EXPERIMENTER

The Nine Engines, At a Glance

1. Experimenter (default engine)

Oscillators A / B (each)

• Wave: Sine, Sawtooth, Square, Triangle
• Octave: −1, 0, +1, +2
• Coarse ±24 st, Fine ±100 cents
• Level
• Detune ±20 cents
• Pulse width, PWM depth, PWM rate (0.01 to 50 Hz)
• Osc B cutoff offset ±12

Noise

• Level
• Type: White, Pink, Brown, Blue, Violet, Digital, Periodic
• Color tilt −1 to +1

Filters, 3 parallel paths (A, B, C)

Each path has:

• HPF cutoff and resonance
• LPF cutoff and resonance (20 Hz to 20 kHz)
• Key track
• Filter env depth (bipolar)
• Dedicated filter ADSR

Filter modes

• MX-1E (HPF+LPF), IL / AL contour, sustain fixed at 0
• Ladder
• MB-777, inverted Q vs cutoff, plus FM depth
• TUS-333, ring-mod insert, ratio and curve
• MX-1E+Ladder
• SVF Multimode, morph, vowel intensity, formant width / brightness / pitch track
• Comb, pitch-tracked delay, dry sustain, attack, feedback min/max

Also: filter type Premium or Funk-99 (hard sync and pitch tear), filter drive 1 to 10 (Ladder and MX-1E+Ladder only; greyed on MX-1E, MB-777, TUS-333, SVF, Comb). Drive at 1 is mild loop saturation, not a bypass. Optional post filter (LPF with its own cutoff / reso / env depth / ADSR). Macros: Cutoff Master (0.25 to 4), Attack Total (0.25 to 4).

Optional extra filter (default off). This is not the post filter. Serial Essia-style 24 dB ZDF after path mix and post filter: On, Cutoff, Reso, Contour, Drive, LP/HP, Open/Close, Contour or Sweep Start/End, own ADSR. Envelope tab FILT. Advanced EXPERIMENTER cluster.

Amp

• ADSR per path A, B, noise
• Per-tab envelope curves, linear to exponential, plus reverse-expo invert (slow then fast)
• Env Link mirrors the first ADSR onto the others
• CURVES link copies envelope 0's curve and invert onto the others
• Gate smooth 1 to 50 ms
• Velocity to amp, velocity to filter, aftertouch to filter
• Per-voice saturation: 1 to 2 is 0 to 36 dB into tanh; 1 is bypass. Advanced SAT: modes Current / Chebyshev / Hysteresis / Envelope / Ensemble, Input ±20 dB, IN/OUT/INTO meters. Experimenter only.

Pitch / voice

• Portamento: Off / Legato / Always, 0 to 5 s, Linear / Exponential / S-Curve
• Voice Char (Advanced): Continuous Drift, Voice Cards, Envelope Age, Circuit Dirt, Cards Indep, Age Indep, Whizo, Straight. Char Amt 1x to 10x. Straight is fully stable.
• XO-LA: per-note stereo spread. Greyed on other engines.
• Master volume, master tune ±100 cents

LFOs (2)

Rate 0.01 to 50 Hz; Sine / Triangle / Square / Saw / S&H / Random; bipolar depth; destination Off / Filter / Amp / PWM / Pan / Pitch; host sync; note retrigger.

Mod matrix (Advanced MATRIX), 32 slots

On/off per slot, bipolar amount. Experimenter and Balapa only.

Sources: Off, LFO 1/2, Filt Env A/B/C, Amp Env A/B/C, Dual Filt Env, Velocity, Mod Wheel, Aftertouch.

Destinations: Off, LPF cutoff, LPF reso, PWM, Amp, Pan, LFO 1/2 rate, Pitch (all), HPF cutoff, LPF+HPF cutoff, Balapa Drive.

Ignored while Mozer, Synclone, Acid, Vuloko, Aero, Kexilo, or Essia is active. Balapa still uses the matrix, including Balapa Drive.

2. Mozer

Signal path: 2 osc + noise into a mixer (soft clip and ladder feedback) into a nonlinear 4-pole ladder (2× oversampling, bass compensation) into an exponential VCA.

Inherits: Experimenter osc, noise, cutoff, reso, amp and filter times, portamento, velocity to amp. Own: drive 1 to 10, feedback, contour (envelope to cutoff, up to about +4 octaves), bass compensation. Optional VA path: TPT 1-poles plus algebraic ZDF plus antialiasing vs the original stages. Envelopes are exponential, not the linear Experimenter ADSR shape, even though times are shared. Ignores: filter mode, drift, Funk-99, post filter, mod matrix.

