wave sequencing piece

[falcon]

home.orange.nl/pm.vdvalk/flcWaveSeq.mp3

This is a piece with lots of wave-sequencing in it. All programs except drums are wave-morphs/stacks. Only atomic samples from ROM:WAVE and HD:WAVE have been used. Drums are VA.

The idea was to experiment a bit with layered primitives, which is done in certain classic synths. The result is somewhat ambient in nature, with typical bell sounds, but also some pad and plucked stuff.

Some chorus and filtering has been used, but most 'textures' are the result of wave-mixing. For example the phasing/wah effect in the plucked guitar (and bass later on) is obtained by alternating between two waves with a close sonic relationship. The result is a quite nice pluck sound.

This piece has a high soundscape factor and may not appeal to the general musical taste. But sonically I think it's interesting, as the sounds are authentic and in the somewhat under-exposed area of wave-synthesis. (FWIW wave-style sounds can of course be done on many other synths, but it's yet another thing that is so easy to do on the fusion, with advanced potential nevertheless. Try creating a 4-wave sequence on a brand-x synth without tables for example )

[mps]

That was really nice. I don't really understand how it is that you did it, but it was incredible!

[john2910]

Absolutly great

[markone]

Very nice!


I too am a little hazy about what you are doing... Would you be able to explain the concept in some more detail, and how you actually achieved it?

Thanks

[Hollow Sun]

You're a clever fellow Falcon ... that's a great piece (and just my cup of musical beverage).

I too am fascinated how you achieved some of those sounds - very reminiscent of a PPG without the crud and aliasing!

Excellent as always.


Steve

[mstsfreak]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaauw this song really kicks a** !!
This shows what the Fusion can do: Wavesequencing!!

I really like to know how it's done.

[Danimal]

Count me among the rest: amazing sounds and I'd love to learn more!

[falcon]

Thanks for the comments, glad you like it! Here's a bit of technical background.

Wave sequencing is just that: a sequence of waves . Example: suppose you have a guitar sound. You could time-wise split it into three parts: A: the attack phase, B: the body phase and C: the tail phase. Should you have 3 corresponding continious samples (a.k.a. waves) that match those sounds, you could more or less construct the guitar sound with an envelope and some tables. Wave A is audible at the first stage and morphs into wave B at the second stage, which morphs into the final wave C in the last stage.

It's as simple as that. You just need to modulate the levels of your oscillators by an Envelope with curves of in this case 0..33%, 34..66% and 67..100% (or any other amounts). The quadrasynth has such (velocity in this case) curves as standard, as well as a table per layer. It has no resonant filter, but one of its presets is a long fluent filter sweep sound. This is achieved by morphing through a couple of preset resonant waves in a row. This is a good example of wave sequencing.

Practically, for this particular piece, only simple morphs between 2 waves has been used. This is easily achieved with the Osc Balance parameter in the modulation matrix. Some sounds have an addition 3rd layer for the attack phase.

Ths most simple sound is the ambient synth pattern. It morphs between a triangle an an 'emphasis saw'. This sounds different from using a variable filter on a saw wave, as there is no frequency sweep. Instead there are gradients between a dull and a sharp sound. This one is controlled manually with a controller. Most other sounds use an envelope and/or en LFO for the morph.

The bell sound in the beginning is a morph between a bell wave and an inharmonic wave. It starts melodically and turns into something chaotic over time, with the help of an Env and a bit of an LFO to Osc Balance.

The pad sounds are just similar concepts: a bit of Env + LFO and a longer attack time. The band pass saw from the WAVE bank is responsible for the 'Aaah' sound here.

The impact sounds (metalic + wood vibraphone, guitar) have an additional 3rd layer for the attack phase. A relatively short decay time is used, to make it only audible at trigger time.

Well, that's it. As expected the bell alike programs sound fine, as they are somewhat typical for this synthesis style. Which is probably why I like the guitar sound most. It's body consists of two regular waves which sound rather uninspiring by themselves. Morphing between them brings it alive. An additional sharp (I think one of those high-pass saws -- will have to check) sound is used for the attack/pluck stage.

Medium-heavy chorus is used on the initial bell sound and on the 'motion pad' for a rich effect. But then I think that on the original wavesynths heavy effects were used as well, as the dry sound tends to be unimpressive by itself. The other sounds are pretty dry here (except verb/delay, but no timbre changing effects). Ok, the guitar uses a resonant filter for some character, but this is not responsible for the 'phasing' sound -- this is just a matter of an LFO between two waves that happens to work well.

