Native Instruments Form Alternatives/PSOLA Synthesis?

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Does anyone know of any software synthesizers capable of resynthesis that have a similar quality to NI Form's PSOLA algorithm? Better yet, does anyone know of any more plugins that use this method of sound generation specifically?

To me it sounds like it sits squarely between granular and wavetable synthesis while leaning more towards wavetable, although it sounds a lot better than any other wavetable resynthesis that I know of. Hosted in Reaktor + serious lack of warping options at the oscillator stage leaves a lot to be desired, though.

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I've also looked at this over the years and, forgetting the Krishna synth from Devine Machines (which is no longer available), I _think_ Form is the only sampler which implements PSOLA.

I built my own in Plogue Bidule a while ago, and although my brutalist approach created unpredictable results, I do believe there is some innovation yet to be discovered in the PSOLA domain.

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Well, that's unfortunate. I agree there seems to be a lot of potential to be expounded upon here. Is it just too difficult to program?

The actual oscillator sounds amazing, but a couple small-range formant controls, HAAS, and sine FM isn't super flexible or cutting edge. I appreciate that NI put an emphasis on ease of use, at least.

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CinningBao wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:57 am I've also looked at this over the years and, forgetting the Krishna synth from Devine Machines (which is no longer available), I _think_ Form is the only sampler which implements PSOLA.

I built my own in Plogue Bidule a while ago, and although my brutalist approach created unpredictable results, I do believe there is some innovation yet to be discovered in the PSOLA domain.
I agree - I think Form is the only synth that uses this algorithm. I'm not sure why. Sample resynthesis is relatively common in sampler plugins so you'd think there would be more than one. I've never tried doing this but I suppose you could tinker with the core structure of Form in Reaktor if you wanted?

(More generally I think this speaks to a lack of vision or a herd mentality among synth developers -- you can't throw a stone without hitting a wavetable synth, but there are tons of other synthesis options that aren't widely available.)

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I know Roland V-Synth did a similar thing when it was still around, but sample-based synthesis + cumbersome hardware UI seems like a pain. Not to mention the price tag.

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AFAIK V-Synth has nothing to do with PSOLA, it's Roland's own timestretching algo.

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It's a shame Tone2 don't feel like they openly reveal RayBlaster uses PSOLA technology, if that is indeed the case.

I mean, the web page says "RayBlaster uses an entirely new approach for synthesis." PSOLA is definitely not 'an entirely new approach for synthesis' (it was invented in 1986)- so what's the truth?

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PSOLA if a subset of what RayBlaster can do

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Well, like I say, it's a shame Tone2 don't feel they can be explicit on the main web page about this.

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because the average customer does not know what PSOLA is. We had a website which did explain the technical details online some time ago. But i did not have time to redo it for the responsive website redesign.

https://www.tone2.com/manual.html

There is also a video tutorial (scroll doen to rayblaster):
https://www.tone2.com/video-tutorials.html

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I get slightly annoyed when a company believes the customers are too stupid to understand the technology they have built (or re-used). PSOLA has been around for almost 30 years, and I'll bet if you mentioned it on the main page (with a brief summary), you'd get no emails from people asking what it is.

I don't buy "did not have time to redo it" as an acceptable excuse. If you want good information on your web page, you'll make sure it gets there.

My suggestion would be that if you _did_ include something about PSOLA on your web page it would get picked up when people google for things like "psola sampler synth", which would create some customers not aware of RayBlasters capabilities.

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Never heard of this Rayblaster, but sound demos are outstanding! Capable of many familiar sounds, but also has distinct flavour that other synths don't share.
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What is PSOLA ?
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Google it.

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