• Filt Type LP / HP (HP is complementary: input minus LP)
• Dir Open / Close
• Env Contour or Sweep (Sweep rebinds Cutoff / Env Amt to Start / End)
• Optional extra Essia ZDF after the VCA (same extra-filter params). Envelope tab XFILT. Native FILT stays the Mozer ladder env.

3. Synclone

No osc, no traditional filter/VCA path. Signal is entirely additive/FM.

• 32-partial additive bank
• Independent FM (sine carrier and modulator): amount, ratio 0.25 to 8, mix (equal-power)
• Spectrum presets: Pure, Saw, Square, Organ, Bell, Digital
• Brightness, odd/even (−1 to +1), inharmonic
• Dedicated ADSRs: amp, spectral, FM
• Transient layer: noise plus 4 inharmonic burst partials; amount, brightness, decay 1 to 150 ms
• Subtle per-note variation, not pitch wobble

Inherits: master volume/tune, portamento, velocity to amp. Ignores: Experimenter's amp and filter ADSRs entirely, since Synclone runs its own.

4. Balapa

Signal path: shaped 2 osc + noise into a split mixer/ladder drive into a ZDF nonlinear ladder (Oversample 2× / 4×) into expo amp and filter contours.

Per osc A/B: wave, level, coarse/fine, octave, detune, pulse width, pulse Free/48%/29%/17%, PWM. Also: noise, saw droop, asymmetry, hard sync A to B, unison 1 to 4 with detune, own drift, mixer drive, ladder drive, cutoff, reso, bass compensation, feedback with tone, contour, velocity to amp, velocity to contour, dedicated amp and filter ADSR. Optional VCS3 (Advanced, default off): same mixer into a diode VCF instead of the stock ZDF ladder. FILTER header shows VCS3 vs LADDER.

Own to Balapa but works like the core: full mod matrix, including Balapa Drive as a destination.

Filter env extras: Filt Type LP / HP, Dir Open / Close, Env Contour or Sweep (Sweep rebinds Cutoff / Env Amt to Start / End). Optional extra Essia ZDF after the VCA. Envelope tab XFILT. Native FILT stays the ladder env.

5. Acid (mono, 1 voice)

Saw or Square (PolyBLEP) plus sub oscillator (−2 / −1 / 0 octave) into a 4-stage diode ladder (2× oversampling, drive, delayed feedback with about 20 Hz high-pass).

• Square PW
• Cutoff, resonance (slider max 0.64 maps the full k-curve), drive, env amount
• Filter envelope: about 1.5 ms attack plus expo decay via the Decay knob. Amp envelope is internal, about 3.5 ms attack and 2 s decay, not tied to the Decay knob.
• Clip (0 to 1, default 0): tanh ceiling after the diode ladder. Raising it lowers peak.
• Sat (0 to 1, default 0) after Clip, plus Advanced Sat Tone.
• Accent driven by velocity
• Sub has its own ADSR and curve. Sub level is 0 to 4, independent of main Level. Sub sustain default 1 (always-on sub). Env Link makes the sub follow the filter envelope.
• FILTER display: live post-clip/sat waveform plus clip-ceiling rails.
• Portamento controls pitch glide only. No slide. No mod matrix.
• Optional Sub Filt (default off): second diode ladder for the sub (Sub Cut / Sub Reso, shares drive, no accent/env into that ladder). Default off is mix-before-filter.
• Env Legato skips filter/amp retrigger on overlapped notes. Pitch glide still from Porta.

6. Vuloko (poly)

Two source modes, selectable:

• Divide: 16' / 8' / 4' derived from one master oscillator, mixed, into attack bowing, into ADSR VCA, into a 3-line BBD ensemble, into formant EQ, into a 2-pole LPF, into width.
• Dual DCO: two PolyBLEP saws, DCO2 detune 0 to 15 cents, interval Unison / −12 / +7, into a per-voice OTA 4-pole filter (LPF, reso, drive), into bowing, into ADSR, into ensemble, into width (formants are skipped in this mode).

Also: Bowing (attack bowing); ensemble on/off, amount, ensemble voices 2 to 6; EQ low/high ±6 dB; width; velocity to amp, voice count, Env Legato, shared envelope curve. No mod matrix.

7. Aero (poly)

Digital ROM playback: 32 pitched 2048-sample cycles plus 8 unlooped transients. No user WAV import.

Pitched waves: Saw, Square, Pulse, Organ, Bell, Metallic, DigiEP, Glass, Hollow, Bright, Nasal, Formant, Vowel A/E/I/O/U, Inharmonic, Cluster, Prime, Hollow5th, Digital8bit, Sine, Silk, Warm, Round, Triangle, SoftTri, Flute, SoftSaw, SoftSqr, Velvet. Transients: Stick, Pluck, Ping, Rim, MetalHit, Breath, DigitalClick, Sweep.

