Chinenual: Music and Software

Music: Titration

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some spring time electric piano ambience.

Music: Haikus

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For a few months back in 2023, I wrote several pieces in response to weekly “challenges” to write music to a different Haiku poem each week (the Naviar Haiku Challenge). The combination of a specific “theme” and a short deadline made it interesting and some of the resulting music seems worth bundling. So here’s a new Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple / Youtube / etc. release - Haikus. Text of each of the original poems are on the Bandcamp track pages. Hope you like them.

Music: Afloat

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An atmospheric improvisation for the new year.

Music: Osmosis

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Revisiting a stochastic loop based technique to create some winter time ambience.

Music: Adiabat

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A short moody piece for piano, strings and chorus.

Music: Incantation

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A prayer? A lament? An invitation? An incantation.

Music: Lazy Day

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A chill, somewhat hypnotic beat for a lazy afternoon.

Music: Acceptable Error

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some polyrhythmic fun and games.

Music: Red Shift

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A generative bit of ambience via VCV Rack.

VCV-Rack 2.6.4: VCV module UI improvements

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Version 2.7.4 for VCV-Rack.

Implements issue #16: Text color style is now “per module” not global to all Chinenual modules.
Implements issue #17: Notemeter now displays a label indicating display units (“V” or “Hz”) when displaying those values.
Implements issue #18: The “number of decimal places” precision param now controls both the voltage and frequency modes. The default is changed from “6” to “5” to more comfortably display high frequency values.

https://library.vcvrack.com/Chinenual-VCV/NoteMeter

Music: Drone Day 2025

Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another collaboration with bunch of fellow ambient and modular synthesizer folk for Drone Day 2025. I believe that’s me at the very beginning. Alessandro teases that he may compile a longer one for the summer solstice.

VCV-Rack 2.6.3: NoteMeter frequency view

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Version 2.7.3 for VCV-Rack. Notemeter now supports a third display mode: Note Name, Voltage (V), V/Oct as Frequency (Hz).

https://library.vcvrack.com/Chinenual-VCV/NoteMeter

VCV-Rack 2.6.2: UI Improvements

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Version 2.7.2 for VCV-Rack. Adds user-selectable style (text color) and increases polyphony from 12 to 16 channels.

https://library.vcvrack.com/Chinenual-VCV/NoteMeter

VCV-Rack 2.6.1: NoteMeter Accidentals display

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Version 2.7.1 of NoteMeter with the support for selectable flats vs. sharps and raw voltages is now available in the VCV library. The other module in the plugin that shows v/oct note values (Harp) was also updated to let you choose.

https://library.vcvrack.com/Chinenual-VCV/NoteMeter

Music: Residual Stillness

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A short contemplative piece for piano

Music: Cirrus

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A generative ambient piece made almost entirely with VCV Rack - with just a bit of electric piano noodling towards the end.

Music: Moist Vacuum

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A meditative generative drone for the new year. Made 100% in VCV Rack.

Music: Reflections

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A choral piece for the new year.

Music: Reverence

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A transcription of Kevin Keller’s Reverence, from his The Day I Met Myself album. This was an ear training exercise - intended to be a note-for-note recreation of the original, except using a larger orchestra (this is BBCSO cello, viola, violin, oboe and piano).

Music: Discretion

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Feeling groovy

Music: Emergent Properties

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Ambience for trombone choir.

Music: Trace Elements

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

September ambience

Music: Squeamish Ravioli (remix)

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tyrone was not satisfied with the original. He likes this remix better.

Aaron Lanterman review of Synergize / Synergia

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fellow Synergy enthusiast, Georgia Tech EE professor Aaron Lanterman did a very nice, detailed review of Synergize and Synergia. He plans to follow up with another going into even more detail.

Music: Squeamish Ravioli

Sun, 07 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A lost track from my alter-ego Tyrone. He seems to be channelling a bit of Talking Heads, Brian Eno, B-52’s?

Synergize 2.6.2: bug fix

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Minor bug fix for Synergize - the CRT editor had some edge cases when creating single-voice carts. Also a small improvement to the UI to reduce alerts requiring manual dismissal.

Get your copy at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize .

Music: Fragments: 1

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps the first in a series of short excerpts of unrealized longer pieces.

Synergize 2.6.1: bug fix

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Minor bug fix for Synergize - fixes the display and editing of the “OHARM” oscillator parameter, when selecting semitone harmonics.

