artfwo / andes

Experimental sound synthesiser based on Perlin noise

andes

Andes is a digital software synthesizer based on Perlin noise. It is still in early stages of development and doesn't have a lot of features yet.

The core of Andes is an original oscillator which uses a 1-dimensional version of Perlin noise to produce sound.

The oscillator design is described in the LAC 2018 paper Using Perlin noise for sound synthesis. It is not yet finalized, so please keep in mind that things may break in the future versions. Do not use this plugin in production. :)

Copyright (C) 2017 Artem Popov [email protected]

Distributed under GPLv3 license, please see LICENSE file in the top dir.

andes's Issues

Andes doesn't compile

% cd Builds/LinuxMakefile
% CONFIG=Release64 make -j2
Makefile:140: warning: overriding recipe for target '/'
Makefile:133: warning: ignoring old recipe for target '/'
Makefile:147: warning: overriding recipe for target '/'
Makefile:140: warning: ignoring old recipe for target '/'
mkdir: missing operand
Try 'mkdir --help' for more information.
Makefile:164: recipe for target '/AndesSlider_6859167.o' failed
make: [/AndesSlider_6859167.o] Error 1 (ignored)
mkdir: missing operand
Try 'mkdir --help' for more information.
Compiling AndesSlider.cpp
Makefile:169: recipe for target '/AndesLookAndFeel_ce944082.o' failed
make: [/AndesLookAndFeel_ce944082.o] Error 1 (ignored)
Compiling AndesLookAndFeel.cpp
In file included from ../../Source/AndesSlider.cpp:19:0:
../../Source/../JuceLibraryCode/JuceHeader.h:17:49: fatal error: juce_audio_basics/juce_audio_basics.h: No such file or directory
 #include <juce_audio_basics/juce_audio_basics.h>
                                                 ^
compilation terminated.
Makefile:164: recipe for target '/AndesSlider_6859167.o' failed
make: *** [/AndesSlider_6859167.o] Error 1
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
In file included from ../../Source/AndesLookAndFeel.h:21:0,
                 from ../../Source/AndesLookAndFeel.cpp:19:
../../Source/../JuceLibraryCode/JuceHeader.h:17:49: fatal error: juce_audio_basics/juce_audio_basics.h: No such file or directory
 #include <juce_audio_basics/juce_audio_basics.h>
                                                 ^
compilation terminated.
Makefile:169: recipe for target '/AndesLookAndFeel_ce944082.o' failed
make: *** [/AndesLookAndFeel_ce944082.o] Error 1

Yes I did git submodule update --init --recursive.

Logarithmic slopes for the volume envelope

[Feature request] StudioRack integration

It's an open-source plugin manager called StudioRack:
https://github.com/studiorack

The aim of the project is to provide a free open-source way to manage plugin dependencies and their versions. It would involve the following steps:

Publish a Github release containing the plugin source along with metadata plugins.json
Tag your Github repository with studiorack-plugin so it can be discovered
Wait for the studiorack-registry to index your plugin (every 24 hours)
Check the registry feed for your plugin to appear

Unit-length waveform period (alternating signs for gradients)

Using alternating signs for even & odd gradients in the table could solve 2 problems:

1. Cusps and distortion when the outermost gradients are either both positive or both negative.
2. We can use only 2 gradients instead of 3 to create one whole symmetric oscillation. To keep the resulting sound loud, normalization (issue #3) should be implemented as well.

Improve saving and loading plugin state

Saving seed is now happening with an extra ValueTree inside AudioProcessorValueTreeState. GUI editor should update itself when a new seed is loaded.

LV2 plugin

See if Andes can be built as an LV2 plugin.

.clap plugin

as you use JUCE, can you provide a clap plugin?

Output level normalization

Output level for Perlin noise / fBm is wildly different depending on synth settings. Ideally it should be constant so we always get the same volume for any X or Y.

Possible solutions to explore:

• When regenerating seed, pre-calculate global optimums for every octave for all 4 gradient arrays using either brute force or optimization method like simulated annealing.
• Now that Andes uses simplex noise with a better analytical derivative, peaks can be calculated precisely by solving N'(x)=0 equation and substituting the solution in the noise function.

Warping

Perlin noise looks interestingly different when the coordinates are randomly modified with a noise function. This approach, called warping or turbulence could be implemented in Andes for extra sonic possibilities.

Long-term, this can help make Andes a full-fledged multifractal sound synth. And possibly help get rid of pseudo-3D coordinate parameters currently used to alter the timbre.

Warping formula for a basic implementation could look like noise(offset + noise(offset + a)), where a is an arbitrary parameter.

Enable 32-bit CI builds

AppVeyor works, Travis config needs updating.

Microtuning support

See the .tun file specification.

Simplex noise

Explore sonic character of simplex noise and see if it fits into the synth.

Negative array indexing bug

Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to "immediately" reproduce this bug, but I believe the Noise::gen method has a math bug that is causing negative array indexing in Noise::gen1.

// line of code causing array index out of bounds
// z1 is a very large negative number (e.g. -187420688)
g1 = gradients[z1];

If you turn warping, octaves and persistence all the way up, and alternate between modulating torsion with the mouse and spam clicking on the randomize button, you'll be able to (eventually) reproduce it.

What I think could be happening is that in the loop that iterates through the octaves, there is some sort of compound "rounding" (e.g. casting float to int) issue that gets worse each time through the loop because the negative array indexing only happens after a few successful iterations through the octave loop.

Let me know if you have trouble reproducing this. I want to figure this out but... it's almost 4am 😴

Rectangle-based layout for the UI

Use rectangle-based layout which is customary for JUCE projects. See https://www.juce.com/doc/tutorial_rectangle_advanced for an example.

Keyboard should retain focus in the editor window

Make sure this works with the (currently disabled) seed editor.

Aliasing

The sound of noise is susceptible to aliasing at higher frequencies.

Modulation matrix

Basic extensible mechanism for modulating synth params (matrix).

Monophonic mode (legato)

Implement monophonic mode. Look into Synthesiser::findFreeVoice() for possibilities of implementing high/low/last monophonic modes.

Implement legato (glide duration) parameter.

ADSR generator

Generic ADSR envelope generator to use with volume and synth parameters modulation.

Octave control only goes between 0 and 1 when used with BitWig Studio

I noticed from the paper that the octave parameter can go beyond 1
however when loaded as a plugin with BitWig Studio (Andes1-v0.2-linux64), the knob is limited to max 1.0.
Not sure if that's the case with other DAW hosts on Linux!

pitchbend support

please add pitchbend support :-)