• Main OSC is a 2×2 vector pad: drag to mix, click a corner for wave A through D, double-click jumps there
• Slots A through D: wave, level, fine
• Vector mix X/Y, motion, path Off / Orbit / Corners
• Seq mix: 0 is a four-slot vector, 1 is a sequenced pair
• Per-voice 16-step sequencer (distinct from the global sequencer tray): length 1 to 16, Seq Sync Off / 1/32 / 1/16 / 1/8 / 1/4 / 1/2 / 1 Bar / 2 Bars / 4 Bars (Off uses free Hz), swing, crossfade, morph Equal-power / Spectral, phase Continuous / Retrigger
• Lanes, each on/off: wave, level, pitch, vector, formant, cutoff, pan, gate. Probability is always on. Per-step duration
• Transients: Off / Note / Step, plus per-step overlay
• Shaper: Clean / Clip / Crush / Digital, drive, crush
• Filter 1/2 are TPT SVF: LP / HP / BP with cutoff / reso
• 4-peak formant (A-E-I-O-U morph), mix, motion, rate, width, brightness
• Filter 2 optional, serial or parallel
• Amp ADSR, pan. No mod matrix

Aero A/B (Advanced): Clean Mode (default) is uncrushed: no hidden Buchla folder, mip-mapped tables, Clean Type is a true bypass, 2× OS on Clip/Digital. Crush Mode is the original smashed path. Clip / Crush / Digital still work in both. VA A/B wavefolder on Aero only in Crush Mode.

8. Kexilo (poly)

6-operator FM. No additive bank, no filter, no mod matrix.

• Algorithms 1 to 32, feedback on the algorithm's feedback operator
• Per operator 1 to 6: ratio 0.5 to 32, level, detune ±7 cents, velocity
• 2× oversampling

Path A (factory default)

ADSR or 4 Rate (Env). 4 Rate is R1-R4 / L1-L4 (0-99) per op. Link copies ADSR times, or in 4 Rate copies R and L, onto ops 2-6. CURVES hidden. Shared curve only in ADSR.

Path B (Kex A/B)

Gold renderer always. Keyboard scaling (RS, BP, LD/RD, LC/RC), per-op AMS, pitch EG (PEG R/L), global LFO (wave / speed / delay / PMD / AMD / sync), PMS, MW / Breath / Foot / AT (range / pitch / amp / EG bias).

UI leftover: Env (ADSR / 4 Rate) and Kex A/B. Advanced KEXILO holds the B-only PEG/LFO/controller strip. VA A/B does not change Kexilo; kexilo_ab is a separate switch.

UI: OSC becomes KEXILO (Algo, Feedback, Op, Ratio, Detune, Vel). ENVELOPE has six op tabs. FILTER becomes OPS (six level sliders).

Inherits: master volume/tune, portamento, Env Legato, voice count, velocity to amp, gate smooth.

9. Essia (poly)

Mipmapped stock wavetables (Sine / Sawtooth / Square / Triangle), Hermite plus mip crossfade, increment clamp. Unison 1 to 7 with cents detune. 2× halfband into ADAA tanh clip (essia_drive) into a TPT/ZDF ladder (LP or HP 24 dB, bass compensation baked). Filter env: Contour (±4 oct) or Sweep (Start / End Hz), Open / Close. Amp + filter ADSRs. Link on. No warp, FM, user WAV, or mod matrix. Custom LFO: cutoff / reso / pitch / amp / drive.

UI: OSC becomes ESSIA (Wave, Oct, Unison, Detune, Level). FILTER becomes LP/HP (Cutoff / Reso / Env Amt / Drive, or Start / End in Sweep). Factory bank: Essia Init, Superfat, Soft Pad, Square Bass, Detune Lead (dry: no chorus/delay/arp/tremolo/post-filter).

Shared Across All Nine Engines

AU, VST3, and Standalone on macOS. One engine sounds at a time. Each engine has its own voice pool. Master bus FX still apply.

Polyphony

Voices 1 to 16, default 8. Acid is fixed at 1 voice.

Env Legato (default on)

Overlapping notes keep the current envelope and only change pitch. Off retriggers attack. Separate from Porta mode. Works across engines.

VA A/B (Master column, default on)

Original DSP vs the VA bundle: antialiasing, wavefolder on Experimenter osc A/B and Aero after the shaper (Aero folder only in Crush Mode), cascade ladder on Experimenter Ladder and MX-1E+Ladder, TPT/ZDF ladders on Mozer and Balapa, ADAA on Acid clip/sat and Experimenter saturator. Synclone, Vuloko, Kexilo, and Essia are unchanged. Loudness is matched so A/B is timbre, not volume.

