I hear much about oscillators: the unstable VCOs of yore, the digital waves of the 90’s, wavetables, geo-blends, samples… so many great ideas – but this luxury of waveforms is too often shoved through the same old low-pass resonant filter. Quite likely a ladder filter because ‘authentic Moog this or that’. It’s like a delicate meal from a grand restaurant in Paris doused in ketchup. Because ketchup is legendary.
Look at the Hydrasynth: wavetables and mutants, but run through the same tired emulations of Moog and MS20 filters that you find pretty much everywhere. Boring. Same with the Arturia Micro and Mini Freaks where analogue filters are installed to ruin their wide variety of sounds.
The only analogue filters worth a pinch came in Oberheim’s Xpander, because their combination of types articulated a range of sounds beyond the old horse and buggy. That Alesis emulated their filters for the Micron gave some hope, but it didn’t spread much further. Each time a ‘new’ keyboard arrives with yet another low-pass I worry why they even bother. Sure, sometimes you can FM modulate the cut off. Big fucking woo.
Filters are just as important as oscillators – sometimes more. The E-Mu designers knew this when they created the Morpheus and Ultra-Proteus synthesisers. Very simple waveforms come alive when hit with their ‘Z-Plane’ filters, which combine low, high, peak, flange, phase et al. Their first attempts were too complex but the Proteus 2000 followed with a simpler, more elegant version. Their final work – the Emulator X3 – allows users to create their own ‘Z-planes’. No one seems to have picked this idea up apart from UHe’s Filterscape, a long neglected software effects unit which includes a version with oscillators. Their otherwise worthy flagship Zebra is supplied with the old ketchup. Bah.
A few software titles have additive filters as part of a more modern synthesis. Thorn acts much like a simple subtractive synthesiser until you open up the detail behind each module. Each oscillator offers a similar animated blend of partials to Zebra. More to the point there’s also a Harmonic Filter which is dead easy to use – just draw in the partials and then sweep it like a standard low pass. You don’t have to use any of the advanced tools until you see the need. Similar tools are Reason Labs’ Europa and Parsec 2, unfortunately tucked into their own ecosystem.
Filters?
There has come the point where oscillator and filter conceptually merge. Software wavetable synthesisers such as Vital and Serum have modifiers that bend and stretch the wavetable to create filter-like effects alongside more complex spectral distortions. That these modifiers are kept away from the filter knob is understandable I guess (and gives you two places to cause havoc). But why not put them alongside the low pass? Encourage people to wiggle that Shepard Tone like they do a ladder? Go hog wild.
Roland makes these modifiers into effects placed after the filter which stops you from using them as part of the synthesis. Bad move. Korg’s Opsix lets you mix and match, which is why I see it is one of the few hardware (ahem) tools to live in the 21st century.
Back to the Hydrasynth – the mutants approach this idea without really making a concerted effort. If ASM thought of mutants as filters they’d probably slap their collective foreheads and make machine that wasn’t so … well … sadly normal.
The Moog was a breakthrough from the pianos and organs. Now we need another breakthrough – and filters are the next battlefield.
(I understand that there are modules that can be assembled to create modular systems with these features. I regret having not having the thousands of dollars required to build such an array but full credit to those who have done so. Leave a comment.)