Update: 2020-09-02
CollidingCombSynth is an experimental synthesizer which sounds like bowed string. Equipped with 24 Karplus-Strong string models which collide to each other. Tuning of pitch is possible, but difficult. So mostly suitable for sound effects.
CollidingCombSynth requires CPU which supports AVX or later SIMD instructions.
The package includes following builds:
macOS build isn’t tested because I don’t have Mac. If you found a bug, please file a issue to GitHub repository or send email to ryukau@gmail.com.
Linux build is built on Ubuntu 18.0.4 and tested on Bitwig and Reaper. If you are using distribution other than Ubuntu 18.04, plugin will not likely run. In this case, please take a look at build instruction.
Place *.vst3 directory to:
/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/ for Windows.$HOME/.vst3/ for Linux./Users/$USERNAME/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3/ for macOS.DAW may provides additional VST3 directory. For more information, please refer to the manual of the DAW.
Extract preset zip, then place preset directory to the OS specific path:
/Users/$USERNAME/Documents/VST3 Presets/Uhhyou$HOME/.vst3/presets/Uhhyou/Users/$USERNAME/Library/Audio/Presets/UhhyouPreset directory name must be the same as the plugin. Make Uhhyou directory if it does not exist.
If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, try installing C++ redistributable (vc_redist.x64.exe). Installer can be found in the link below.
On Ubuntu 18.0.4, those packages are required.
If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, take a look at Package Requirements section of the link below and make sure all the VST3 related package is installed.
REAPER on Linux may not recognize the plugin. A workaround is to delete a file ~/.config/REAPER/reaper-vstplugins64.ini and restart REAPER.
When trying to run plugin first time, following message may appear on macOS.
<PluginName>.vst3 is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to
the Trash"In this case, open terminal and try running following command to unzipped .vst3 directory.
Plugin may be considered as unsigned/un-notarized application. In this case, try following the steps below.
sudo spctl --master-disable.Beware that steps above degrades security of your system. To revert the settings, follow the steps below.
sudo spctl --master-enable.At first time, create color config file to:
/Users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.json on Windows.$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.json on Linux.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME is empty, make $HOME/.config/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.json./Users/$USERNAME/Library/Preferences/UhhyouPlugins/style/style.json on macOS.Below is a example of style.json.
{
"fontPath": "",
"foreground": "#000000",
"foregroundButtonOn": "#000000",
"foregroundInactive": "#8a8a8a",
"background": "#ffffff",
"boxBackground": "#ffffff",
"border": "#000000",
"borderCheckbox": "#000000",
"borderLabel": "#000000",
"unfocused": "#dddddd",
"highlightMain": "#0ba4f1",
"highlightAccent": "#13c136",
"highlightButton": "#fcc04f",
"highlightWarning": "#fc8080",
"overlay": "#00000088",
"overlayHighlight": "#00ff0033"
}Hex color codes are used.
First letter # is conventional. Plugins ignore the first letter of color code, thus ?102938, \n11335577 are valid.
Do not use characters outside of 0-9a-f for color value.
fontPath: Absolute path to *.ttf font file. Not implemented in VST 3 version.foreground: Text color.foregroundButtonOn: Text color of active toggle button. Recommend to use the same value of foreground or boxBackground.foregroundInactive: Text color of inactive components. Currently, only used for TabView.background: Background color.boxBackground: Background color of inside of box shaped components (Barbox, Button, Checkbox, OptionMenu, TextKnob, VSlider).border: Border color of box shaped components.borderCheckbox: Border color of CheckBox.borderLabel: Line color of parameter section label.unfocused: Color to fill unfocused components. Currently, only used for knobs.highlightMain: Color to indicate focus is on a component. Highlight colors are also used for value of slider components (BarBox and VSlider).highlightAccent: Same as highlightMain. Used for cosmetics.highlightButton: Color to indicate focus is on a button.highlightWarning: Same as highlightMain, but only used for parameters which requires extra caution.overlay: Overlay color. Used to overlay texts and indicators.overlayHighlight: Overlay color to highlight current focus.Right Click on the controls pops up a context menu provided by DAW.
Knob and slider can do:
There is an additional control for number sliders used for Octave, Seed etc.
Control with many blue vertical bars (BarBox) have some keyboard shortcuts. LFO Wave on Main tab and Gain, Width, Pitch, Phase on Wavetable tab are using BarBox. Shortcuts are enabled after left clicking BarBox and mouse cursor is on the inside of BarBox. Cheat sheet is available on Infomation tab.
| Input | Control |
|---|---|
| Left Drag | Change Value |
| Shift + Left Drag | Change Value (Snapped) |
| Ctrl + Left Drag | Reset to Default |
| Ctrl + Shift + Left Drag | Change Value (Skip Between Frames) |
| Right Drag | Draw Line |
| Shift + Right Drag | Edit One Bar |
| Ctrl + Right Drag | Reset to Default |
| Ctrl + Shift + Right Drag | Toggle Lock |
| a | Alternate Sign |
| d | Reset Everything to Default |
| D | Toggle Min/Mid/Max |
| e | Emphasize Low |
| E | Emphasize High |
| f | Low-pass Filter |
| F | High-pass Filter |
| i | Invert Value (Preserve minimum) |
| I | Invert Value (Minimum to 0) |
| l | Toggle Lock under Mouse Cursor |
| L | Toggle Lock for All |
| n | Normalize (Preserve minimum) |
| N | Normalize (Minimum to 0) |
| p | Permute |
| r | Randomize |
| R | Sparse Randomize |
| s | Sort Descending Order |
| S | Sort Ascending Order |
| t | Subtle Randomize (Random walk) |
| T | Subtle Randomize (Converge to 0) |
| z | Undo |
| Z | Redo |
| , (Comma) | Rotate Back |
| . (Period) | Rotate Forward |
| 1 | Decrease |
| 2-9 | Decrease 2n-9n |
Snapping is not available for all BarBox. If you’d like to have snapping for certain BarBox, feel free to open issue to GitHub repository.
