I have spent a lot of time creating atmospheric\ambient\FX samples for the Homegrown Sounds Sample CDs and as anyone who has done it knows it is a time consuming process. The initial idea behind Astralis was to make a synth which made this process easier with plenty of soundscaping abilities. I began in 2005 and the first synth was over complex and very CPU hungry although was capable of the type of sounds I was looking for. Since then I have rebuilt the synth many times, slowly simplifying the interface and reducing some features, and have heavily optimised and re-optimized the synth to get the load time/CPU usage to an acceptable standard for a synth of such capability. I am pleased with the end result, it has been a long process and it is a relief to finally have the finished synth. I hope that people find it an intuitive synth to use, I have changed the control interface more times than I can remember trying to achieve the most logical layout.

There is a manual included with the synth available from the start menu after install, but I will briefly go through each section here:

Effects

The FX section should be fairly obvious to most people. Organic is a delay based effect I designed to achieve a particular 'Organic' sound, it is capable of many different Effects and is great combined with the Flanger to create some Harmonic Frequency Superwaves, which is something I love :) Another thing worth noting is that the Routing system is very Flexible, there are a number of different combinations of which effect goes into what. Also the Reverb and the Ech are interchangeable.



Sequencers

There are 2 modulation Sequencers, one is Polyphonic and the other Monophonic.  Each sequencer produces a sequence of the displayed values (Blue Bars) which can then be used to control any destination through the Modulation Matrix. Each can also be either stepped or smooth and with smooth set to full they behave almost like a  programmable LFO. One other thing to note is the blue bar at the top right, this is a zone and represents your midi keyboard so that the sequencer output can be confined to a set number of keys.

The Gate sequencer is basically a Trance Gate which retriggers any/all of the 3 Envelopes in time with your host tempo. Polarity 2 menas that Envelope 2 will recieve the inverse sequence so that it is triggered on the off notes only.



Microtuner

Astralis supports up to 24 Note Scales. This section is very simple within the synth as it is just a patch selection. Patches are installed to C:/HG_Scales.  You can select presets by selecting a bank and then choosing one of the 16 patches in that bank. There is an included vsti called MTPatch which I will cover later which is for making Banks and Patches.

ADVANCED USERS: The Root note changes the pitch of middle C to the desired value and the A value allows retuning the synth from the standard 440. For example if you have a scale which goes from A to A and A:420 you would set root to A and type 420 in the A box. The scale still begins on the C midi key but will be retuned to the actual pitch of the tuning scale. This is not necesary for using scales, only if you wish to recreate a scale precisely. These values are stored with the Synth patches and not with the Microtonal Patches.

Octave Stretch allows adding pitch stretching/shrinking either side of middle C



Modulation

This page contains the LFO and the Arpeggiator which should be self explanatory. The Velocity Response is to set the response of your midi keyboasrd on a per patch basis, double clicking adds a node which can be moved, ctrl clicking deletes a node, you can create many nodes to create complex velocities. Env 3 is a standard ADSR envelope which can be used through the Modulation Matrix.

The 8 x 8 Modulation Matrix is the heart of synth as it allows you to map any available control source to any available destination by a specified amount. Numbers can be positive of negative and are changed by clicking the appropriate box and dragging the mouse up and down. double clicking a box will switch the box off.



Advanced

The advanced section contains the Stereo Spread feature. This allows custom panning of each polyphonic voice or randomizes each. Inv S2 inverts the signal to synth 2 so that the voices are diametrically opposed.

The Voice Modulator is the same as Spread but is for use through the Modulation Matrix so can be used to control any destination.

The reduces allow changing attack or release times for each polyphonic voice, they can be used creatively of help reduce CPU load.

The custom Clock is a unique feature which provides a programmable clock to drive the sequencers, basically on each clock pulse the pulse will only be sent it the button is selected for that step which has the effect of pausing the sequencers. It can create complex rhythms.



Astralis B is very similar but has a reduced feature set with the aim of reducing CPU usage.

Acknowledgements:

The Astralis Pack is proudly made with SynthEdit and also uses custom modules by the following talented module developers:

Dave Haupt
Chis Kerry
Kelly Lynch
Peter schoffhauzer (Scoofy)
Oli Larkin
Etric Van Meyer
Brian Allen Vanderburg II
Rick Jelliffe
Rob H
Lance Putnam

Astralis © Astral Pedestrian 2007

Also respect to the whole synthedit community/resources which is a great source of information and solutions and refreshingly zen like.

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