Get your copy at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize .

Harp for VCV Rack

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A reimagining of Iasos’s “Golden Harp”. Maps a continuous pitch CV input signal to a scale and generates gated notes as you “strum”.

Harp does not depend on any particular control surface and can be configured to work with a variety of CV input ranges. You can use it with anything that can create a continuous voltage as the musician “strums” (could be a slider on a MIDI control surface, a ribbon controller, heck, even an LFO) I’ve created a simple control surface for the iPad using TouchOSC. The control surface sends both MIDI and OSC messages as the faders move; use whichever works best for you.

Music: Distant Gravity

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For Ramiro. A short moody piece for piano, strings and organ.

Music: Oort

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A spacey mix built with a kitchen-sink full of VCV sequencers as separate tracks in Logic Pro. A Bogaudio Addr-Seq drives a chord sequence via an Aaron Static ScaleCV and DiatonicCV - with the chord shapes randomly modulated by Caudal. Those note values feed into other voices via Little Util’s Teleport to separate tracks sequenced via Impromptu’s Gate-Seq, Voxglitch’s Arpeggiator, alef’s bit’s Slips, Rare Breed’s Eugene, Venom’s Rhythm Explorer, Tone Carver’s Morse and Squinktronix’s Arpeggiator.

Music: Dilation

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Inspired by a recent Omri Cohen tutorial, but with a much quieter vibe.

A very quiet ambient piece centered on a quiet lakeside beach. The waves act as the sequencer here, triggering all notes via an envelope follower and slope detector and some Bernoulli gates. Note pitches are influenced by the wave envelope, but helped along with some Caudal randomness. Wave sample is from Kyles at Freesounds, uses a couple of FM-OPs playing “melody”, a distant delayed “bell” via Surge’s Twist VCO, and a very occasional bass drone via Squinky’s Organ Three. All with lots of Plateau based reverb - some voices with even more reverb courtesy Airwindows.

Music: Retinal Barrier

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An ambient piece performed in VCV Rack and mixed in Logic Pro. Inspired by @Alphagem-O’s Ambient Morph Challenge.

Music: It Is Possible

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music for brass choir. Cover art by Christopher Burns at Unsplash.

Music: Valence

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Adventures in modular sequencing. Sequences and audio stems via alef’s bits Slips, Rarebreeds Eugene, Bogaudio and Audible Instruments VCOs in VCV Rack; mixed in Logic Pro with Plateau and Chronoblob.

Music: Skyward

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music for string sextet. Photo by Carmine Savarese at Unsplash.

Music: Empty Echoes

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Another response to a Naviar Haiku #512.

Endless echo footsteps on an empty house once full of life

This time the haiku is by Naviar’s founder, Marco Sebastiano Alessi. Picture by Raya Mal https://unsplash.com/photos/closed-window-ggeI8TyPeZM

Music: Reaching Out

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For the Naviar Haiku challenge #511. Piano with granular distortion:

in dark autumn nights dew and the new bamboo shoots reaching out to moon

Haiku by Shubham Dasgupta https://www.instagram.com/poetry.bysdg Picture by naraa .in.ub https://unsplash.com/photos/Qf-5KCZduV0

Music: Rippling Silence

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For this week’s Naviar Haiku challenge #507. Haiku by Janice Doppler https://poets.drifting-sands-haibun.org/first-name-starts-with-j/janice-doppler/

summer sky… rippling the silence a watersnake

Picture by Jackson Hendry https://unsplash.com/photos/kKpTHqM2K-c

Music: Morphosis

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For this week’s Naviar Haiku challenge #503. Haiku by Darren Bourne https://ffm.bio/halfunusual

Caterpillar Opens her new wings Metamorphosis

Picture by Ray Hennessy https://unsplash.com/photos/qZzJoiKHqmo

Music: Everyone Gone

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For the Naviar Haiku challenge #502. Haiku by Masaoka Shiki https://mypoeticside.com/poets/masaoka-shiki-poems :

everyone gone… in the wake of fireworks darkness!

Picture by Clay Banks https://unsplash.com/photos/u27Rrbs9Dwc

Music: Hemiolios

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Images of Philip Glass. A piano piece using 3:2 polyrhythms. Cover art by Karim Ghantous at Unsplash.

