Polylogue - Polyphonic Analogue Synthesizer

Polylogue

Polylogue is a polyphonic analogue synthesizer inspired by the workflows of the Korg Monologue and the Korg Volca Keys.

Features

  • Six voice polyphony with two oscillators per voice.
  • Each voice is fully articulated, featuring its own envelope generator, low-frequency oscillator, filter, and amplifier.
  • Five wave shapes per oscillator: Saw, triangle, square, cosine, and noise.
  • Wave shaping for all four major wave shapes: Saw and triangle waves transform to shapes similar to the Korg Monologueā€™s fully transformed wave shapes, pulse width modulation for the square wave, and frequency modulation for the cosine wave. The saw wave transformation implements Formula 26 from Section 3.5 of Phaseshaping Oscillator Algorithms For Musical Sound Synthesis by Jari Kleimola, Victor Lazzarini, Joseph Timoney, and Vesa VƤlimƤki.
  • A resonant filter which self-oscillates.
  • ADSR-style envelope generator which can simultaneously target the amplifier, both oscillator pitches, and the filter cutoff.
  • Per-voice low-frequency oscillator with saw, triangle, square, and cosine wave shapes, which can simultaneously modulate both oscillator pitches and the filter cutoff.
  • The secondary oscillator can be offset up to two octaves up and down from the primary oscillator, as well as detuned about another two-thirds of an octave up and down.
  • Four channel mixer for adjusting the levels of the two oscillators, line in, and a feedback loop drive.
  • Sequencing with Critter & Guitariā€™s Sequencer 3.
  • Polyphonic portamento.

Download

Download the latest release:

Installation instructions:

  1. Copy the Polylogue.zop file to your patches directory on your SD card or USB drive.
  2. From the Organelle menu, reload the storage.
  3. Navigate to the patch and select Install Polylogue.zop.

Discussion

Iā€™d love to hear your thoughts! Please leave feedback or ask questions here, or create an issue on GitHub.

Menu Guide

  1. VCO 1

    1. Wave: 0. Saw, 1. Triangle, 2. Square, 3. Cosine, 4. Noise.
    2. Shape: Transforms the basic wave shape.
    3. Octave: Keyboard transpose, -3 to +1 octaves.
  2. VCO 2

    1. Wave: 0. Saw, 1. Triangle, 2. Square, 3. Cosine, 4. Noise.
    2. Shape: Transforms the basic wave shape.
    3. Octave: Offset from VCO 1, -2 to +2 octaves.
    4. Detune: Continuous pitch adjustment.
  3. Mix

    1. VCO 1
    2. VCO 2
    3. Line In: Audio input mixed in between the VCOs and the filter stages.
    4. Drive: Audio output mixed in between the VCOs and the filter stages.
  4. VCF

    1. Cutoff: High-pass filter with a peak frequency ranging from 100 to 5000 Hz.
    2. Resonance: Unstable and self-oscillating above about 90%.
  5. EG

    1. Attack: Ramp up to peak volume over 0-5000 ms.
    2. Decay: Ramp down to sustain volume over 0-5000 ms.
    3. Sustain: Percentage of peak volume.
    4. Release: Ramp down to zero volume over 0-5000 ms after releasing the note.
  6. EG Target

    1. VCO 1 Pitch: Modulate the pitch of the primary oscillator.
    2. VCO 2 Pitch: Modulate the pitch of the secondary oscillator.
    3. VCF Cutoff: Modulate the cutoff frequency of the filter.
    4. VCA: Modulate the output of the voice.
  7. LFO

    1. Wave: 0. Saw, 1. Triangle, 2. Square, 3. Cosine.
    2. Rate: 0 to 20 Hz.
  8. LFO Target

    1. VCO 1 Pitch: Modulate the pitch of the primary oscillator.
    2. VCO 2 Pitch: Modulate the pitch of the secondary oscillator.
    3. VCF Cutoff: Modulate the cutoff frequency of the filter.
  9. Config

    1. Portamento: Adjust the note glide time. Turns off at 0%.
    2. Pitch Scale: Adjust the scale of the pitch target knobs.

Credits

6 Likes

Sounds exciting, thanks for sharing !

