Sinevibes has introduced Odds, an oscillator plugin for the Korg Prologue, Minilogue XD and NTS-1 synthesizers.
Odds is described as a “stochastic control synthesis” plugin. It starts with a hybrid engine that features dual oscillators with a wide variety of sources – including virtual analog, FM, phase distortion, waveshaping, ring modulation, cross modulation, and lo-fi. Together with a state-variable filter, Odds offers a total of 80 different configurations, covering a huge spectrum of sounds.
In addition to the 80 different synthesis options, Odds implements stochastic synthesis control. For every note played, Odds has variable trigger probability, selectable pitch transpose randomization patterns, plus further independent randomization of up to 4 additional synth engine parameters.
These advanced features make it possible to create extremely complex, never-repeating melodic and tonal variations, even from basic note sequences. Sinevibes says that Odds delivers synthesis power and sophistication that can rival a small modular system.
Features:
- Bespoke dual-oscillator engine with multiple sound source types: virtual analog, FM, phase distortion, waveshaping, ring modulation, cross modulation, bit reduction, as well as hybrid (80 variations in total)
- Adjustable note trigger probability
- Individual randomization of pitch transposition, sound generator tone, modulation depth/speed, output level
- Waveform generators run at 96 kHz sample rate with an anti-aliasing filter for superior quality
- Built-in -12 dB/octave multi-mode state variable filter
- Flexible modulation generator with 24 modes: exponential envelopes, linear envelopes, multi-waveform LFO (triangle, saw, square, pulse, trapezoid, peak), sample & hold, and random triangle
- Built-in lag filters for noise-free, ultra-smooth parameter adjustment and modulation
- Includes 40 presets for prologue, 35 presets for minilogue xd, and 35 presets for NTS-1 (in the form of preset tables)
Odds on the Minilogue XD:
Odds on the NTS-1:
Pricing and Availability:
Odds is available now $39 USD.
Is it just me or is the world just becoming ‘Quarantine’?
I’m probably off-topic.
I bought Node for my NTS: that was cool.
Very happy that you enjoyed Node 🙂 Odds is very different, there are so many different ways you can make the sound engine behave…
Every time Sinevibes introduces a multi-engine plugin, I have to shake my head at Korg’s missed opportunity.
I’ve heard rumors that the Prologue is discontinued, and that’s correct, it represents a huge missed opportunity on Korg’s part.
The Prologue is an excellent synth that excels as a knob-per-function old-school analog synth, but it also has the ability to go really deep with digital synthesis. Literally no other company has done anything like the Multi-Engine and it’s a really powerful feature that’s unique to Korg synths.
But Korg has not really done anything to promote it. They should be releasing new free and paid plugins for the platform and building excitement about it. As a Prologue owner, it’s disappointing. Sinevibes has done more to promote the Prologue and the XD than Korg.
Always one step forward, one step back with Korg, Roland, Yamaha. Too big, should fail.
Agreed. Someone should have been managing the community. The Unit page hasn’t been updated in almost a year. There were many plugins this year, all undocumented in the Unit port. And the developer goes silent.
Which is too bad. Prologue was the last big synth I would ever buy. I can program myself, and a Yorick LFE box solves any of my modulation shortages – and lets me prototype some new plugin ideas.
John
Are you selling/sharing your plugins someplace?
Also, what can you share about the Yorick controller and controllers in general? Is it possible to use a knobby MIDI controller to have more control of the digital oscillators?
I work on Peter Allwin’s ports of Émilie’s Plaits models; adding envelope generators, key tracking, more LFO options. Also, working on some of the Braids models too. Drop by the ‘Logue programmers thread on gearspace, I’ll give you a link – or anyone. I don’t want to post it on this blog. Naturally, It’s all free. :0) yay!
On Prologue, in addition to the MIDI Shape CC, there’s an poorly documented CC for Shift-Shape. This allows – on Prologue – external modulation of two model parameters, in addition to any internal model modulation provided to any other parameters. XD/NTS have more permissive NPRN’s for all the model parameters (6 params plus 2 shape controls). Still have to identify the Shift-Shape CC for layered patches.
The only two issues with external modulations are quantized values – I never hear this on anything unless it’s pitch related like a filter or oscillator. Otherwise, it all sounds great. The second issue is a bit more oppressive. Prologue can get overwhelmed by MIDI messages while the user oscillator is loading. So, you have to work carefully with it. Well worth the added caution though!
This is another huge shortcoming of Logue that could be improved in a future version.
That’s exactly how I feel about the SDK – such a cool idea but after the initial release Korg seem to have completely forgotten about it. I’m especially impressed by what folks like Sinevibes have done with it in spite of Korg’s neglect. But just think of what it could have been if Korg had chosen to support, maintain, and promote it.
While I will agree that KORG should have put more effort in promoting the plugin capabilities of these synths, we honestly have a great relationship with the company as they have often chosen Sinevibes to showcase what these kind of plugins can do. We put insane amounts of time developing our products, all its supplementary materials (presets, manuals), doing great audio and video presentations… But it all pays off, we have fantastic customer response and we will keep going further. So we have no complaints really. We have a nice symbiosis with KORG in this respect.
Korg should follow your example Artemiy. The Korg developer might be talented, but as a community contact – a complete miss.
Only one regret here for my (excellent) XD. Still no User osc or FX kind of index number/reference. The synth won’t recognize the user osc/fx when importing a patch if you put it in a different slot than the sound designer…This is an amazing omission for a synth that can import so much osc and fx now, especially yours at Sinevibes. I would add that if this was to be implemented somedays i guess you will sell more of your stuff, i guess.
