Live Guitar Six Voice Downsampled Vocoder Synth
Demonstrates the use of WaveWarp's live input functionality, modular sample-by-sample architecture, spectral analysis and
synthesis capabilities, and the powerful multirate functionality. Plug an electric guitar (or any other audio source!) into the
"input" of your soundcard and hit "Play". You will experience an interesting synthesiser effect which generates tones in
accordance with the notes played on the guitar (or any other chosen instrument!)
This is an elaboration of the three voice vocoder illustrated in "LiveGuitarThreeVoiceDownsampledVocoderSynth.dwb".
Instead of three oscillators, six are used to generate a more interesting output signal. Also, the Control Smoother with AT-RT
block has been added to demonstrate the interesting variations obtained when the frequency control signals are
"smoothed" before being sent to the oscillators (try adjusting its settings!)
Note that the frequencies of the multiple voices are simply generated as multiples of the first (via the Large Control
Gain blocks). The multiplication factors can be arbitrarily adjusted. For more bizarre effects, try some nonlinear manipulations
rather than simple gains, as demonstrated in "LiveGuitarThreeVoiceDownsampledNonlinearVocode Synth.dwb". Also note
that the bank of oscillators which perform the resynthesis can each have different and arbitrary waveforms, leading to a
high degree of flexibility when creating the synthesiser.
The synthesiser has been constructed from the basic elements of a single analysis-channel "vocoder" driving a bank of
six synthesis oscillators. The key components are the Spectral Peak Detector and the Controllable Combo Oscillator. The
Tracking Peak Detector measures (approximately) the amplitude and frequency of the dominant spectral component in the
live audio input. In this example, only the frequency measurement (the first output of the Tracking Peak Detector) is used
(the second output -- the rms amplitude measurement -- is unconnected). The frequency measurement (in Hz) is used to
drive the bank of Controllable Combo Oscillators which are combined in the mixer to produce a sequence of synthesised
tones derived from the time-varying spectrum of the input audio.
Try experimenting with all settings of all components in order to appreciate the wide range of synthesiser effects achievable
from this combination.
