A pluginn that can add all harmonics independedly

[dirk]

I want a pluginn that can add all harmonics independedly.

So a knob that sets the first harmonic, a knob that sets the second harmonic, a knob that sets the third harmonic ect.

Is there one that can do that?

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by dirk

I want a pluginn that can add all harmonics independedly.

So a knob that sets the first harmonic, a knob that sets the second harmonic, a knob that sets the third harmonic ect.

Is there one that can do that?

And I suppose you want this plug-in to be able to do this for any & every pitch automatically, right? So that the filters that isolate the harmonics are tracking the note fundamentals as they change?

You could probably cobble one together in MAX without too much difficulty.

[Ethan Winer]

Dirk,

> So a knob that sets the first harmonic, a knob that sets the second harmonic, a knob that sets the third harmonic ect. <

That's called an Additive Synthesizer. One classic example is the drawbars on a Hammond organ or soft-synth equivalent.

--Ethan

[toolskid]

not quite what you want but eqium by www.elementalaudio.com has some harmonic manipulation!

[dirk]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

And I suppose you want this plug-in to be able to do this for any & every pitch automatically, right? So that the filters that isolate the harmonics are tracking the note fundamentals as they change?

You read my mind.
I would also like to detune every harmonic individualy.

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

You could probably cobble one together in MAX without too much difficulty.

I have never heard of this. Can you kick my butt in the right direction? Thanks.

[dirk]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Dirk,

> So a knob that sets the first harmonic, a knob that sets the second harmonic, a knob that sets the third harmonic ect. <

That's called an Additive Synthesizer. One classic example is the drawbars on a Hammond organ or soft-synth equivalent.

--Ethan

I don't just want to add harmonics to sinuses like on a Hammond or clasic organ, but to an electric guitar, a vocal track, basses, drums ect.
I think that would be realy usefull, especialy if you can detune the harmonics.
You could get effects from a slight air to ultra distortion. If I only have one.

Thanks for the reactions.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by dirk

I have never heard of this. Can you kick my butt in the right direction? Thanks.

MAX is (or was) an object-oriented programming language for the Macintosh that allowed you to build "virtual" audio processors. I seem to recall it was originally marketed by Opcode, and then Cycling '74 took it over. Ah yes, here you go:

http://www.cycling74.com/products/maxmsp.html

Off the top of my head it sounds like you need a pitch recognition module, followed by several tunable narrow band filters w/ level controls. Probably want to add a distortion generator in front of the filters, just so there really *is* some information for you to isolate when you want to bring out the 13th harmonic.

[AlexLakis]

Couldn't you do this with a very narrow-Q'd, programmable EQ? I think Eqium has presets that boost a given note on each harmonic octave? Could be confusing that with another EQ plugin...

[dirk]

I was thinking more simple:
If you multiply two sinuses of 200Hz you get 400Hz (and 0Hz).
So to get all the 2th harmonic's (the first being the root note, am I correct?? Anyway, I think most will understand) of a musical signal you simply multiply it with itself.
To get 4th harmonic's you repeat the multiplication and so on.
You get the 6th harmonic by multiplication of the 2th and 4th then subtract the 2th from the result.
To get 3th harmonic you divide the 6th in half with a sampleclock converter and so on.
These will also take care of the detuning of the harmonics.

So all you need is multiplication, subtraction and sampleclock converters.





I want one.

[RhOdEz]

idea is great but unfortunately it's can of worms too - it is simple for series of sine tones cause they're pure basic harmonics themself ,but guitar ,violin ,voice etc are not simple sinuses .Every single tone of these instruments contains a LOT of harmonics already and that's what defines colour of instrument - just look any single tone on anal-yzer .So if you want to alter basic harmonic balance of one tone you need to uhm REsynthesize it to be able to extract "basic" harmonics and manipulate them .The only piece of gear i know that does smth similar is Symbolic Sound Kyma - there're some vst synths trying to do that but i endup getting awfull sounding cheapo vocoder sounding results with them
I remember some talk in some magasine ( i think it was Keyboards) 10 years ago or smth about (now dead) Oberheim company presenting resynthesis concept of digital recording - their idea is that every sound contains fixed number of sine tones + noise and that resynthesis is the only way to capture and reproduce perfect recording and that PCM AD/DA conversion is bullshit but computers are not fast enough for that .Heh just look where're we today - we're not moving forward at all .
Huh sorry if i missed the point but one thing leads to another etc ,this is actually very deep subject - i'd like to hear more about this too

Happy New Year People - cheers !

