modular synth controller plug-ins
Silent Way is a suite of plug-ins designed for use as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system. The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound - rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs etc. of an analogue system.
There are currently two plug-ins in the Silent Way suite - Silent Way DC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future - watch the website for product announcements.
All plug-ins also feature
* full MIDI and OSC control.
* MIDI/OSC scriptability.
* sample-accurate handling of MIDI note messages.
- Silent Way DC
Silent Way DC is a simple plug-in that generates constant output signals. It is intended to be used in conjunction with parameter automation (via MIDI or directly by the host application) to generate varying signals. For example, you could use it as an LFO where you draw out the LFO waveform in your host's parameter automation GUI.
- Silent Way Voice Controller
Silent Way Voice Controller is a virtual instrument plug-in designed to directly control an analogue synthesiser by generating the appropriate CV and gate signals via an appropriate audio interface.
By listening to the synthesiser's output signal, the plug-in is able to calibrate itself to generate the appropriate pitch CV for the incoming MIDI notes.
As well as the basic pitch and gate signals, the plug-in can generate three multi-stage envelope CVs which you can feed to VCAs, VCFs etc. in your synth.
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Version 1.7.0 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Nov 25, 2011 |
* A new plug-in, Silent Way Sync, is added to the suite. This takes the DIN sync generator from the ES-4 Controller plug-in and expands on it to become a general purpose clock/trigger/sync plug-in.
* Fixes various issues with parameter automation and GUI updates.
* Fixes the ES-4 Controller plug-in's response to MIDI channels (previously it would respond to mes- sages on any and all MIDI channels) and adds a 'Channelise' capability to the MIDI Out section.
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Version 1.6.14 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Nov 1, 2011 |
* Added a Trigger Length control to Silent Way Voice Controller and Silent Way Trigger.
* Fixed a bug in the behaviour of Newest note priority mode in Silent Way Voice Controller.
* Added Trigger Length controls to Silent Way ES-4 Controller, allowing the 40 independent gate outputs to operate as triggers instead.
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Version 1.6.11 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Oct 7, 2011 |
• The AU Generator variants of the Silent Way DC, Silent Way CV Input, Silent Way LFO and Silent Way Step LFO plug-ins have been replaced by AU Instrument variants, so as to be compatible with AU validation under OS X Lion.
• Added a 'Reset By Note' option to Silent Way LFO, allowing the LFO to be reset by incoming MIDI note-on messages.
• Added visual feedback of the LFO's position in its cycle to Silent Way LFO.
• Added a 'Create ES-4 Calibration' button to Silent Way Quantizer, removing the need to load a suitable calibration file when using the Quantizer with the ES-4 module.
• Made a slight adjustment to the ES-4 Controller's input processing to match that in the Silent Way Voice Controller and Silent Way Quantizer.
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Version 1.6.10 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Sep 20, 2011 |
This version adds two new features to the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in:
- 'ES-4 mode', allowing direct use with the Expert Sleepers ES-4 module without routing through the ES-4 Controller plug-in.
- a transpose setting.
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Version 1.6.7 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Apr 28, 2011 |
This version adds an 'output configuration' option to the VST versions of the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in (Mac OS X and Windows), allowing the plug-in's outputs to be presented to the host as either a 6-channel bus, three stereo busses or six mono busses.
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Version 1.6.5 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Feb 7, 2011 |
This release adds a new plug-in: Silent Way SMUX.
Silent Way SMUX provides a hack to workaround the reduction in channel count over ADAT connections when running the audio system at 88.1/96kHz.
When using an audio interface to produce your CVs that is connected via ADAT (for example, the Expert Sleepers ES-3 Lightpipe/CV Interface), and when the audio system is being run at a 'double speed' rate (typically 96kHz), the number of audio channels that can be sent down the ADAT connection is reduced from the usual 8 down to 4. The 4 double-speed channels are multiplexed onto the 8 ADAT channels - this system is usually referred to as 'S/MUX', or sample multiplexing.
The Silent Way SMUX plug-in gets around this reduction in channel count by providing a complementary multiplexing scheme, which takes 4 channels of CVs and combines them onto 2 channels of the double-speed audio stream. When the ADAT output is then decoded by a normal-speed interface (such as the ES-3 mentioned above), the channels are demultiplexed, and so you get your 4 channels of CV back again.
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Version 1.6.4 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Nov 23, 2010 |
This release adds support for the Expert Sleepers ES-2-2 module to the Silent Way CV Input plug-in.
Also added is a 6 channel variant of the Silent Way AC Encoder VST plug-in, for convenience of use in Cubase where a 6 channel bus is being used for the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in.
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Version 1.6.2 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Aug 11, 2010 |
This update adds multipliers the Silent Way Voice Controller's envelopes, allowing for very long or very short envelope times.
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Version 1.6.1 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Aug 3, 2010 |
This update increases the maximum range of the Silent Way Voice Controller's pitch bend function.