Music: Morning Solace

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A change of pace for this week’s Naviar Haiku challenge (orchestral instruments vs. my normal synths). The haiku is by Haiku by Andrea Cecon https://www.amazon.com/Andrea-Cecon/e/B00955O0CA

morning solace the silence of apple blossoms

Picture by Esmee Batchelor https://unsplash.com/photos/4tpVXhBMTG0

Music: Afternoon Heat

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A track for the Naviar Haiku Challenge #499. A hybrid track using Vult’s Caudal as a sequencer driving a mixture of Bogaudio and Surge VCOs with some distortion from Saphire Elastica and Free Surface’s Watertable. All running in Logic Pro which adds some binaural panning. The haiku is by Hege A. J. Lepri (http://www.hegeajlepri.ca/) :

afternoon heat the heavenly dance of cumulus clouds

Picture by Stefan Lehner https://unsplash.com/photos/Wc3LVKY3s7Y

Sorting Modules for VCV Rack

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve released three more modules to the VCV library:

SplitSort

Splits a polyphonic cable and optionally sorts the channels, with possibility to share sort criteria with another SplitSort or MergeSort. Linked sorting is inspired by Aria Salvatrice’s Splort module.

MergeSort

Merges a set of monophonic signals into a polyphonic cable and optionally sorts the channels, with possibility to share sort criteria with another SplitSort or MergeSort. Linked sorting is inspired by Aria Salvatrice’s Smerge module.

PolySort

Sort polyphonic signals, optionally reusing the same sort order as other inputs. Sorted output remain in sync with one another at the sample level.

Music: Cast to Void

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

No haiku from me this week - I got distracted testing out new modules in Rack and things ended up completely incompatible with the assigned poem. It’s 100% VCV this time. It started as a bit of fooling around with Tonecarver’s Traveler sequencer driving some simple FM-OP voices, but then added his Morse module (playing the Rack log.txt, a random markdown file and one of my module’s JSON config files) I added Squnky’s Saws through his Formant filters and Sapphire’s Elastica. All performed in VCV Rack, exported via NYSTHI’s Polyrec and then mixed in Logic Pro. Beat provided by Seaside Modular’s Tala. Image by Nick Shandra at Unsplash.

Music: Setting Sun Returns

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For the weekly Naviar Haiku challenge 496 - #naviarhaiku

mountain’s red leaves the setting sun returns to the sky

Mostly created with builtin Logic Pro instruments, but with some VCV Rack sequencing courtesy Impromptu’s ProbKey and Count Modula’s Euclidian Sequencer.

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kobayashi-issa

Picture by Laura Vinck unsplash.com/photos/Hyu76loQLdk

Music: Silent Sentinels

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For Naviar’s Haiku Challenge #494

On the canal bank Vivid yellow irises – Silent sentinels

Logic Pro’s sampled Bösendorfer played through some virtual tape loops via VCV Rack: 5 Nysthi Simpliciters, 5 Count Modula Gate to Trigger converters and VirtualModular’s shimmer made with Clouds and Plateau.

Haiku by John Hinks https://soundcloud.com/flownblue Picture by Outi Marjaana https://unsplash.com/photos/ZFTtCIb7qfc

Music: Desolate Whispers

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A response to this week’s Naviar Haiku Challenge:

desolate street at dawn last night’s turmoil whispers in the wind

Made in Logic Pro, using VCV Rack for audio and MIDI FX (my DrumMap, RareBreed’s Eugene, Audible Instrument’s Texture Synthesizer, Valley’s Plateau)

Haiku by marco sebastiano alessi https://www.naviarrecords.com/ Image by k8 K8 (@k8) | Unsplash Photo Community

Music: Early Morning

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A response to the Naviar Haiku Challenge:

Early Morning,
One star remaining,
It's a good day too.

Music: Abaxial

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music for imaginary saxophone quartet

Music: Drone Day 2023

Sat, 27 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My second year collaborating with bunch of fellow ambient and modular synthesizer folk on an hour long drone for Drone Day 2023.

https://ablaut.bandcamp.com/album/drone-day-2023

I also adapted the parts I sent to the project for my own drone-y thing - you can listen to it here:

Music: Trace Radiance

Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An ambient drone built from elements I created for this year’s Drone Day collaboration.

Music: Reflection

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ambience for slide guitar and tape loops

Music: Asymptote

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An bit of piano ambience

Pitch Inverter

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A new module for VCV, Inv, produces a chromatically inverted V/oct pitch relative to a specified “pivot” pitch. Consider quantizing the resulting signal to approximate diatonic inversion.

