Automationism - free modular synthesizer in Pure Data

I only checked out the video so far, but this sounds really promising. I guess it's the free alternative for Softube Modular or Reaktor Blocks.

https://www.automatonism.com/the-software

Thanks for the heads-up ! Might finally give me a good reason to take a second look at Pd and delve deeper into it.
The dev's bandcamp has two album made with his patch, currently listening to it and it's quite impressive ! Some joints from the demo video even have a strong elseq vibe imo

  On 6/5/2017 at 1:14 AM, StocKo said:

Thanks for the heads-up ! Might finally give me a good reason to take a second look at Pd and delve deeper into it.

The dev's bandcamp has two album made with his patch, currently listening to it and it's quite impressive ! Some joints from the demo video even have a strong elseq vibe imo

I tested it yesterday on my Raspberry Pi, seems to work really nice even though I don't understand how to use some stuff yet (like LFOs). Certainly a good starting point if you don't really want to start Pure Data from scratch. And great because it's always possible to build your own modules to expand the collection already there, which is like 60 modules.

This is pretty neat. Thanks for sharing. Should help me brush up on modular synthesis.

Messing with a simple patch:

https://soundcloud.com/colin-dyer/automationism-excerpt-1

Very nice!

Been toying around with it yesterday and it looks like huge fun. I feel like I found what I loved with Buzz at the time (ie. interconnecting blocks to see what I can do), but I also have the feeling it can go deeper.

By the way, sorry for the noobish question but can someone explain to me how to make the ADSR module work ? I tried to connect a VCO output to the gate input of the ADSR module but I guess that's not the right way to do it !

Haven't tried this PD synth yet, but in general

ADSR generates a control signal. You don't run the audio through it, you use it to control a parameter of another operator/module/block/whatever it's called in this (I'll stick with module).  The gate input tells it when to start spitting out its signal

Assuming you want to use it to control amplitude you would need at the most basic:

VCO

ADSR

VCA

A trigger signal of some kind (a clock pulse, an onscreen control, some kind of trigger, a MIDI note-on message, depends on what you're doing)

The VCO should have an audio input and another input for controlling level.  Your VCO goes into the audio input and the output of the ADSR goes into the control input (what it's called will depend on the specific synth).  Your trigger signal will go to the gate input on the ADSR.  The VCA is always outputting audio and the VCA adjusts its volume.  If things are working normally, the ADSR will be keeping the VCA turned all the way down so there will be no output, until it gets a signal at its gate input, which will make it cycle through the envelope shape that has been set and send out a control signal to the ADSR, which will adjust its volume according to the signal.

That probably sounds kind of confusing but it's mostly because the terms and exact behavior vary from synth to synth and I was trying to generalize.  It's actually really simple when you do it, and is one of the fundamental building blocks of synthesis.

Since I don't have anything else modular installed on my laptop, here's a screenshot of it set up in Axoloti:

This is only the ADSR envelope/VCA part you were asking about, there's nothing here to control the pitch of the oscillator and there's no audio output.

Hey thank you very much RSP for the in-depth explanation !!

Not only I misunderstood where to put the ADSR module in my chain, but I also fed it with the incorrect things. Anyway your post was of a great help ! Now back to some virtual patching

No problem.

Edit:  the old New York School of Synthesis videos are both hilarious and full of actual good information, you should check them out if you're just getting started with modular type stuff.

good resource for learning about synthesis:

The Sound On Sound "synth secrets" series is good intermediate stuff, too.

It hasn't made it to their new site yet but they have an archive.org link posted.

Also when I was getting that link I found a Reddit thread with a PDF version that looks good (hope this doesn't count as posting a link to copyright material, since they make it freely available on their site in a somewhat different format).