Exploring the Powerful Features of Current Synth - Create Epic Bass Sounds!

Tutorial | Oct 11, 2023

In this video, I introduce a new plugin called Current by Minimal Audio which combines various features that musicians love. The plugin includes wavetable oscillators, a granular engine, sub oscillator with harmonics, a sampler, and a range of filters. Additionally, the plugin offers modulation sources, keyboard controls, macro controls, and an impressive effect section.

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Questions & Answers #

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

What features does the Current plugin by Minimal Audio offer? #

The Current plugin includes two wavetable oscillators, a granular engine, a sub oscillator, and a sampler. It also offers various filters, FM and AM modulation options, extensive modulation sources, keyboard controls, a macro control section, and a wide range of effects. Additionally, it includes a content cloud system with downloadable presets, wave tables, and samples.

Does Current have a built-in wave table editor? #

No, Current does not have a built-in wave table editor in its initial release. However, users can select wave tables from the preset menu or import wave tables from their library into the plugin.

What are some of the effects included in the Current plugin? #

The Current plugin includes a range of effects from Minimal Audio, such as flex curves, cluster delay, rift distortion, morph EQ, hybrid filter, ripple phaser, swarm reverb, and diffuse compressor. These effects can be used to enhance and shape the sound of the synthesizer.

How can the Current plugin be used to create a sound? #

To create a sound using the Current plugin, users can select wavetables, adjust settings for oscillators, filters, and effects, utilize modulation sources and macros, and apply various modulation techniques such as frequency modulation and amplitude modulation. The plugin offers a wide range of options to experiment with and customize the sound to suit individual preferences.

