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Update: 2020-08-18

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IterativeSinCluster

IterativeSinCluster is an additive synthesizer. This synth computes 512 sine waves for each note to make tone cluster. I somehow thought “iterative sin” is a valid term. Correct term is “recursive sine”.

IterativeSinCluster 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.

Installation

Plugin

Place *.vst3 directory to:

DAW may provides additional VST3 directory. For more information, please refer to the manual of the DAW.

Presets

Extract preset zip, then place preset directory to the OS specific path:

Preset directory name must be the same as the plugin. Make Uhhyou directory if it does not exist.

Windows Specific

If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, try installing C++ redistributable (vc_redist.x64.exe). Installer can be found in the link below.

Linux Specific

On Ubuntu 18.0.4, those packages are required.

sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0  libxkbcommon-x11-0

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.

macOS Specific

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.

xattr -rc /path/to/PluginName.vst3

Plugin may be considered as unsigned/un-notarized application. In this case, try following the steps below.

  1. Open terminal and run sudo spctl --master-disable.
  2. Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select “Anywhere”.

Beware that steps above degrades security of your system. To revert the settings, follow the steps below.

  1. Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select option to “App Store and identified developers”.
  2. Open terminal and run sudo spctl --master-enable.

Reference

Color Configuration

At first time, create color config file to:

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.

Controls

Knob and slider can do:

Additionally, number sliders use in Gain, Semi etc. can do:

Overtone has following controls:

Block Diagram

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.

Parameters

Gain

Boost, Gain

Both controls output gain. Peak value of output will be Boost * Gain.

It’s possible that output gain becomes too small while changing gain of Note, Chord, Overtone. Boost can be useful in this situation.

ADSR

Parameters for gain envelope.

Curve

Change attack curve of gain envelope.

Shelving

Cutoff freqeuncy can be changed by Semi, which is relative to a note frequency. For example, if the note is C4 and Semi is 12.000, cutoff frequency is set to C4 + 12 semitone = C5.

Pitch

Add Aliasing

When checked, the synth enables rendering of sine waves over nyquist frequency.

Roughly speaking, nyquist frequency is the highest frequency that can be reconstructed from recorded digital signal. When generating sound, it’s possible to set value that is higher than nyquist frequency. However, the result may contain unexpected frequency due to a phenomenon called aliasing. Add Aliasing is option to add those aliasing noise.

Reverse Semi

When checked, negate sign of Semi. For example, 7.000 becomes -7.000.

Octave

Note octave.

ET

ET stands for equal temperament. This parameter can be used to change tuning of Semi and Milli.

Note that this parameter is not to change tuning of notes sent from plugin host. Only affect to internal parameters.

Multiply, Modulo

Change sine wave frequency.

Equation is noteFrequency * (1 + fmod(Multiply * pitch, Modulo)). pitch is calculated from Note, Chord and Overtone. fmod(a, b) is a function that returns reminder of a / b.

Smooth

Time length to change some parameter value to current one. Unit is in second.

List of parameters related to Smooth. * represents wild card.

Other parameter uses the value obtained from the timing of note-on for entire duration of a note.

nVoice

Maximum polyphony. Lowering the number of this option reduces CPU load.

Random

Retrigger

When checked, reset random seed for each note-on.

Seed

Random seed. This value change random number sequence.

To Gain

Amount of randomization to sine wave gain. Randomization is done for each note-on.

To Pitch

Amount of randomization to sine wave pitch. Randomization is done for each note-on.

Note, Chord, Overtone

Change sine wave gain and pitch.

1 Note have 16 Overtone. 1 Chord consists of 8 Note. 4 Chord are available to use.

Common parameters for Note and Chord.

Leftmost of Overtone is gain of fundamental frequency (1st overtone) of a note. For each bar from left represents 1st, 2nd, 3rd, … , 16th overtone gain.

Below is the summary of calculation of sine wave frequency.

function toneToPitch(semi, milli):
  return 2 ^ (1000 * semi + milli) / (ET * 1000)

for each Chord:
  chordPitch = toneToPitch(Chord.semi, Chord.milli)
  for each Note:
    notePitch = toneToPitch(Note.semi, Note.milli)
    for each Overtone:
      frequency = midiNoteFrequency
        * (1 + mod(Multiply * Overtone * notePitch * chordPitch, Modulo))

Chorus

Mix

Change Dry/Wet mix ratio.

Freq

Chorus LFO frequency.

Depth

Change stereo spread.

Range

Amount of modulation from LFO to delay time. There are three delays in this chorus.

Time

Delay time.

Phase

LFO phase.

Offset

Phase difference between delays.

Feedback

Feedback of delay.

Key Follow

When checked, change delay time relative to note frequency.

Change Log

Old Versions

License

IterativeSinCluster is licensed under GPLv3. Complete licenses are linked below.

If the link above doesn’t work, please send email to ryukau@gmail.com.

About VST

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.