Music: Overcome Coherence

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Fun and games with VCV Rack

Non-12TET tuning support for Tintinnabulator

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A new release of the Tintinnabulator now supports non-equal-temperament tunings.

It also supports a new “Quantize” mode. This is technically not “tintinnabulation” since if the melody note matches a chord note, it will not create a “harmony” note. However, this allows the Tintinnabulator to be used as a general purpose “chord quantizer”.

Music: Ephemera

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An ambient piece for stochastic piano and two tape loops.

Tintinnabulator and NoteMeter for VCV Rack

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve released two more modules for VCV Rack:

The Tintinnabulator produces a harmonized pitch from an input chord and melody using Arvo Pärt-style tintinnabulation where a harmony note is selected from a reference chord. Pärt’s music tends to use simple triads for his tintinnabulation but the module allows you to specify any set of notes as the reference.

The module supports several variants of the harmonization - select first available pitch or next one, in both upwards or downwards direction. Also supports bidirectional tintinnabulation, where every other note switches between upward or downwards selection. An Octave offset can be used to offset the harmony up or down from the reference melody line.

NoteMeter is a polyphonic metering module that displays note names from V/Oct inputs. If the input voltage does not align exactly with a note voltage it indicates the deviance from the closest note as “cents”.

Music: Pathways

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always had a soft spot for choral music. This one let me stretch out a bit harmonically.

DrumMap for VCV Rack

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve released a new version of the MIDIRecorder with improved support for “percussion” gates to the VCV Library. If a track’s V/OCT input is not connected, the recorder now defaults to MIDI C4 (so for drums, only a GATE input is necessary). When a polyphonic gate is connected, but no V/OCT, then each channel of the GATE gets a unique MIDI note pitch.

A new module, DrumMap, converts input percussion/drum gate inputs to pitch outputs corresponding to user-selectable General MIDI conventions. Use it to produce a polyphonic “drum track” with MIDIRecorder, or connect it directly to an external drum machine or DAW with VCV core’s CV-MIDI.

Click on the input pair label to change the MIDI note to be associated with that gate.

Produces three polyphonic outputs V/Oct, Gate and Vel suitable for directly importing into the MIDIRecorder or sent out through CV-MIDI.

Music: Twenty Five

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A short piano memory of the first twenty five years. Seems like only yesterday!

Music: Third Law

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve released a new collection of of down-tempo tracks, ambient soundscapes and modular generative experiments from 2021 and 2022. You can buy a copy on Bandcamp or listen for free on your favorite streaming service.

Music: Tangents

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve released a new collection of tracks called Tangents. You can buy a copy on Bandcamp or listen for free on your favorite streaming service.

Music: Peripheral View

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Quiet atmosphere for saxophone and guitar

Music: An Invitation

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A short piece for strings and brass

Music: Intangible

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A quiet piece for solo piano

Music: Slipping Away

Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Remembering a friend

Music: Popcorn

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Music: Sustenance

Sat, 17 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Slower dice also work…

Iasos's HarpFilter

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A new VST/AU audio effect with two bandpass filters that track MIDI from two MIDI channels and filter side-chained audio. This allows the musician to “strum” the Golden Harp to control the bandpass frequencies. The two filters are independent, so both strips on the harp can be strummed independently.

Music: Sustained Chances

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you just need to roll the dice.

Music: Awakenings

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

MIDIRecorder 2.2.0 released

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A new version of the MIDIRecorder has been released to the VCV Library - it adds a new output CV gate that helps synchronize the recording with audio recordings, making it easier to record both audio stems and MIDI events for import into a DAW.

Music: Gradient Descent

Sun, 21 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A modular synthesis meditation on life’s fragility

MIDIRecorder and CC expander now available in the VCV Library

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My MIDIRecorder and expander are now available in the VCV library. It is a VCV module and expander that converts up to 10 tracks of polyphonic control voltages to MIDI and produces a standard multitrack MIDI file which can then be imported to any DAW.

Music: Causal Limits

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Inspired by Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato, but it quickly took a left turn. This uses 14 electric pianos (and only electric pianos) of various flavors.

