
OBERON POLY-4 / POLY-8
Virtual Analog Synthesis

made by Mikko Hyyrylainen 
created with Jeff McClintock's SynthEdit


version 1.0 (compiled with SynthEdit 0.71)
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IMPORTANT NOTE!

Oberon comes in two different file versions: Poly-4 and Poly-8.
They are two independent VST instruments with different polyphony.
I recommend you use the Poly-4 version because Poly-8 needs twice
the CPU power and in the old days even that polyphony would have
been considered as plenty. There is no way to change the polyphony
internally at the moment (this is a SynthEdit limitation), sorry for
the inconvenience.


Overview:

OBERON is a classic analog polysynth that works best when you set
your VST host program to 96 kHz sample rate. It has two special 
oscillators, two envelopes and a special 2-pole dualfilter. You 
might wonder do we need another VA synth (and I might too) but 
anyway, it's free so why not?


Oscillator section:

First oscillator is a TriSaw osc that is actually made of three
saw waveforms. DETUNE affects each individual wave separately
so that quite fat sound is achieved. Second oscillator is BiPulse
that consist two pulse waves. First Oscillator can be synced with
second one with FREE / SYNC selector. TriSaw oscillator has two 
modes that are selected with UNISON / TRI OCT selector. In unison
mode all three saw waveforms are played at same pitch (detune has
only small effect to the overall pitch, less than a seminote). In
Tri Oct mode each saw wave is played at different octave so that 
if the basenote is C5 then the notes C4 and C6 are also played.
BiPulse osc has its own knob for Pulse Width that controls either
the manual PW or the amount of PWM envelope or PWM LFO. The LFO
knob in TriSaw oscillator controls the amount of LFO to pitch
and PITCH ENV controls the envelope to pitch, obviously. The
selectors from -2 to +1 changes the basic octave of oscillator
in question. 


Filter section:

Oberon has a special filter that consists of two separate 2-pole
filters that are in serial mode. This achieves a more colorful
action and also makes other filtermodes like bandpass and notch
quite unorthodox. CUTOFF and RESO controls both filters at the
same time. KEY controls the key follow level and VELO controls 
the amount of velocity sensitivity of filter cutoff.  LFO sets
the depth of a low frequency oscillator and ENV sets the level
of envelope. Q VELO controls the amount of velocity sensitivity
of filter resonance. +/- selector sets which way the filter is
working, increasing or decreasing the cutoff value. FILTER MODE
changes, as the name suggests, the filter mode. 


Envelope section:

There are two ADSR envelopes in Oberon. VCA Envelope is hardwired
to the amplitude of signal and second one is a MOD Envelope that
modulates simultaneously Filter Cutoff, PWM depth of Oscillator 2
(BiPulse) and pitch of Oscillator 1 (TriSaw). Level knob adjusts
the overall level of OBERON and VELO knob changes the velocity
sensitivity of VCA Envelope. Each destination level of the Mod
Envelope can be separately adjusted but the ADSR settings has to
be same to each of them (only exception being the filter that can
be inverted).


Performance section:

MONO / POLY selector sets the Oberon either in monophonic or 
polyphonic mode and RETRIGGER ON / OFF sets the legato mode so
that Retrigger off means legato is on. GLIDE sets the portamento
time of each note. LFO RATE is exactly what the name suggests.


IMPORTANT NOTE!

Because the phase of oscillators in Oberon (and in whole SynthEdit
also) cannot be synced, the oscillators tend to drift apart if
detuned and then set back to same tune. To avoid this new waveform
and to get the real Saw or Pulse it is best to stop the sound engine
and then put it back on so that the phases of the oscillators are
reset and a saw is a saw again. Bear in mind that in some hosts
like Psycle this cannot be done at the moment so you have to open
a new instance of Oberon to reset the oscillators (which is very
tedious, I know). Oberon can also be quite a hog when it comes to
processor usage (over 10 % with 1,4GHz AMD) but I can live with
that so maybe you can too. By the way, the GUI was originally
inspired by the funky technology of Death Star's consoles in 
the original Star Wars. 


IMPORTANT!!!!!

If this unit starts to misbehave in some unexpected and erratic
way, you should reset your host's sound engine. 


MIDI CC chart:

 1  Cutoff
 2  Resonance
 3  Filter ENV depth 
 4  Filter LFO depth
 5  Portamento
 7  Volume
 9  LFO rate
    
15  Osc 1 level
16  Osc 1 detune
17  Osc 1 pitch LFO depth
18  Osc 1 pitch ENV depth
    
21  Mod Env Attack
22  Mod Env Decay
23  Mod Env Sustain
24  Mod Env Release

25  Osc 2 level
26  Osc 2 detune
27  Osc 2 PWM
    
71  VCA Env Attack  
72  VCA Env Decay
73  VCA Env Sustain
74  VCA Env Release


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Oberon is tested with Sonar 1.3 running DirectiXer 2, Aodix 2.34,
Psycle 1.6plus and Cubase SX.

OBERON IS A FREEWARE SO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

SPECIAL THANKS TO JEFF!

You can contact me at: mortiance@hotmail.com


Visit Land of Cockaigne for more VSTs by yours truly:
www.funkelectric.com/~cockaigne
