CRONE
(factory preset with no post-processing)
CRONE is a comb-filter-based polyphonic drone synthesizer. It uses pulse waves and noise to excite comb filters; stereo lowpass filters shape and pan the sound.
CRONE is great for pad sounds and can even do an acceptable clav, but it really excels at creating intricate rhythmic textures via pulse waves. Its great for making textures like a cloud of mandolins or a roomful of tambours.
Input Source
CRONE has two ways of exciting its comb-filters: pulse waves and noise. Pulse waves produce a sound similar to plucking a string, whereas noise will produce sound thats similar to bowing a string. You can choose a blend of those two sources with the Input Source knob. First, turn the knob all the way to the left to select the pulse-wave (PW) source. The Pulse control in the LFO Freq section controls the speed of the pulsing. You can set this in beat-synced values or Hz. The shape of the wave will appear on the scope at the bottom of the Input Source section.
To affect the color of the pulsewave, adjust the Duty cycle knob. This sets the length of the wave relative to each pulse. Higher duty cycle values will sound darker, whereas shorter values will sound brighter. Additionally, you can shape the pulsewave with the Attack (atk) and Release (rls) controls. These will both darken the sound.
If you find that the plucked sounds are too regular for your taste, try pressing the Env button in the Input Source section and gradually turning the knob from Pulse towards Noise. This applies the envelope of the pulse wave to the noise, so each note will be slightly different. Try using this in conjunction with the atk and rls controls to soften the attack or release of each pluck.
Comb
CRONE uses two comb filters for each note. Filter 1 is the main filter and is tuned to the pitch of the played note. Filter 2 is the detune filter and is tuned via the Detunesection. You can use the Blend value to adjust the blend between the main and detune oscillator.
The Duration parameter determines roughly how long each note will last. By default, this is the amount of time that it takes for a note to fall by -30 dB. This level can be changed on the Info page which is accessed by clicking the i button in the lower left-hand corner.
Gain provides an additional boost in volume for the signal.
Env
The ADSR Envelope section controls the amplitude envelope of the sound. The curve (Crv)parameter allows you to adjust the steepness of the envelope; negative values will make the envelope curve downwards, and positive values will case an upwards curve. The atk and rls parameters are not related to the volume; they function as an envelope on the pulse rate. For example, on a patch using the pulsewave source, if you set the ADSR’s Release (R) value and the rls value to 5 seconds, the plucking of the note will slow down as it fades out.
LFO section
The key to CRONE’s sound lies in its LFOs. The pulse waves in CRONE are controllable via LFOs; please note that the time-synced LFOs require the transport to be running. You can adjust the duty cycle of the pulse wave to brighten (shorter duty cycle) or darken (longer duty cycle) the sound.
There are three LFOs: Pulse, Freq, and Res. The LFO Freq section determines how fast the LFOs change. There are individual controls for the shape and output range of the LFOs.
The shape of the LFOs is controlled in five ways: Local/Global,Rand/Tri, and Tri Slope, Phase, and Key Follow.
Local/Global
There is a global LFO for each parameter (pulse, freq, res). For example if you set the pulse LFOs Local/Global value entirely to 100% (entirely global) and the Rand/Tri value to 0%, all of the pulses will happen (randomly) at the same time for all notes. Use this when you want chords pulsed together. Each voice, however, also has a local LFO for each parameter. If you now change the Local/Global value to 0% (entirely local), each voices pulses will be unrelated to the other notes.
Rand/Tri
This value determines a blend between a ramped random signal and a triangle wave. You can use the in-between values (e.g. 80%) to produce waves that are periodic but slightly changing.
Tri Slope
This value determines the slope of the triangle wave. -100% produces a downwards ramp, 0% produces an up and down ramp, and 100% produces an up ramp.
Phase
The phase section affects the phase of the wave. This only affects the triangle wave signal, as the Rand signal has no notion of phase.
LFO Sections
Pulse controls the rate of the pulse waves. If you set the width to 0, pulses will always occur at the same rhythm. Increase the width, and you will start to hear changes in the pulse rate. The nature of these changes is determined by the shape of the LFO. For instance, a triangle (rand/tri = 100%) wave with tri slope set to 100% will produce a bouncing-ball style attack.
Freq and Res affect the lowpass filters. Use the button in the lower-right hand corner of either section to invert the values for left and right channels; you can see an example of this behavior on the scopes below it.