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] [Music]
[00:00:13] So this is current, the first instrument by minimal audio and they try to put
[00:00:17] everything you love inside of one plug-in. So we have here for instance on this table
[00:00:23] we have two wavetable oscillators. You can change the wavetables if you want to here, right?
[00:00:29] We have different modes for spectral and time settings here where we can change the
[00:00:35] wavetable in different ways. We have unison on both of these oscillators here. Then we have
[00:00:42] granular engine where you can load in some waveforms and then scan through the waveform,
[00:00:48] you know, make nice pads with that. A lot of options already in here. Then we have here
[00:00:55] sub oscillator with a root or fundamental and some harmonics. You can change up here the
[00:01:03] harmonics if you want to, the different modes. You can change the loudness of it. You can change
[00:01:08] the tilts of the harmonics. You can, I think you can increase the partials here. So you can do a
[00:01:16] lot of stuff just with the sub oscillator. Then we have an additional sampler here also with
[00:01:22] different playback modes, random offset for this, for the playback start and so on. So also the
[00:01:28] sampler is really feature rich. On top of that, on top of wavetables granular and sub and sampler,
[00:01:37] we also have a lot of filters here. On the right side you can see we have basic filters, right?
[00:01:41] Some morphing filters, creative filters, even comp filters here. So we can create some physical
[00:01:49] modeling patches with that. And the frequency knob here also supports keyboard logging or
[00:01:55] key tracking if you want to. So you can make music with the filters. You also have two filters here.
[00:02:01] You can switch it up from series to parallel. So you can use both of these filters in different
[00:02:08] modes if you want to. And if that's not enough, you can switch over to the FMAM tab. You can say
[00:02:15] you want to frequency modulate oscillator B or oscillator A with oscillator B to create some
[00:02:23] more rich harmonics. And then you can switch from FM to AM to amplitude modulation if you want to.
[00:02:30] So a lot of options already here on these upper tabs.
[00:02:39] Then on top of that, you get also, of course, down here a lot of modulation sources.
[00:02:45] You get curves, which are basically mSEX. You can switch here this to envelopes, so ADSR,
[00:02:52] right? An LFO, mSEC and envelope follower. So you can use audio signals to change or modulate
[00:03:00] some stuff inside of the synthesizer. On the right side here we have some keyboard controls. So
[00:03:06] modulation, mod wheel, key tracking, velocity, and so after touch here. And I think this is pressure.
[00:03:14] So if you use MPE, you can use that also in here. On the left side here, we got also some macro
[00:03:21] controls. You can map different parameters here to these macros and then control that here easily
[00:03:28] from the left side. Then we have a nice effect section. And this is really, yeah, that's the
[00:03:35] that's really extensive here because you get all the minimal audio, audio plug-in effects in here.
[00:03:43] So we can see here we have the flex curves, cluster delay. We can include that or rift distortion,
[00:03:50] morph EQ, hybrid filter, ripple phaser, swarm reverb, and diffuse compressor here
[00:03:56] with different OTT settings. So you can make nice bass sounds with this and put some different
[00:04:04] OTT presets on here. Even classic OTTs in there. Nice. So there's a lot of stuff in here. And
[00:04:13] because that's not enough, they also included stream their own kind of content cloud system.
[00:04:20] So you can search in stream here. And I think that's subscription based. So you have to,
[00:04:25] so you need to have a running subscription here that you need to pay monthly. But then you get
[00:04:32] basically presets for current and also all the effects. You get different wave tables you can
[00:04:38] download here. Again, just download it or even just put it into different oscillators from this
[00:04:46] preset tab here. You can also scan for samples in here. And then, yeah, it's basically everything
[00:04:53] is already included. The only thing I couldn't find in current is a wave table editor. You can
[00:05:00] choose here and select different wave tables from the preset menu here. And you can also go maybe
[00:05:08] into your library and select some wave tables you already own and drag it into here and say maybe
[00:05:16] this is the existing wave table and then just use that. But there's no kind of integrated wave table
[00:05:22] editor you know from maybe zero or vital. Maybe there's something like this in the future,
[00:05:29] but in the first release here it's not included. So keep that in mind. Okay, so let's create a new
[00:05:35] preset here. We head over to this menu and say init preset. You can see we have also here create
[00:05:41] user packs. So you can create your own user packs for whatever. Some over sampling options,
[00:05:47] reset, you use size, frame rate and so on. So let's init here the preset and we add up here with
[00:05:54] just a wave table, a saw wave table and we want to do some kind of base. So let's maybe use here
[00:06:03] something growly. Formant crunch maybe.
[00:06:17] And I look more of a look. Formant crunch maybe. Something like this.
[00:06:26] Okay, so let's create units in here.
[00:06:33] Bit of spectral morph.
[00:06:40] Let's go for format here and shift.
[00:06:42] Okay, I kind of like it. So let's start here with the first envelope. Let's say we want to
[00:07:04] slowly fade in and you want to change the position here of the wave table
[00:07:09] and also of the warp.
[00:07:25] Okay, let's synchronize this here.
[00:07:32] One half note, half a bar, one bar.
[00:07:39] So that's the first sound. Okay, so let's head over to the sampler here or sub activate your sub
[00:07:51] and just disable here the first wave table for a moment and use your multi. Increase the
[00:07:59] partials. You can tilt this. Add some distortion.
[00:08:06] Okay, this is our base here and then we activate the first wave table but we turn down the volume
[00:08:25] here and we feed the first oscillator into the sub via frequency modulation.
[00:08:53] Nice, so we probably also want to use the envelope for that.
[00:08:57] You can create your slope.
[00:09:19] Okay, nice. Then maybe a filter here on the sub because oscillator is muted anyway.
[00:09:37] Now spread. Let's go for morphing filter.
[00:09:40] Let's use also envelope one here.
[00:09:53] Okay, so let's go for morphing filter.
[00:10:03] Maybe it's not the right decision but I go with this here for a moment.
[00:10:22] Okay, so we have already some frequency modulation.
[00:10:28] Maybe I use the LFO here, synchronized.
[00:10:35] Like this and let's use this here for the frequency modulation.
[00:10:46] Maybe that's too much here. Let's go for morphing 12.
[00:11:10] Maybe some distortion in the end will help. By the way, there is also here a limiter on the master.
[00:11:17] If you switch this on, there's a limiter and you can't basically
[00:11:21] exceed 0 dB. If you press this twice, you have a soft clip, I think.
[00:11:35] We can basically push or drive everything into this master clip, which is really nice.
[00:11:41] So let's head over to the effects here and let's see. We add maybe a bit of distortion.
[00:11:55] Resive tone. Not too much.
[00:12:07] Just to get a bit of noise and a bit of overtones on top.
[00:12:16] Okay, then we use maybe here the same Morphing Q.
[00:12:23] And some Morph dots here.
[00:12:29] Maybe a second one.
[00:12:37] Maybe too much.
[00:12:49] Let's try this one.
[00:13:18] That's too much, I think. So let's remove this here. Move LFO and
[00:13:24] use maybe a different one. Let's go for curves. Trigger, sync on one bar.
[00:13:44] Okay, and then we add here maybe again a bit of distortion.
[00:13:57] Multi-band.
[00:14:06] And here a bit of multi-band.
[00:14:13] To do, use compressor. ODD.
[00:14:27] I really like this tilt thing here.
[00:14:39] It can amplify the high end or the top end.
[00:14:41] Maybe in between a small reverb. Holy shit.
[00:14:50] Maybe use the envelope for that to bring in the balance.
[00:15:02] Also the mix.
[00:15:20] Maybe the Rift distortion after that.
[00:15:37] I mean, you get so easily so nice basses out of this, I think.
[00:16:05] Let's use here a second filter on the sub maybe or use it in parallel.
[00:16:29] Line series.
[00:16:33] There's even a mix knob here for the filters. Nice.
[00:16:39] I think that's better.
[00:16:42] Yeah, I really like this. So then maybe a macro here for the speed settings.
[00:16:54] You can even see here where you end up with the modulation. You can see here.
[00:17:13] So basically the maximum value of the macro ends up here on 1/8 note.
[00:17:28] So, let me change the speed of that. I don't think so.
[00:17:53] Yeah, let's use this here.
[00:18:23] And the macro too maybe to change the sound drastically.
[00:18:26] Let's go here for shape twist pinch.
[00:18:49] Yeah.
[00:18:54] Let's see. Different frequency here.
[00:18:58] And on the effects. Morphic Q we use here. Different scale.
[00:19:18] And maybe a different shift.
[00:19:21] Slight spread maybe.
[00:19:35] Different distortion.
[00:19:44] Oh yeah, different reverb slides here.
[00:19:57] Yeah, I think that's a nice deep drum bass.
[00:20:22] Maybe a bit too much, but I kind of like it. So I want to show you basically how to make a sound
[00:20:38] with this and what you can do with it. Okay. That's it for this video. Thanks for watching.
[00:20:47] Leave a like if you like the video. You can try out this synth called Current on the page
[00:20:54] of minimal audio. Link is in the description below. Thanks for watching. See you in the next video. Bye.