Strobe - performance synth with a cutting modern edge
Designed to be as easy to program and satisfying to play as an analogue monosynth, Strobe also adds polyphony, osc-stacking, a versatile multimode filter and deep modulation to create a modern classic. Strobe specializes in no-nonsense analogue-style leads, sick basses and complex pads.
Strobe's design is motivated by the immediacy and simplicity of classic performance synths like the Roland SH101 and SH-09, Oberheim OB-1 and Yamaha CS-10. Such synths are not overly endowed with complex controls - as a result it's difficult to make a bad sound with them and they beg to be played! Similarly, Strobe features a relatively simple architecture, allowing you to program great sounds quickly so that you can get on with making music with them!
Osc section
While Strobe has a single oscillator, it's a very flexible and powerful oscillator. Saw, pulse and noise waveforms can be freely mixed alongside sine, triangle, saw and pulse sub-oscillators. You can set each sub-osc up to 3 octaves below the main waveforms, and adjust the pulse width of both the main and sub pulse waveforms. You can also sync the osc pitch to the lowest sub-osc. The osc-stacking feature lets you layer up to 5 copies of the osc and detune them to achieve thick multi-osc tones without using entire unison voices.
Filter and Amp sections Strobe's filter is capable of delivering an extremely wide range of timbres, due to its plethora of filter curves and rich modelled drive circuit for extra-thick tone. As with the other instruments in DCAM: Synth Squad, the amp section can be overloaded, just like in a real analogue synth.
Arpeggiator and direct modulation
Strobe contains a built-in arpeggiator and a range of modulators with flexible gating options - you can gate envelopes with the LFO, for example. Direct modulation depth controls exist for varying the pitch, pulse width and filter cutoff from LFO, envelope and keytracking sources, allowing you to dial up classic subtractive sounds quickly and efficiently.
Transform your sounds with TransMod Like the other DCAM synths, Strobe is equipped with the TransMod advanced modulation system, which allows you to modulate almost any parameter with an extensive range of modulation sources. This takes Strobe's potential way beyond that offered by the direct modulation controls on the front panel. Apart from offering a huge range of modulation sources, you can also modulate controls based on active voices and unison voices. Using 2 unison voices and deploying unison modulation instantly turns Strobe into a dual-osc synth, with a filter and amp for each osc!
Amber - bathed in vintage psychedelia
One of the first attempts to realistically model the divide-down string ensemble synths from the 70s, Amber perfectly captures the lush, psychedelic sound of these much-loved but often-forgotten instruments. A formant filter, 3 separate chorus models, a variety of playing responses and flexible modulation build upon the legacy to deliver a new take on these vintage classics.
Amber's sound is derived from a bank of oscillators that are frequency-divided to produce a full keyboard range of 96 notes within a single synth voice - this means that you can play 96 notes simultaneously. These notes, referred to as 'paraphonic notes', are then mixed down into a single signal to be fed through conventional polyphonic processing blocks (a single instance within each synth voice).
Synth and Ensemble sections
Amber includes two sections which both feature very similar paraphonic sources, with the subsequent polyphonic processing blocks defining their final character. The Synth section is fed through a multimode resonant filter, giving it a synth-like tone, while the Ensemble section goes through a formant filter and chorus, to impart the character of a string ensemble. The two sections are mixed together at the final output of the voice, and there are several routing options for the Synth section which allow it to be fed through the Ensemble section's formant filter and/or chorus.
Playing responses
Both the Synth and Ensemble sections are capable of several playing responses. They can be set to 'paraphonic' mode (96 notes simultaneously with an envelope and VCA for each note - similar to the Logan String Melody and Korg Lambda), a couple of modes which can emulate synths with a single envelope/VCA for all paraphonic notes (such as the Eminent Solina and ARP Omni), and a fully monophonic mode, which dispenses with paraphonic response altogether. With the latter setting on both sections, you can force Amber to operate as a conventional monophonic/polyphonic synth.
