Generator Families

Generator Families

A Generator Family creates the endpoint's A/B/C/D source material. Choose the family for broad character first; tap routing and Wavetable Type come afterward.

In Playground or either Morph endpoint, open Core Generator and choose Generator Family plus its Smooth/Crunchy variant. The three controls immediately below change meaning with the selected family.

If FWG is new to you, start with Classic Waveforms because its controls map cleanly onto familiar shapes. From there: FM/Sync for bright harmonic motion, Formant for vowel-like structure, Fold for wavefolding, Modal/Harmonic Cluster for resonant or additive spectra, and Clean Chaos/Bitcrush for less predictable digital material.

Each family has Smooth and Crunchy variants. Smooth usually trends rounder or steadier; Crunchy usually trends brighter, harder, rougher, or more stepped. They are voicing directions, not guarantees.

Scanning wrappers automate ordinary generator controls; they are not separate generator DSP. Individual family and Bulk Random/Explorer documentation describes where each choice is available. Exact family/pool inventories are release/test bookkeeping rather than a musician-facing compatibility contract.

The control names below are the exact UI labels. Wavetable Type and Input 1/2 tap routing are later signal-path stages.

Clean Chaos

• Smooth: Fluid, unpredictable digital waves with a steadier pitch centre.
• Crunchy: Sharper, more fractured digital waves with extra grit.
• Controls: Seed / Phase changes the starting character; Source A Shape and Source B Shape reshape the two voices.

Phase Lattice

• Smooth: Glassy, shifting phase patterns with softer folds.
• Crunchy: Sharper lattice motion with brighter, glitchier folds.
• Controls: Phase Warp sets the movement; Lattice A and Lattice B change the two harmonic patterns.

Phase Distortion

• Smooth: Elastic phase-distortion sweeps with rounded bends.
• Crunchy: Harder phase bends with more edge, fold, and bite.
• Controls: Distortion Depth sets the amount; Breakpoint / Knee sets where it bends; Wave Colour / Warp changes the source character.

FM

• Smooth: Bright, animated FM tones with a rounder, steadier response.
• Crunchy: More metallic FM tones with rougher ratios and extra bite.
• Controls: FM Index sets intensity; Modulator Ratio changes harmonic spacing; Carrier Colour changes the core wave.

Pulse Warp

• Smooth: Moving pulse and notch shapes with rounded edges.
• Crunchy: Harder pulse movement with chopped, sync-like collisions.
• Controls: Duty Warp moves the pulse; Edge Slope changes sharpness; Notch / Offset adds the second cut or reset.

Classic Waveforms

• Smooth: Familiar sine, triangle/saw, trapezoid, and square/pulse shapes with gentler character.
• Crunchy: The same landmarks with brighter, stepped, more digital character.
• Controls: Topology chooses the basic shape; Symmetry / Width skews it or changes pulse width; Character rounds or brightens it.

Classic Split

Classic Split derives from the neutral Classic Waveforms formula.

• Smooth: Classic shapes whose two half-cycles compress outward around a clean central flatline.
• Crunchy: The same Split geometry with tap-specific resonance at the two flatline boundaries. Tap A is stronger/longer; Tap B adds a restrained harmonic grit component; C and D retain their accepted edge character.
• Controls: Topology and Symmetry / Width match Classic Waveforms. Split replaces Character: 0 is neutral Classic Character 2048; increasing Split compresses the two half-cycles toward the cycle edges while growing a zero-valued flat section in the middle.
• Boundary rule: once Split is non-zero, the left compressed half samples only phases below 180° and the right compressed half only phases above 180°. This avoids crossing a Classic discontinuity at the Split boundary.
• Random pools: Classic Split is included in broad Unrestricted/Absurd random generation. Curated pools keep their own family policies.

Sync

• Smooth: Hard-sync sweeps with rounded resets and stable pitch.
• Crunchy: Sharper sync resets with more foldback and bite.
• Controls: Sync Intensity sets the reset strength; Source A Shape and Source B Shape reshape the two linked voices.

Formant

• Smooth: Broad vowel-like and nasal tones with a smoother ridge.
• Crunchy: Narrower, growlier formant tones with more grit.
• Controls: Formant Spacing spreads the peaks; Vowel Position moves them; Bandwidth / Grit changes focus and roughness.

Fold

• Smooth: Rounded wavefolding for bright, fluid metallic tones. Its source construction is seam-anchored so pot movement reshapes the cycle interior without moving the 0°/360° wavetable landmark.
• Crunchy: Harder folds with sharper edges and heavier bite.
• Controls: Fold Drive sets the amount; Fold Symmetry shifts the balance; Source / Bias changes the starting shape and offset.

Bitcrush

• Smooth: Stepped and held digital textures with softer damage.
• Crunchy: Harsher quantisation, decimation, and error bite.
• Controls: Bit Depth Loss sets the crush; Sample Hold sets the stepping; Dither / Error Bias changes the residue.

