discoDSP News

TED-8, Retromulator 2, Discovery Pro 9.7 and more

The second half of October brings TED-8, a new Oberheim TEO-5 replica, the 2.0 release of Retromulator with editor boards for its cores, new chorus, phaser and unison editors in Discovery Pro and updates across the rest of the product line.

TED-8 (New)

TED-8 is the Oberheim TEO-5 as a plugin, built from thousands of measurements of a real unit. Every knob, curve and effect was recorded and compared with the hardware until both sounded the same side by side.

Features

Full Replication: Two oscillators with sub and noise, the SEM-style filter, two envelopes, two LFOs, glide, unison, the arpeggiator, a 64 step sequencer, overdrive, twelve effect types and the reverb, all matched against the TEO-5.
More Voices: 8 voices instead of 5, and a Poly Unison mode that stacks up to 6 voices on each of 8 notes.
Modulation Matrix: 16 slots on screen, with sources from velocity and pressure to the LFOs, envelopes and oscillator 2.
Hardware Link: Connect a TEO-5 over USB and TED-8 works as its editor and librarian. Knobs, program changes and sequences stay in step both ways, and all 256 user programs can be backed up to one file.
Voice Character: Each voice sits a few cents apart and a little louder or softer than the next, as on the unit.

TED-8 runs on macOS, Windows and Linux as AAX, AU, VST, VST3 and standalone. The intro price is $99 for a limited time (regular price $199). Owners of Discovery, Discovery Pro, Corona, OB-Xd 2 or OB-Xd 3 can get it for $49 from the members area.

Blub, Roboto, WavePrompt and more

The first half of October brings a new modular tracker, a free singing voice synthesizer, LoRA support and a Windows version of WavePrompt, a Hammond B3 organ in Retromulator, disk streaming in Bliss and updates across the rest of the product line.

Blub (Beta)

Blub is a new modular tracker for macOS in the style of Jeskola Buzz. AU and VST3 plugins and built-in machines are placed on a canvas, wired with cables and played from tracker patterns and a song sequence. Blub is now in public beta.

Discovery Pro 9.5 plus four new updates

Discovery Pro is a virtual analog synthesizer and sampler with 4 layers, 12 oscillators, 16 filter types including Nord Lead 2, Moog Ladder and Oberheim SEM models, SFZ/WAV/SoundFont/DWB/Bliss and Nord Sample Library support, PADsynth re-synthesis and Nord Lead 2 SysEx import/export.

Version 9.5 adds a zoom window for the Gate and Mod sequencers, with curve editing, a bipolar mode and an OSC1+2 pitch destination. The Nordic filter is rebuilt from the Nord Lead 2X hardware, and the filter menu is split into models and modes.

Sequencer Zoom Window

The Gate and Mod steps open in a large editor that fills most of the panel, with numbered steps, beat lines, single unit edits and Shift+drag rotate. The Gate window shows GATE, RETRIG and NOTE OFF rows.
Curve mode for the Mod sequencer: double-click adds or removes a point, drag a segment to bend it. The curve is written into the 32 steps and shows on the main display with a glowing dot as the play position.
Bipolar mode runs Mod steps from -100 to +100 around a centre line, so the modulation can go below the knob position or the played note.
OSC1+2 destination moves both oscillators with the Mod pitch sequence, for arps, bass lines and whole-voice pitch moves such as a tape stop.
LINK shows the Gate and Mod sequencers as one, and Shift+click writes retrig and note off marks from the pattern.
New Mod presets in six folders: Curves, Pitch Curves, Pitch Sequences, Filter Steps, PW and FM Steps, and LFO.

Filters

The Nordic filter runs the Nord Lead 2 filter equations (two cascaded state variable filters) at the hardware's 98.2 kHz clock, with the NL2 cutoff table, resonance law, per-mode mixing and clip levels. The response matches the hardware within 0.3 dB up to 20 kHz. Sounds already using the Nordic model will sound different.
The filter popup is split into a Model submenu (Zero Delay, Nordic, Ladder, Ladder X, Ladder Y, SEM, SEM Raw and Classic) and a list of modes. Presets, banks and automation load as before.
Auto Switch LP switches low pass layers to a chosen model and keeps their cutoff frequency. Swap > Bank switches every layer of a bank to one filter model.
The Nord Lead 2X, Nord Lead 2 and Lib 1 to Lib 4 factory banks use the Nordic filter and the Retro oscillators.

This update is free for all Discovery Pro 8.x and 9.x customers. Discovery Pro is available for Windows, macOS and Linux in VST, VST3, AU and standalone formats.