In Nostromo, how should I be choosing from the thousands of waveforms?

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DoctoralHermit
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Joined: 13 Dec 2017

11 Mar 2018

I bought Nostromo because it was the first time I tried a Rack Extension and it really, really spoke to me. I love the way I can design my own wavetables in no time. However, when clicking through the waveforms, I have trouble knowing what to select, or even telling the difference between them. I'm currently searching for something noise-y, but they all seem to be variations of a "ringing" sound. Any suggestions?

P. S. What is different about LFOs 3 and 6, the "Global" LFOs? I read the manual but I couldn't quite make sense of that part :)

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challism
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11 Mar 2018

Use the random button. Go into the tools menu and click "clear all" in the "section mask" submenu. Then go back into the same sumenu and select/check "oscillator spectrums" in that submenu to isolate the randomization to the spectrums. This is probably the fastest way to trial the 3800 spectrums available in Nostromo. Once you find a sound you like, double-click on it, and it will automatically open the location of that spectrum in Nostromos spectrum browser. You can then select from different spectrums in that category, many, of which within the same category, have similar phonic qualities.
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DoctoralHermit
Posts: 77
Joined: 13 Dec 2017

11 Mar 2018

Thank you! I didn't know about the Selection Mask menu before, that's super useful. However, when I try random spectrums, they still all tend to sound the same... about 90% of the time it produces sounds that extremely similar to the others, although sometimes I get different "rings," maybe different octaves or harmonizations or something.

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Auryn
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11 Mar 2018

DoctoralHermit wrote:
11 Mar 2018
Thank you! I didn't know about the Selection Mask menu before, that's super useful. However, when I try random spectrums, they still all tend to sound the same... about 90% of the time it produces sounds that extremely similar to the others, although sometimes I get different "rings," maybe different octaves or harmonizations or something.
Well, It isn't just you, I also found the different spectrums to be (too) similar sounding when first trying the synth. It is actually capable of a huge range of sounds though (see TeflonTomb's GNOST combinator) but it's likely you'll need to add some modulation and filtering in order to get some more character out of the basic sounds. I haven't really gone in depth with it yet so I don't know what the best approach is.
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DoctoralHermit
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Joined: 13 Dec 2017

11 Mar 2018

Auryn: It occurred to me that perhaps despite the numerous waveforms offered, the diversity of waveforms doesn't really encapsulate the true diversity of sounds, which probably comes from different sweeps, wavetable patterns, etc... Maybe I need to think broader and mess with it more. I agree though that the synth is capable of an incredible diversity of sounds... this is clearly demonstrated to me when I mess with the randomization stuff.

avasopht
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11 Mar 2018

Auryn wrote:
11 Mar 2018

Well, It isn't just you, I also found the different spectrums to be (too) similar sounding when first trying the synth. It is actually capable of a huge range of sounds though (see TeflonTomb's GNOST combinator) but it's likely you'll need to add some modulation and filtering in order to get some more character out of the basic sounds. I haven't really gone in depth with it yet so I don't know what the best approach is.
Yes. Some waveforms might be more appropriately used with FMAM/RM. I imagine there are many in there specifically for that purpose.
Last edited by avasopht on 11 Mar 2018, edited 1 time in total.

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Catblack
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11 Mar 2018

The Nostromo catalog pngs on Lectric Panda's site still don't load for me in Photoshop. I hope he regenerates them. I seriously want to get a poster made with them.
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Auryn
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11 Mar 2018

avasopht wrote:
11 Mar 2018
Yes. Some waveforms might be more appropriately used with FM. I imagine there are many in there specifically for that purpose.
FM? I don't recall Nostromo having FM capabilities? Or did I miss something (big)?
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avasopht
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11 Mar 2018

Auryn wrote:
11 Mar 2018
FM? I don't recall Nostromo having FM capabilities? Or did I miss something (big)?
Yep my mistake, just AM and RM.

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Loque
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11 Mar 2018

avasopht wrote:
11 Mar 2018
Auryn wrote:
11 Mar 2018
FM? I don't recall Nostromo having FM capabilities? Or did I miss something (big)?
Yep my mistake, just AM and RM.
But it has a lot of fm ready waveforms. Nostromo with fm in the oscillators would be uber wicked. Just imagine osc 2 with 8 modulating slots would modulate osc 1...
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avasopht
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11 Mar 2018

Loque wrote:
11 Mar 2018
But it has a lot of fm ready waveforms. Nostromo with fm in the oscillators would be uber wicked. Just imagine osc 2 with 8 modulating slots would modulate osc 1...
Those were my exact thoughts about some of the sounds.

That being said you can modulate pitch in the matrix, but I'm not sure if it's on a per sample basis, or if it's relative to the pitch or multiplies the pitch.

scratchnsnifff
Posts: 1423
Joined: 21 Sep 2016

11 Mar 2018

DoctoralHermit wrote:
11 Mar 2018
I bought Nostromo because it was the first time I tried a Rack Extension and it really, really spoke to me. I love the way I can design my own wavetables in no time. However, when clicking through the waveforms, I have trouble knowing what to select, or even telling the difference between them. I'm currently searching for something noise-y, but they all seem to be variations of a "ringing" sound. Any suggestions?

P. S. What is different about LFOs 3 and 6, the "Global" LFOs? I read the manual but I couldn't quite make sense of that part :)
click on a spectrum slot, and click and drag up and down
this method is alright if you only want a few spectrum slots per oscillator
say you have something in the granular category. click and drag and the mini browser display will show which category you are browsing. so in this instance it would show the granular. be cautious though, as the click and drag method sweeps very fast, so its kind of the same as random. but in short bursts, you can navigate folders that you like. hope this helps :)

panda- please make it possible to do FM from the oscillator spectrums :D that would be awesome! in the randomization function there should be a solo category for JUSt the spectrums so you don't have to disable everything. i hope i said this correctly, pretty much am requesting that the spectrums be a one click ordeal instead of 2 :D
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Faastwalker
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12 Mar 2018

Catblack wrote:
11 Mar 2018
The Nostromo catalog pngs on Lectric Panda's site still don't load for me in Photoshop. I hope he regenerates them. I seriously want to get a poster made with them.
Just tried them myself. Same thing. They won't open in anything.

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eusti
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12 Mar 2018

Faastwalker wrote:
12 Mar 2018
Catblack wrote:
11 Mar 2018
The Nostromo catalog pngs on Lectric Panda's site still don't load for me in Photoshop. I hope he regenerates them. I seriously want to get a poster made with them.
Just tried them myself. Same thing. They won't open in anything.
Strange. They opened in Apple Preview alhough it looked like they didn't, so I had to zoom in quite a few times to actually see something
as the image is very long and thin...

D.

DoctoralHermit
Posts: 77
Joined: 13 Dec 2017

13 Mar 2018

Thank you for the replies, everyone! I think part of the problem is that I don't understand what the waveform categories really mean, and it's not explained in the manual. What is c64? Bit? Chip? Misc, sin, and bin?

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emilng
Posts: 99
Joined: 03 Oct 2017

13 Mar 2018

According to the manual it looks like the waveforms are taken from https://www.adventurekid.se/AKRTfiles/A ... index.html but I don't think the category mappings are 1 to 1. It would be nice to have a "view as frequency spectrum/waveform" toggle for waveforms picker.

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