I am well aware of this problem, but a year ago I created a script that now comes for free with all Sinevibes oscillators. It converts KORG Sound Librarian files from prologue or minilogue xd so that the multi-engine oscillator can be put into any slot. So you can consider that issue solved 🙂 You can rearrange your oscillator bank, you can share your presets with a friend that may have oscillators in a different order etc. – the converted presets will work correctly!
Oh that’s great. Thanx for making this.
That’s great for Sinevibes (honestly, no sarcasm). But it leaves out hobbyist/aspirational devs like me that are looking to explore and learn. Not saying I would have turned into a purveyor of useful plugins with better community engagement from Korg, but others might have.
Well just to be clear, I understand what you mean. I just honestly don’t think KORG has product specialists that would showcase third-party plugins as well as the makers of these plugins would. They do re-tweet/re-post a lot of the major plugin release announcements – and by far not just from Sinevibes. I am pretty sure if anyone has great content, they will take notice and try to promote it – as it promotes their gear as well of course. Again… I think the third-party plugin developers are the ones who themselves can showcase the possibilities of the platform best.
Adding to this, perhaps many were looking for KORG to create a sort of a repository and also a forum for third-party plugins. I think that would be awesome. But I don’t know if they have people in the company that would be able to handle it in a non-biased way… generally, as you might see in the industry, companies try to stay away from user communities, allowing those communities to be independent (and potentially more open/honest as opposed to being too curated).
just to confirm ? , as per the video , Oscs 1 & 2 would need to be turned off for the probability feature to reduce number of notes playing (or osc 1 &2 would still sound ) – so to use this feature you lose your two analogue oscs effectively ?
or is it a post mixer fx ? so osc 1 & 2 could also be up & playing , but muted according to probability algo ?
Yes, correct, because the oscillator plugin can only affect itself, note trigger probability is for its output only. But even when used with the analog engine, it’s actually a great feature – send the multi-engine oscillator “post VCF” so that the VCF only affects the analog part, and you have two separate sound layers, with added probability and pitch randomization it’s incredible how complex such a synth part can be.
Artemiy
First off, thanks for all you’ve done to develop the multi-engine platform. Really some of the coolest stuff available and it’s amazing to me to see new features available for a synth I’ve had for a couple of years.
The Odds demo looks awesome for the XD, especially the way it works with the step sequencer. It’s actually got me watching for a good deal on a used XD on on Reverb!
But can you share a little more about how the randomization features would work on the Prologue? I didn’t see any demos for Prologue owners. I’m guessing you’d route this post filter and it would let you randomly play notes out of your chord, but would be interested in details on this.
Also, do the FM features of this let you get into classic DX7 EP 1 territory? Seems like it would be awesome if you could layer a good EP sound with analog synth pads in a single patch.
Finally, it seems your demos focus on NTS-1 & XD. Are you doing that because there’s more demand for those devices or are those just the ones you have access to?
Sinevibes Node is a great FM synth. You can get nice EP sound from it. Most musical FM synth for me yet! Node is one of the very few non-me oscillators I use :0)
Hey Jert! Odds shines even brighter on the prologue. The main demo that you might have heard, the one with 5 layered parts, was all done with the prologue. And on the Odds product page, down below where we have audio demos, you can listen to “hybrid” presets that we made specifically for the prologue – check them out!
Anyway, indeed, Odds on the prologue allows you to create very interesting hybrid sounds using this model’s dual tone layering feature – for example, one would be a simple pad, and another would be Odds with arpeggiator and trigger/pitch randomization. I think we will have another video with the prologue soon, showcasing such possibilities.
a complete synth within a synth. like it!
Sadly, if you watch Etienne’s original product video Korg did not want folks to write complete synths in the user oscillator, so the limitations of the user resources are very tight for this day and age; 32Kb. The daily-dummy equivalent of 16 pages of text. That’s like the size of a small cache today. Yes, we used to write operating systems in less, but we did it in assembly language. Some developers are resorting to assembly to shoe horn functionality in.
Kudos to them!
There’s nothing wrong with making efficient use of limited resources – and the multi-engine platform probably has more power than lots of classic digital synths.
People mocked Korg’s latest synths for running on a Raspberry PI (wave state, opsix, modwave), but they’re some of the most interesting synths released in the last few years.
It’s amazing what Artemiy and others have been able to do with the multi-engine.
The main limitation for me is the level of hands-on control that’s available. The Prologue is basically one-knob-per-function on the analog side. But with user oscillators, you don’t have the same level of hands-on control and developers have to make work arounds as a result.
Agreed. Menu diving is muscle memory for me now. But, Shift can also be used to reverse menu directions. I don’t mind the menu’s so much now, I just want more inputs to the model for programming modulation methods; they can be menu’s as long as they’re also CC addressable.
The issue about 32K is it limits wavetable programming. Can only fit 8 tables in one oscillator with little code space left over. Which is fine by itself. But with only 16 slots. You run out of space quick if you really like wavetables :0)
PI is a great processor!
Also, load oscillator load speed could be improved.
To tell you the truth – I don’t think Etienne himself had an idea for how far the third-party developers will be taking the multi engine concept. Initially, everyone was seeing it a third waveform source, much like the VCOs are. But DSP being DSP, you can do anything you can imagine, provided that you stay with the processing power and plugin size limitations of course. The concepts that we and others were able to implement have surely outgrown the interface that the platform creators have provided – but it does show that, to everyone’s surprise, the platform is much capable than anyone thought originally.
I wish Akai would open up their MPC/Force platform in the same way. Clearly, they are already cooperating with other developers, but would be cool to be able to add stuff like this.