{"id":1662,"date":"2023-06-30T04:28:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T04:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=1662"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:33:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T09:33:17","slug":"death-to-the-ladder-we-need-new-filters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/death-to-the-ladder-we-need-new-filters\/","title":{"rendered":"Death to the ladder. We need new filters."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I hear much about oscillators:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look at the Hydrasynth<\/a>: 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<\/a> and Mini Freaks where analogue filters are installed to ruin their wide variety of sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only analogue filters worth a pinch came in Oberheim’s Xpander<\/a>, because their combination of types articulated a range of sounds beyond the old horse and buggy. That Alesis emulated their filters for the Micron<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filters are just as important as oscillators – sometimes more. The E-Mu designers knew this when they created the Morpheus and Ultra-Proteus<\/a> 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<\/em><\/a> – allows users to create their own ‘Z-planes’. No one seems to have picked this idea up apart from UHe’s Filterscape<\/em><\/a>, only recently updated with a new current interface. Their otherwise worthy flagship Zebra<\/em><\/a> is currently supplied with the old ketchup. Bah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few software titles have additive filters as part of a more modern synthesis. Thorn<\/a><\/em> 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<\/em>. 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<\/em> and Parsec 2<\/em>, unfortunately tucked into their own ecosystem<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filters?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There has come the point where oscillator and filter conceptually merge. Software wavetable synthesisers such as Vital<\/a><\/em> and Serum<\/a><\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the Hydrasynth<\/a> – 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 \u2026 well \u2026 sadly normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moog<\/a> was a breakthrough from the pianos and organs. Now we need another breakthrough – and filters are the next battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I understand that there are modules<\/a> 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.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[21,13,6],"class_list":["post-1662","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-essay","tag-spectral","tag-wavetable"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1662\/revisions\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}