Designer Tim Alex Jacobs (mitxela) shared this overview and demo of the Reverse Oscilloscope synthesizer, which lets you shape waveforms tangibly, using ‘glowy glowy sliders’.
Topics covered:
00:00 Intro and motivation
02:21 Controls explained
08:16 Demo (sequencing, gate)
15:04 Talking
16:27 Demo (janky envelope)
23:04 Technical details
26:12 Outro
The synth is a DIY prototype. You can find full build info at the Mitxela website.
Watch the video and share your thoughts on the Reverse Oscilloscope synthesizer in the comments!
Waveshaper Media has announced that Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer – a crowdfunded documentary on the seminal synthesist – will make its North American debut as part of a 2-night event in Toronto, Oct 27-28, 2023.
Waveshaper notes that, after the international premiere in Berlin, they “had a few setback in terms of music licensing clearance delays, but we’re finally ready to proceed with new screenings.”
The schedule for the events:
Friday October 27th.
Morton Subotnick + Lillevan — LIVE.
A special A/V performance of Subotnick’s newest work “As I Live and Breathe” — a multi-media, surround sound experience.
Subotnick’s final composition, and final live performance in Canada.
With an additional performance by Heidi Chan (modular synthesizer) & Kristine White (shadow projections).
Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC — 750 Spadina Ave
The Vaporizer 2 wavetable synth plugin, a commercial-quality instrument is now and open-source and you can download for free.
Vast Dynamics takes Jessie J’s advice and forgets about the price tag.
It is proving to be quite the week for free wavetable synth plugins. First came Socalabs Wavetable, and now Vast Dynamics’ Vaporizer 2 has entered the freeware fray.
If the name sounds familiar to you, that’s because Vaporizer 2 was first launched in 2019, but back then, it came with a $40 price tag. Now Vast Dynamics is letting you download it for nothing – in fact, it’s gone the whole hog and made it open source.
Vaporizer 2 “Probably the most versatile wavetable synthesizer ” looked like a rather good deal even when you had to pay for it, so unless you have some kind of chronic aversion to synths of this type, giving it a try now feels like a no-brainer.
As well as rocking an engine that features four independent wavetable oscillator banks with up to 24-oscillator unison – plus a comprehensive wavetable editor – Vaporizer 2 also touches on additive, subtractive, FM and granular synthesis and includes a dedicated sampler section. There are filters, effects, LFOs, an arpeggiator, MPE support and modulation options, while 780+ wavetables and single cycles and 410+ presets should be more than enough to get you going.
When you’re done with those, you can import and edit standard format wavetables via drag and drop.
In short, you’re getting what looks like a commercial-quality feature set for nothing, and as a further bonus, CPU resource usage is said to be low, as well. Vaporizer 2 is available now in VST/AU/AAX formats and can be downloaded from the Vast Dynamics website.