[RhOdEz]

And yeap equim plugin is nice for some stuff -for example :
Your song is in A minor key and you got synth pad and vocal fighting for space in the mix.Insert equim plug on synth pad ,set it on 440 ,880 ,etc harmonic series (really easy and fast to do that there ) and set eq gain few db down .That way you're reducing uhm fundamental freqencies of synth pad ,so there's more space for vocal (if its in tune .....).
Well it wont work for some stuff and sometimes you can get horrid comb filtering that way but when it works its nice .

[dirk]

Originally Posted by RhOdEz

idea is great but unfortunately it's can of worms too - it is simple for series of sine tones cause they're pure basic harmonics themself ,but guitar ,violin ,voice etc are not simple sinuses .Every single tone of these instruments contains a LOT of harmonics already and that's what defines colour of instrument - just look any single tone on anal-yzer .So if you want to alter basic harmonic balance of one tone you need to uhm REsynthesize it to be able to extract "basic" harmonics and manipulate them .

I was just thinking of a very sofisticated distortion pluginn. Not to resynthesize the sound, although that is a very interesting idea to.

If you multiplicate a random signal with itself you get, for every frequenty in the original signal, a frequenty that is twice that of the original frequenty. And just the doubling of frequenty nothing else. That is 2th harmonic distortion if you mix it back with the original signal. And that sounds a bit like tubes, if you can mix back every harmonic that way you should be able to get very nice sounding distortion.

[RhOdEz]

I think you're onto smth dirk - all good ideas are actually simple , i would like to hear more about that .
I'll try to google more info on harmonics and harmonic distortion

enjoy

[johnzorzi]

I don't know if you are still monitoring this thread, but many of the Crysonic products (search on web) allow you to add variable amounts of harmonics as an enhancement/distortion process. I don't think they can be detuned but perhaps this is more in the area of what you are looking for, rather than an additive synth? I suppose you could sent your audio through the process, sum it with the original audio which has been polarity reversed (to remove the original signal) and then run the result through a pitch shifter? Worth a try, in fact, I think I'll have a go myself when I go back into the studio that has the Crysonic stuff.

cheers,

John

[redroom]

Air Windows Pafnuty has control for harmonic bands

Go to this link and scroll down

Kagi - Airwindows Plugins

[chrisj]

Soundhack Free bundle also does harmonics of the exact same type as my Pafnuty, but is available in VST and RTAS too :) and is FREE.

http://www.soundhack.com/freeware.php

Tom Erbe's "Chebyshev" is actually where I got the idea for Pafnuty. When I tried it, it was harder to control in a subtle way and has way less polynomials than mine BUT we're both doing exactly the same thing. It's called Chebyshev polynomials, basically can synthesize overtones out of a sound. it's a type of distortion generator, but a really STRANGE type.

Using either of these you'll be able to add or subtract harmonics (well, mine subtracts) independently. What you won't be able to do is add or subtract them CLEANLY. It won't produce a slick, polished sinewave-like effect like if you had an octave doubler powering a sinewave generator. It will produce a raw, organic, raspy type of effect, or in the really high harmonics, haze and edge. It's just like if you were using a really liquid tube sound but then ran it through an early transistor thing- though if you use really really low-order even harmonics, you can pump up the tubey warm characteristics.

Remember harmonics are not simply octaves. Ain't gonna sound like drawbars. Some upper partials are not very harmonically related at all...

[Absolute]

And I want a big fuzzy bear too

Voxengo Warmer does this. Real cheap too