Operator Love Thread

[monolake]

Spread was never intended to sound 'warm'.
Spread uses two voices per note, one panned hard to the left and the other panned hard to the right.
It also detunes these two voices. But this is just the most obvious effect. The more exciting things happen when random is involved: The left and right channel will behave different then. Try a sample & hold LFO modulation, oscillators in free running mode etc. Suddenly everything gets very wide. That's the main intention of the function. Analog warmth was never a development goal for Operator. The spread function was inspired by the chorus of the Synclavier II ( later models with the stereo FM boards, where the voices could be panned )

Robert

Thanks. So this makes 2 voices panned 100% left and right wherever the knob set. The main job of this knob is the changing the amount of detuning. (...)

Correct. The same applies to Simpler / Sampler. Most favorite usage for me: random LFO to loop length and spread > 0. Also worth noticing: If Spread = 0 when a Note On arrives, that note is played with one voice, if it is > 0 it will play two notes as described above. This detail makes it possible to alternate 'mono' notes and 'spread' notes in a monophonic line. Can be quite handy for more advanced hihat / cymbal sounds.

Robert

[pencilrocket]

Correct. The same applies to Simpler / Sampler. Most favorite usage for me: random LFO to loop length and spread > 0. Also worth noticing: If Spread = 0 when a Note On arrives, that note is played with one voice, if it is > 0 it will play two notes as described above. This detail makes it possible to alternate 'mono' notes and 'spread' notes in a monophonic line. Can be quite handy for more advanced hihat / cymbal sounds.

Robert

I usualy don't try to modulate loop length as I search for more musically usable sound but that seems worth checking. About the mono/stereo method I like using it for pad&lead sound and fading in and out the other harmonized panned voices with one of my fav synth. Using Spread for a few elements of percussion would indeed be handy. Thanks for the heads up.

[ttilberg]

random LFO to loop length

THIS IS AWESOME

I like to mess with the loop knobs and stuff, but I've never put an LFO to it. I'm using a saw wave on a small sliver of a vocal sample right now, and it's sick. haha


Thanks for droppin' some knowledge yo!

[Hermanus]

Sampler LFOS with loop start, loop lenght and loop end lead to funny hours of sound design.

tip: manage to share loop start and lenght/end between the 2 lfos A B and mix to it one LFO rate control

i.e. control LFO 3 rate controled by LFO 2 [vice versa]

can even lead to some light granular fx

[jcrystal]

yes, Operator is really something. If you're looking for some inspiration, or just to see how far you can go with it, I heavily recommend checking out Christian Kleine's free patches: http://www.christiankleine.com/ck/random.html

These patches are amazing, recently I wanted to credit their creator in a blog poat but couldn't find the forum post where he shared them. It's good to have a page to link to.

Glad I stumbled on this discussion and the link to those patches. I often wonder why there are so few commercial/free/user patches for Live instruments compared to the huge quantity for other VST's like Alchemy, Dune, etc. I know of the collections Camel sells, but I would have expected many others to be on the market but have never found them....

[pencilrocket]

I often wonder why there are so few commercial/free/user patches for Live instruments compared to the huge quantity for other VST's like Alchemy, Dune, etc.

Because of no vst and no built-in effect.

[Vios]

I looove operator. It's so good for making everything from synths to kick drums and adding white noise to snares. I also love making sounds with "strange" harmonics - using custom waveforms. I love it because it allows me to use my understanding of Fourier series to make music (studied electrical engineering in college). I get to be a geek and an artist!

[condra]

Workarounds are cool and all but I use Operator so much, I would love to have a couple of extra features to radically expand its sonic potential, right within the device.. Formant Filter and 2 LFOs would be top of my list.

If you loike Operator, and want some additional features, don't forget the wishlist forum.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96267

[condra]

"Wax, Wind & Fire" ...
10 Operators working together to make vinyl/campfire/rainforest/atmos kinda stuff....

Might be fun if youre a Burial/Flylo texture nut like me....

http://www.zexualhealing.com/files/atmos_rack.zip

[leisuremuffin]

i love operator.

favorite feature is the looping envelopes. i wonder why more soft synths don't implement that feature?


.lm.

[Evengy]

Im trying to love Operator but i have more Synths than skill
The good one is that Zebra 2, DIVA and Operator are the Synths i wanna use now and in the future.

Im on the way!

[ian_halsall]

You gotta love Operator - everything is automatable, it's totally logical.


Only thing that doesn't totally kill Massive is that it's difficult to draw curves in Live - if you could get curves that looked like Massive's performer in Live then I don't think I would touch Massive.

But in Live 9 it looks like you can draw curves like Massive's performer - this is something that would persuade me to upgrade.

[Evengy]

You gotta love Operator - everything is automatable, it's totally logical.


Only thing that doesn't totally kill Massive is that it's difficult to draw curves in Live - if you could get curves that looked like Massive's performer in Live then I don't think I would touch Massive.

But in Live 9 it looks like you can draw curves like Massive's performer - this is something that would persuade me to upgrade.

i tried operator a lot in the last weeks and stopped to tweak presets with zebra and diva to learn more about operator and synthesis. i know what every knob does and in theory im the best sound designer but i don´t now exactly what im doing but sometimes i design a good sound in a few minutes. i like it really and it´s so easy tu understand, now i only need to design sounds every day

[timday]

I've been using it together with spectrum to teach about additive and subtractive synthesis last week....really clear and easy to understand. The only thing from a teaching perspective is I'd like it if the waveform visualisation was a little bigger.

[Evengy]

i visit your page daily so i know every tutorial thx for that and it reminds me to read it some more times