Moe writes:
>>Are you (JH) thinking about tuned feedback/delay lines under voltage control
ala Ron Berry's stuff? Now THAT'S what would be the killer jewel in the MOTM
crown! I want several!!!<<
There are many pieces of gear floating around out there that already do this. I
have three different digital delays: Lexicon PCM-41, Deltalab Effectron, Roland
SDE-3000, and they all have voltage control of the delay time. In addition the
Roland brings the feedback loop to the outside world so you can patch in
whatever you want, such as filter dampening. I just pulled my SDE out of the
rack two days ago in preparation to see how well I can get it to track the
keyboard. So look around at your current gear and you might already have
something that does this.
Also since I'm in the middle of my research to make another push forward in
synthetic violin/cello realism, I've also searched around for out the ordinary
software that might aid in realistic acoustic modelling. Here's a couple of
interesting ones:
1) "Spectral Delay" by Native Instruments. I've downloaded the demo and played
around with it. If you want the most sophisticated formant filtering around,
this will do it in realtime with any audio input. You can adjust the levels of
160 frequency bands across the audio spectrum from zero to full volume. You can
mimic the sound of just about any resonant body with this. I've been
considering buying it just for this feature alone.
2) "Tera" by VirSyn. This is a software virtual analog synth, but with extra
stuff there for physical modelling. It includes a controllable delay line
specifically for physical modelling. It also has two 128 pole filters that
allow you to draw complex formants right on screen, and you can morph between
the two if you want. Even beyond this there is a three band parametric formant
filter.
3) "Tassman" by Applied Acoustics. Also a software virtual analog synth with
extras for physical modelling. It's been around for a little while.
And as long as we're on the subject, the latest Keyboard magazine gave a tip on
how to make a parametric EQ pluggin act like a wah-wah pedal, but this same tip
can basically turn any parametric EQ into a parametric formant filter much like
Polyfusions old module. This could be more useful than a fixed filter for some
things. Tip: Using a stereo parametric EQ, split a signal and run it through
both halves, then invert the output of one channel and mix the two together.
Now raise the bands you want on just one channel (and set band freqs and width
too) and you will only hear the audio from those bands, because the inverting
process will cancel out all other audio. I tried it with an analog parametric
EQ and it works quite well. It gives you much more extreme tone shaping than
using a parametric EQ hooked up in a conventional way.
-Elhardt