Velvet Machine – Sonic Texture Generator
Velvet Machine is an audio effect based on real-time convolution with enveloped velvet noise.
You can think of Velvet Machine as a special kind of multi-tap delay with a huge number of randomly located and densely spaced taps, where the volume of each tap is determined by the envelope. At high enough density, the repeats are just milliseconds or even less than a millisecond apart — at this point, they are perceived as one sound. Using a huge number of these repeats spread over a long time creates the effect of the sound being stretched or blurred out in time. The randomness of tap locations and phases helps keep the frequency response flat. Since the overall loudness of the effect varies drastically depending on the number of taps and their proximity to each other, Velvet Machines provides automatic gain compensation.
- Stretch and blur out even short sounds to lengths of up to 10 seconds
- Produce reverb-like textures with flexible volume envelope (including reverse, fading in and out, pulsating etc.)
- Work as a variable density random multi-tap delay (bordering on granular-like sounds)
Velvet Machine convolves input signal with velvet noise. This is a term coined by Matti Karjalainen and Hanna Järveläinen to denote a kind of signal consisting of relatively sparse single-sample impulses with values +1 or −1, the rest of the signal being zeroes. The sign of the impulses is chosen randomly. The impulses are distributed randomly as well, while still adhering to a set average spacing determined by the density parameter, usually ranging from hundreds to thousands of impulses per second. (In Velvet Machine it can go down to 1 ips, which makes for a different type of effect than high or medium density.
Velvet Machine Features
- Flexible volume envelope with an arbitrary number of segments and curvature
- Effect time ranging from 50 ms to 10 s
- Response density adjustable from 1 to 2000 repeats per second
- Pre-delay up to 1 s
- Host tempo sync for time and pre-delay parameters
- High cut and low cut filters for the affected signal
- Mix adjustable from 100% dry to 100% wet with no dry signal
- Mix Lock to switch presets while keeping the dry/wet mix constant
- 20+ factory presets to get you started
About Phonolyth
Phonolyth is the new name for Yuri Turov’s audio software outfit. Phonolyth aims to provide musicians and sound designers with intuitive tools to make and manipulate sounds in fun and unusual ways. In addition to plugins and apps for iOS devices, which have previously been our only focus, Phonolyth now offer our first desktop audio plugin, Velvet Machine, in AU and VST3 formats.
Pricing and Availability
Velvet Machine is available now.
