NOTE: Due to all the emails asking I thought I would verify that there will not be a version for the MAC until a day when Synthedit supports them which may never happen unfortunately.

The Pack initially comprises of 2 Synthesizers Astralis A and Astralis B which is a slightly simpler single synth version. This page describes Astralis A most of which also applies to Astralis B. Also included in the pack is  the Microtonal Bank/Patch manager for creating custom tuning patches for use in any HGSounds synth.

Download Astralis

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I have spent a lot of time creating atmospheric\ambient\FX samples for the Homegrown Sounds Sample CDs and as anyone who has done it knows it is a time consuming process. The initial idea behind Astralis was to make a synth which made this process easier with plenty of soundscaping abilities. I began in 2005 and the first synth was over complex and very CPU hungry although was capable of the type of sounds I was looking for. Since then I have rebuilt the synth many times, slowly simplifying the interface and reducing some features, and have heavily optimised and re-optimized the synth to get the load time/CPU usage to an acceptable standard for a synth of such capability.  I am pleased with the end result, it has been a long process and it is a relief to finally have the finished synth.  I hope that people find it an intuitive synth to use, I have changed the control interface more times than I can remember trying to achieve the most logical layout.

Here are some samples of me banging some keys on the presets, these are all straight out of the synth with no further processing:




Main Features:

Synths

• Dual Osillator - 11 Waveforms, Harmonic Control, 9 Mix Modes and Realtime Modulation
• Spectral Oscillator - Sine based oscillator with 16 Partials and realtime modulation. The Spectral Oscillator can be swapped for a second Dual Osc.
• 2 complete synths, synth 1 uses the Dual Oscillator and Synth 2 the Spectral Oscillator but is swappable for a second Dual Osc.
• 2 Polyphonic Filters with Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, Notch, Peak A, Peak B and both cascadable up to 8 times.
• Filter Limit - Reduce the lowest/highest filter frequencies. 
• Filter 1 can be routed through Filter 2 or Filter cutoff frequencies can be linked
• 2 Volume ADSR Envelopes one per synth.
• White Noise Source can be added to either synth.
• Drive/Distortion Each synth has an independent distortion selectable between soft and hard.
• Each Synth has independent Volume, Pan, Octave, semitone and finetune controls.
• Synth 1 can be used to sync to Synth 2
• 6 Voice Polyphony and Mono Mode
• Glide - sets the amount of time taken to go from one note to the next.
• Pitch Bend up to 4 Octaves

24 Note Microtuning Patch System

• Unique system for using custom tuning scales over 1 or 2 Octaves. Patches are built using the included Bank Manager. Built with Scala files in mind patches can be entered in either ratios or cent values, have a title and description. Any midi key in the patch can be set to any pitch, and the pitch bend will function properly unlike other Microtonal systems. 160 Patches are included with many World Tunings (Middle East, African, Far East etc...).
• A Base Tuning  - A usually set at 440hz can be set to any value for authentic recreation.
• Root Note - The root note can be altered over a 2 octave range

Special Features

• Gate Sequencer (Trance Gate) - Can be used on any of the 3 ADSR Envelopes.
• Spread - Sets the pan of each polyphonic voice to a specified position or can be random.
• Attack Reducer - Control over the individual attack of each polyphonic voice, can also be set to random
• Release Reducer - Control over the individual Release of each polyphonic voice, can also be set to random
• Custom Clock - To build a custom pulse clock synced to the host bpm to drive the sequencers
  
• Keyboard Velocity Graph - For building custom velocity maps

Modulation Options

• Modulation Matrix - 8 x 8 Matrix with a choice of 11 Sources can be mapped to a choice of 26 Destinations.
• Modulation Sequencer 1 - Polyphonic Sequencer which can be stepped or smoothed, synced to the Host Tempo. Also has keyboard mapping.
• Modulation Sequencer 2 - Monophonic Sequencer which can be stepped or smoothed, synced to the Host Tempo. When smoother behaves like a programmable LFO
• Low Frequency Oscillator with a selection of 17 waveforms
• Voice Modulator - Per polyphonic voice values which can be set or random
• Other Modulation sources are Velocity, Modulation Wheel, Pitch, Aftertouch, Expression and Pitch Bender
  
