for each sound with distortion and bitcrusher and a filter., 6 Stereo outputs, assignable for each sound, All parameters can be automated. Windows VST.

ErsDrums

Kick Me Too

Psy-Drums

Optik

  • Optik - a basic, yet interesting drumsynth with it's own unique sound. It's got 7 drums, multiple outputs and an onboard mixer. Each drum panel can be opened to reveal additional controls for further tweaking. Windows VST.

DR-Fusion V2

daBUMZ

  • daBUMZ - Mainly for bass drum or toms, but the sound can be widely ajusted. Goal was to have a minimum of knobs for a maximum of variations (note: each knob has a hint text for the parameter). daBUMZ does one sound at a time, triggered by MIDI notes or with the mouse on the “eye” in the middle. Available for Windows PC as VST-plugin.

easy-toolz.de drums

  • easy-toolz.de drums
    • easy-drum X8 - an analog Vintage-style drum-module with 12 fully synthesized instruments and some additional features: -12 X 16 Step-Sequencers with Potis >modulations all Parameters - Distortion - Lofi - SV-Filter - Lfo a.m.more
    • easy-beat-box - It is a "only with the mouse" using Drum-machine machine with the following specs: - 4 Drumslots a 16 Steps Sequencer - 4 Soundbanks ( mixed 1+2, fx, 8o8 ) 64 sounds each - Joystick manipulates : Horizontal > Pitch (Sounds) Slotwise - Vertical > Cutoff - Res - Drive - Flanger - Lofi - Hostsynchron - NO Midi-Input scheduled!
    • easy-kick - Kick-Drum with 10 Bassdrum-samples-Tunning Bitcrusher -4 Filter Overdrive -A-D- Envelope - Reverb
    • easy-drum o4 SE 909 - 4 Slot Drumbox with 909/808-Samples - overdrive-flanger-bitcrusher-moogfilter - 3 lfo -> modulated tune-cutoff-pan - 32 Patches

Granular synthesis

Argotlunar

  • Argotlunar - a tool for creating surreal transformations of audio streams. Specifically, it is a real-time delay-line granulator. It disintegrates an audio stream into short samples (grains). Each grain can have random settings of amplitude, panning, duration, delay, pitch, glissando, filter and envelope. The output of all grains is mixed together into a stream which can be fed back into the main input. Time-related parameters can be synced to the host tempo, for rhythmic and pulsing textures. Pitch-related parameters can be quantized for harmonic and melodic effects. Feedback can create chaotic, densely layered, and distorted sounds.

Soundgrain

  • Soundgrain - a graphical interface where users can draw and edit trajectories to control granular sound synthesis. Soundgrain is written with Python/WxPython and uses Pyo as its audio engine.

Slicer

  • Slicer - allows you to create rhythms and textures from any sound you import by moving the Slicer nodes. Slicer will chop your sound into slices and superpose them. The slices will be created and manipulated acording to the position of the control nodes (the ones represented by a square). The slicer nodes (in color) control volume (vertical) and pan(horizontal) of each slice, while the control nodes control pitch, lenght, shift and starting point for all the slices.

Hadron Particle Synthesizer

  • Hadron Particle Synthesizer - granular synthesis tool. In fact it is such a complete implementation of granular synthesis we’ve renamed the technique to particle synthesis. The plugin is of course free and open source. Hadron can be used as a synthesizer or an audio effect. It can also seamlessly morph between different sound processing methods, so you can make the plugin gradually change from synthesizer to audio processing mode. This is all part of the state morphing system, accessible via the big 2D joystick control.



Narrativas Sonoras

  • Narrativas Sonoras - a very simple audio granulator. Its original design dates back to end of 2006. for Macintosh, for Windows, for Linux or the source code. It is based on Processing and you might need to install a recent version of Java.

