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M'PD

a phase-distortion synthesizer

(64 Votes)
1.2 (Updated 15 years ago)
797.2kB
February 05, 2008
Reaktor 5 or lower

DESCRIPTION

M'PD is phase-distortion synthesizer based on CaZio01 by Martin Brinkmann and PHM by Christoph Bielen. Knobs and colors are from Carbon 2.

In each of the two wavetable oscillators, the phase of the carrier wave is distorted by the shape of the modulator wave. The multi-breakpoint envelope in each oscillator can be routed to several simultaneous destinations: Mod Amt (PD Amount), filter cutoff, carrier wave, modulator wave.

Either a sine or a ramp can be selected to read the wavetable for each oscillator. Sine usually gives a raspier, more metallic sound. Ramp leaves the audio-table waves unaltered from what you see.

v1.1 : Smaller footprint; scopes are on panel B. Lowered default number of voices to 6 and sample rate to 33075. A couple of new snaps.

v1.2 : Select sine or ramp to trigger the wavetable sounds. Earlier versions of M'PD used only the sine.

COMMENTS  (17)

cool breeze
12 years ago
Another top liner. Thanks John.
Andris Varavs
12 years ago
just discovered this. quite wonderful, lots of beautiful snaps and interesting sound generation technology.
John Bleech
14 years ago
Thanks for the comment. I've never played a CZ synth but I might be interested, in the future, to try making something in Reaktor "similar" to a CZ. If you're looking for a free CZ-like VSTi I'd reccomend a synthedit creation called "Kassiopeia!1.0", and its version 2 beta is even better.
Dragan Jovanovic
14 years ago
Thanx for the share, m8!!! Lovely. I own a CZ5000 but his ine sounds totally different! So, still looking for a CZ VSTi... ;o) Any hints? BTW: Not compplaining! Like your Synth very much and you don´t claim that it sounds like a CZ!!!
John Bleech
14 years ago
Basically, as I understand it, on a Casio CZ when you select a waveform for the oscillator, its shape has already been created by distorting the phase of a cosine wave. You can then use an eight-stage envelope (DCW) to 'morph' between a sine waveform and the oscillator waveform. Unlike a CZ, M'PD uses phase distortion not to create its oscillators but to alter them.
John Bleech
14 years ago
Thank you, sir.
Jason Filipchuk
14 years ago
sir, i have to say this is one beautiful and strange beast. inspiring.
John Bleech
15 years ago
While updating to v1.2 I inadvertantly deleted v1.1 from the library, thereby removing some user comments and download tally. Except for the valuable user comments, no big loss.
John Bleech
16 years ago
Thanks, Phil. I appreciate your comment; I just overlooked forgot saying so!
John Bleech
16 years ago
I meant to say "behind", and it was in more than one snapshot.
John Bleech
16 years ago
Yes, Bernd. M'PD is just as CPU friendly when you lower its number of voices from 8 to 1. Yet one still has the option of using it polyphonically. The reverb takes more memory than a chorus, but to each his-or-her own. It's interesting and flattering that you noticed how I purposely hid the sound in one of my snapshots behing the reverb.
Paule
16 years ago
No John. I set the poly macros to mono and lowered the cpu from 43% to 8.5%. Your lovely nightmare sound hided behind the reverb.
John Bleech
16 years ago
Bernd, it already is in the library. I appreciate your effort and the extra snaps, and my upload is for people to enjoy as they like. I downloaded your modification and frankly it has no lower CPU load than the original after lowering the number of voices from 8 to 1 and turning off the reverb effect. Your modifications make it a strictly 1-voice synth. Besides lowering the number of voices, this being a digital synth, I found that lowering the sample rate to 22050 does not aversely affect most of the presets and of course it cuts the CPU load in half to boot. When I learn more about Reaktor I hope to implement better techniques overall.
Paule
16 years ago
John, I've made a mod of your beautiful synth with lower cpu using. Do you want to see it in the user library.
Phil Durrant
16 years ago
i agree, very good use of the breakpoint envelopes. a very nice upload :-)
John Bleech
16 years ago
Peter, thanks. Your comments are a shot in the arm, this being my first stab at making something in Reaktor. Come to think of it, substituting your "The Freshmaker!" for the multi-breakpoint envelopes might work well.
Peter Dines
16 years ago
Great! I love the panning and the rarely seen multi breakpoint envelopes which you've put to good use. Doesn't sound anything like what I'd associate with a CZ. The "low way" preset sounds like a hardware modular, or possibly something from the Forbidden Planet soundtrack. I can't wait for our resident snapshot-crafters to get cracking on this one.
now