Chips
**This oscillator has been superseded by ChipsV2 - note that if you wish to keep the shape mod from affecting your multi oscillator this may still be for you. Please see Version 2.0 at
A PWM, Triangle and Chiptune style synthesizer for your KORG minilogue xd / prologue Synthesizers!
As always, these are to be used at your own risk!
A quick word...
I've been having a ton of fun creating these plugins. If you like stuff like this and my other work, by all means feel free to contribute whatever you can to help support this!
Ensure you have the KORG minilogue/prologue sound librarian installed. Now, before you do anything else, perform a full and complete backup of your synthesizer and save this to disk before continuing. See the sound librarian manual for instructions on how to do this if required. Next, select the USER OSCILLATORS tab on the librarian, and drag and drop the requisite file to an available slot in the librarian :
- for minilogue xd users, please use chips.mnlgxdunit
- for prologue users, please use chips.prlgunit.
usage
Chips can be used as simply as a simple saw/pulse/triangle wave, and can have variable PWM applied, thus freeing your single LFO for vibrato or filter duty.
In addition, you can have a brief noise 'chiff' applied to the start of your sound, and / or have chip-tune style arpeggios applied. This is especially interesting on the Minilogue XD as the arpeggiator isn't as fast as the built in arpeggiator on the Prologue.
With the Pulse wave selected, you can apply PWM, however with the Triangle wave selected, you can apply a Sync+(digital)RingMod effect, a sound usually unique to a C64 SID chip.
But on top of this there are MANY options, all of which shall be listed here:
Shape
Pulse Wave : Sets the amount of PWM to apply to the waveform.
Triangle Wave : Shape set to 0 = pure triangle wave, anything else applies sync+ringmod, and increases the carrier frequency for the sync+ringmod sound.
Shift+Shape
Pulse Wave : Adjusts the PWM frequency.
Triangle Wave : Adjusts the carrier frequency LFO amount.
Under the Edit menu:
Fixed PW : For pulse waves, this is a static Pulse width. Values are from 1-51 , which represent squarew to off. This has no effect on the triangle wave.
Sync/Wave : This is a multi-functioned item:
Value : Function
1 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios can free-run (*arpeggios re-start once their cycle has completed in this mode only)
2 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons
3 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added (this occurs for 1 cycle of the arpeggio rate regardless if arpeggios are enabled or not - you can adjust this with the Arp Rate value)
4 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, very quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch very quickly)
5 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, mostly quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
6 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, reasonably quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
7 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, medium 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
8 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, less medium 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
9 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, somewhat slow 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
10 : Pulse wave selected, PWM and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, slow 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
Values from 11 to 20 echo the parameters of 1-10, however are for triangle wave:
11 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios can free-run (*arpeggios re-start once their cycle has completed in this mode only)
12 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons
13 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added (this occurs for 1 cycle of the arpeggio rate regardless if arpeggios are enabled or not - you can adjust this with the Arp Rate value)
14 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, very quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch very quickly)
15 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, mostly quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
16 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, reasonably quick 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
17 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, medium 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
18 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, less medium 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
19 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, somewhat slow 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
20 : Triangle wave selected, Sync+Ringmod and arpeggios re-sync on new note ons, noise chiff added, slow 'kick down' (pitch falls from 1 octave up down to the desired pitch )
This isn't optimal (a couple more options would have been better) but it does work, and is pretty quick to use / figure out
ResyncOffset : This sets the absolute starting position of the LFO for PWM / Sync+Ringmod. This only applies when the Sync value is not 1 or 11 (LFO sync must be on). This allows you to specify what pulse width / Sync/Ringmod frequency to start with.
Arp Type : Allows you to pick from 6 different arpeggio types:
1 : No arpeggio
2 : 2 notes : Root and 5'th
3 : 2 notes, Root and Octave
4 : 3 notes, Sus4 (C F G)
5 : 3 notes, Major (C E G)
6 : 3 notes, Minor (C D# G)
7 : 3 notes, sus 2 (C D G)
Arp Rate : Allows you to chose the rate at which the arpeggios are updated at 1 : 60hz
2 : 55hz
3 : 50hz
4 : 30 hz
5 : 25 hz
6 : 15 hz
7 : 10 hz
** Arp Inv ** : Allows you to chose different chord inversions for the arpeggios
Play around with the settings, there are many but become pretty clear fairly quickly.
Download the zip here (contains both minilogue and prologue formats)