Expert Sleepers has released Silent Way, a suite of plug-ins designed for use as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system.
The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound – rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs etc. of an analogue system.
There are currently two plug-ins in the Silent Way suite – Silent Way DC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future – watch the website for product announcements.
Silent Way features
- Silent Way DC, a simple plug-in that generates constant output signals. It is intended to be used in conjunction with parameter automation (via MIDI or directly by the host application) to generate varying signals.
- Silent Way Voice Controller, a virtual instrument plug-in designed to directly control an analogue synthesiser by generating the appropriate CV and gate signals via an appropriate audio interface. By listening to the synthesiser’s output signal, the plug-in is able to calibrate itself to generate the appropriate pitch CV for the incoming MIDI notes. As well as the basic pitch and gate signals, the plug-in can generate three multi-stage envelope CVs which you can feed to VCAs, VCFs etc. in your synth.
- Full MIDI and OSC control.
- MIDI/OSC scriptability.
- Sample-accurate handling of MIDI note messages.
Note: Silent Way should work with pretty much any modular synth modules. Because the Voice Controller can calibrate itself by listening to the output of the synth, it is not limited to standard 1V/octave standards. Indeed, it can drive modules not originally intended as oscillators (e.g. LFOs) and still correctly track pitch.
Check the device compatibility page for information on which modules are known to work.
Silent Way is currently available for Mac (AU) for $49 USD. Mac and Windows VST formats to follow. The demo version is fully functional, except that it will time-out after 15 minutes of use.
Visit Expert Sleepers for more information.
