Synthesis Oscillators

Additive  Analog  AnalogStack  Drum  Synthesis Oscillators FM  Noise  Organ  Pluck Wavetable

Name

Notes

Additive

An additive oscillator with up to 128 partials, unique filter section and extensive features.
Frequency: all parameters in this section work only if Max.Partials is >1.
Stretch (0 to 100%; def. 0%): amount of inharmonicity due to Partial stretching. With higher values the oscillator increasingly will get out of tune.
Dissonance (0 to 800%; def. 100%): Shifts all frequencies except the fundamental.
The Gif below shows the frequency spectrum of four Partials with Dissonance modulated from 0 to 800%, briefly stopping at 100%.

Freq.Shift (0 Hz to 20 kHz, def. 0 Hz): Shifts all frequencies, producing inharmonic sound.
The Gif below shows the frequency spectrum of four Partials with Freq.Shift modulated from 0 Hz to 20 kHz.

Timbre: all parameters here work useful only if Max.Partials is >1.
Slope (-100 to 100%; def. 0%): shapes the waveform of the oscillator. With -100% a rounded sawtooth, with +100% a pulse-like waveform will be formed. Note that high values go hand in hand with massive volume increase.
The spectrum and oscilloscope Gifs below (not synchronized) show Slope modulation from -100 to +100% (Max Partials 256).

Even/Odd (-100 to 100%; def. 0%) controls the levels of even and odd harmonics.
With -100%, only even harmonics; with +100%, just odd harmonics will be generated.
The spectrum and oscilloscope Gifs below (not synchronized) show Even/Odd modulation from -100 to +100% (Max Partials 256).

Harmonic Shift (0 cents to +48 semitones; def. 0) seamlessly simulates spectrum transposition, but without losing harmony.  
The spectrograph Gifs below (not synchronized) are made with 16 (left) and 256 (right) Partials, and show Harmonic Shift modulation from 0 cents to 48 semitones.

Comb / PWM - Frequency (0 to 100%) sets the relative frequency of a comb filter; Depth (-100 to 100%) sets its amount.
The Gifs below (not synchronized) show Frequency modulation from -100 to +100%, -100% Depth (left and middle),
and Frequency modulation from -100 to +100%, +100% Depth (right).

Max. Partials (1 to 256; def. 256): one Partial is a simple Sine wave, 128 Partials give a perfect Saw Down wave.
If you want to modulate Max Partials mind that it is only full effective after a new note trigger.
Filter: unique Butterworth Lp, Bp, Hp; resonant Lp, Bp, Hp filters with stepless slope (Order), selectable by Type knob.
Cutoff: 20 Hz to 20 kHz; def. 20 kHz,  Q: 0.50 to 100; def. 1.00; Order: 0 to 8; def. 4.
With low (<0.4) Order and high (>28) Q settings there are possible audio dropouts when Cutoff - modulating resonant filters. When tweaking Cf and Q, sometimes oscillator stops outputting any signal at all; in this case, saving and reloading the Program helps.
Unison Voices parameters work only if Voices is greater than 1.
Beating (0 to 10 Hz; def. 0 Hz): tremolo effect. Detune (0 to 40 cents; def. 0 cents): as the name says.
Global Keep Bass (off, on): fundamental frequency is always kept at full level.
Ramp Time (0 ms to 1 sec): this setting affects how fast some Additive parameters react. Affected are:  
all Timbre, Comb/PWM, MaxPartials, and Filter settings.
Cpu load 16 voices: 0.7 with 1 Partial; 2.4 with 256 Partials; 6.6 with 256 Partials and 3 Unison voices.

Analog

Oscillator with standard waveforms Saw, Square, Triangle, Sine, Noise, Pulse.
PWM Saw: PWM Sine: PWM Triangle: PWM Square:
Hardsync is available after clicking the Sync button. Shift (0 cents to 36 semitones; def. 0 cents) defines the pitch of the (hidden) sync oscillator.
Spectrum Gif below shows Shift modulation (0 cents to 36 semitones) of a C3 sine wave.
 
Unison Voices parameters work only if Voices is greater than 1.
Voices (1 to 8; def. 1)sets the number of unison voices; Stereo toggles between mono and stereo mode.
Phase Spread (Uniform, Exponential, Random): phase and gain differences in Exp. mode are higher than in Uniform mode.
Output level in Uniform mode is higher.
In the following Gif images, Stereo Spread had been modified from -100 to +100.
Left and right stereo channels are coloured green and blue. Settings, from left to right:
Phase Spread Uniform, Stereo Spread Uniform;
Phase Spread Exponential, Stereo Spread Uniform;
Phase Spread Uniform, Stereo Spread Hard;
Phase Spread Exponential, Stereo Spread Hard.