Borderlands

Cumulus

  • Cumulus - a software-synthesizer with following features: Implements the Asynchronous Grain Synthesis which is very multifaceted. Fully realtime capable. MIDI-Port to Controllerboxes (all parameters can be controlled via MIDI!), Keyboards (Polyphony, 8 voices) and Sequencers. Convenient GUI with drawable envelopes for each parameter. Internal 32 bit sampling resolution and a multiple of the external sampling rate. Cumulus was originally developed as a parallel application on a cluster of LINUX-workstations. I used a cluster of 7 Pentium-233 nodes, connected by the very fast "Easynet" network which was developed by the Institute of Electronics at the ETH Zuerich (Switzerland). I hacked the code to run on a single PC and I achieve about the same performance on a single modern PC (Thunderbird-800). The code runs on any GLIBC LINUX distribution with QT Devel >= 2.0 (GUI) and AFsp (a library to load and store .wav-files) installed. Note that the code is published under the GNU GPL.

Loomer Cumulus

  • Loomer Cumulus - a granular sampler which radically transforms sample content by breaking it into tiny slithers of audio called grains and reorganizing them to form new sounds. Cumulus is capable of a wide ranges of timbres: from evolving atmospheric soundscapes; to organic physical textures. Up to eight Scenes can be created; a Scene corresponding to a particular sample position and set of synthesis parameters. Scenes can be played in realtime via MIDI, or arranged internally using the built-in sequencer. Cumulus is available free on the cover-mounted DVD of Computer Music magazine from issue 170 and onwards. Cumulus is supported on Mac OS X (VST, AU, RTAS, and Standalone), Windows (VST, RTAS, and Standalone), and Linux (VST, Standalone), and natively supports 64-bit for VST, Audio Unit, and Linux Standalone formats. - $

Frontieres

cassetter

  • cassetter - by person0b, a MIDI controlled granular sampler. It was created as a companion application to the livecoding environment ORCΛ. Powered by ToneJS, Svelte and Electron.

Windows / Mac

Atomic Cloud Grain Cloud Generator

  • Atomic Cloud Grain Cloud Generator takes an audio file as input, and generates a granular synthesis grain cloud in real time. Grain clouds are played back through your speakers, and can also be rendered direct to disk, while you listen, for further processing.

R_MEM

  • R_MEM - Granulator. The download contains the unlocked installers. OS X and Windows.

Granny

  • Granny - a real-time granular synthesizer for Windows.

therapy

  • therapy - 3 band granulizer effect with absolutely no ability to deliberately control any parameter. Windows VST.

Hourglass

  • HourGlass - a standalone application intended for radical sound processing by taking fragments (more commonly referred to as "grains" in other similar software) from sound recordings, to create sound textures. It is not intended for minor transparent corrections of playback speed or pitch, but is rather placed firmly in the sound mangling/glitch territory.

GGrain

  • GGrain - Free VST plug-in for granular resynthesis, GVST. Cuts audio up into tiny grains and recreates it. Great for interesting, lo-fi effects.

Grainstation-C

  • https://github.com/chronopolis5k/Grainstation-C - an open-source, granular performance workstation designed to build realtime, evolving sound sculptures with optional ambisonics. It seamlessly integrates with a Novation LaunchControl XL Mark 2 (easily modifiable for any other controller) and can processes 4 disk tracks and 3 live input streams. You can save any state as a snapshot and morph to that snapshot at any point in a performance. It has 6 independent pitch delay lines, 6 switchable low pass and high pass filters, live audio looping and multiple granular processing controls including granular time-stretching, frame animation and granular pitch shifting.

syncrose

Concatenative synthesis

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatenative_synthesis - a technique for synthesising sounds by concatenating short samples of recorded sound (called units). The duration of the units is not strictly defined and may vary according to the implementation, roughly in the range of 10 milliseconds up to 1 second. It is used in speech synthesis and music sound synthesis to generate user-specified sequences of sound from a database built from recordings of other sequences. In contrast to granular synthesis, concatenative synthesis is driven by an analysis of the source sound, in order to identify the units that best match the specified criterion.

PySoundConcat

rhythmCAT

Algorythmic

See also Dataflow, Pure Data, Creative / live coding, Audio

One-line algorithmic C



  • https://github.com/kragen/ar_bytebeat - a bytebeat synthesizer implemented on the Arduino. It's not the first bytebeat synthesizer on the Arduino, but I think it's the first that does real-time composite video visualizations of the signal, using the TVout library hacked to remove its audio output.



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