Superbooth 2023: Make Noise reveals Spectraphon, a dual Spectral Oscillator coded by Tom Erbe of Soundhack.
Spectraphon uses real-time spectral analysis and resynthesis to create new sounds from those that already exist. As a result, Make Noise has built the oscillator with classical electronic musical instruments of the past in mind, including spectral processors, additive synthesis, vocoders and resonators.
The Spectraphon is the first module to be built by Make Noise on its new digital hardware platform. This hardware, engineered by Jeff Snyder and Tony Rolando, provides more I/O at higher resolutions and a lower noise floor than previously.
The oscillator has two sides, A and B, which oscillate in one of two ways: Spectral Amplitude Modulation (SAM) or Spectral Array Oscillation (SAO).
In SAM, instead of oscillating at all times like an analogue VCO, sound at the Spectraphon’s input is used to modulate the amplitude of a set of harmonics. In this mode it can still be sequenced and frequency modulated like any VCO. At any time, the current spectrum can be used to create an Array.
On the other hand, SAO mode is where the Spectraphon oscillates at all times, with the spectrum at the Odd and Even harmonic outputs being drawn from those stored Arrays.
Both A and B sides don Slide and Focus controls which are mode dependent. For example, in SAM they determine how the Spectraphon responds to sound at the input for Spectral AM, while in SAO they are used to modulate the Array.
In either mode (SAM or SAO), the Partials control works as a combined amplitude and timbre gate for the Odd and Even harmonic output and the FM Bus will create high definition internal frequency modulation from the opposing side of the Spectraphon. The two sides can also interact via the internal FM Bus, the Follow and Sync modes and by patching them together.
The Make Noise Spectraphon will be available to ship early June, for $599. For more information, you can head to MakeNoiseMusic.com
