Silent Way

Silent Way is a suite of plug-ins designed for use as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system. The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound - rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs etc. of an analogue system. Also, with the addition of the CV Input plug-in, it is possible to bring CVs from the synth into the computer, for recording or processing.

There are currently seven plug-ins in the Silent Way suite - Silent Way DC, Silent Way LFO, Silent Way Step LFO, Silent Way Trigger, Silent Way CV Input, Silent Way CV To OSC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future - watch the website for product announcements.

All plug-ins also feature

  • full MIDI and OSC control.
  • MIDI/OSC scriptability.
  • sample-accurate handling of MIDI note messages.

Silent Way Voice Controller

Silent Way Voice Controller is a virtual instrument plug-in designed to directly control an analogue synthesiser by generating the appropriate CV and gate signals via an appropriate audio interface.

By listening to the synthesiser’s output signal, the plug-in is able to calibrate itself to generate the appropriate pitch CV for the incoming MIDI notes.

As well as the basic pitch and gate signals, the plug-in can generate three multi-stage envelope CVs which you can feed to VCAs, VCFs etc. in your synth.

Silent Way CV Input

Silent Way CV Input provides a means of getting control voltages from an analogue synth into the computer, which is not normally possible since the DC voltages of CVs are blocked by the inputs of all current audio interfaces. Once inside the computer, CVs can be recorded, or processed as any other signal before being output back to the synth.

Silent Way LFO

Silent Way LFO, as its name suggests, is intended as a low frequency oscillator, performing the same functions as LFOs in any other synth e.g. vibrato, filter cut-off modulation, auto-pan effects etc.

Silent Way Step LFO

Silent Way Step LFO is a combination step sequencer and LFO generator. It shares many of the features of the LFO plug-in, but rather than generating waveforms based on simple sine, triangle etc. waves it generates a waveform that the user draws in the GUI. When the waveform is interpreted as a series of discrete values, rather than as a continuous wave- form, then the output is that of a traditional analogue step sequencer.

Silent Way DC

Silent Way DC is a simple plug-in that generates constant output signals. It is intended to be used in conjunction with parameter automation (via MIDI or directly by the host application) to generate varying signals. For example, you could use it as an LFO where you draw out the LFO waveform in your host’s parameter automation GUI.

Silent Way Trigger

Silent Way Trigger is a simple plug-in for generating a gate or envelope in response to an incoming MIDI note. A typical application would be for triggering drum sounds, where you might have a number of different sounds mapped to different notes.

Silent Way CV To OSC

Silent Way CV To OSC translates CV signals (such as those produced by Silent Way CV Input, for example) into OSC messages. These can in turn be used to control all sorts of software and hardware devices. See the Expert Sleepers YouTube channel for some ideas.

Device Compatibility

For most of the Silent Way plug-ins to work, the audio interface between the computer and the synth needs to be "DC coupled" i.e. capable of maintaining a DC voltage at its outputs. Many interfaces include high-pass filters on the outputs which makes this impossible. Refer to the device compatibility page for up-to-date information.

The exception is Silent Way CV Input, which will work with any interface, since it is specifically designed to overcome the lack of DC-coupling on audio interface inputs.

Silent Way should work with pretty much any modular synth modules. Because the Voice Controller can calibrate itself by listening to the output of the synth, it is not limited to standard 1V/octave standards. Indeed, it can drive modules not originally intended as oscillators (e.g. LFOs) and still correctly track pitch. Again, refer to the device compatibility page for information on which modules are known to work.

Tutorials

Various videos and instructions for using Silent Way with particular hosts or modules are collected on the tutorials page.

System Requirements

  • Mac
    • Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher
    • Audio Unit or VST host application
  • Windows
    • Windows XP SP2
    • VST 2.4 host application

Purchasing

Initially the plug-in runs in demo mode, in which it is fully functional, except that it will time-out after 15 minutes of use. Simply reloading the plug-in resets the time-out.

To remove the time-out, you can purchase a registration. The price is $49 (US dollars, plus VAT if applicable).

A registration allows you to install the plug-in on up to three computers at once.