wavelength sparC synthesizer

wavelength · Post by **wavelength** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 4:19 am

<a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.track0.com/wavelength/sparC%20demo.zip"><img src="/forums/images/file_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" File"> File</a> <a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.track0.com/wavelength/sparC% ... .htm"><img src="/forums/images/notes_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" Notes"> Notes</a> <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Price ($USD): 129 <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Type: Synth <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Related To: wavelength devices <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Requires: moderate DSP _____________________________________ The sparC is inspired by the classic Korg Mono/Poly synthesizer. It takes what was unique and powerful about the M/P's modulation architecture and puts everything on "audio steroids". For example, you will find the same "sync" features that the original M/P featured, but actually made even more flexible in the sparC and instead of four oscillators, each with four waveshapes, the sparC is expanded to six oscillators, with five waveshapes.

The M/P's classic sync and cross-mod sounds were specifically what the sparC
was created to emulate, but it has become a synth capable of much more. The 180 onboard presets should give you a good indication
of what the sparC is capable of and how it functions. Here are a few
additional tips to help you get the most out of the sparC:

1) The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is laid-out in a clear and logical fashion, which vintage analogue synth enthusiasts will quickly make sense of. To keep the surface size down, "paging" has been implemented in the oscillators section and the effects section... the page switches can be found along the top of the synth-surface.

2) New control parameters are featured on the sparC, giving the
player more control and flexibility than previously possible on the original Mono/Poly. You will come to understand how these new parameters can
be useful, after experimenting with the synth for a while. The new
parameters include these features:

- The sparC's versatile and powerful sonic-architecture comes to you largely from the "Effects" section, in the middle of the GUI. The three pages in the Effects section are the modulation "heart" of the sparC. At the top of the first page is the "XMOD" knob, which controls the amount of cross-modulation that is sent to the oscillators. "XMOD" can be used to produce complex FM-timbres, great for metallic and bell-like sounds. The "XMOD" can be sent from either OSC1 to all other oscillators or OSC1 to OSCs 2&3 and OSC4 to OSCs 5&6 (switch below XMOD knob and Sync switch). The "XMOD" and "Sync"-parameters share this two-way switch, allowing the "Sync" to be switched from OSC1 to all other oscillators or OSC1 to OSCs 2&3 and OSC4 to OSCs 5&6. This combination of XMOD and Sync is what gave the M/P its distinctive sound and is fully and exactly realized in the sparC.

The next knob on Page 1 of the Effects section is the "OSC 6 MOD" knob, which sends oscillator six's frequency to the lowpass filter's cutoff frequency, a new feature that the M/P didn't have which is great for gritty filter timbres and great formant-sounding overtones that can give patches a cool vocal-quality.

The last knob, at the bottom of Page 1, is the highpass filter cutoff control. The sparC adds this 6dB (1-Pole) Highpass filter (in the effects section), which the original M/P never had... giving the sparC's sound-palette even more depth.

Page 2 of the Effects section includes the synth's LFO and RingMod controls. What makes the sparC's LFO uniquely powerful is its flexible patchability. The LFO frequency can be sent to Pitch, which is switchable from "All Oscillators" receiving modulation, to "OSCs 2-6" (all oscillators except OSC1), and finally LFO modulation sent only to OSCs 2-3 & 5-6, omitting OSCs 1&4. This allows for very flexible LFO-Pitch mods to compliment the XMOD/Sync routings... experimentation with these different settings will yield dramatically different results. The sparC also adds a switchable RingMod effect to the original M/P's feature-set, allowing even more sophisticated metallic and bell-timbres to be achieved.

Page 3 of the Effects section begins with two-knobs, each controlling the amount of Filter Envelope frequency that can be sent to Pulsewidth modulation and Pitch modulation, respectively. The Pitch knob is switchable (below the "to Pitch" knob) to send modulation to "ALL" oscillators, "OSCs 2-6", or "Oscillators 2-3 & 5-6". The next knob on Page 3 is the switchable "Feedback"-control knob, which takes the combined frequencies of all the Oscillators (+ noise) and feeds them back to switchable destinations: All Oscillators, Oscillators 2-6 only, or Oscillators 2-3 & 5-6 only. The final knob in the Effects section is the "NOISE TO PITCH" knob, which sends white noise-modulation to all oscillators. The "FEEDBACK" and "NOISE" modulations are also additions that were not a part of the original M/P's parameters.

