SwampXT-Manual, Soft, Wtyczki
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Swamp XT Synthesizer
Timbre – Modulation Synthesizer
The basic features are:
two digital oscillators running at a time to be selected from
- two PCM-wave oscillators powered by 128 different waveforms or
- two additive wavetable generators to create various waves from up to 31 partials
one filter (24db Lowpass)
four ADSR-style envelope generators
X-Torsion, one Spook effect, one Gator (Gater) effect, XY Super Modulation
four LFO (bpm-synced)
one dedicated Pitch LFO (bpm synced)
one Sample & Hold (bpm-synced)
one bpm-synced Delay
This synthesizer features 'Timbre-modulation' - now what is it about. Well it is some way
difficult to describe as it is processing each oscillator's waveform in a very unique way in
changing i.e enriching or limiting the harmonic spectrum making the sound fatter, wider or
narrower even til near dissolving it to some way distorted noise depending on the input wave.
The input wave's characteristics are really important for what kind of sound you want to have.
While the prior Swamp had an oscillator routing to balance it's output between normal i.e.
direct signal and timbre modulated signal which each could be balanced to go to direct out or
to filter this has been straightened in Swamp XT: direct und timbre modulated signal can be
balance mixed to one signal and the output of both oscillators can be balance mixed too.
While the direct and filtered signal can be balanced at the amplifier stage of Swamp XT.
The features of that
Swamp thing
in detail
The sound-sources
There are two oscillators to select from two different soundsources each:
PCM wave soundsource powered by 128 waves each or an additive wavetable soundsources to create a variety
of different waves from up to 31 partials. There are 18 inbuilt preset waveforms within the additive wavetable
oscillator. The wavetable display can be switched off in order to utilize the XY SuperModulation Pad after having
selected or set up a wave. User created waves are store per patch for each oscillator.
Both oscillators can be fine detuned to each other by Detune knob in shifting one osc up while the other one is
shifted down at the same amout. An octave range may be selected from -2,-1,0, 1 and 2 by the Octave buttons
and oscillator 2 has the option to set a semitone offset. Also there is a Mute button for each oscillator.
The output of each oscillator can be leveled by a button slider below knob for the HighPass filter. This highpass
prefilter is right before the Timbre Modulation which itself can be set to a fixed manual setting or modulated by
various sources (LFO, EG, S&H). the Timbre modulated signal can be mixed to the direct signal also with the
option for manual fixed setting or modulation by selectable source. Both oscillator's output can be balanced by
the Osc 1:2 knob also with opton to modulate this by variuos sources.
There is the option to load other SF2 files for other waves as PCM soundsources. But you should be aware that
Timbre modulation might effect certain kinds of waves less efficient than you might expect or even in a way it
turns the wave more or less into some kind of noise. In general Timbre mod works just fine with any single cycle
type of waveforms so this is where the additive wavetable oscillators came in really handy and with 31 partials it's
not too much work to set it up. In manual mode of Timbre Mod. it might be possible in rare cases you might move
over so called „dead spots“ with no sound which is due to phase-elimination as the phase is moved by a delay.
One remark acc. to the wavetable oscillators: these waves are built in an additive way from partials thus it is not
like drawing a waveform. Just have a look at the inbuilt Pulse and Saw waves to understand the difference as the
resp. waveforms drawn would look quite different as shown in this image:
A note on XTorsion which is some kind of Amplitude Modulation and it's signal is balaced mixed to normal signal
into the HPF of osc 2 section. Using the same wave with same setting in both oscillators will hardly affect the
sound but using a different octave setting will. Best results will be achieved in using quite different waves.
The Filter section
This is a rsonant 24dB lowpass filter which can me modulated by it's dedicated ADSR EG mixable to another
selectable source like LFO and S&H. Also you might use Velocity to control the Cutoff of the filter with adjsutable
amount. The resonance (Q) of the filter is adjustable in two ways normal and fine with the latter using an offset so
the knob can used for an optimized finetuning of the upper i.e. most noticeable resonant part.
The Output section
The input for the output amplifier can be mixed between the filtered and unfiltered i.e. bypassed signal via the
Byp:Filt knob. This balance mix can be modulated by a selecable source and the output signal be shaped by an
ADSR EG.
The Color knob serves as Mini EQ to emphasize or remove lower or higher frequencies. With Saturator / Drive
you might enrich the signal up to an overdrive effect. It should be noted that in using other sf2 files you might
experience crackles at high Drive settings when playing chords. In order to avoid such simply lower main volume
or lower the level of the resp. oscillator to at least about -5.
