Harmonical

by ndc Plugs (http://www.niallmoody.com/ndcplugs)

Version : 1.00

Author : Niall Moody (niallmoody@yahoo.co.uk)

Format(s) : Windows VST

Created with : C++

CPU Usage : 10% upwards (depends on how many voices - tested on a P4 2.8GHz)

Description :

This plugin is more of an experiment than anything else, part of my quest to create an instrument where the visuals are intimately connected to the audio. Basically it's a 16-voice synth, where the sound source is a set of waveforms derived from the vertices of a sphere, and added together. The vertices of the sphere are then modulated used spherical harmonics (see http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/surfaces/sphericalh/), with the result that very complex sounds are generated. It's very heavy on the processor, and I'm sure it aliases all over the place.

The best way to get a hang of it is just to play with it awhile. One thing to watch out for is the values of the odd-numbered M controls – if you set these too high (4's a reasonable limit), the thing goes a bit crazy.

Note for OS X Users: Unfortunately the plugin does not work correctly in Tracktion on OS X (the plugin window cannot be closed or moved out of the way). This is because Tracktion handles plugin windows on OS X differently to every other host – there doesn't seem to be any way around this on my part, I'm afraid. Also, sorry about the high cpu usage – it doesn't seem to be nearly as high on my Windows machine, but I honestly don't know why there's such a disparity.

Credits :

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies AG.

Installation :

Copy the Harmonical.dll file into your vst plugins directory.

Hosts tested on :

Tracktion v1.6.0.1

Plogue Bidule (demo)

Ableton Live (demo)

Cubase SX v1 (demo)

Others?

Version History :

v1.00 - First release.

License :

This plugin is released under the MIT/expat license (below). The source code is at http://www.niallmoody.com/ndcplugs/harmonical.htm.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.