This process of sound design sounds awesome! I’m going to have to dig into the documentation and videos more for sure.
Is the relative sparse interface still working OK for you? It sounds like it hasn’t been a hinderance to your sound design journey.
A really good (and much cheaper!) way to get a feel for it is Arturia’s Synclavier V. It’s not just a faithful recreation. My understanding is it uses most of the same algorithms as the original Synclaviers and the Regen — to the point of being patch compatible. And having a mouse to draw spectrums is a huge help. Which brings me to…
For 90% of stuff I feel like I’m flying with it. Sadly, two places where I still really feel awkward using it are in this additive flow. “Drawing” spectrums by going one harmonic at a time and adjusting its level is a pain given 36 harmonic bands. Often I want to draw a “line” or “curve” of values across harmonics, but I don’t think there’s a way to do that on the Regen. And when it comes to positioning frames in time, it’s much easier to see them on a timeline (as in Synclavier V) than as stack (as with the Regen).
Still, the effect of all this is to force me to slow down and use my ears more. Be more intentional. Which is not a bad thing, all told. It’s how they were doing it in the 80s, after all, and I’m honestly impressed with their results listening back to them today.
Glad to hear the Regen is a winner, even if there are a minor fiddly interface bits!
And thanks for the pointer to Arturia’s Synclavier V. Indeed it looks to be a much less expensive way to explore whether the additive workflow gels with me. I’ll check it out!
There’s also some older VirSyn vsts that have additive synthesis engines - Cube? Or Tera? I forget now - they had cool vector mod controls too iirc.
Anyone already mentioned the “Warp” from neuzeit instruments?
It’s a module, but can be used in a skiff as a 4 voice spectral synthesiser, which also accepts connecting it to a MIDI keyboard.
Just to have it said … every sound can be generated by defining each single partial of the first 128 partials by the sound designer. There are a couple of methods to work on the partials efficiently by grouping partials, by importing sound spectra from self-made audio clips.
This is custom sound design freedom as I’ve never had it before and there’s much more … check out the description: