Add Oscillator Sync

Samuel Lindeman: Thanks for uploading the presets. I played with them. I think, I'm not used to the 4-octave sync descend, it sounds too bumpy. But I guess that's the appeal of it as various harmonics collapse and rise again multiple times. If you think it's perfect, I'll trust your judgment on this and leave the max at 16x.

Nikolozi: Actually I don't think anyone will complain as they can always reduce the mod depth. It's way harder to increase a value past the max but reduction will always work :)

Samuel Lindeman: I kind of agree, my main reservation about the range is that generally, it's better to offer configurations/flexibility that lead to good results. If I made it go to 100x, for example, clearly that wouldn't be beneficial, because it would eat up a lot of dial range that's not useful at all. It looks like it gives "full flexibility", but in reality, it reduces usability because everyone would want to use a much lower range. This is just a general comment on how I approach these things. I think 16x is a reasonable range, and the first 50% of the dial is dedicated to the 1-⁠4x range anyway. So I think it works. And I try to optimise Mela for expert users like yourself.

Nikolozi: Ok, the 'extended value range' is mainly usable for pure sound FX design and doesn't always generate 'playable instruments' across the entire keyboard range. (A perfect example of this is the SyncXSFX preset, play around with sync ratio of the triangle oscillator that is used to ring modulate the saw). Here's variation with added 9x sync on the triangle wave with adjusted envelopes. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec845bzu8sa5aro/SyncXSFX2.mela?dl=… But I agree on the 'tweak ranges' and their respective 'sweet spots'. An option to enable 'extended rage' (tap on the label and check 'extended' or something similar?) would cover a broad range of use-cases. But for the most parts keep things relatively simple as that's the charm of Mela.

Samuel Lindeman: I played around with the SyncXSF2 preset, and I can see the potential. Nice!

Nikolozi: Check the 'modulation depths' for osc-sync in both ES2 and RetroSynth in Logic. They bot go a bit further than the 400% in Mela 4.2 Beta. (In Mela terms that would be roughly 800% to 1600%).

Samuel Lindeman: You are right, Retro Synth does look like goes up by 4 octaves. I was more following FF Twin 3, whose values are in the 1-⁠4x range (i.e. goes up only by 2 octaves). 1. But I think it's worth experimenting with going up to 1600%. 2. I think 100-⁠1600% doesn't read well. What units should I use? a) Keep %, b) scale to 0-⁠100% range, c) use semitones (2 dp precision), d) use octaves (2 dp precision), e) 1.00x-⁠16.0x 3. And I just realised I made the dial linear, should be exponential

Nikolozi: I'd go with option e but I'm a bit torn between e and c but i guess to keep it clear b would make most sense for most sense and 100% = 16.0x would cover an insane range but some manual calculations to tune the synced oscillator up 7 semitones becomes tricky. Usually I set sync-depth by ear anyway.

Samuel Lindeman: Check the build 100, should be ready in 10 mins or so. It goes up to 16x now, but tbh I'm not able to get any interesting musical results above 4x. I'm tempted to revert. But you play with it and let me know what you think.

Nikolozi: Ok, I can only see build 99 at the moment but will take it for a spin, the higher ratios are mostly usable in the lower registers, the current 400% is a bit too 'tame' for my taste. An app such as IceGear Lagrange has a well chosen max-depth for sync. I'll check the new build once it pops up. I suspect that 8x will be about the same. (50% in Lagrange is 100% in Mela 4).

Samuel Lindeman: strange, I got notified that it was published on TestFlight. I tried super low registers, various types of modulations, all 4 waveform types, but didn’t sound good to my ears. Either it’s not my thing or the algorithm i’m using for hard sync is not suitable for that sort of range. Anyway, if it sounds good to you maybe create a a small demo preset to showcase its use, so I can hear it.

Nikolozi: Will do when and send it via mail when the build drops... ...decided to post links to the presets in this thread instead.