Music: Happy Accidents

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Thither

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Exceptionally Random Arpeggiator 1.0.8

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A new version of the arpeggiator ships – this has a number of improvements, including randomized length and velocity, configurable random gaussian distributions for each parameter and user selectable min/max ranges for everything. It also includes a feature suggested by Iasos: the arpeggiation can be optionally controlled with the Sustain pedal, allowing the musician to play a melody with occasional bursts of randomization (can sound a bit like a marimba roll).

Music: Sublimation

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.6.0: SYN to MIDI conversion!

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Have some SYN files from days gone by and want to extract the sequencer data as a MIDI project, perhaps to create a remix of the old project in your DAW? Wait no longer, Synergize 2.6.0 can do that. Details on how the conversion works at: https://chinenual.github.io/synergize/docs/syn2midi .

Get your copy at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize .

Music: Lagrange 1

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Inspired by Vangelis’s use of reverb and delays. RIP.

Music: Drone Day 2022

Sat, 28 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Collaborated with bunch of fellow modular synthesizer folk from the VCV forum on an hour long drone for submission to Drone Day 2022. I really like how it turned out!

https://ablaut.bandcamp.com/album/drone-day-2022

Music: Unfrosted

Tue, 24 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Dialog of the Tides

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Nova

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Surface Tension

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Twenty Four

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Punctuated Equilibria

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Quintet for bassoon, flute, bass trombone, electric piano and... mellotron?

Music: Off By One

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Steve Reich meets Edgar Froese

Music: Before the Beginning

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Boundary Layer

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A modular venture into dark ambience

Music: Ripples

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Past Imperfect

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Saturation Event

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Alleluia

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Inward or Onward

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Interplay

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Desfasado

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

An adagio for piano, cello and flute.

Music: Chiral

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Neon Bubbles

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: The Blue Hour

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Vapor Pressure

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Baltic Lullaby

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A lullaby for 8 part choir using ideas from Arvo Pärt

Music: Scenes of Something

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Sea of Vapors

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Slow Roll

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

go-scala - a Go based microtuning library

Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A pure Go library to parse Scala SCL and KBM files to support microtunings

A reimplementation, in Go, of the Surge team’s C++ tuning-library. This is mostly a copy of that library, but with some name changes and refactoring to make the library idiomatic Go.

See https://github.com/chinenual/go-scala

Music: Metamorphosis

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.5.0: DX7 patch conversion!

Thu, 27 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Tired of the six factory library carts? How ‘bout adding thousands of voices originally written for the DX7? Synergize version 2.5.0 adds a conversion feature that convert Yamaha DX7 SYX files to Synergy CRT and VCE files. Since the two synthesizers do not share identical synthesis pathways, the conversion is approximate. Even so, it is possible to mine the great number of available DX voices and convert to useable Synergy voices. Some can be played without any further tweaking; some can provide a starting point for more Synergy experimentation. Props to Don Turnock for doing most of the heavy lifting in analyzing the DX voicing algorithms and developing the conversion to Synergy VCE. As usual, this release also fixes a few bugs and improves the voice editor (adds a tab to view the factory .DOC files, better support for the oscillator “gain” functionality in the TouchOSC control surface). See the Release Notes for details. https://chinenual.github.io/synergize/docs/release-notes

Music: Blue Shift

Sun, 23 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A generative modular piece using VCV Rack

Music: Afterglow

Sat, 15 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Penumbra

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.4.0: Osc Gain and Freq envelope enhancements

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It’s March, so it’s time to turn your Synergy up to 11. Synergize now supports a wider range of frequency offsets in the frequency envelope. It also adds a significant enhancement to the editor: oscillator amplitude can now be scaled without distorting the shape of the amplitude envelopes via two new “Gain” controls (one that controls both Low and Up envelopes together and another that can control just one or the other). This greatly simplifies tweaking modulation and oscillator balance. Special thanks to Don Turnock for stress testing the beta and some great enhancement ideas (e.g. the Gain and extra frequency range.) See the release notes for the full set of fixes and changes.

Get it at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize

Music: Drifting

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Emerald Secrets

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Exceptionally Random Arpeggiator 1.0.2

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At Iasos’s prompting, I’ve created a JUCE based MIDI effect - an “exceptionally random arpeggiator” which is careful to never repeat a note just played and which has a very wide range of speeds at which it can arpeggiate.

