The mixer module, The mallet module – Applied Acoustics Systems Chromaphone 3 Upgrade Acoustic Object Synthesizer Plug-In (Download) User Manual

Page 41

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5.3

The Synth Section

41

5.3.2

The Mixer Module

The two Chromaphone resonators can be excited by a mallet and a noise source.

The

Mixer

module is used to adjust the amplitude of both of these sources. The

Mallet

knob is used to adjust the amplitude of the force impact from the mallet while

the

Noise

knob controls the amplitude of the noise source. Both of these parameter can

be modulated with pitch and MIDI velocity. The noise source can also be modulated
with the

LFO

module. The two

Direct

knobs are used to add signal from the mallet or

noise source to the output signal from the resonators. When in their leftmost position,
there is no extra source sound added to the output signal and the source component
that is present in the output sound is the original sound from the sources filtered by
the resonator(s). Turning these knobs clockwise adds an increasing amount of direct
source signal in the output sound.

5.3.3

The Mallet Module

The

Mallet

module is used to simulate the force impact produced by a mallet

striking an object. The force of the impact is adjusted with the

Mallet

knob from

the

Mixer

module as described above while the stiffness of the mallet (related to its

material) is varied with the

Stiffness

knob. Figure 23 shows the effect of the adjustment

of the stiffness on the output signal. As the stiffness is increased the excitation signal
becomes narrower. The effect of the amplitude of the force impact is also shown in
the same figure. The

Stiffness

parameter can be modulated with the MIDI velocity and

the note played. These modulation, combined with a corresponding modulation of the

Mallet

parameter from the

Mixer

module are usually used to get a stronger impact

with increasing keyboard velocity and to make the mallet softer as the impact velocity increases, a
behavior one observes, for example, on piano hammer heads due to the non-linearity of the felt.

Figure 23: Effect of the

Stiffness

and amplitude of the force impact (

Mallet

knob from the

Mixer

module) on the output from the

Mallet

module.

Noise can also be added to the impact sound allowing for some interesting effects. The amount

of noise is controlled with the

Noise

control. In its leftmost position there is no noise added to the

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