Hmmm. It seems like the patch has some issues on the Organelle 1. Iā€™ll update it as soon as I can!

1 Like

Yes, I was just to write that itā€™s not opening on Organelle 1.

No crash, no error message in PD window, only the Mother.pd gets loaded.

Unlike Pickmansmodel on Patchstorage, I can switch back to the Patch navigator and choose another Patch.
It did ā€œfreezeā€ the Organelle the first time I loaded it, though.

Thanks for testing! I have uploaded a new version to Patchstorage which should install a four voice version of main.pd if it detects an Organelle 1. Please try again!

1 Like

Cannot test until tomorrow unfortunately

Very beautiful patch!
I didnā€™t test it thoroughly, I only installed it on my Organelle 1 and it works (with 4 voices)

1 Like

Confirmed. It works.
And itā€™s super impressive.

1 Like

wow, fantastic patch.

Only thing Iā€™m having trouble with is saving presets. I can click Init, save a new preset, but when I close the patch, open it back up, and try to load a preset, it doesnā€™t seem to pull up the settings from the saved preset.

any idea why?

1 Like

Sorry about that! Iā€™ll admit it wasnā€™t something that I tested. Iā€™ll look have a look after work! Thanks for the feedback!

I managed to get it to kind of work a second ago, but not sure exactly how.

I think that making edits, and then saving a new preset will work, but if you try to intermittently save changes as you are designing the sound, it doesnā€™t seem to save.

Who knows though, maybe Iā€™m doing it wrong.

Regardless, it is an awesome sounding patch!!!

Iā€™m making use of KontrolModule by @thetechnobear, so itā€™s a learning curve for me too, but I think I understand how it should work now. You can add and select presets through the preset menu (by selecting the default patch called Init) but you have to save them by selecting ā€œSave Settingsā€ from the main menu in the patch (the last option, after MIDI learn). This last step will save the ā€œrackā€ settings, i.e. the state of the patch from what I understand. You can then rename your presets by editing the file named polylogue-rack.json in the patch directory. Hope that helps!

Version 1.0.5 is now available from Patchstorage and GitHub.

Whatā€™s new:

  • Wave shaping! The previous releases only had pulse width modulation for the square wave. Now the saw wave transforms into a similar shape to the Korg Monologueā€™s saw, as does the triangle wave, and the cosine wave has limited frequency modulation. Itā€™s not an FM synth, but itā€™s fun to play with.
  • Performance improvements. Each oscillator now switches off DSP processing when itā€™s not in use. This has resulted in better CPU usage on the Organelle M. The Organelle 1 is still limited to four voices. Since I canā€™t test on the original, any feedback is appreciated!

Edit: I suspect I might have broken the LFO in this update but havenā€™t confirmed. I didnā€™t edit it, but it also uses the oscillators from the VCOs, and I forgot to update the LFO to also send a switch value to them. Will fix it this weekend!

Edit 2: Iā€™ve fixed the LFO! Version 1.0.6 is now available at the links above.

2 Likes

Such a nice patch, really amazed by all the parameters !
the only issue is that the sequencer 3 donā€™t work on my Organelle 1 who is unable to read the sequence that has been recordedā€¦ Iā€™ve downloaded PD 0.49 and the first versions of Polylogue but the problem stay the same. (thereā€™s also a parameter BPM that stay to 00, donā€™t know how to change itā€¦). I have downloaded several other patches that uses sequencer 3 and the sequences can be read without problems. Thanks for sharing this patch however! Greatings from France

1 Like

I am having the same issue on organelle 1. Really love the patch but I canā€™t seem to record or playback anything. sequencer 3 works fine with other patches. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

@Stlcody1 @Amb - I think the reason itā€™s not working for you is because of a minor difference in how the Organelle M and Organelle 1 handle Ableton Link.

The Organelle 1 looks for the Link code in each patch folder. The M has Link ā€˜built inā€™ to the OS. If the M finds one particular file (highlighted here)


ā€¦it will add the .orig to the end of that file name so it is ignored.

If you remove the .orig from that file name, it should work for you.

2 Likes

That totally worked! Thanks so much

1 Like

really love this patch!

followed your description for saving a new preset, but it didnā€™t work. is there any news on that since? :wink:

thanks a lot!