[Draft discussion] Additive synthesis in The Grid

If we had a very simplified version of the sine bank from reaktor, where we could have a series of modules to modify the partials in various ways (like in Razor), that would be a great way to have additive synthesis in the Grid. A great example of something with a similar idea to this is the “Spectral Processing Blocks” in Reaktor Blocks, by “Salamanderanagram”.

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This feature request has 6 votes but it is orphan. Who wants to adopt it?

Hi. I’m up for it. I can write up some ideas for how I imagine additive synthesis looking in The Grid. It could be a stand alone synth too, but I’m much more excited by the idea of an additive system like the “sine bank” in Reaktor, where we can have modules to modify the partials, as well as have it interact with the rest of the Grid.

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:white_check_mark: Done, thank you!

I’m not a Bitwig developer :slight_smile: but I hope there is a way to get the additive synthesis features step by step. I was watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCujIf5eJ2w and the additive synths out there are quite a beast in terms of functionality, specialized visualizations, knobs and faders.

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I love additive synthesis. It’s sonic possibility is huge. My favorite is Razor. I made a tutorial on how to modify it to use in Reaktor blocks if anybody is interested. Blocks Works great with the Grid. I was probably very spaced out when I recorded this, because I sound like a total robot, but if anybody is curious about this modification to Razor, this is it:

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If you look at any of the additive synths in Reaktor, they are all based around the “sine bank oscillator”. In synths like Razor or Lazerbass, all of the waveshaping, filters, effects ect… are actually just mimicking those things, but are actually just modifying the partials of the sine bank. I’ve read a bit about building additive synths with the sine bank, but it is way over my head, and I am more than happy using Razor. But, mixing additive synthesis into The Grid would be a lot of fun. That’s why I would love to see a simplified version of that kind of thing, where we have easy to use modules that modify the partials to mimick familiar synth concepts. In combination with everything else in the Grid, it would be very powerful.

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What about linking to a couple of good examples of the best (and limited) additive synthesis that can be obtained with the Grid? Any preference in this list? Bitwig Presets | Bitwiggers Or any other preset you are aware of?

I found this video from Polarity, where he makes a kind of additive synth in The Grid. It is a cool idea. But, it’s limited, compared to dedicated additive synths. For one, additive synths generally have at least 256 partials, and usually more. And, additive synths have ways to manipulate all of those partials to get desired effects. His patch on this video is an innovative way to approach it in the Grid, but to get the kind of sounds we recognize as additive, we would require a full bank of partials, and modules to modify them, that aren’t available yet. 256 sine waves would probably not work on most people’s computers. It’s a cool idea how he approaches an additive synth in The Grid though. Here is his video:

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In very plain terms, is this what allows to synthesize voice à la vocoder, and other analog sounds?

What if we keep this request for the basic additive synthesis features, and move the spectral part to a separate request, and then we link them both? Just applying the principle of simplicity of requests. If the Bitwig team wants to have one or both in the same release, they won’t decide it based on what we do here. :slight_smile:

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That makes sense. I can start a thread for “Spectral resynthesis and manipulation”. I had included it originally, because it is a common feature in additive synths (Razor, Loom, Harmor). I’ll go ahead and start a draft for it.

I just made a thread called “Spectral resynthesis and effects in the Grid” So, I’ll delete all the stuff about it from here.

I plan to review the description today, and push this draft to #features . Any other feedback or ideas to be integrated?

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I think the general idea is covered. I don’t have anything else to add. The title suggests that we are requesting an additive synth instrument and additive synthesis in The Grid. But, the description I wrote just focuses on the Grid. So, maybe for the sake of having single feature requests, it could just be “Additive synthesis in The Grid”. I’m sure many people would like, or prefer a dedicated additive synth, but I suppose that could be a separate topic. I was just focusing on The Grid, because there are already great additive synths out there, and I’m more interested in expanding on The Grid.

Seeing what the Bitwig team did with with their most recent synth (Polymer), anyway I’d expect them to get the components on the Grid first, and then (maybe) build the synth instrument out of those components.

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I could see that. I’m much more excited by the idea of additive synthesis in the grid than as a separate device anyway. Especially if it is done similarly to how I’m describing, where we have something like Reaktor’s sine bank oscillator, and a suite of partial modifiers. That would allow us to build our own additive synths, and combine them with the rest of The Grid. The other way they could go about it would be just an additive oscillator with some waveshaping/ filters/ effects right on it, kind of like in UVI Falcon. But, that would be more limited. If they do it based on something like Reaktor’s sine bank oscillator, than they could build upon the additive possibilities continuously, by adding more partial modifying modules in future updates.

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Description edited. Please check.

Looks good. One thing I would add to the first sentence would be “partial shaping module to give usable synthesis features, like: waveshape, filters, effects etc…” The reason I would add that is that a lot of people might not understand what I mean by partial shaping modules.

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Good point. Please add the sentence. Tomorrow I’ll move this draft to #features

Also, in the section about how it fits into Bitwig as a product. Maybe it’s better to say that Additive synthesis is one of the last, rather than the last missing synthesis type.
Physical modeling would be an example of something not fully implemented yet. We do have the resonator bank, and comb filter, which can sound like physical modeling. But we don’t have full on physical modelling yet.

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