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Synthesizer oriented to experimental music! "Christopher 1"

Cristopher 1 is the start of a series of plugins for creating my own music.

All functions were designed to be applied in experimental music (IDM, Avant-Garde, etc.).

I could describe it as simple sound generator with a number of interesting modifiers.
In addition to a number of side effects that provide warmth or naturalness.

Named after a friend who has really supported me in trying to produce my own music.

This synth would not have been possible without the help of:

  • S.T Music (GEN 16 routines performance tip and reminder).

  • Rory Walsh (Really extensive help in fixing various bugs).

// Your collaboration is very much appreciated by me! :’)

Features:

  1. Basic ADSR envelope. Maximum 10 seconds parameters for special occasions.

  2. Sound wave modification. Flexible number of parameters and possibility to save and remove settings.

  3. Low pass, High pass and Bandpass filter.

  4. Butterworth Comb Filter.

  5. LFO applied to the output sound with high enough ranges for special occasions.

  6. Clipping and Waveshaping.

Questions you might ask yourself:

  • Why would I use this plugin, instead of a more professionally designed one? :
    This plugin was designed especially for my own use; without some need to satisfy an audience. However, I think it has good things to offer you.
    / Easy to understand how it works, simple to understand functions and minimal learning curve.
    / Some possibility to create your own sound waves.
    / Interesting variety of possible sounds.
    / Side effects and sounds that can be interesting!

  • Do you plan to improve the quality of this plugin?:
    For some things only. Some side effects I’ve come across seem to me to be of an organic or warm character.

  • Why is there a preset called “Tim Hecker”?: Tim Hecker is an electronic music artist and a strong inspiration for me. I love when he uses sounds with repetitive interference and I think I have captured that character in the included preset.
    Other artists of influence for me in making this plugin are Emma Essex, Milkfish and the duo Autechre.

Bugs or flaws confirmed:

  • Modifying a waveform during sound generation leads to a crash of the plugin and most likely your host (A common error when modifying function tables used by various operators).

  • To be able to play sound, you must at least activate the weak distortion option. The Waveshaping opcode is an essential multiplier in the signal flow, and a value of 0 makes no sense for it.
    Set the distortion strength to 0.1 for what I consider the purest possible sound.

  • You may need to click on one of the saved presets before you can make a change to any parameter. I don’t know what this is due to.

.csd file and presets:

If you wish to share this plugin, I would appreciate if you could do it together with the presets for functionality reasons.

Cristopher 1.csd (10.9 KB) Cristopher 1.snaps (8.7 KB)

I consider my code structurally weak; but I think it is easily understandable and modifiable.

Objectives for the improvement of this plugin:

  • Add a button that displays a Csound Output widget. This would help in recognizing the processes carried out by the plugin.

  • Add the use of more common waveforms in an accurate way. I am not sure if this can be achieved with the implemented GEN16 routines.

  • Fix bug to be able to modify waveforms during sound execution. This is a Csound bug related to modifying tables used by various operators. But I guess that some process could allow such modification.

  • Allow to be able to reproduce the audio signal without the execution of the waveshaping opcode when its corresponding box is deactivated.

  • Create a more efficient and structured code.

Samples:

If all this gobbledygook hasn’t convinced you to download it, perhaps these audio samples will be more to your liking!

*All sound is interpreted by the synthesizer. Only a little reverb was applied by an additional plugin.

(Musical piece: Canon in D)

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Regarding upcoming plugin improvements and fixes:

I hope to be able to study enough about programming and Csound to add the best modifications!

Additionally, anything you can contribute that you think It can help with is something I appreciate :dog: :green_heart:.

Awesome samples! Rocking out to Pachelbel here :slight_smile: Congrats on this! :clap:

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Thank you! Cabbage was the most flexible program to allow me to create this.
I hope to do more special things later :cat::star2:

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