- Polyphonic-switchable Unison, featuring flexible voice control (all voices/off/1-16); in
the "all" position any selected polyphony for the sparC will be
monophonically stacked on a single voice, allowing the "Unison Spread"
parameter to move the stacked frequencies away from each other, creating a very "fat" and distinctively "unison" sound; the "Off" position is self-explanatory (Unison Spread has no effect); Unison voices 2-16 allows the user to select, apart from the polyphony value, which voices get stacked, i.e.: if you have the sparC's polyphony set to "4 voices" and the "Unison Voices" set to "3", you could play a two-note chord with each note having a unison stacked voice on it... very fat when you increase the "Unison Spread". Unison voice setting “1” has no noticeable effect. Now take this Unison functionality and add in the sparC's six detunable oscillators (+ noise generator), with versatile sync and powerful modulation options and you start to realize what this thing can do! No other soft-synth can make the sounds that the sparC can create, especially when considering the efficient GUI and circuit-design.

- Legato Mode (Polyphonic): When a key is played and an unassigned
voice is available for it, the voice is assigned and started normally
(including envelope retriggering).

When a key is played and no unassigned voice is available for it, a
voice is stolen from a key which is still being held. This voice is
reassigned via a simple pitch update, without retriggering the
envelopes.

When a key to which a voice is assigned is released, and one or more
other keys whose voices have been stolen are still being held, the
voice belonging to the just-released key is reassigned to one of the
"voiceless" keys - likewise via a simple pitch update without envelope
retriggering.

When a key to which a voice is assigned is released and there are no
other keys being held which do not have voices assigned to them, the
voice goes into normal release (and becomes "unassigned" for legato
purposes).

When polyphony is set to 1, or when the module is set into mono mode
via the Unison function, legato works the same way it did in the original MVCs.

Since there is a separate Legato Control pad, it is possible to
activate legato without activating portamento. In this case,
when a voice is reassigned to a different note, the pitch jumps
instantly to its new value.

- Portamento Switch/ Time Control: During a portamento glide, the "from" pitch of a voice was previously determined
directly by the note number of the last MIDI note that was played or
released (prior to playing the current note). Among other things, this
had the effect that when chords were played, especially with one hand,
often only the note which got triggered first would do a noticeable
glide - the second note of the chord would glide only from the new
pitch of the first chord note, while the third note would glide from
the new pitch of the second note, and so on.

This has been changed so that each voice now simply glides to its new
pitch from whatever pitch it had before (which is a more typical and
classic approach). The change is not noticeable when a synth is played
in monophonic mode, but is very noticeable when multiple voices are
available, especially when playing chords, as it is now possible to
have multiple voices gliding in parallel across a wide pitch range - or even in opposite directions - depending upon which notes were played previously.

- Poly Level: Gain control, used to prevent
"clipping" when polyphony is increased, in regular or "Unison" modes.

- ModWheel Control is independent from the "LFO" and features its own switchable waveshapes.

- Key Follow parameters will also send glide info to the filter
cutoffs (great for squelchy, elastic sounds).

- The "Drive" knob can be used to boost weak signals and overdrive patches to get those screaming, distorted sounds used in Industrial and Acid House music.

- The VCF section features a rich and vintage-sounding resonant 24dB (4-Pole) Lowpass filter, just like the original M/P. The filter can be controlled by a dedicated envelope, which includes a control to make the entire envelope timing super-long or snappy-short (the same goes for the Amp Envelope in the VCA section)

check it out at the wavelength website:

http://www.track0.com/wavelength/ on the "shop" page...

[ This Message was edited by: wavelength on 2003-04-11 05:20 ] <a name="planetz-fileimage"></a><IMG SRC="http://www.track0.com/wavelength/sparCscreen.jpg" BORDER="0">

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:37 am

Damn you! Just two days after i forked out 129 euros for Vorb, here you go releasing another essential piece of kit:(

No seriously, i've been looking forward to this device since u first posted the screenshot in the Europa thread. Ever since i sold my beloved Korg Mono/Poly something has been missing in my setup. I've tried the demo right now, and i must say, im thrilled! it's got the same all-important unique feature of the original: the intuitive control that makes it very easy to produce fat useful sound or just plain weird ones!

You just made my day, im off to the webshop

A BIG THANK YOU!

Best regards
Piddi

(Now, i hope flexor isnt released for a while as that would make it hard living, foodwise)

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:52 am

DAMN YOU AGAIN!

I just became aware of the bundle, and it was too good to miss! Now ill be hungry for a week!

Thank you, i love your devices. Keep em coming!

Best regards,
Piddi

borg · Post by **borg** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:01 pm

unbelievable!!!

another unique synth!

forget what i said about the interface in an earlier thread... when hearing this machine, and just going through the presets (and there are A LOT), it's love at first sight!

unbelievable...