• ADSR Envelope 3 

Effects Section

• Flexible Routing Options to change the order of the effects, plus parallel mode.
• Reverb
• Delay
• Echo
• Ring Modulator
• Flanger
• Organic
• 8 Band Graphic Equalizer
• Clipper with 4 modes

More Details

There is a manual included with the synth available from the start menu after install, but I will briefly go through each section here:

Effects
The FX section should be fairly obvious to most people. Organic is a delay based effect I designed to achieve a particular 'Organic' sound, it is capable of many different Effects and is great combined with the Flanger to create some Harmonic Frequency Superwaves, which is something I love :) Another thing worth noting is that the Routing system is very Flexible, there are a number of different combinations of which effect goes into what. Also the Reverb and the Ech are interchangeable.



Sequencers

There are 2 modulation Sequencers, one is Polyphonic and the other Monophonic.  Each sequencer produces a sequence of the displayed values (Blue Bars) which can then be used to control any destination through the Modulation Matrix. Each can also be either stepped or smooth and with smooth set to full they behave almost like a  programmable LFO. One other thing to note is the blue bar at the top right, this is a zone and represents your midi keyboard so that the sequencer output can be confined to a set number of keys.

The Gate sequencer is basically a Trance Gate which retriggers any/all of the 3 Envelopes in time with your host tempo. Polarity 2 menas that Envelope 2 will recieve the inverse sequence so that it is triggered on the off notes only.



Microtuner

Astralis supports up to 24 Note Scales. This section is very simple within the synth as it is just a patch selection. Patches are installed to C:/HG_Scales.  You can select presets by selecting a bank and then choosing one of the 16 patches in that bank. There is an included vsti called MTPatch which I will cover later which is for making Banks and Patches.

ADVANCED USERS: The Root note changes the pitch of middle C to the desired value and the A value allows retuning the synth from the standard 440. For example if you have a scale which goes from A to A and A:420 you would set root to A and type 420 in the A box. The scale still begins on the C midi key but will be retuned to the actual pitch of the tuning scale. This is not necesary for using scales, only if you wish to recreate a scale precisely. These values are stored with the Synth patches and not with the Microtonal Patches.

Octave Stretch allows adding pitch stretching/shrinking either side of middle C



Modulation

This page contains the LFO and the Arpeggiator which should be self explanatory. The Velocity Response is to set the response of your midi keyboasrd on a per patch basis, double clicking adds a node which can be moved, ctrl clicking deletes a node, you can create many nodes to create complex velocities. Env 3 is a standard ADSR envelope which can be used through the Modulation Matrix.

The 8 x 8 Modulation Matrix is the heart of synth as it allows you to map any available control source to any available destination by a specified amount. Numbers can be positive of negative and are changed by clicking the appropriate box and dragging the mouse up and down. double clicking a box will switch the box off.



Advanced

The advanced section contains the Stereo Spread feature. This allows custom panning of each polyphonic voice or randomizes each. Inv S2 inverts the signal to synth 2 so that the voices are diametrically opposed.

The Voice Modulator is the same as Spread but is for use through the Modulation Matrix so can be used to control any destination.

The reduces allow changing attack or release times for each polyphonic voice, they can be used creatively of help reduce CPU load.

The custom Clock is a unique feature which provides a programmable clock to drive the sequencers, basically on each clock pulse the pulse will only be sent it the button is selected for that step which has the effect of pausing the sequencers. It can create complex rhythms.



Astralis B is very similar but has a reduced feature set with the aim of reducing CPU usage.

Acknowledgements:

The Astralis Pack is proudly made with SynthEdit and also uses custom modules by the following talented module developers:

Dave Haupt
Chis Kerry
Kelly Lynch
Peter schoffhauzer (Scoofy)
Oli Larkin
Etric Van Meyer
Brian Allen Vanderburg II
Rick Jelliffe
Rob H
Lance Putnam

Astralis © Astral Pedestrian 2007

Also respect to the whole synthedit community/resources which is a great source of information and solutions and refreshingly zen like.

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