Smut emerged from the decaying corpse of Shapey, a short lived experiment in oscillator driven file manipulation. Unlike its previous host, Smut is a semi-modular synthesiser with deep cross modulation options and the ability to freely route between the different modules. Generally speaking, Smut has a dirty, unpredictable quality and offers many opportunities for unrestrained chaos, however in the right hands it can brought to heel and made to sound rather pleasant.
Smut is a semi-modular synthesizer with deep fm and cross modulation options. Smut has three main sound generators, 8 freely routable modulation sources and a lush sounding reverb.
Note: Parameters marked with an asterisk can be modulated.
Two sawtooth generators with waveshaping and fm controls.
Pitch - Determines the pitch of the oscillator (becomes a tempo control when in sync or LFO mode)*
Step - Set quantisation of both the pitch controls (becomes a divide control when in sync or LFO mode)
Pitch Mode - Select between semitone, tempo sync and LFO modes
Bend - Applies a on-note pitch glide
FM Source - selects an input source
Input - The FM input amount *
Shape - Select a waveshaper
Width - A meta parameter for the waveshaper, performs different functions dependent on selected shape. *
Shape Modes
- Tri/Sin - crossfade between a triangle and sine.
- PWM - square with width control.
- Sync1 - "soft" sync effect .
- Sync2 - A dirtier sync effect
- Fold1 - My "bad at maths" attempt at a wavefolder
- Fold2 - Grottier version of above. Maybe sine squisher would be a better name.
- User - "Draw" your own waveform
Four crossfading sample players derive their clock from either the oscillators, the modulators or some combination of both. Depending on how things are configured, they can act as waveshapers, lofi-samplers, or crude wavetable players.
File Menu - select a sample
File manager - opens the file manager allowing for selection of internal samples
User Mode - switches the samplers into user mode allowing you to load your own samples
Folder Select - Selects a user folder to populate the file menu
Position 1-4 - sets the start position for the selected sampler *
Fade Mode - select one of three crossfade modes, or put the sample player into mix mode
X-Fade - controls the position of the crossfader *
Mix - Independent volume control for each sampler
Quantise - Steps the output of the position control, useful when working with wavetables
Global Position - sets the start position of all samplers *
Input - The gain of the incoming signal *
Source - Selects the input source
In Offset - Offsets the input signal
Cutoff - apples a 1 pole lp/hp filter to the signal from both oscillators
lp/hp - switches the filter mode
Pitch Shifter - applies a delay based pitch shifter to the file player
Pitch - the pitch shifter value in semitones *
Feedback - applies feedback to the delay lines
Window - the window length of the delay lines *
Dual combined Filter/VCA module with comprehensive signal routing.
Mixer - Controls which signals pass into the Filter/VCA. Filter 1 has 3 inputs (osc 1, 2 and File) while filter 2 adds a 4th, input Filter 1. This allows the the filters to operate in a serial configuration.
Cutoff - Sets the frequency of the filter *
Q - The resonance
Filter Mix - Mix between a dry signal (no filter) and filtered*
Type - Select between low pass, high pass and comb filters (FYI, the lp & hp filters are models of those found in Korg MS-20, more info here)
Gain - VCA Gain *
Pan - Stereo filter, innit? *
Spread - Enables an 8 stage pitch/pan effect.