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 12:43 am

Yes, I've been playing a little with the demo and it seems quite intruiging. I know absolutely nothing about the Korg Mono/Poly thingo. But the presets on this certainly demonstrate a pretty interesting synth.

Don't really know if I'll purchase it at this stage, but it's certainly nice to see some damn serious synths come out on the SFP platform.

It seems we're going through a wonderful revival of interest at the moment with amazing devices cropping up all over the place. Definitely an exciting time to be a Creamware card owner.

wavelength · Post by **wavelength** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 1:00 am

On 2003-04-12 01:43, caleb wrote:

Yes, I've been playing a little with the demo and it seems quite intruiging. I know absolutely nothing about the Korg Mono/Poly thingo. But the presets on this certainly demonstrate a pretty interesting synth.

Don't really know if I'll purchase it at this stage, but it's certainly nice to see some damn serious synths come out on the SFP platform.

It seems we're going through a wonderful revival of interest at the moment with amazing devices cropping up all over the place. Definitely an exciting time to be a Creamware card owner.

I too am very encouraged by the recent surge of very high-quality releases for the platform. Bowen's stuff is always of the highest order and the Orbitone Vorb looks like a dream! And of course the "Flexor" stuff looks like a must have. It also seems that UnitX has worked out their initial bugs and their product could be a real winner, as well.

Very cool!

I have much on the go to still finish... some really exciting projects in the works, so hopefully this new wave of productivity and user-support will just keep on growing. And if the other new developments from 3rd-parties are any indication, there is much to look forward to all around.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 4:41 pm

anyone missed the usual chorus / delay section ?
this beast does it without and still sounds BIG

I rate it a full 10

impressed again, Tom

wavelength · Post by **wavelength** » Sun Apr 20, 2003 4:10 am

On 2003-04-19 17:41, astroman wrote:
anyone missed the usual chorus / delay section ?
this beast does it without and still sounds BIG I rate it a full 10

impressed again, Tom

thanks! yeah, I tend to leave the non-synthesis effects to the user... why waste the DSP? if you want to throw a chorus or delay on a patch, it's pretty easy to bring them into a project. i find that too many presets rely on effects to sound "big" and "fat"... this is cheating, IMHO. a synth should be able to stand on its own, dry as a bone. effects can be added to fit in a mix or add space, etc... but not _be_ the whole sound.

Jngaelin · Post by **Jngaelin** » Sun Apr 20, 2003 5:46 pm

I just tried the demo of this synth.......

I am paralyzed.....i cannot move........
I am drewling all over myself..............
I don't know what to say.......a "thank you"...is NOT enough.....i'll just have to wait untill the check comes in and buy this beautifull creation....

Will you mary me

wavelength · Post by **wavelength** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 1:07 am

On 2003-04-20 18:46, Jngaelin wrote:
I just tried the demo of this synth.......

I am paralyzed.....i cannot move........
I am drewling all over myself..............
I don't know what to say.......a "thank you"...is NOT enough.....i'll just have to wait untill the check comes in and buy this beautifull creation....

Will you mary me

Thanks, I am using my "sparC" almost exclusively lately... I can get such a wide range of timbres out of this thing.

Not sure what my wife would think of you and I getting hitched...

JOURDAIN · Post by **JOURDAIN** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 1:50 pm

bravo steph
very well device and super preset

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 12:55 pm

ARRRGH !! why are they so little modulations sources and targets ????
1 Amp EG for 6 oscillators !?
Etc, etc and same for Europa !
SparC and Europa are planned purchases but with this lack of modulations, they won't take the beginning of the waiting line ...

But put some fat matrix ( prisma ) with plenty of LFOs and EGs and targets and now you can rise the price and I'am up for it !!

I know it's a recreation of an old synth with audio on steroids but I want also modulations on steroids too !

Concerning the GUI : ok except the white dots are barely visible, nearly the unusable Arturia MMV ! 0 - 10 scales doesn't help me too much when dealing with time and cutoff
The right side falling into darkness ( like Solaris ) doesn't help too ...

To sum up : I love both Europa and SparC but I would like to have their " specs " boosted : a touch of RM and FM between oscillators for instance ; but I don't know the DSP cost ...

So why not two versions and two prices ?

On a last note I must say, I love your synths especially the most wicked ones ( Freakmod, Plastic, Mutant ... ) and I'll donate when my acquisition frenzy will calm down !!

Circa end of summer ...

[ This Message was edited by: decimator on 2003-04-27 14:01 ]