SYNPLANT version 1.
Table of Contents Synplant Bulb ..............................................................................4 Surrounding Sliders .....................................................................5 Bottom Sliders.............................................................................7 Toolbar .........................................................................................7 Main Menu ..................................................................................8 Gene Manipulation .....
INTRODUCTION Synplant is a software synthesizer with a genetic approach to sound creation. Instead of creating patches the conventional way by turning dials and knobs, Synplant lets you explore a world of organic sounds by planting seeds that grow into synth patches. The purpose of this product is to move the focus away from the sometimes intricate and difficult process of sound synthesis and instead let you develop sounds by simply using your ears.
Synplant Bulb In the center of the user-interface you will find the Synplant bulb that contains the sound plant. Figure 1 Synplant Bulb Key Ring Mod Wheel Ring Seed Selected Branch Rotation Control Seed and Branches The seed contains a certain sound. By clicking and dragging inside the bulb, you grow branches from the seed. Each branch has a unique timbre. Closest to the seed, all the branches sound exactly the same.
grow the branches, the more different from each other, and from the seed, the notes will sound. You can click the Key Ring surrounding the bulb to play notes without changing the lengths of the branches. Mod Wheel Ring Using the mod wheel on your MIDI controller you can grow all the branches simultaneously. The Wheel Scaling slider determines how much the branches will grow. You can also click and drag the dashed Mod Wheel Ring inside the bulb to achieve the same effect.
Tuning The Tuning slider lets you adjust the pitch of the entire plant by up to one octave up or down. When planting a new seed, Synplant tries to figure out the pitch of the sound so that the center of the slider represents a correctly tuned pitch. However, occasionally, it might make a mistake and you will need to manually tune the sound using this slider. Atonality The Atonality slider is somewhat intricate.
Bottom Sliders At the bottom of the window you have three additional controllers that are also part of the patch. Just as with the surrounding controllers, you can click any slider with the control-key (Windows) or command-key ⌘ (Mac) held down to reset to its default etc. Figure 3 Bottom Sliders Wheel Scaling This slider controls how much the mod wheel will make the branches grow or in other words how much it will modulate the sound.
Main Menu The Main Menu is reached from the button located in the upper-left corner of the Synplant user interface. The menu contains the following choices: Undo / Redo These choices undo or redo recent changes to the loaded patch. The "undo history" is virtually unlimited, but it will be cleared every time you close the editor window. Undo and Redo are also available as buttons in the Synplant toolbar. Open Patch… This item will display a file dialog where you can browse for patches on your computer.
Clone Selected Branch Use this menu to clone the currently selected branch so that all keys will play exactly the same sound and the mod wheel will work identically for all keys. This function is also easily available if you right-click a branch (or control-click on Mac). Manipulate Genes Choose this menu to open up the gene editor where you access and edit the genome of the sound seed. Clicking the Gene Manipulation button does exactly the same.
Auto-check for Updates This menu item switches the automatic version checker on and off. When switched on, Synplant will check against the Sonic Charge site every once in a while to see if there are any available upgrades. About This item displays the about box with detailed version info, credits etc… Gene Manipulation Click the Gene Manipulation button to open up the gene manipulation window.
Undo / Redo As described in the Main Menu section above, these buttons undo or redo recent changes to the loaded patch. The "undo history" is virtually unlimited, but it will be cleared every time you close the editor window. The Undo and Redo buttons can be mapped to MIDI controllers using the Reassign MIDI Controllers menu. Patch Selector / Browser Synplant ships with a broad selection of factory patches in various categories. Use the Patch Selector to browse them.
(Owners of Sonic Charge µTonic may notice that µTonic uses the same file extension for its MIDI configuration files. In fact, you can create configurations for both Synplant and µTonic and store in the same ".scmc file".) Input Channel This is the MIDI channel that this instance of Synplant will respond to. Output Channel This is the MIDI channel that Synplant will use for sending midi notes.
Enable MIDI Program Changes Check this box to make Synplant respond to "MIDI program change messages". Please read the Program Slots section for more information. Select Branches with MIDI Notes If you uncheck this box, Synplant will not automatically select branches (for planting / cloning etc) when you play notes on your MIDI keyboard or from your sequencer. It may be useful to turn this off if you wish to edit your plant while you are playing a song in your sequencer.
Genome Mapping Here we offer a complete list of all the genes that make up Synplant's DNA. Please be aware that although you may find some of them similar to the controls commonly found in other synthesizers, Synplant genes should not be confused with traditional synthesizer parameters. Many genes have a fairly complex relationship with each other and their scales and response ranges have been extensively tuned so that useful sounds can be created out of random "mutations".
! Gene Description lfo_rate Designates the LFO frequency. The LFO creates vibrato and tremolo effects. lfo_amt Adjusts the level of the vibrato / tremolo effect. Values less than 0.5 will turn off the LFO entirely. lfo_bal Decides the balance between vibrato (pitch modulation) and tremolo (amplitude modulation). 0.0 = vibrato, 0.5 = both vibrato and tremolo, 1.0 = tremolo only. a_form Controls the waveform shape and timbre of Oscillator A.
Voice Anatomy Figure 8 shows the various components that comprise Synplant's Envelope. Please note that there is only one envelope per voice which controls both volume and "modulation" effects. However, the exact curves or "shapes" of the envelope segments are set independently for the attack and decay phases of the volume and modulation targets respectively. Figure 9 displays a few examples of envelope segment shapes. (The percentages are mainly there for illustration purposes.
Figure 10 Key Synplant Voice Architecture Velocity mod_vel mod_sh S/H mod_atk mod_dcy env_time env_loop env_tilt vol_atk vol_dcy vol_sus Env Shaper Env G enerator Env Shaper R eleas e Env + b_form b_mod Os c B /2 b_freq * sub_am flt_kf Sine Os c b_noise F ilter Nois e G en + flt_mod flt_freq b_sh S/H Filter + balance fm_mod + + a_mod a_freq flt_q fm_amt a_form + Os c A a_noise Filter Noise Gen + + Filter a_color flt_sep Si ne Os c lfo_rate lfo_amt Mix lfo_bal Fi
Default MIDI Controller Assignments The following table shows which MIDI controller numbers are mapped to which parameters by default. You can reassign the controller numbers by choosing Reassign MIDI Controllers from the Main Menu.
Change History Version 1.2 (2014-03-26) • 64-bit compatible version. • Supports Sonic Charge Authenticator for easier registration. • Compiled with latest compilers, frameworks and libraries for improved stability and compatibility. • New installers (signed on Mac) • Moved documentation and factory patch location on Windows from DLL directory to \Program Files\Sonic Charge • Name of DLL (Windows) and “bundle” (Mac) changed from SynplantVST/SynplantAU to Synplant. Version 1.0.
Credits and Contacts Sonic Charge Synplant v1.0 - v1.
Copyrights and Trademarks The Sonic Charge Synplant software and documentation is owned and copyright by NuEdge Development 2008 - 2014, all rights reserved. The Steinberg VST PlugIn SDK are copyright Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH. libpng versions 1.0.7, July 1, 2000, through 1.6.2 - April 25, 2013, are Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Glenn Randers-Pehrson. zlib version 1.2.8, April 28th, 2013, Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