Edit One Bar with Shift + Right Drag holds a bar under the cursor when mouse right button is pressed. Then only changes that one bar while holding down mouse right button.
Toggle Lock with Ctrl + Shift + Right Drag behaves as line edit. When right mouse button (RMB) is pressed, it holds the opposite state of the bar below mouse cursor, then use the state for the rest of bars. For example, if RMB is pressed on a locked bar, dragging unlocks bars while holding down RMB.
Output amplitude varies a lot, even if Compressor is turned on. Recommend to always insert limiter after CollidingCombSynth.
If the image is small, use Ctrl + Mouse Wheel or “View Image” on right click menu to scale.
Diagram only shows overview. It’s not exact implementation.
Master gain. Value of Gain and value of Boost will be multiplied.
masterGain = Gain * BoostTurn on/off the comporessors. Each voice has a compressor.
Attack/Release time of compressor.
Larger Time value may sound more natural, but compression becomes leaky. In this case, try turning down the value of Threshold.
Compressor starts compressing the signal when input amplitude exceeds Threshold. Usually, Threshold is set to less than 1.0.
Changes master pitch.
Semi stands for semitone.Milli is 1/1000 of semitone or 1/10 cent.Changes tuning.
ET stands for equal temperament. Note that when ET is less than 12, some notes may become silent due to frequency becomes too high or too low.
A4 [Hz] is frequency of note A4.
Number of voices used by unison.
To avoid interruption of release, increase the number of Poly in Misc. section. Note that increasing Poly consumes more resources.
Detune is the difference of pitch between voices used in a unison.
When Random Detune is checked, amount of detune changes for each note-on.
random = RandomDetune ? rand() : 1
detune = pitch * (1 + random * unisonIndex * Detune)Amount of stereo spread for a unison.
Amount of randomization of gain for voices used in a unison.
Random section has configurations for 4 random number generators (RNG).
Comb Time in Exciter section.Frequency in String section.Detune and Gain in Unison section.Amount of randomization. Randomization is disabled when Amount is set to 0.
Seed value. Different seed generates different sequence of pseudo random number.
When checked, the synth resets seed for each note-on.
Configuration of exciter. Excitation is some force to start physical model. For example, picking of guitar, impact of piano string and hammer, impact of stick and drumhead, are excitation.
The exciter of CollidingCombSynth consists of sawtooth/noise oscillator and serially connected 8 comb filters.
Cutoff frequency of lowpass filter which applies to oscillator output. Unit of display value is Hz.
オシレータの音量です。
A is the attack time of oscillator. D is the decay time of oscillator.
Turning A knob to right makes sound softer.
Mixing ratio of sawtooth and gaussian noise in oscillator output. When set to leftmost, oscillator only outputs sawtooth. When set to rightmost, oscillator only outputs gaussian noise.
Delay time of comb filter. Unit of display value is seconds.
Configurations of Karplus-Strong strings.
Cutoff frequency of lowpass filter which is inserted in feedback path of string model. Unit of display value is Hz.
Cutoff frequency of highpass filter which applies to string output. Unit of display value is Hz.
Distance between strings. When an immediate amplitude of a string exceeds Distance, exceeded amplitude will be propagated to a neighbouring string.
The value of Propagation changes the loss of force when strings are collided. The bounce will be weaken if Propagation is smaller.
Connection type of strings.
Parallel: Connect strings in parallel. Input of excitation starts from string 0, then incrementally going through the rest of strings. Collided signal is accumulated to the excitation signal incrementally.Serial: Connect strings in serial. Excitation is only input to string 0. Then output of string 0 goes to input of string 1, output of string 1 goes to input of string 2, and so on. Beware that output signal may become louder than Parallel, so take care when turn off Compressor.Envelope parameters which modulates LP Cutoff. This envelope basically works as the gain envelope of CollidingCombSynth.
A : Attack time which is the length from note-on to reaching LP Cutoff value.D : Decay time which is the length from LP Cutoff value to reaching (LP Cutoff) * S.S : Sustain level which is the gain after decay.R : Release time which is the length from note-off to the LP Cutoff reaching to 0.Fundamental frequency of string. The final frequency of a string is calculated by multiplying note pitch by Frequency.
noteFrequency = A4Hz * pow(2, Octave + (Semi - 69) / ET + Milli / (ET * 1000))
stringFrequency = Frequency * noteFrequencyN/A.
CollidingCombSynth is licensed under GPLv3. Complete licenses are linked below.
If the link above doesn’t work, please send email to ryukau@gmail.com.
VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.