Envelope curves

Per-tab curve amounts, linear to exponential, plus reverse-expo invert (slow then fast). CURVES link copies envelope 0's curve and invert onto the others (hidden on Acid, Vuloko, Aero, Kexilo, Essia). Env Link is hidden on Vuloko and Aero; Essia keeps Link. Gate ms is on the ENV tray for every engine.

Custom LFO (Advanced MOD)

Shared by all nine engines.

• Drawable curve
• Rate in Hz or bars/beat division with sync
• Mode Free / Retrig / One-shot
• Destinations: LPF cutoff, LPF reso, both, filter env depth, HPF, pitch, amp, PWM, pan, per-path cutoffs, osc levels, drive, plus engine-specific and bus dests (delay mix, chorus mix, tremolo, master LPF)
• Retrig / One-shot are per-voice; bus dests stay Free
• Host sync locks phase and forces Free

Arpeggiator (rewrites MIDI before the synth)

On/off. Modes: Up, Down, Up/Down, Random, As Played, Outside-In, Random Walk, Euclidean. 1 to 4 octaves. Divisions 1/4, 1/8, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16T, 1/32. Gate 0.1 to 1. Hold, sync, swing, ratchet 1 to 4, probability, velocity random.

Step sequencer (10-step, monophonic MIDI rewriter)

On/off, 1 to 10 steps, same divisions as the arp, sync or free run, key retrigger, transpose ±24, root C to B, 25 scales, pitch quantize Off / Semitone / Scale, pitch mode Degrees or MIDI note, base octave 1 to 8. Per step: on, degree, octave ±2, MIDI note, velocity, gate 0.05 to 8 steps. Macros for gate and complexity.

CC 123 All Notes Off and host transport stop silence the engine.

Master bus (post voice mix, in this order)

• Ensemble Chorus, modes V1 / V2 / V3 (V3 is a clocked BBD: 1/f delay, separate in/out filters, mild saturation and hiss), mix, rate, depth, centre
• Through-zero stereo flanger, rate 0.01 to 20 Hz, intensity, feedback ±2, mix
• Tremolo, depth, rate 0.05 to 5 Hz
• Ring mod (global insert), speed 8 to 600 Hz, Manual or track last note, ratio, depth, attack, decay, amount, optional post LPF
• Stereo delay, L/R time 1 to 2000 ms or sync notes 1/32 to 1/2 including triplets and dotted (1/16T, 1/8T, 1/8D, 1/4T, 1/4D), feedback, crossfeed, dual-thumb Dly HP / LP, mix, Parallel / PingPong / Cross / Serial
• Decimate, 3 kHz to 192 kHz, mix (sample-rate reduction, no interpolation)
• Master tone, EQ Dip Off / Dip 1 (1140 Hz, −5 dB) / Dip 2 (1300 Hz, −13.5 dB), 100 Hz low shelf −8 dB (toggle, not always on), optional 170 Hz HPF at 12 dB/oct, master LPF
• Optional master mono

FX Off bypasses chorus, flanger, and tremolo without clearing their knob settings.

Scope: downsampled mono display, post-chain.

UI

Columns: OSC, ENVELOPE, FILTER, DELAY, MASTER. These rebind per engine to match what that engine actually has. OSC header arrows cycle engines (title becomes OSC / MOZER / SPECTRUM / BALAPA / ACID / VULOKO / AERO / KEXILO / ESSIA). ENVELOPE header arrows switch compact graph (default) vs vertical ADSR sliders. Envelope tabs are engine-aware (Experimenter A/B/C/FILT, Mozer/Balapa amp+filt+XFILT, Acid DECAY+SUB, Vuloko STRING, Aero AMP, Kexilo 1-6, Essia AMP+FILT). Advanced panel with trays: envelope editor, MATRIX, MOD (custom LFO), sequencer. Filter response graph with a live orange waveform overlay on every engine (Acid uses the post-sat tap plus clip rails; spectral envelope on Synclone, operator levels on Kexilo). Delay column has a dual-thumb Dly HP / LP bar. Aero-specific 16-step lane editor. Output scope. Preset combo is not inline-editable; rename via Preset Bank.

Presets

On-disk layout Factory/Engine/Type/. Nested browse: All, Instrument Type, or Style (engine). Factory bank organized by engine plus category (Keys / Brass / Bass / Strings / etc.), plus user presets. Dedicated factory banks for Mozer, Synclone, Balapa, Acid, Vuloko, Aero, Kexilo, and Essia (Kexilo: E.Piano, Clav, Bell, Bass, Brass; Kexilo factory stays on path A). Save As, host state recall, and a Preset Bank browser: search, load, Set as default (launch patch), Rename (factory and user), Save current here (overwrite), move/delete user presets with undo, copy factory to user.