Hieroglyphic - Plume Pulsar Generator

Oh, here's a strange little device from a new company. What is it?

Plume from Hieroglyphic is what they call a "pulsar synthesizer". "Pulsa-what?" you might say. According to Google:

"Pulsar synthesis (PS) is a method of electronic music synthesis based on the generation of trains of sound particles. It can produce either rhythms or tones as it crosses perceptual time spans. The basic method produces sounds similar to vintage electronic music sonorities, with some important enhancements"

This little riddle of a device is based on principles found in a white paper called "Sound Composition with Pulsars" by Curtis Roads. If you're curious, take a peek „Sound Composition with Pulsars“. The actual output of the module is somewhere between an oscillator, a granulator and a clock generator.

Pulsar synthesis uses very short bursts or "pulses" of sound as its fundamental building blocks. These pulses can be as short as a fraction of a millisecond. By varying the characteristics of these pulses, such as their duration, frequency, amplitude and shape, different textures and timbres of sound can be produced. The pulses can be arranged in rapid succession to create continuous tones or more complex sound structures.

Plume operates in a similar way to granular synthesis, but instead of using samples, it uses synthesised waveforms that are treated as individual pulses. Think of it as a kind of micro sound oscillator! Plume's shape control lets you switch between seven waveforms, from smooth sine waves to gritty white noise. The Fold control adds wavefolding to your Pulsar waves, ideal for West Coast-style synthesis. You can also adjust burst and rest ratios, and use pan and stochastic masking modes to add depth and randomness to your stereo field.

Enigmatic, to say the least! Definitely makes you curious :)

Features:

• 96kHz/24-bit stereo outputs
• Range switch (HI/LO) for use as VCO, LFO or both
• Formant and Cluster controls for complex output spectra
• Continuously variable output wave shapes
• West-Coast style wave folder
• 2 types of output masking for advanced spatialisation
• Continuously variable pulsar window shape and amount