Stack and modulate voices Unlike vintage hardware string machines, Amber is capable of running with multiple voices and unison. This, combined with the DCAM TransMod system, offers a potential universe of new, unheard sounds! Cypher - audio-rate modulation monster
Cypher takes analogue FM into the future, combining the most realistic audio-rate modulation to date with digital luxuries like polyphony and precise tuning. With dual shaper/filter stages to drive and sculpt the raw output of the oscs, alongside DCAM features like the TransMod modulation system, Cypher is a tweaker's utopia for producing timbres ranging from visceral mono and poly sounds to abstract textures and sound effects.
The ethos behind Cypher is to provide a truly accurate model of a synth capable of analogue-style FM, wave modulation, variable-depth sync and other interesting oscillator processes. The osc section is a source of vast sonic diversity even before the dual filter section is called into action. Cypher can also be used as a more conventional 3-osc subtractive synth, for situations when you require more complexity than Strobe can offer.
Advanced oscillators
Cypher's 3 oscillators feature continuously variable waveshapes, ring modulation, white/pink noise sources and beat-detuning (which keeps the rate of oscillator-beating the same across the whole keyboard).
The real depth of the oscillators lies in the various ways that they can inter-modulate each other at audio rates. Osc3 can perform FM on Osc2, while Osc2 can modulate the waveshape of Osc3 at audio-rate frequencies. The osc section features thru-zero FM behaviour and the ability to tune in precise harmonics, which allows musical digital-style FM sounds rendered with fat-sounding modelled analogue oscillators.
Innovative osc-sync and audio-rate sample-and-hold The oscs also feature advanced sync capabilities - Oscs 2 and 3 sync to Osc1 to varying degrees, leading to a range of 'hard' and 'soft' osc-sync sounds. Another innovative feature is the audio-rate sample-and-hold, which quantizes the waveform of one osc with the frequency of another. The sound is reminiscent of lo-fi digital FM and sampling, but has a unique sound of its own.
Dual Filters and polyphonic waveshaping
The osc section is fed into two paths, each containing a filter and waveshaper, which can be routed in various ways. The waveshapers allow you to twist the osc shapes further with several flavours of gritty distortion. The filters are selectable from state-variable and transistor-ladder models, with rich drive and realistic filter FM. Fusor - semi-modular sound design environment
Evoking the era of huge wrap-around analogue keyboard rigs, Fusor is a semi-modular layering environment for the DCAM synths with extra LFOs, envelope followers, step-sequencers and a suite of high quality FX. All this, combined with versatile inter-modulation between its internal devices, makes Fusor an inspirational environment for complex effected patches and deep, experimental sound design.
Layering, keysplitting and adding FX Fusor lets you layer and set up keyboard splits for 3 instances of the DCAM synths. You can add high-quality FX as inserts on each synth, as aux sends or on the master output. The built-in FX suite includes a licensed version of Overloud Breverb for high-quality reverb, as well as DCAM circuit-modelled compression, filtering, chorus and overdrive, not to mention an array of other creative processors for sculpting sounds into new shapes.
Animate your sounds! Animator is Fusor's powerful integrated step-sequencer and arpeggiator device. Offering everything from programmable arpeggio patterns to complex real-time performance sequencing, Animator brings your synth sounds to life! Dial up inspiring riffs and hooks in minutes, lay down funky, swung drum machine lines or simply lose yourself in infinite sonic experimentation. Fusor also includes a set of extra LFOs and envelope followers to inject further dynamic aspects to your performances.
Complex modulation Fusor's internal modulation system, called FuseMod, opens up semi-modular control possibilities for the various devices in Fusor. Synths can modulate FX parameters, extra LFOs, or Animator engines - for example, you can modulate a phaser or clock Animator from a synth LFO. You can even use the envelopes and LFOs from one Fusor-hosted synth to modulate another polyphonically to create monster semi-modular hybrids. |
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