Live Guitar Three Voice Downsampled Nonlinear 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 vocoder illustrated in "LiveGuitarThreeVoiceDownsampledVocoderSynth.dwb". Instead of
using simply linear multilplicative factors to create the frequencies of the second and third voices, nonlinear manipulations
are used (the red blocks from the Basic Math category of the Component Library). This leads to bizarre sythnthesized tones.
Furthermore, for added effect, the frequency of the third voice is mdoulated by the time-varying signal from the Combo
Control generator block (with the default ramp setting giving a "jet engine" type of sound!).
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
three synthesis oscillators. The key components are the Tracking 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
manipulated (nonliearly for the second and third voices !) then 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 type of combination. Try different nonlinear blocks to manipulate the synthesized frequencies.