Spook provides a fairly flexible way to modify the sound adding e.g. some kind of 'metallic' color or even to some
flanger like fx.
Delay can be switched on/off and delay time is linked to several bpm related settings. Feedback and delay level
are adjustable. Pan (L P R or DP) works in two ways: normal or with delay to opposite direction (see image
showing the latter case and the label being used as switch)
Remark:
I did make the Attack of Filter and Amp EG more 'snappy' in extending their range below what is actual
meant to be 0 which works fine in most cases but it might occur that under certain conditions you may
experience some kind of 'Key-clicks' then simply raise the Attack slider a little til those clicks are gone.
The Global Modulators
There is pitch related LFO (PLFO) for use with Mod Wheel but this LFO can also be selected elsewise. Next to
this is an SLFO which is a very slow LFO up to 24 bars for one cycle. LFO1 and 2 are more conventional LFO
LFO3 and LFO4 offer a set of some mor complex waveforms with it's rate (or speed) to be adjusted by a
dedicated knob. Sample & Hold has different modes selectable as sample source and also a knob for variation
for the sample source. Also there is a knob for Portamento (time) and a button to switch it on or off.
ADSR EG 3 and 4 are like the LFO monophonic modulators i.e. triggering the Gate of the EG comes into effect
on 1st keypress with no other key held down along.
XY SuperModulation
The
X/Y Supermodulation
features 5 fixed destinations and 3 slots for selectable destinations. Auto Mode uses
a dedicated selectable mod source for X and Y axis each. While the amount can be adjusted by AutoAmt knobs
to positive and negative amount. Also you may select the axis to be used on the destinations even with inverted
amount too. Also you can determine the amount of modulation from 0 to 10 for each destination. As this
modulation control is meant not as a static control rather than as being in motion via Auto Mode On or by moving
the 'joystick ball' manually by mouse or external MIDI device.
The Gator effect
For lovers of trancy gate effects this one has been added. Basically an LFO using a pulse wave to gate an audio
signal this one is placed in front of the delay effect for more variety. Also there are subdivisions for Tempo:
normal, triplets and dotted notes. Soften allows to smooth the attack/release of the gate. Instead of having fixed
patterns I did add a mod source named Patt Src. which in fact modulates pulse width of the LFO so length of
pulse is modified for more vivid and varying rhythmical gate patterns.
As a thumbrule:
tempo of Pattern Source
should always be slower than Gator speed. Sources PW F1 to F3 provide a fixed pulse width of about 50%, 66%
and 75%. Gator
On S
syncs i.e. restarts the LFO on 1st keypress without any keys held down along, while
On F
does not sync instead the LFO runs free.
This is quite obvious: button for loading SF2 files, display of MIDI CC#s and values plus the Lazy buttons.
Some additional hints:
Using long release settings will increase CPU-usage - remedy: lower release at filter ADSR, lower release at
ADSR in master section and raise delay Lvl instead. So in most cases a release just below half way up of the
slider will be sufficient to get a fading on the sound. Also fast LFO settings at many destinations consume a lot
more CPU than one efficiently set at the most significant target which is in fact in most cases sonically even more
efficient for a more pronounced sound.
As of MIDI implementation all relevant and assigned MIDI CCs are shown on the GUI as soon as a slider, knob
or switch is moved with the current value shown too..
General hint: When moving a knob or slider you can also press <Crtl> on the PC-keyboard for fine adjustments.
Known bugs: loading a single patch program (*.fxp) to first program number (and only there) may change the
waveform of the oscillators. This does not apply when loading a patchbank file (*.fxb)!
Credits, thanks and further info
The Swamp Synthesizer has been created with Synthedit by Jeff McClintock with further modules by David
Haupt, Peter Schoffhauzer, Kelly D. Lynch, Etric van Mayer et al.
Preset patches were kindly done by:
Dimitri Schkoda (DS or no sign), Lloyd McKay (lk), HiEnergy (HK) and
Bob ODonnell (BM)
H. G. Fortune
Alfter/Bonn June 2009
www.hgf-synthesizer.de
The ten voice version of Swamp XT Pro is available via Paypal or ShareIt see:
www.hgf-synthesizer.de
The
Free Version of Swamp XT
is limited to 3 voices instead of 10, no SF2 load, only one additive wavetable
osc.
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