If you don’t know what a Swarmatron is, it is not a delicious Arab Mediterranean food, it is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd7oRBW_PC4 . Could any one program a Swarmatron type patch from pure data. Just because of the modular ability and uniqueness of the actual instrument I think it’d be cool if we had some similar sounds in the Organelle. Also if anyone else is interested I’d be down to help out in any way I could.
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A Swarmaton patch would be absolute gold.
There is one for Reaktor that could serve as a source of inspiration.
I guess to play it one would have to hook up a midi controller with a bunch of knobs to Oraganelle.
I still have no clue about PD. So not sure if I could be of help in the conversion.
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This is the product of a single Google search, so there might be others out there, but here’s where I’m gonna start. Jóhannes Gunnar Þorsteinsson’s PD swarmatron clone: https://gitlab.com/johannesg/PureSwarm
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That looks cool. Seems to be using a bunch of pd-extended objects, but those are available for the Organelle, see info for using them here:
We could use separate pages maybe? I’ve seen patches with options like that where aux controls the page.
http://patchstorage.com/juno-104/
Uses multiple “pages” and using this option could mean that instead of midi controllers needed, we could use the given knobs as the actual swarm ribbon and the oscillators, while the keys control the pitch. Obviously if this is used we should credit the creator.
Hey all! It’s been a couple weeks, and I’ve just finished my first draft of this patch. It makes the swarmatron noise, and has some of the functionality. I started with that patch in my previous comment, then rewrote the entire thing basically. It now works in vanilla pd, correctly mimics the swarmatron, and does a whole lot more.
The synth is monophonic with each key activating 8 oscillators. The pitch of the oscillators are modified by a multiplier associated with each, and a span value that determines how far detuned each oscillator is (knob 1 for coarse, knob 2 for fine). There’s a band pass filter for some timbre adjustments as well (knob 3). I’m proud of knob 4’s function, as it’s the closest I can get to a ribbon synth interface with the organelle. When you press each key, the corresponding pitch is played, but if you hold the note and adjust the note detune knob, that key will be temporarily detuned. When you hit another key, it will snap to the correct note from before the detune, and the knob’s current position be reset as the baseline frequency for the detuning. This way you can hop to different spots on the “ribbon,” as well as get some finer control.
Please read the comments on the patch, as they will help you understand how I did it. In the description on patchstorage is the git repo for the patch. Feel free to muck with it and send me some ideas. I plan to add more things (envelope settings, oscillator toggling, different waveforms, etc.), so I will keep you all updated.
Here’s the like to the patchstorage: http://patchstorage.com/swarmanelle/
And the github repo: https://github.com/benblakehart/swarmanelle.git
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thanks man. i have to rename the file to main.pd and put it in a folder called swarmanelle, though, right?
Yep. Let me know what you think.
Digging it. I’d like to see an ADSR on there and I’m not sure what else at the moment. I like what you did with knob 4. I notice you didn’t use the aux button, maybe it leaves room for some more filter settings?
ADSR is precisely on of the things I intend to use AUX for, in fact! Going to go the standard multi page approach and have one for sound characteristics (waveform, 2 filter params, something else?), one for envelope settings, and one for the swarm characteristics (coarse & fine swarm, note detuning, and overall tuning). Feel free to recommend menu layout (as in which settings you’d like grouped in a page), as well as any other additions. I’m also considering only using the bottom row as note input and reserving the top row as oscillator toggles. Finally, I’d like the note behavior to be a bit different (prefer the highest note held over anything else).
So, naturally this means a lot of work and probably a good deal more time. Thanks so much for trying it out!
Yes a page for ADSR would be good . A nice envelope works great with incoming MIDI arp notes. A filter and resonance/third aux page would be great but not as important as an ADSR for me. That should be as simple as adding Simple ADSR to main.pd and changing the input? Or would you tell swarmanelle to pull from Simple ADSRs file on USB drive? Thanks a lot, like my homebody uun said, I like it a lot. We don’t necessarily understand when to “route” patches internally through eachother and when to fully add to/edit the patch itself
this is amazing! thanks for your work
Just thought of another thing I’d like in the swarmanelle… Octave selection…, a lot of places I want to out the sound aren’t fitting for how high the patch is on its own… I find myself wishing I could tune it down a lot
I hear you. I’m working on how the pitch mapping is gonna work out. I’d like to make it changeable from 1 to 1000s of Hz. Think I have a good way to do it, and I’ll post the result when I’ve coded it. In the mean-time, to scratch your low-frequency itch, feel free to change the code a bit: just add a subtraction box after the “mtof” box coming from “r notes.” I’ll post a pic showing that soon.
Yes please do … Gracias
Hello all,
There were some requests to be able to shift the range of playable notes, and while I work on a more elegant solution to this (I have a few ideas I’m working on), here’s a quick dirt fix if you just want to play low notes. Below is a picture of a chunk of the patch showing how the frequency is unpacked from the notes.
By adding a subtraction box, like shown below with the value “- 260”, you can shift the lowest note played down by however much you want. I would not recommend going below 260, as after that you start wrapping around to negative frequencies.
Let me know if you have any questions. I’ve been a bit busy with summer activities, so it might be a little while before I upload the next version. But when I do, look forward to envelope upgrade.
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Thank you dude I really appreciate it
I am really loving this patch! Thank you for sharing it, it’s really a nice heavy sound for some synth based recordings I’m working on. Very Xiu Xiu!!
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I am unable to download this patch. It just goes to a page of what I’m assuming is pure data code (I’m new here). Any ideas?
Thanks!