Synergize 2.3.1: DC Offset fix and more envelope editor improvements

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergy fans: I’ve made a new bug-fix release of Synergize that addresses a problem with the way “DC” harmonic offsets are handled. This also incorporates improvements to the Envelopes editor: the default frequency scale now supports “negative” frequency offsets and loop points are annotated directly on the graph. Get your copy at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize

Music: Introspection

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.3.0 - updated Synergia support and mouse driven editors

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.3.0 is ready for download at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize/

For those of you beta testing the Synergia virtual instrument, you’ll want this because the mechanism Synergia and Synergize use to discover each other has changed (the old mechanism no longer works with the new Synergia and the new one has proven to be much more reliable).

For everyone else, you’ll want this because the environment editor is now mouse editable - you can drag points around and Synergize will calculate the corresponding point values and time rates for you. Similarly the Filter, Key Proportion and Key EQ editors can be directly edited with the mouse now.

There are some bug fixes rolled in as well - details in the release notes.

Music: Soft Focus

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Resonance

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Golden Harp ships to Maui

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The new Arduino-based adapter and Windows-based configuration software is ready for Iasos.

Music: Zoom In

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A 9 second sample of a piano rendition of a Scarlatti keyboard sonata, paulstrech’ed 50x.

Music: Depth of Field

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Swamp Thing

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Chaos Theory

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Free Fall

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Luminescence

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Open Loop

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Diffusion

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Ejecta

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Primordial

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize 2.1.0: GDS-like control surface faders

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I know many of you wish your Synergy was “more like a GDS”. Good news: Synergize 2.1.0 now supports an ipad/tablet based control surface interface that gives you GDS-like faders to control the Synergize/Synergy voice editor. Get the new release at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize.

Synergize 2.0 - full librarian and editing functionality

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergy fans: Synergize 2.0 is released. For those who were using 1.0.0, this is a major upgrade: Synergize now supports full editing of voice parameters. For those testing the 2.0.0-beta, it adds a CRT editor and fixes a number of bugs in the beta functionality. There’s also a User Manual (https://chinenual.github.io/synergize/docs) which should help orient you to the software. Get your copy now at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize

Synergize - beta2 with patch routing, filter and envelope copying support

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Time for some new functionality in Synergize - you can now edit patch routing, copy filters and copy envelopes. Get your copy at https://chinenual.github.com/synergize and join the Slack support group if you haven’t already (mail to support@… to get an invite to the Slack group).

Synergize - "editor" functionality now ready for beta testing

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The time has come to release the Synergize “editor” beta. I have volunteers to test on Mac, but need some testers on Windows and Linux too. Get your copy at: https://chinenual.github.com/synergize

Please join the Slack group to give your feedback and get help with the beta (mail to support@… to get an invite to the Slack group).

See the RELEASE NOTES for how this is similar to but different than SYNHCS, what is expected to work and what isn’t. Looking forward to your feedback!

Music: Full Moon Tree

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Perimeter

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Procession

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Shadows

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Synergize: a Mac and Windows librarian for the Synergy

Sat, 30 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Fellow Synergy enthusiasts: I’ve created a new partial alternative to the Kaypro SYNHCS application for uploading voices from a SYNHCS style voice library to my Synergy. It runs on both Mac and Windows and supports loading CRT or SYN files to the Synergy and saving SYN files from it.

Grab a copy at https://chinenual.github.io/synergize/ and let me know what you think.

This is its first release and I’m calling it “beta” quality. Serial IO to my Synergy is generally reliable, but I do occasionally have problems and need to retry an operation - or sometimes resort to restarting the application. Still it’s working pretty reliably for me - I’m using it day to day and making music without the bugs getting in my way. Hope it’s useful to others as well.

If there’s sufficient interest, I may continue to add functionality - e.g., more detailed view of oscillator and filter parameters, possibly even a full fledged voice editor. But that depends on your feedback (and my free time…). For now, I hope that at least those without a Kaypro or physical Cart library will find this a convenient way to load new sounds into their Synergy.

Music: Distancing

Wed, 20 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Rusted Moonlight (Corroded Remix)

Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Atmos Redux

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: ATL

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Inspired by Rush’s YYZ (which uses the morse code for the Toronto airport as the basis of its rhythm). But it sounds more like King Crimson “just because”. The rhythm of the 5/8 sections is “ATL”; the rhythm of the 6/8 “quieter” section is “ATLANTAGA".

Music: Rusted Moonlight

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Inappropriate Appropriation

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

An ill advised adaptation of Bach’s Two-Part Invention No.1

Music: Let's Ride

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Music: Bigfoot (Bill Shaeffer)