We’ve had a lot of requests for a sample oscillator since version.
Way we view it is that it would open up circle to having a broader range of sounds and complement and fill out what we have with the current Wavetable, Analog and VPS modules. Also if anyone has any crazy implementation ideas that would lift it further than just waveform playback, would be great to hear the ideas!
A sample osc would be awesome! A few feature ideas:
I’m afraid I don’t have any crazy ideas but the most important things with sample manipulation are the ability to reverse, snap to zero crossing, being able to slow down and speed up without losing the harmonic quality of the sample, and being able to add variation. On that last point I use the Simpler in Ableton often on percussion samples and use LFO’s to do subtle modulations of pitch, volume, filter and panning to create a bit of movement or interest in a sample that may be repeated. Overall I don’t need fancy shit just the ability to do those things really well. Being able to use all of the amazing modulation facilities of Circle on samples would be great thoughand this feature I find very exciting. Overall, for me the modulation stuff you have is the best element of the current software.
I generally use Simpler/Sampler in Ableton, Kontakt and Robert Henke’s Granulator or just manipulate samples using the various algorithms in Ableton and do manual edits. Anything you could incorporate from Granulator would be great - it’s a fantastically creative tool.
Sample playback would be awesome. If sample length is long enough, being able to control the sample loop (move it around and make it smaller or bigger with and lfo/envelope or assign to a knob. You could also link both the sample start and the start of the sample loop together. I’m thinking the way you can do it with sampler in ableton live. Absynth from NI also has some nice sample playback ideas. Worth checking.
All sounds good guys.
@Donotek, I agree that getting as you say the basics right will be super important over having loads of features. Circle is still a synth and I’d be wary of trying to make it a full on sampler. What I’m thinking is that we start with a simple sample playback oscillator first and get that working good and then we can expand into a granulator, even as a second separate module.
@paradiddle, modulation options are Circle’s strong point and we’d have to build something like this in. Sampler in Live seems to be what everyone is recommending we take a look at. Wasn’t aware of Absynth’s sample loading functionality, will have to check that too.
One thing I’d add is please please don’t add any kind of sample library into Circle! Keep the software svelte and stay true to the creative ethos of the tool. Force people to be creative and create or find their own samples if they want to use that functionality - God knows there are enough already out there.
I think we’d have to ship with a certain number of samples bundled, but definetly it is important to make it as easy as possible for people to load their own samples…
@Gavin_FAW Yes absynth’s oscillator does a whole bunch of thing including granular synthesis. The sampler in live has nice modulation options so it’s possible to do some creative stuff. However it’s still a full fledge sampler. Some others worth mentioning, Polygon from glitchmachines is a sampler geared towards creativity then huge sample playback. No demos though. Cronox from linplug has some cool sampling functionality. However I think linplug folded or so. You can still get a demo. I’ve some amazing reaktor ensembles too.
2nd the Iris reference - if y’all add sampling to Circle I’d never use Iris again!