String Mass Core

String Mass Core — 16 HP

Sixteen-voice harmonic mass oscillator. Where DroneClone shapes a wall by harmonic content, String Mass Core shapes it by tuning — MODE decides how the voices are distributed in pitch, from plain unison through odd-harmonic sections, Ptolemaic just intonation, and a microtonal mode where every voice drifts at its own rate. The sum is 1/√M normalised, so raising MASS adds density without adding level.

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Sound in 60 seconds

1. Add String Mass Core. Patch a V/OCT source into V/OCT IN and OUT to your interface.
2. It arrives in HARM mode with MASS 4, SPREAD 30% and TIMBRE 30% — hold a note and you already have four voices across two harmonic sections.
3. Turn MODE to UNIS. The four voices collapse onto one pitch and beat against each other.
4. Raise MASS towards 16. Density climbs; loudness does not.
5. Turn MODE to JUST. The voices redistribute onto just-intonation ratios and the mass locks into a chord.

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Signal flow

V/OCT IN (poly) ──► [MODE decides how the M voices are tuned]
                     ├─ UNIS:  all M at input pitch, spread symmetrically
                     ├─ HARM:  M divided across SECTION harmonic sections
                     ├─ JUST:  M across Ptolemaic 12-note JI ratios
                     │          (spread narrowed to 30%)
                     └─ MICRO: all at fundamental, each voice given slow
                                vibrato at its own rate

                      [TIMBRE] blends sine → odd-harmonic stack
                              │
        sum of M voices ──► × 1/√M ──► tanh ──► OUT (poly)
V/OCT IN ──────────────────────────────────────────► V/OCT THRU

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Controls

Control	Range	Default	What it does
MASS	1–16 voices	4	Active voices per channel. Snaps to integers
SPREAD	0–100%	30%	Detune spread. Full scale is 50 cents across the voice set
TIMBRE	0–100%	30%	0 is a pure sine; 100% is an odd-harmonic stack
MODE	UNIS / HARM / JUST / MICRO	HARM	How the voices are distributed in pitch. Snaps
SECTION	1 / 2 / 4 sections	2	Harmonic section count — HARM mode only. Snaps

MASS, SPREAD and TIMBRE each have an attenuverter (−1 to +1) and a CV input. MODE and SECTION are knob-only.

SPREAD reads as a percentage but the underlying range is 50 cents end to end, so 30% is roughly 15 cents of total spread. In JUST mode it is scaled to 30% of that, keeping the ratios legible.

The four modes

Mode	How the voices are tuned
UNIS	All voices at the input pitch, spread symmetrically across ±SPREAD
HARM	Voices divided evenly across SECTION harmonic sections, spread within each. The default
JUST	Voices across Ptolemaic just-intonation ratios, with spread narrowed so the intervals stay clear
MICRO	All voices at the fundamental, each given slow vibrato at its own distinct rate. Shimmer that never repeats

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Ports

Port	Direction	Notes
V/OCT IN	Input	Polyphonic pitch; sets the channel count
CV ×3	Input	MASS, SPREAD and TIMBRE, each via its attenuverter
OUT	Output	Polyphonic mixed audio, 1/√M normalised then soft-clipped
V/OCT THRU	Output	Pass-through at the same channel count

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Patch recipes

Harmonic partial stack. MODE HARM, SECTION 4, MASS 8, SPREAD 16%, TIMBRE 30%, fed eight channels from Harmonic-Pressure at PARTIAL 1, COUNT 8. Each channel gets eight voices across four sections — dense but coherent.

Just intonation drone. MODE JUST, MASS 6, SPREAD 8%, TIMBRE 10%, on a single V/OCT channel. Six voices on Ptolemaic ratios; they lock naturally and stay warm.

Unison chorus wall. MODE UNIS, MASS 4, SPREAD 25%, TIMBRE 0, with Drift SMOOTH → SPREAD CV at attenuverter +0.4. The spread wavers slowly — a chorus without a chorus module.

Spectral shimmer. MODE MICRO, MASS 12, SPREAD 40%, TIMBRE 20%. Every voice vibrates at its own rate, so the twelve never lock into a pattern.

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Known pairings

Module	Routing
Harmonic-Pressure	V/OCT OUT → V/OCT IN; the intended pitch source
Wall-Conductor	OUT → channel input, for DENSITY and COLLAPSE over the mass
Drift	SMOOTH → SPREAD or MASS CV for slow structural movement
Collapse-Saturator	OUT → IN to add edge to an otherwise clean mass
DroneClone	Run alongside — tuning-shaped mass against harmonics-shaped wall

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See also

DroneCore · DroneClone · Harmonic-Pressure · Music-Theory · Playbooks

Full parameter spec: docs/modules/StringMassCore.md