Casio Style Phase Disortion Synthesis in Vital [Demo]
So a while back I heard of the Casio CZ series of synths employing a type of synthesis they call "phase distortion". I was mystified to how this works and what the synths were actually doing. I learned it's similar to Yamaha's phase modulation (better known as frequency modulation) synthesis, but it's actually using the second oscillator to map the phase of that oscillator, a lot like what a waveshaper does with the amplitude of a signal. The icon of this submission should showcase what phase distortion does. This image should also explain it. Basically, the phase of the cosine on the purple graph corresponds to the Y position on the green graph. Bottom being 0 degrees and top being 360 degrees on the cosine. This means an up-slope on the green graph would be a normal cycle of the cosine.
When I found out how phase distortion works, it got me wondering if I could imitate this in Vital, seeing how you can already do a wide array of different types of synthesis with it (wavetable, subtractive, additive, phase modulation, karplus-strong, maybe more), and I figured it out! You basically need to set a saw LFO synced with the "VCO"/OSC using the keytrack option and patch it to the phase of that osc, effectively counteracting the oscillator itself and "freezing" its phase at zero degrees. Then you can take a second LFO synced to that and put in whatever LFO shape you want. Voila! Phase distortion synthesis in Vital! This is arguably even more versatile than Casio's phase distortion, as you can put whatever shape into the LFO you desire and do some things like modulate the exponent of the mapping in the mod matrix to get the low-pass filter emulation effect, allowing you to make plucks with an envelope. You can even ditch the second LFO and use a second OSC which modulates the phase of the primary OSC set at exactly 28.8% and still get phase distortion.
So, this audio file shows some sounds I've managed with this phase distortion hack. If you want to know how you can do this yourself, I've made a quick video on how to do this yourself. Other than that, enjoy!
When I found out how phase distortion works, it got me wondering if I could imitate this in Vital, seeing how you can already do a wide array of different types of synthesis with it (wavetable, subtractive, additive, phase modulation, karplus-strong, maybe more), and I figured it out! You basically need to set a saw LFO synced with the "VCO"/OSC using the keytrack option and patch it to the phase of that osc, effectively counteracting the oscillator itself and "freezing" its phase at zero degrees. Then you can take a second LFO synced to that and put in whatever LFO shape you want. Voila! Phase distortion synthesis in Vital! This is arguably even more versatile than Casio's phase distortion, as you can put whatever shape into the LFO you desire and do some things like modulate the exponent of the mapping in the mod matrix to get the low-pass filter emulation effect, allowing you to make plucks with an envelope. You can even ditch the second LFO and use a second OSC which modulates the phase of the primary OSC set at exactly 28.8% and still get phase distortion.
So, this audio file shows some sounds I've managed with this phase distortion hack. If you want to know how you can do this yourself, I've made a quick video on how to do this yourself. Other than that, enjoy!
Category Music / Other Music
Species Maned Wolf
Gender Non-Binary
Size 120 x 120px
This is fascinating. It's on the edge of my understanding of synthesis, but it sure does sound cool.
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