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Version 1.5.5 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Apr 28, 2010 |
This update extends the range of the Silent Way LFO's Beat Divisor parameter down to 1/128th notes. This addresses a problem with setting up the VST versions of the plug-in to output DIN Sync.
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Version 1.5.3 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Mar 30, 2010 |
This update adds a VSTi configuration of the Mac OS X and Windows VST versions of the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in, so the plug-in can now be used either as an instrument or as an effect.
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Version 1.5.2 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Mar 16, 2010 |
We're happy to announce the release of Silent Way v1.5.2, which adds an important new plug-in to the suite - Silent Way AC Encoder.
Silent Way AC Encoder removes the need for a DC coupled audio interface and lets you use Silent Way with almost any audio interface. The two requirements are
* your interface must have balanced outputs (almost all do).
* you need to make some special cables.
The cables are a very simple job, well within the scope of anyone with basic soldering skills.
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Version 1.5.1 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Jan 13, 2010 |
Adds two new plug-ins to the suite - Silent Way Quantizer and Silent Way CV To MIDI.
Silent Way Quantizer is a CV processing plug-in that constrains the incoming (continuous) CVs to a number of discrete values. For example, it can constrain a pitch CV to exact semitone values. This is especially useful when combined with the Step LFO plug-in in order to accurately sequence musical notes, but it can also be used with e.g. the regular LFO plug-in, or with the Voice Controller plug-in to turn portamentos into discrete glissandos.
The Quantizer plug-in is capable of loading the calibration data from the Voice Controller plug-in, in order to output accurately calibrated pitches.
Silent Way CV To MIDI translates CV signals (such as those produced by Silent Way CV Input, for example) into MIDI messages. These can in turn be used to control all sorts of software and hardware devices. Used in conjunction with, say, Silent Way LFO, the CV To MIDI plug-in provides a standalone means of generating MIDI LFOs, giving Silent Way an application to musicians who have no analogue gear at all.
Other changes in v1.5.1:
* Added 'Random Tuning' feature to Silent Way Voice Controller.
* Added ability to save and load calibration data to Silent Way Voice Controller.
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Version 1.5.0 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Nov 13, 2009 |
Adds a new plug-in to the suite - Silent Way Step LFO.
Silent Way Step LFO is a combination step sequencer and LFO generator. It shares many of the features of the LFO plug-in, but rather than generating waveforms based on simple sine, triangle etc. waves it generates a waveform that the user draws in the GUI. When the waveform is interpreted as a series of discrete values, rather than as a continuous wave- form, then the output is that of a traditional analogue step sequencer.
Other changes in v1.5.0:
* The Smooth control on all plug-ins is now calibrated in milliseconds, and has a much larger range.
* All Mac OS X versions now require Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.
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Version 1.4.4 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Oct 17, 2009 |
Dds a new plug-in to the suite - Silent Way CV To OSC.
Silent Way CV To OSC translates CV signals (such as those produced by Silent Way CV Input, for example) into OSC messages. These can in turn be used to control all sorts of software and hardware devices.
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Version 1.4.3 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Oct 6, 2009 |
We're happy to announce the release of Silent Way v1.4.3, which adds a new plug-in to the suite - Silent Way CV Input.
Silent Way CV Input is something of a breakthrough in audio interface-based computer/CV interaction, since it lets you get your CVs back into the computer (most other CV-generation software focusses entirely on generating CVs). Moreover this plug-in has no special requirements on the audio interface, and so is not just usable by those with DC-coupled interfaces.
This release also fixes an issue with the AU Generator versions of Silent Way DC & LFO (added in v1.4.1) when loaded as mono plug-ins.
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Version 1.4.1 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU) |
Sep 29, 2009 |
The new versions add an 'AU Generator' variant to each plug-in, which can be used in Logic on software instrument tracks at the start of the signal chain.
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Version 1.4.0 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Sep 26, 2009 |
* Added Silent Way Trigger plug-in.
* Added smoothing option on all outputs of all plug-ins.
* Added 'swing' feature to Silent Way LFO.
* Added portamento feature to the Voice Controller.
* Fixed a bug that would very occasionally cause the GUIs to be corrupted.
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Version 1.4.2 |
MacOS X UB |
(VST) |
Sep 26, 2009 |
This update addresses an issue where the GUIs would appear in slightly the wrong place in Cubase.
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Version 1.3.0 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Sep 6, 2009 |
The major new feature in this release is a polyphonic mode for the Voice Controller. Other changes:
* Added a per-envelope Reset To Zero control, which controls whether the envelopes always start from zero when triggered, or whether they start from their current value (which is the common behaviour in hardware envelope generators).
* Updated all plug-ins for the font changes in OS X 10.6
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Version 1.2.0 |
MacOS X UB |
(AU, VST) |
Aug 30, 2009 |
This release adds a new plug-in to the Silent Way suite - Silent Way LFO. As you might guess from the name, this plug-in is a low frequency oscillator device. It offers a variety of waveforms, tempo sync, and can be combined with the control outputs (e.g. envelopes, velocity) of the Voice Controller plug-in to achieve effects such as vibrato that fades in during each note.
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