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ModAbleton Move

schwung-sophie

mestela/schwung-sophie · ★ 8

Sophie metallic FM percussion synthesizer for Schwung on Ableton Move

README from GitHub, MIT

Sophie for Schwung

Sophie is a sixteen-pad metallic FM percussion synthesizer for Ableton Move, built for the Schwung framework. It makes kicks, clangs, zaps, bells, shards and unstable digital impacts from synthesis alone.

Controls

  • Tune shifts each pad independently across a four-octave range without changing its drum-rack MIDI note.
  • Model selects six operator structures: Fuse, Stack, Split, Shard, Pipe (FM plus ring modulation) and Boom (sine body with an FM attack).
  • Color moves the oscillators through inharmonic frequency ratios.
  • Metal controls FM depth and spectral density.
  • Feedback feeds each voice back into its first operator.
  • Sweep applies a fast bipolar pitch envelope.
  • Decay is the approximate audible duration, from tiny clicks to four-second ringing hits.
  • Crush combines bit-depth reduction with sample-rate reduction.
  • Drive pushes the output through a bounded nonlinear stage.
  • Cutoff, Resonance and Filter Type shape each pad with LPF, HPF, BPF, notch and DJ-style modes. The filter is the final per-pad stage, after Crush, Drive and Ring, so it can tame every harmonic those effects create.
  • Ring Time, Ring Feedback, Ring Mix and Ring Tone are a per-pad short-delay/comb effect for metallic echoes and resonant rings.

Character page (v0.6)

  • Metal Decay sets the brightness contour independently of pitch, in ms. Zero preserves the original contour on Fuse/Stack/Split/Shard and uses a 135 ms contour on Pipe/Boom. Try 100–400 ms with a longer audible Decay. On Shard it also fades the noise bloom; on the original kick it fades the parallel metallic texture.
  • Feedback Mode: Raw / Smooth. Raw preserves the original response. Smooth gives finer low-feedback control, damps the feedback loop, limits FM depth at high pitches, and uses continuous detuned oscillators in Stack/Split and the kick variants. It is a different timbre, not alias-free DSP.
  • Tail Mode: Hit / Live. Hit (default) captures each hit's settings, ideal for independent step p-locks. Live makes Color, Metal, Feedback, Cutoff and Resonance follow the pad with 5 ms smoothing on all its ringing voices. Host LFOs, recorded automation and p-locks affect those Live tails too: the module API does not distinguish their writes from knob edits. Select Live before triggering a note. Other controls remain per-hit.

Pipe and Boom work on every pad, including pad 1. Existing model numbers, factory sounds and preset defaults are retained. A short transition softens voice stealing when all twelve voices are busy.

To audition: choose Pipe, set Decay around 1 s, Metal around 50%, then compare Metal Decay at 40 and 400 ms. Try Smooth with high Feedback. Choose Boom with low Tune and positive Sweep for a round body and a metallic attack. Select Live, trigger a long hit, and move Cutoff.

Movy

The package includes a module-local movy_config.json. Movy detects it automatically and exposes Sophie as a 16-pad drum module with per-pad Main, Filter, Ring and Character pages, following the Move drum-pad note layout.

MIDI notes 36–51 follow Ableton Drum Rack and General MIDI ordering, with a different factory sound stored for every pad. Hitting a pad selects that sound in Schwung's knob grid, where all controls edit only the selected pad. Velocity controls impact level and twelve voices allow overlapping percussion.

The kick uses a low tuned sine body with a downward pitch envelope. Its folded FM layer is mixed quietly for texture, following the broad two-layer technique used in many Ponyboy-style recreations without copying any proprietary engine.

The Ring page is bypassed at its default Mix of 0%. Short times around 2–10 ms with moderate feedback produce metallic comb resonance; longer times and brighter Tone settings create more obvious echoes.

Sophie is an original instrument assembled from established synthesis techniques. It is not a Monomachine emulation, contains no Elektron code or assets, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Elektron or the estate of SOPHIE.

Build and test

./scripts/test.sh
./scripts/build.sh

The ARM64 package is written to dist/sophie-module.tar.gz.

To install a development build on a reachable Move:

./scripts/install.sh
# Or, if mDNS is unavailable:
MOVE_HOST=ableton@10.0.0.x ./scripts/install.sh

Credits

Pipe, Boom, independent brightness decay and feedback-conditioning ideas are adapted from soejrd/digisophie, MIT, source revision ee4ff40. This is a floating-point adaptation for Move, using Sophie's own voice and effects chain.

License

MIT