Modor | SynthFest

Virtual Event 10th-11th October 2020

MANUFACTURER PRODUCTS \\ RETAILERS \\ DEMOS \\ LIVE STREAM \\ SYNTH COMMUNITY EVENTS

Modor Music

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The Modor NF-1 synth is a digital DSP synth very comparable to the classic Virtual Analog synths, but Modor is moving further on from this point. We use the classic structure of VA-synths, with oscillators, filters and effects, with parameters that can be modulated using LFO's and envelopes. But every element has been rethought and reinvented. In a digital way.

The NF-1 has a classic 12dB/oct resonant filter, but we are also giving it a versatile formant filter, never seen in hardware before! It does make classic sawtooth waves, but we're also including a lot of other brand new modulatable noisy waveforms! It has a classic delay effect, but we make every parameter editable to give way to special unexpected effect types!

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The original Modor NF-1, whilst being very hands-on, is quite big and heavy. Not your favourite piece of hand luggage to carry around. So we decided to make a smaller, portable version. And of course, a smaller device means a smaller price...

This comes of course with a smaller number of front panel controls... The Modor NF-1m has 7 context dependant controls grouped in 15 edit pages with a set of 6 pushbuttons to access these pages quickly. Every parameter is just a button press away!

Next to that, there are 2 large 'defineable controls', DEF1 and DEF2. These controls can be assigned to any sound parameter so that you can 'preselect' two parameters in every patch to have a permanent dedicated control on the frontpanel. This makes it easy to access your favourite parameters, no matter in which edit page you are...

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Modor's Formant Filter is a special filter that does a kind of 'vowel morphing' between three vowels. The big central FORMANT control is responsible for that, and on the Eurorack module there's of course a CV control (with attenuation) on this parameter.

You can imagine a formant filter as a set of parallel bandpass filters, picking up and amplifying a set of small frequency bands. For example, with these frequency bands around 750Hz, 1200Hz and 2800Hz, you get the sound of an 'A'. So far, nothing special. There are more formant filters around composed of a set of parallel bandpass filters.

It gets more interesting when you're able to 'morph' between different sets of those formant frequencies. Behind the central FORMANT control, there are 3 of those sets of frequencies. One at full left, one in the middle, and one fully right. So you can for example morph between A-E-O. Or U-I-E. Or AO-UI-EU. Or ...

That's what it does: morphing between different sets of formant frequencies, and that's why it sounds a lot more genuine vowelish than many other static bandpass combinators.

There are 10 preset vowels, that can be selected with the VOWEL button: A-E-O-I-OE-U-EI-EU-AO-U-UI. The vowels of the Dutch language... :-)

The 1-2-3-4 controls on top give you the possibility of composing your own vowels by manually adjusting the frequency bands.

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What is a Comb Filter? It is a digital filter where the input signal is mixed with a slightly delayed version of the input signal. You won't hear it as some kind of an echo, as this delay is very short (40ms at max). But the mixing process creates a number of equally spaced peaks and holes in the frequency spectrum, that make it look like the teeth of a comb. That's where the name 'Comb Filter' comes from.

Comb filters are typically used to make chorus and flanger style effects. These effects are created by modulating the delay time. With longer and relatively fast modulated delays you receive a chorus effect. With short to very short slowly modulated delays, combined with some feedback you'll get the typical sound of a flanger unit.

So, the most interesting parameter in this is the delay time. That determines the frequency spacing of the comb teeth. So that's why there's a CV control for it. The typical chorus and flanger effects are made by modulating the delay time with a triangle LFO. So there's a triangle LFO onboard the module, with speed control. If you don't enter any CV in the CV1 connector, it is normalled to this internal LFO to make typical effects. CV2 is normalled to the reverse signal of CV1, to make Modor's typical wide stereo effects, just as on the NF-1 synthesizer. But of course, you can enter your own CV signals in there: LFO's, Envelopes or some rhytmically undulating spacy voltage signals... Check it out!

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Noisy Oscillator

Our Noisy Oscillator module is an oscillator that mixes two signals: a 'regular' wave (sawtooth/square/triangle) and a 'tonal noisy' wave. This adds a special noisy layer over the sound, that adds 'air', grit or dirt, depending on the combinations you make. The MOD parameter acts on the noisy waveforms:

Sonar Noise: a white noise filtered by a resonant bandpass filter, with 1V/oct tracking of the filter frequency. The MOD parameter controls the resonance.

Wind Noise: white noise filtered by a comb filter, with 1V/oct tracking of the base frequency (delay). The MOD parameter controls a 6dB/oct hipass filter.

Arcade Noise: LFSR noise source as can be found on the SID soundchips (Commodore) or Sega Arcade games. The MOD parameter controls again a 6dB/oct hipass filter.
The noisy wave can be set equal, or 1 or 2 octaves above the regular wave.

The module has two voices, with their own set of CV and output connectors. This can be used to play in a full 2-voice polyphony, or in a 2-voice unison. The outputs can be separate, using both output connectors, or mixed, using only the connector of the second voice.

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