“- in one sense the shnth is like a complete modular synth with 20+ oscillators, 12 filters, 16 lfo/envelopes, 8 n-length sequencers, 8 slews, 12 granular sounds, 16 delay & karplus effects, 8 sample and holds, 8 random generators, 8 pulse divider/staircase generator with a variable length, 8 variable duty cycle pulse wave, unlimited nuts for circuit bending, waveshaping, comparators,etc. plus peter is still developing more opcodes, including some really unique ones, so this is just whats in the initial release. so just by its nature its designed to be flexible. - 2nd, the way peter designed all these operators to work together was pretty ingenius in that any thing in shlisp can be plugged into any other thing in shlisp including of course itself, i.e. there is no distinction between audio, control signals, gestures,etc they are all just ‘data’. plus everything in shLISP effects the sound in some way, there are no other programming structures to setup or learn. alot of the power of shLISP come from the simple idea of recursion, i.e. plugging an expression into the parameter of another expression then plugging the output of that into the input of another expression, and so on and so forth. so basically everything can be modulated by everything else…again, just like in a modular synth. - 3rd, there are several ways to pre-compose patches if you desire - there are the sequencers which can store preset parameter values and switch them at the press of a button (sort of like the serge SQP); there is the ability to trigger sounds or switch them on and off, using buttons though actually any gesture or other opcode can do this…you can patch the mic to fire off an envelope which makes a sound audible when the mic input rises above a certain threshold for example. and then a third way to compose is to arrange various situations within a txt and step through them in the order you desire. they can be very subtle variations on the same patch, maybe with diff’t parameter values or changing the filter type,etc or they can be completely different sounds in the order you want to perform them…or you can jump around them randomly with a sample and hold for example. 4th, this is all wrapped in a custom-designed touch interface (4 bars, 9 buttons, 2 touch antennas, 1 mic) which can all be used to control any aspect of the synth. again i think this is the critical thing about the shnth - because there is no distinction between ‘audio’, ‘control signals’ and ‘gestures’ any of these things can be substituted for anything else in any expression, as many layers deep as you want. so you can squish the filter cutoff and Q while speaking into the mic which is being AM’d by a triangle wave which is being modulated by the antennas you’re touching…and then you can take that whole thing and make it determine the tuning of your granular oscillator which is having its rate and grain envelope being determined by bar presses, etc. i can’t stress enough how powerful the simple idea of recursion is when implemented in a ‘modular synth’ paradigm like this.”
here is a brief idea about tuning the shnth
“will definitely do a tuning one. just to try and answer your question here briefly, with the Shnth the opcode ‘srate’ sets the fundamental frequency (which is 4 octaves below the actual sampling rate). if you want to do tonal stuff then its best to specify the srate using 16-bit numbers, then you can dial it in exactly. meng qi made a very helpful srate calculator which gives the ‘short’ (16-bit number) for each corresponding note on a standard keyboard, its available on the shbobo forum. so basically the nume and deno of an oscillator specify its pitch relationship to that fundamental based on the just intonation tuning system…so for example a horn with a nume of 96 and a deno of 64 will be a perfect 5th above the fundamental (ie 3:2 ratio), one with a nume of 80 and a deno of 64 will be a major 3rd above it (5:4 ratio), etc. there’s a couple of really good websites on just intonation online, i can send you the links if you like. its gets really interesting when you get into the larger prime limits like 11 or 13, then you can explore these really hairy microtonal scales. i’ll try to explain all this better in a video and associated forum post but hopefully this will help a bit until then.”
a blog post by peter (ciat lonbarde, shbobo) that goes into a lot of detail about tuning all his instruments
the first two videos in the tutorial series that has recently been started covering shnth concepts
here is a video example of the ability to jump/bend through patches live allowing for instant reprogramming of the shnth on the fly with no host computer (unless you want one)
this one is a shnth (with the preloaded patch) playing through a ciat lonbarde plumbutter
some sounds coming from a sort of emulation of an analogue instrument (quantussy section of the cocoquantus) being used in a couple different ways
this one is for those people who are still with us, PB himself talking about a standalone application that is available for the shnth (there are also more coming)
and here is the actual press http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/08/wacky-wooden-shnth-makes-eerie-sounds-colors-outside-the-lines-documentary/
since this came out I found out I can use the shnth as a reprogrammable controller as well as sounding device
