Percussion-Line Synth Voice

Zaps is a percussion-line-synth voice designed for creating organic percussive sequences that can mutate over time. It uses a combination of different techniques like controlled randomness, morphing, and storing (or locking) synth-voice parameters in externally sequencable CV-controlled slots. The synth voice is a digitally-controlled-two-oscillator-FM and AM-analog engine with two envelopes and cross-modulation.

Features

• Sequence Preset Slots externally for changing percussion or synth lines
• Add subtle randomness to any parameter for slightly changing sounds, or go wild for unpredicted surprises on every trigger
• Morph sounds between Slots
• Assign accent to any parameter for added expressiveness
• Randomly generate full banks of sounds
• Capture any randomly generated sound into a preset slot for further editing
• Freeze/Revert the state of the module for careless editing during live performances
• Live editing of a single or multiple Slots simultaneously for expressive tweaking
• Generate melodic percussion or synth lines with the V/O tracked oscillators
• Use CV-in control of any parameter or CV-out control for external modules (control FX-sends or automate external-synth parameters)

SYNTHESIS - The synthesis board is an analog circuit with two VCOs, two envelopes, AM, FM, high-pass filters, and a two-channel mixer.

VCOs:

• Triangle core VCOs with V/oct inputs and Fine and Coarse controls.
• VCO 1 waves: Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, and Square.
• VCO 2 waves: Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square, Double Sine, and White Noise.
• VCO2 has two separate wave outputs, one for the AM and the other for the FM and the Mixer-Channel 2.

ENVELOPES:

• Two AHR (Attack, Hold, Release) envelopes.
• The hold time can be set internally or externally (Gate ON) for each envelope.
• Envelopes can be faded from logarithmic to linear responses.
• Each envelope can control the Pitch/Tone of the VCOs (Pitch Envelope), the amount of AM or FM (Envelope 1), the VCA for both channels (Envelope 2).

AM:

• The amplitude modulation goes from VCO2 to VCO1.
• It can be set in two ways: straight to VCO1 or through a VCA controlled by Envelope 1.

FM:

• The frequency modulation goes from VCO2 to VCO1 and from VCO1 to VCO2 (XFM).
• FM can be set in two ways: straight to VCO1, or through a VCA controlled by Envelope 1.

MIXER: Two-channel mixer for the two VCOs.

HIGH-PASS FILTER: There are two HPFs. HPF1 filters the mixer output. HPF2 filters the white noise.

DIGITAL CONTROL

STRUCTURE:

• Each project contains twelve banks; each bank contains twelve slots; each slot contains a sound.
• All projects are stored on an SD card.

RANDOM:

• Randomize values on a per trigger basis
• Independent random control for each synth parameter
• Set ranges to any random value for controlled randomness
• Relatively attenuate all parameter-random amounts with a single global random fader
• Populate slots or banks with randomly generated sounds

FREEZE/REVERT: Take a snapshot of the whole project, modify it and go back to the original state.

MORPH:

• Parameter interpolation between two slots on a per trigger basis.
• Control the balance between the two slots with one fader — crossfade style!

CV ASSIGN and More!