Additive synthesis in The Grid

Community Wishlist
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A sine bank oscillator in the Grid together with partial shaping modules to give usable synthesis features, like waveshape, filters, effects etc… This would enable basic additive synthesis in Bitwig. It could also become a foundation for future related features.

Additive synthesis is a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together (more). By adding and modulating hundreds of sine waves, the possibilities for new sounds and effects are endless.

What problem(s) would this feature resolve?

Producers interested in additive synthesis must rely on an external plugin.

How does this feature fit in Bitwig as a product?

Additive synthesis is one of the last major type of synthesis that Bitwig still misses. Bitwig is known for its innovative sound design possibilities. Bitwig wants to offer a vast and ever-growing device library, and promotes The Grid as a sound designer’s dream. Additive synthesis would be a great addition to its already powerful synthesis potential, and to The Grid in particular.

Is there already an alternative way to achieve this on Bitwig?

It is possible to make very small simple additive patches (and CPU heavy) by having many sine oscillators, but Bitwig users can’t really get additive synthesis. Most additive synths have at least 256 partials, and ways of modifying them to make additive synthesis usable.

There are some presets of this type on Bitwig Presets | Bitwiggers. To get an idea of the complexity required, check this video:

Could it be implemented using Bitwig components or APIs, without Bitwig team’s support?

No

Could it be provided by an STV or something else reasonably integrated with Bitwig?

It is possible to use additive synth plugins, but this misses the point of integrating with The Grid as a sound design environment and expand it.

Are there other products that offer this feature?

Native Instrument’s Reaktor comes equipped with a “sine bank” oscillator, which powers synths like Razor.

Other examples of additive synths include Air-Loom, Image Line-Harmor, Rob Papaen-Blade, and the Eurorack module “Odessa” by Xaoc devices.

Relevant links (optional)

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24 posts were split to a new topic: [Draft discussion] Additive synthesis in The Grid

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Guys, this ( https://youtu.be/zrbTJYsPxL4 ) is the perfect way to create an additive synth, only if you replace the bandpass filters with simple sine oscillators, with oversampling disabled (which is enabled by default in the grid) to reduce CPU load. The only thing that needs to be attached to each sine oscillator is a 20kHz limiter (to avoid aliasing).

should notice these simple sine oscillators with oversampling disabled are currently missing in the GRID. (let this be our feature request)

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I also wanted to make that suggestion! Glad that I am not the only one wanting this :smiley:. I’d really love to see a regular additive synth device that is made from additive Grid modules and effects (like Polymer, which is also a device made from Grid modules).

My thoughts to implement and generalize this are the following:

Right now, when doing additive synthesis or spectral effects in the Grid, I constantly find myself having to build my own multiplexers. For instance, if I want to use a Steps module as a simple GUI to draw the volumes of individual partials, I’m stuck with its single output. I have to scan through every step value using an input phase and use Sample & Hold (S&H) to capture the output at different time slots (Time Division Multiplexing). I then connect these various S&H outputs to the individual sine partials.

Ideally, this should mimic having a massive macro-bank, where you have multiple parallel outputs (one for each macro-to-attenuator connection) rather than having to multiplex a single 1D output.

To fix this and generalize the workflow, we need Data Busses (which could also be called vector cables, multi-dimensional connections, or array streams). Instead of a standard cable carrying just one value, a data bus would pack an entire array of data (like the volumes and phases of 128 partials) into a single patch cord.

We would then need Grid modules that can send, receive, and act on these data busses. This would enable:

  • True Additive/Spectral Processing: Send all partial volumes over one data bus. Pass them through a spectral filter (essentially a vector attenuator-bank) that multiplies its own curve against all incoming partial volumes simultaneously (e.g., turning down high partials for a lowpass effect). Finally, an harmonic/additive oscillator module would convert the bus directly into audio.

  • Audio Resynthesis: An FFT module that analyzes incoming 1D audio and outputs a data bus for spectral manipulation inside the Grid, followed by an IFFT module to turn it back into 1D audio.

  • Advanced Waveshaping: Transfer individual data points from a wavetable array over a single bus, and use the attenuator-bank to modify the individual samples in real-time, rather than partial volumes.

  • Vector Sequencing: Route entire note or gate patterns over a single cable to other modules, instead of being limited to 1D outputs.

TLDR: To make additive synthesis viable, I am asking for multi-dimensional Data Busses in the Grid, alongside the modules (FFT, IFFT, vector attenuators, harmonic/additive oscillators) needed to process these arrays of values.

This post could be it’s own feature suggestion on the wishlist lol. Maybe I will make this comment also a draft for the wishlist.

(Disclaimer: I used AI to make my text more clear, correct and cohesive, since English is not my native language. All thoughts and ideas in this post are my own.)