In Random mode, phase spread is arbitrary.
Detune (0 to 100%; def. 0%) sets the overall pitch detune between the voices. Stereo impact depends largely on this setting.
Detune reset requires a new note trigger to be fully executed.
Cpu load 16 voices:1.8; 3.3 with Hardsync On;  24.2 with HardSync On and 8 Unison voices.

Analog Stack

Eight times the Analog Osc waveforms, but with Octave, Semi, Cent, Pitch, and without Hardsync, and Unison controls.
Polarity can be set for all oscillators on top right of each osc; Osc 2 to 8 can be synced to Osc 1.

Cpu load 16 voices: 1.8  for 1  Osc; 11.9  for 8 Oscs.

Drum

Osc: Waveforms Sine, Tri, Saw, Pulse. Pitch modulation: Exponential, Sine, Noise (= random). AD amp envelope.

Osc <-> Noise Mixer: xFade can be modulated.
Noise: Lp, Bp, Hp Filter with resonance. AD Amp envelope with exponential or linear decay.

Master: Velo sensitivity settings for Osc volume, Osc Pitch mod.amount, Noise volume.

Strong Eq (-+40dB), effective Distortion and Volume (-+40dB) settings.
Cpu load 16 voices: 3.1

FM

FM oscillator with four Operators and 11 algorithms. The lack of integrated envelopes makes editing a bit tedious; on the other hand, you have the freedom to use any modulation sources you want.

Cpu load 16 voices: 4.3; 5.0 with Fb 100%

Noise

15 types of Noise.
Cpu load 1.6 except Lorenz: 8.4, and Rossier: 7

Band Noise

Tunable Noise generator. Bandwidth controls Bpf resonance.

Sample & Hold Noise

At slow Rate settings quite rough Noise generator, not tunable.

Static I & II Noise

Difference between these two models is hardly audible. Both are not tunable.

Violet Noise

High Pass Filter Noise generator. Not tunable.

Blue Noise

High Pass Filter Noise generator. Less highs compared to Violet. Not tunable.

White Noise

Unfiltered Noise. Not tunable.

Pink Noise

LPF Noise, not tunable.

Brown Noise

LPF Noise; more bass than Pink. Not tunable.

Lorenz Noise

Complex Noise, tunable.

Rossier Noiser

Complex tunable Noise with harmonic content.

Crackle Noise

Downpour, wind, sea shore sounds, depending on Color setting. Not tunable.

Logistic Noise

With low Chaos setting it can be used like a regular oscillator. Tunable.

Dust Noise

Similar to Static, but with more spikes. High Density settings makes it sound like White Noise.
Not tunable.

Velvet Noise

Denser than Dust noise. High Density settings makes it sound like White Noise. Not tunable.

Organ

Nine drawbars plus Percussion. Each drawbar has Gain (0 to8; def. 0) and Pan controls. 8' is the basic tone.
Cpu load 16 voices: 0.6.