Harmonic Cluster

• Smooth: Dense additive spectra with controlled brightness and balance.
• Crunchy: Denser, rougher clusters with stronger inharmonic colour.
• Controls: Harmonic Density sets the number of partials; Rolloff / Brightness shapes the top end; Odd / Inharmonic Bias changes their pattern.

Modal

• Smooth: Bell, glass, and struck-object tones with gentler spacing.
• Crunchy: More metallic, uneven, and clangorous modal tones.
• Controls: Modal Spacing changes the resonances; Brightness Weight changes their balance; Metalness / Inharmonicity adds clang.

Feedback Sine

• Smooth: Sine waves bent back into themselves with rounded motion.
• Crunchy: Stronger self-feedback with sharper folds and saturation.
• Controls: Feedback Depth sets the bend; Feedback Phase moves it around the cycle; Saturation / Folding hardens the result.

Scanning control range

🔧 Technical: All Scanning families share a logarithmic 0.1–30 Hz LFO Rate domain. Scan Centre and LFO Depth choose a bounded position and excursion along the corresponding ordinary-generator recipe; LFO Rate chooses how quickly that path is traversed. Smooth and Crunchy use the same coordinates but call the matching ordinary generator variant.

The catalogue is ordered by underlying generator. Built-in recipe membership and random-pool eligibility are separate product decisions; manual-only recipes remain available for explicit selection without entering broad random generation. scan means 0→4095; opposite means 4095→0.

Scanning family	Whole-generator recipe	Random pool now?
Scanning – Classic Sine/Triangle	[0→2048, 2048, 2048→1024]	yes
Scanning – Classic Triangle/Square	[2048→4095, 2048, 1024]	yes
Scanning – Classic Saw	[2048, scan, 512]	yes
Scanning – Classic Saw/Square	[2048→4095, 0→2048, 1024→4095]	yes
Scanning – Classic Pulse	[4095, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Sine	[0, 2048, scan]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Triangle	[2048, 2048, scan]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Saw ↑	[2048, 4095, scan]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Saw ↓	[2048, 0, scan]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Square	[4095, 2048, scan]	yes
Scanning – Classic Split Pulse	[4095, 512, scan]	yes
Scanning – Phase Lattice	[scan, scan, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Phase Distortion – Colour Counterflow	[scan, scan, opposite]	yes
Scanning – Phase Distortion – Depth Counterflow	[opposite, scan, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Phase Distortion – Bloom	[scan, scan, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Phase Distortion – Knee Counterflow	[scan, opposite, scan]	manual only
Scanning – FM – Bloom	[scan, scan, scan]	yes
Scanning – FM – Ratio Counterflow	[scan, opposite, scan]	manual only
Scanning – FM – Ratio/Colour Exchange	[3072, scan, opposite]	manual only
Scanning – Pulse Warp (Soft)	[scan, scan, 0]	yes
Scanning – Pulse Warp (Hard)	[scan, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Pulse Warp – Duty/Notch Exchange	[opposite, 2048, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Sync – Source Exchange	[4095, scan, opposite]	yes
Scanning – Sync – Bloom	[scan, scan, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Formant	[scan, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Fold	[scan, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Folded Sine	[scan, 2048, 0]	manual only
Scanning – Folded Sine/Triangle	[0, 2048, 682→972]	manual only
Scanning – Folded Triangle/Square	[0, 2048, 820→2048]	manual only
Scanning – Folded Square	[scan, 2048, 2048]	manual only
Scanning – Bitcrush (Soft)	[0→2048, 0, 0→2048]	yes
Scanning – Bitcrush (Hard)	[0→2048, 4095, 0→2048]	yes
Scanning – Bitcrush – Crush/Bias Exchange (Upper Bias)	[2048→4095, 0, 4095→2048]	manual only
Scanning – Bitcrush – Crush/Bias Exchange (Lower Bias)	[2048→4095, 0, 2048→0]	manual only
Scanning – Harmonic Cluster – Density/Brightness Exchange	[opposite, scan, 2048→4095]	yes
Scanning – Harmonic Cluster – Brightness/Bias Exchange (High Density)	[4095, scan, opposite]	manual only
Scanning – Harmonic Cluster – Brightness/Bias Exchange (Low Density)	[0, scan, opposite]	manual only
Scanning – Modal – High Metal	[scan, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Modal – Metal Bloom	[scan, scan, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Modal – Low Metal	[scan, scan, 0]	manual only
Scanning – Feedback Sine – Depth/Phase Bloom	[scan, scan, 4095]	yes
Scanning – Feedback Sine – Depth/Drive Bloom	[scan, 1642→1070, scan]	manual only
Scanning – Feedback Sine – Depth/Drive Exchange	[scan, 1642→1070, opposite]	manual only
Scanning – Feedback Sine – Depth/Phase Exchange	[scan, opposite, 4095→2048]	manual only

🔧 Technical: Promotion and random eligibility are separate decisions. The 21 current manual-only trajectories are visible for ordinary manual use but remain excluded from Unrestricted/Absurd pending further listening. The 23 random-eligible Scanning trajectories retain their established random-family index ordering even though the UI list has been reorganised, so menu ordering alone does not reshuffle existing deterministic Bulk seeds.