“Swell verb” uses an attack envelope to swell a signal into a plate reverb. The attack envelope is a simplified version of the attack/sustain/decay envelope I utilized in “Attack delay” (https://patchstorage.com/attack-delay-an-auto-swell-envelope-and-delay/) — here, the envelope just controls attack, with the note sustaining until a subsequent attack is detected by the onset detector. We might think of this as a more focused and nuanced rarification of Swollen Sky; greater control and accuracy over the envelope stage, at the price of signal chain complexity (https://patchstorage.com/swollen-sky-an-atmospheric-swell-patch-with-a-sense-of-foreboding/).

I particularly like this patch 100% wet — the combination of an attack envelope to change the dynamics and a reverb to sustain the sound and add spectral complements really allows for some cool pad sounds and really lovely, sort of haunting guitar lines.

A question from Cheryl Sandrow on the FB group about the Walrus Slo led me to give new consideration to pitch modulation. I toyed with trying to reproduce the pitch modulation in Slo, but ultimately, I decided on a triangle-random noise combination that I think works quite well; you can mix between the two, with a classic pitch modulation from the triangle wave and a more tape-like distortion from the noise, and places in between where the noise “rides” the triangle wave, to give it a sense of motion.

For another example of the patch in use, I employed it in this Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGTOpYphIX1/

The signal path is stereo throughout and both channels activate the onset detector.

Controls:

Stompswitches:

Left — tap tempo for the attack stage

Middle — turns pitch modulation on/off; latching

Right — freezes the reverb; latching (although maybe momentary is better — the stompswitch module is on the control page, labeled “Reverb freeze”)

Front page:

You can determine the length of the attack envelope with the “Attack” control, which ranges from milliseconds to 8 seconds, or you can tap in a tempo with the left stompswitch when you switch on the “Tap tempo” button.

You can also change the shape of the attack, from exponential to linear to logarithmic.

There are controls for the reverb: “Reverb decay” as well as “Reverb low eq” and “Reverb high eq.” When you adjust the EQ controls, you will notice the CPU clipping. The plate reverb uses multi-filters — adjusting these requires a lot of computation, so they are not ideal real-time controls.

You can freeze the reverb with the right stompswitch.

You can turn on the pitch modulation with the middle stompswitch. The pitch modulation is a mixture of triangle LFO and random noise.

The “Randomness” control sets the mix between triangle and random noise. Higher “Randomness” values means more noise, which has a “tape-like” quality. “Triangle rate” sets the speed of the triangle LFO, which can give “shape” to the random noise, when their mix is ~ 20 – 60%.

“Dry level” and “Wet level” allow you to set a wet/dry mix.

“Sensitivity” controls the sensitivity of the onset detector. “Stereo spread” is subtle, but it allows you to increase the stereo separation between left and right channels.