The fusion has a useful set of waves as standard. Some from the QS and some new ones. It probably has the potential to go beyond the original wave synths. Not just because you can add waves yourself, but because the modulation structure is so rich. The tables more then make up for the lack of multistage envelopes, as you can use them on anything. In a more complex scenario you could use two morhps with two LFOs or such. Vector synthesis would be just a variation of this.

[mstsfreak]

Vector synthesis would be just a variation of this.

Maybe you could use the 4 control-knobs as a sort of vector-joystick to control the waves manually. So Fusion could turn to a VECTOR-synth as well!! Is it possible to record the movements of the knobs via control messages??

[gwenhwyfaer]

Should be - the knobs are just CCs after all. But you'd only need two - one to crossfade between the first two and the last two oscillators, and one to crossfade between the odd and the even oscillators.

Combining it with a joystick or X-Y pad from another MIDI controller could be rather cool, come to think of it.

[ajmuso]

Excellent work..

I thought it was very musical, great stuff!

[reaper]

Really cool! I was experimenting with wave sequencing too yesterday, but i use more complex samples... another cool trick is to use an square LFO to control wich LFO control the morphing (eg. for 2 whole notes LFO2, then for another 2whole note LFO3), creating more complex rhytmical pads (it's easy when all the LFO are synced)... assigning to the knobs the LFO shape u can control the rhytm too.

[neomad]

Falcon, amazing. There is something that your brain can not make ? (wave sequencing, 1st quality software...). Congratulations and respects to you. Dank u

[neomad]

For a while, I use to listen a very big band playing together. P. Floyd (some guitars and sounds), Genesis, Oilfield, Jarre, Tangerine Dream...

3 things quickly from my mind to my typing fingers (and sorry Paul to put rubish in your song & steve you can put this out if you want):

1.Again, brillant Paul.
2.May be Alesis can easily add wave sequencing to fusion, as 5th synthesis engine... (possible?).
3. IMHO, Fusion still great and surprise me everyday. If Alesis can relaunch Fusion with some popular improvements (pattern seq, etc.) ; some sophisticated add ons (like waveseq or hammond B3 physical modeling) and some better ergonomics to integrate all million features and posibilities already present in this beast (internal audio routing to recorder, etc.) they can offer to new customers (and old ones) best workstation ever made.... without spent millions in r&d. (as Yamaha made 20 years ago with NS10...)... (I'm not criticing Alesis, just explaining why I think that this technology should survive and be improved and get this R&D team alive).

I'm sure that they will sell millions units around the world, because is quite simple: Fusion deserves it. I feel that little by little in a lot of forums and stages, Fusion receives respect and became a "golden piece" to go for... justice... of course.. justice

[Hollow Sun]

Hi Neo,

I don't disagree with anything you have said but I think the reality is that Fusion is what we have now and as much as we'd like certain features (such as you suggest), they are unlikely to happen if we are being honest.

But Paul/Falcon's work is a testament to what can be achieved if ingenuity, knowledge and creativity is applied.

Sure ... it's a learning curve but every instrument requires study and the acquisition of knowledge and technique - just speak to any skilled guitarist or classically trained pianist ... or a seriously good drummer ... or my 10 yr old daughter on Grade 5 piano and violin - it's repetitive study, practice, study, practice, study, practice, study, practice, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn.

It's not easy and no magic OS update is going to make expert synthesists of us all.

But Paul/Falcon consistently proves to us what Fusion is capable of and he pushes the boundaries ... and if he can do it, so can we/you ... we just need to learn and study and practice (like any instrument) until we get it right... until we're good at it.

And that bit never comes easily - it requires time and effort (and study/practice) and not (IMO) a magical new OS.

As I see it, part of Fusion's downfall is that it is a deep and rounded instrument that has to be learnt and mastered (unlike others perhaps that are perhaps more 'instant').

Liken it, if you like, to cookery - microwave a bland spaghetti Bolognese ready meal in minutes with no nutrition ... or learn how to make a tastier, healthier spagbol that *you* made that's just ... ermm ... better and tastier.

I know which I'd prefer! Sure... the first few home-made spagbols might not be so good but when you get it right..... MUCH better than the bland, tasteless 'instant' varieties. Nothing worthwhile comes without a struggle!


Steve