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Update: 2020-08-18

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SyncSawSynth

SyncSawSynth is a 32 voice polyphonic synthesizer using up to 10th order PTR sawtooth oscillator. Just a basic synthesizer but very easy to make a noise similar to low battery sound of some toys.

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:

Right clicking on controllable object popups a context menu provided by DAW.

Caution

The peak value of gain envelope is determined by the length of attack. When gain envelope attack is small, the peak may be a bit higher than usual.

When turning Dirty Filter on, a glitch may pops at the timing of note on.

Some parameter configuration leads to massive DC offset. To be stay safe, it’s better to insert high-pass filter after SyncSawSynth. Monitoring output with oscilloscope is recommended.

Terms

An oscillator of SyncSawSynth internally have 2 separate oscillators. One is for generating waveform, and other is to trigger hardsync. In term of hardsync, waveform generator is called slave and oscillator used to trigger is called master.

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

Osc

Gain

Oscillator gain. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Semi

Oscillator pitch. Range is -24.0 to 24.0. Unit is semitone.

The value will be floored. For example 6.3 becomes to 6 and -11.5 becomes to -12.

Cent

Oscillator pitch. Range is -100.0 to 100.0. Unit is cent.

Sync and SyncType

Meaning of the value of Sync will be changed by SyncType. Range of Sync is 0.01 to 16.0.

SyncType has 4 options.

Option Off turns off hardsync by setting master frequency to 0 Hz. However, if the value of Osc*->Sync1 is greater than 0, phase of master will be moved and possibly triggers hardsync. When SyncType is Off, the value of Sync won’t be used.

Option Ratio sets note frequency to master frequency. Slave frequency will be the value of Sync multiplied by master frequency. Also the destinations of modulation from To Freq/Sync will be swapped.

Option Fixed-Master sets note frequency to slave frequency. Master frequency will be only determined by the value of Sync.

Option Fixed-Slave sets note frequency to master frequency. Slave frequency will be only determined by the value of Sync.

Below is equation of conversion of the value Sync to freqeuncy used for Fixed-Master and Fixed-Slave.

frequency = 2 * Sync^3
OscType

Oscillator waveform.

0 to 10th order PTR sawtooth oscillator and sine wave are available.

Phase

Oscillator phase. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

If Lock is checked, phase will be reset for each note on.

If Invert on Osc2 is checked, phase will be inverted by changing sign of the output of Osc2.

Unison

When checked, add same tone with different phase for each note. CPU load will also be doubled.

Number of Voice

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

Modulation

Osc1->Sync1

Modulation from Osc1 output to Osc1 master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Osc1->Freq2

Modulation from Osc1 output to Osc2 slave frequency. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Osc2->Sync1

Modulation from Osc2 output to Osc1 master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Attack

Attack of modulation AD envelope. Range is 0.0 to 4.0. Unit is seconds.

Equation of AD envelope.

env(t) := t^a * exp(-b * t)

t: time.
a, b: some constants.
Curve

Curve of modulation AD envelope. Range is 1.0 to 96.0.

The length of decay is depends on the value of Curve.

To Freq1 (AD Envelope)

Modulation from AD envelope to Osc1 slave frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Sync1 (AD Envelope)

Modulation from AD envelope to Osc1 master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Freq2 (AD Envelope)

Modulation from AD envelope to Osc２ slave frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Sync2 (AD Envelope)

Modulation from AD envelope to Osc２ master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

LFO

LFO Frequency. Range is 0.01 to 20.0. Unit is Hz.

NoiseMix

Ratio of LFO and pink noise. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

If the value is 0.0, the output becomes LFO only. If the value is 1.0, the output becomes pink noise only.

Note that modulation of pink noise causes some nasty spikes. To avoid spikes, set the value of To Freq/Sync to lower than 1.0. Spike is clipped to avoid exceeding 0dB.

To Freq1 (LFO/Noise)

Modulation from LFO/Noise to Osc1 slave frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Sync1 (LFO/Noise)

Modulation from LFO/Noise to Osc1 master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Freq2 (LFO/Noise)

Modulation from LFO/Noise to Osc２ slave frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

To Sync2 (LFO/Noise)

Modulation from LFO/Noise to Osc２ master frequency. Range is 0.0 to 16.0.

Gain

Gain

Gain of the synthesizer output. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

A

Length of gain envelope attack. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0. Unit is seconds.

D

Length of gain envelope decay. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0. Unit is seconds.

S

Value of gain envelope sustain. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

R

Length of gain envelope release. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0. Unit is seconds.

Curve

Curve of gain envelope. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

This curve is linear interpolation between direct output and saturated output.

gainEnv(t) := expEnv(t) * (tanh(3 * Curve * expEnv(t)) - expEnv(t))

Filter

Cut

Filter cutoff frequency. Range is 20.0 to 20000.0. Unit is Hz.

Res

Biquad filter resonance. Range is 0.001 to 1.0.

When the value is set to minimum, the output volume will be very small.

Feed

Feedback of serial filter section. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Internally, 4 biquad filters are serially connected. Feedback send the last output of the filter to first biquad filter in serial section.

Sat

Saturation of filter. Range is 0.01 to 8.0.

This value is multiplied to the sum of input signal and feedback before going into wave shaper.

filterIn = shaper(Sat * (input - Feed * filterOut))
Dirty Buffer

If Dirty Buffer is not checked, the buffer of filter will be cleared for each note on.

Note that while Dirty Filter is turned on, sometimes a glitch pops up at note on.

FilterType

Type of filter.

ShaperType

Type of wave shaper used for filter saturation.

HardClip(x) := clamp(x, -1.0, 1.0)
Tanh(x)     := tanh(x)
ShaperA(x)  := sin(2 * pi * x) / (1 + 10 * x * x)
ShaperB(x)  := 0.7439087749328765 * x^3 * exp(-abs(x))
A

Lenght of filter envelope attack. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0 。単位は.

D

Lenght of filter envelope decay. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0 。単位は.

S

Value of filter envelope sustain. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

R

Lenght of filter envelope release. Range is 0.0001 to 16.0 。単位は.

To Cut

Modulation from filter envelope to cutoff frequency. Range is -1.0 to 1.0.

To Res

Modulation from filter envelope to resonance. Range is 0.0 to 1.0.

Key->Cut

Modulation from MIDI note number to cutoff frequency. Range is -1.0 to 1.0.

Key->Feed

Modulation from MIDI note number to feedback. Range is -1.0 to 1.0.

Change Log

Old Versions

License

SyncSawSynth 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.