Pluck

Complex Physical Modelling oscillator with three excitation sources: Sample, Synth, Noise.
The respective volumes are set in the Mixer submodule.
Sample: you can either select a preset wave, or drag and drop one of your own. By right-clicking you can loop a selected region.
The Sample editor lets you set Sample start, Sample end, Loop start, Loop end. Start defines the start point of the sample, in percent of the duration between the start and end markers in the Sample Editor. Detune transposes the sample (-48 to +48 semitones). KeyFollow: at 100% low notes have more low frequency content. Interpolation mode (Lo-fi, Standard, Best) defines the quality of sample playback. At 44.1 kHz SR there is no audible difference between Standard and Best.
Synth Brightness: changes the synth waveform's duty cycle; higher settings make the sound brighter. 0 % = Sine wave.
Noise Sustain (Off, On): sustain and long release phase for the noise oscillator.
Pick Filter OffOn; Position (0.02 to 50; def 0.15): position of the picked string. Depth (0 to 100%; def. 0%): picking intensity.
Contour - Shape: with negative values, the synth part is muted, being more (randomly) triggered with positive values.
Rolloff: Lp filter. Dynamics: at high settings, low velocity notes are damped.
Finger Harmonic Ratio: similar to FM ratio (1:00=base freq,, 2:00=double base freq., etc.). Harmonic Damp: at higher values, inharmonic freq content will be damped. Stretch: enables adding unfiltered signals.
Tuning & Coupling Strings: (de) activate a second plucked string.
The following paramters (except Inharmonicity) are only available if the 2nd string is activated:
Coupling Mode / Serial:  the signal of the 1st string is feeding the 2nd string. Coupling: 0% = 1st string, 100% = 1st and 2nd string.
Coupling Mode / Bridge: a small amount of the 1st string's signal excites the 2nd string. Coupling controls how they interact.
Coupling Mode / Beating: For a strong beating effect, set Coupling to maximum; beating rate is controlled by Fine Tune.
Coupling Mode / Inharmonic: Like Beating mode, but with faster beating frequency. Coupling controls the inharmonic timbre.
Coarse Tune: no effect in Serial and Beating mode. Fine Tune: no effect in Serial and Bridge mode.
Inharmonicity:  simulates the inharmonic character of some instruments (e.g. steel piano).
Stereo switch (top, right).
Decay Decay (100ms to 1000s), Release (100ms to 100s) and Decay Cutoff (20Hz to 20kHz) are the most important parameters to control Pluck decay. Brightness (0 to 100%; def. 90%) controls an Highshelve EQ's gain. Bridge Loss (0 to 10 dB; def. 0.10 dB) dampens high frequencies.
Decay Type controls which filter is applied in the decay phase: LP1 (lowpass), MA (Moving Average), MA2, Shelf.
With MA or MA2 selected, some parameters are greyed out.

Cpu load 16 voices:14.

Wavetable

Wavetable / (optional) FM oscillator combination.
FM Off/On: if you don't want to use FM, let it switched off. Depth: amount of frequency modulation the inherent sine wave is causing.
Ratio / Freq: if Fixed is activated, you can set here the (fixed) frequency of the modulating sine wave.
If Fixed isn't activated, Ratio values depend on the drop-down menu of its right:
Free: -48.00 to +48.00 semitones; Harmonic: x1/16th to x16;  Chromatic: -48 to +48 semitones; Octaves: -4 to +4 oct;
Oct + 5th: -48, -41, -36, -29, -24, -17, -12, -5, 0, 7, 12, 19, 24, 31, 36, 43 semitones; Fourth: -50 to +50 semitones in steps of 5;
Fifths: +49 to +49 semitones in steps of 7. Fine tune has a range of -+1200 cents.
Wavetable: you can choose between approximately 80 single waves and 370 wavetables.
You cannot create Wavetables of your own audio files, but load WT of other WT synths like Serum.
Wave Index decides what slice of the wavetable is playing.
Start Wave sets the start of the wave sample. Try modulating it with velocity, and activate FM (Depth 100%).
Smoothing Index and Octaves tries to smooth between wavetable waves; of course the result depends on audio material.
Phase Distortion adds more harmonic content to the original wave. There are ten different PD modes:
PWM, PWM 2+, PWM 2, Bend+, Bend-, Bend+-, Formant, SymForm, Fuzzy, ResoForm.
The Gifs below are using a sine wave with Phase Distortion amount settings of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100%.
PWM:PWM2+:PWM2:Bend+:
Bend-:Bend+-:Form:Fuzzy:RForm:
Unison Wave Spread: when modulating Wave Index, the Wavetable oscillator can be panned according to the index number if you increase this parameter. To hear the effect Voices must be greater than one, Stereo Mode switched on, Stereo Spread greater than zero.
Cpu load 16 voices: depends mostly on Mode setting. For most modes it's ~10.5, with PWM2 mode selected it's more than 36.

Wavetable import: you can use Wavetables made for other Vst synths (see Link page). First create a folder called Wavetables, then copy the downloaded files into that folder. Path:

• Windows 7: Users/[User name]/Documents/UVI/Falcon/User Data/Wavetable
• Mac: ~/Documents/UVI/Falcon/User Data/Wavetable

DYI Wavetables using images: drag'n'drop a Png image onto the waveform area of the oscillator.

DYI Wavetables using single wave files: drag'n'drop a Wav or Aiff file onto the waveform area of the oscillator.

Creating your own Wavetables: Falcon itself can't do this, but Falcontinuum forum member Pat describes how he made Wavetables using WaveEdit.  Check it out here.