This might be a bit of a niche patch, but here goes: a four voice sine wave drone synth, where the pitch of sine waves two through four is set by using the organelle’s knobs to choose an interval ratio. The root frequency is determined by knob 1 by default, but press any of the first octave keys to set it to a musical note. There are limited additional controls (which I will summarize below) for fading the voices in and out, changing their octaves, and changing the fade envelope time. The ratios were chosen by selecting subminor, minor, neutral, major, and supermajor 2nds and 3rds and their inversions, plus a perfect and major 4th and a minor and perfect 5th. This seems to be the maximum number of ratios that I like to navigate between with the organelle knobs, but you could easily add more, or change the default ones.
This is my first semi-serious attempt at making something in PD, so I am sure it is pretty rough. I have tried to clearly label everything however, so it should be easy to change the various parameters should you wish. The ratios are found in the interval subpatches, and other relevant parameters are marked with comments in the main patch.
Controls:
Knob 1: Sets V1 frequency (modulo octave changes), determines root from which V2 – V4 ratios are calculated.
Knobs 2 – 4: Select V2 – V4 ratios.
Low C – B keys: Sets V1 frequency (modulo octave changes), determines root from which V2 – V4 ratios are calculated.
High C – D# keys: Fade in / out V1 – V4 (current voice status indicated with a 0 / 1 on screen line 5).
High F – G# keys: Select octave for V1 – V4 (root octave, one above, one below, indicate by a |, +, or – symbol next to the respective ratio). Note that the ratios will always be determined by the ‘root’ frequency, so changing the V1 octave will not change the V2 – V4 octaves.
High A – B keys: Choose between envelope times of 500ms, 1sec, 10 sec. Indicated on screen line 1.
Well there you have it – it might not sound very exciting, but run through some effects and using the fade keys it can sound pretty dreamy. It is also a nice way to trial chords using alternative intervals. The overall idea of the patch is inspired by the Dream Machine algorithm on the Disting EX, so many thanks to Expert Sleepers. I consciously kept this patch limited to a single screen, but I plan to work on variations with many more controls (individual voice volume, panning, articulated attack / decay times / effects, midi control).
took me a while to understand what was going on with the keys – I’d need an overlay to use this live. Once I understood the menu though I was into some really cool atonal drift and beating. Big Eliane Radigue vibe.
Nice patch – I,m looking forward to your updates!
Great work! It takes a while to check all the controls but no too much. It would be nice to apply V1-V4 envelopes also to the octaves selection…but you can already play nice textures, thanks!
Glad it is providing some enjoyment! I was worried that anytime a patch starts using the keys instead of the knobs for menu functions, the legibility goes downhill fast – but I couldn’t figure out how else to do it in a one screen patch, which is where I wanted to start. I’ll post a more complex version as soon as I get it working, and it will definitely have more fine-grained volume envelope control, hopefully separated for the different voices, and ideally the ability to choose one for pitch changes as well.