Bass fuzz-wah for synthy sound - any suggestions?

[anotherjim]

Fuzz of some sort for sure. How much is an issue. I think some pre-filtering has to happen before it hits the synth filter. It's occurred to me that the envelope follower is going to have a rectifier and that could be pressed into providing a voice option - although most of us know the challenges in making that sound musical.

[ElectricDruid]

Haven't Tom dealt with that (yet)..??

Do you mean me? Do you think I should, Antonis?

I wonder what's inside that Dirty Robot? That's the most interesting so far, for sure.

[Rob Strand]

I wonder what's inside that Dirty Robot? That's the most interesting so far, for sure.

I'm hearing:
- Multiple generators
- Swept filter.  Voice looks like a low pass 100Hz to 5500Hz.  Maybe 15dB to 20dB peak, Q maybe 5.
  There could be a shelf stopping excessive attenuation at higher frequencies as well.
- Delay (could be a byproduct of the method that are using to generate other harmonics)

When I look the at the signal at around 4:54 and 6:10 there's a band of strong harmonics that seem synthesized and not really that distorted.   I think that's the key to the generator.  (Imagine maybe putting an octave up inside a delay with feedback.)

Then there's the distortion. So are the generators individually distorted individually or combined.  When the sweep is up high it's getting pretty chaotic.

[Fancy Lime]

Parasit Studio "Sentient Machine" uses counter swept filters for a vowel effect.
https://www.parasitstudio.se/sentientmachine.html
This is LFO driven and the vowel sound happens when the filters cross to create the formant.

That is interesting. Very interesting indeed! Two state variable filters (in formant mode), one used as a bandpass, the other as a high pass, controlled via PWM to move in opposite directions. I am very tempted to try and build something similar with a few more options and no LFO. I need envelope control with a lowpass following the positive envelope (so, it's an MXR envelope filter...) + bandpass following the negative envelope. But adding switches to get all possible modes from both filters is easy, so let's do that, too. And an option to mix the filters parallel additively or subtractively (yes, these are words now, cause I wrote 'em, muhuhahaha) as well as in series. There need to be two envelope followers, so that all parameters can be adjusted individually for both filters. This is going to take some time but it is going to be fun! I need to order me some parts, is what I need to do...

Andy

[Fancy Lime]

Hi there,

my last post notwithstanding, Tom piqued my interest with the whole "wave shape reset" thing. I am wondering: What happens if we modulate the clock frequency of a BBD with the original signal? So that the frequency goes up, when the input waveform goes up, and down when the waveform goes down. I think in this case we should get a upper half of the signal that is compressed in time and a lower half that is stretched, resulting in more of an impulse waveform. Am I right, though? But if we run the side chain controlling the clock through some wave shaping itself, and/or full wave rectification, we might get an interesting way of wave shaping a guitar signal. Albeit an overly complicated one but hey, when has that ever stopped us?

Would love to hear your thoughts about why my brain fart is probably stupid,
Andy

[anotherjim]

Andy is finding more rabbit holes...

Well, BBD effects in general, maybe people haven't explored that tech much recently since I think many had resigned to it's demise - but this is no longer the case with a few suppliers of all new chips. I can only imagine spacey sounds from FM'ing the clock with audio but who knows? In principle, something similar could be done with a PT2399, but a BBD can be shorter/faster.

I've also found some encouraging sounds from the EHX Synth9 pedal, although I found its string ensemble sim much more interesting - but that's not what I went looking for either! And... hint to pedal demonstrators... it is not illegal to play the bass guitar above the 7th fret!

As for me I've been at the breadboard messing about. I've come to the conclusion that it would be better to build a synth filter as a soldered up module and then work the signal conditioning and envelope control to suit. I might well go for a Wasp filter first, 'cause I've always liked that sound and it's fairly easy to build. If it ain't right for the job, I'll still have a Wasp filter for another day.

[ElectricDruid]

Well, BBD effects in general, maybe people haven't explored that tech much recently since I think many had resigned to it's demise - but this is no longer the case with a few suppliers of all new chips. I can only imagine spacey sounds from FM'ing the clock with audio but who knows? In principle, something similar could be done with a PT2399, but a BBD can be shorter/faster.

+1, very good point. FM is another excellent way to generate metallic sounds, and modulation of a short BBD is a good way to do that with live audio.

Note that the modulation waveform you get isn't the one you put in. I'm still working on what exactly it is, but it's not straightforward! This is the article I wrote the. I first discovered there was a problem, but I'm still working on a follow-up:
https://electricdruid.net/investigations-into-what-a-bbd-chorus-unit-really-does/