endogen

Requirements & Usage Options

System Requirements

What's Included

ENDOGEN comes in two formats to suit different workflows:

Usage Options

Note: ENDOGEN is a standalone synthesis environment that runs independently as its own application, not inside a DAW. Both formats also require SuperCollider (included in package with setup instructions).

Overview

ENDOGEN is a modular lowercase synthesis environment built around microsound, drift, feedback, and near-silence. It includes two generative oscillators and ten additional oscillators with direct frequency control, all of which can be individually tuned and operate within constrained pitch structures, featuring octave scale shifting and continuous frequency control.

Beyond this, ENDOGEN includes 14 complex modal synthesis modules modeled after vactrol-like dynamics and the frequency responses of tapes, cabinets, and amplifiers. These modules do not aim for faithful emulation, but for behavioral resemblance: slow energy transfer, asymmetric decay, spectral bending, and subtle saturation.

ENDOGEN is particularly suited for the creation of deep atmospherical drones grounded in lowercase and microsound aesthetics. Long-duration sound masses evolve slowly near silence, shaped by drift, feedback, and internal instability rather than gesture or rhythm. Micro-variations in spectrum and amplitude become the primary musical material, allowing drones to feel physically present, fragile, and continuously alive even at extremely low listening levels.

Designed for Listening, Performance and Recordings

ENDOGEN is built for live performance and studio work. Its architecture supports extended listening sessions, real-time manipulation during performances, and direct recording of its output for use in compositions and sound design projects.

~150 continuous parameters
Small numeric changes affect long-term behavior rather than immediate results.

ENDOGEN 9.0 ~ Complete ITB Synthesis System

With this update, ENDOGEN positions itself at the very top of the most complete ITB systems available, spanning nearly the entire spectrum of synthesis methods — from microscopic sound design to massive spectral structures.

New Modules

System Evolution

This update transforms ENDOGEN from a specialized lowercase synthesis environment into a comprehensive ITB system covering microscopic chaos, harmonic micropolyphony, tectonic sub-bass architecture, electromagnetic noise modeling, and analog surface degradation—all operating within the same lowercase-safe headroom philosophy.

See the Synthesis Modules section for complete technical details on each new module.

CDM Article: endogen-lowercase-synthesis

ENDOGEN is a Max/MSP + SuperCollider synthesis environment designed for lowercase music, microsound, and deep atmospheric drone.

Highlighted by CDM as a deep exploratory instrument for electroacoustic lowercase synthesis, ENDOGEN emphasizes slow listening, generative processes, and subtle temporal behaviors rather than immediate results. Very low levels by default, delicate dynamics, and dense evolving textures reward patient listening and long-term exploration.

Understanding Endogen's Nature

Endogen is more like a sailboat than a speedboat (Peter Kirn - Create Digital Music): you learn to work with currents and system reactions instead of forcing linear outcomes, and many behaviors that may seem strange at first often become powerful creative tools with experience.

Physical System Approach

ENDOGEN is designed to behave like a physical system rather than emulate one. Its synthesis engine is particularly suited to modeling the kinds of signals you get from contact microphones, pickups, and field recordings focused on material resonance. Instead of replaying or filtering recordings, ENDOGEN works on excitation, friction, and energy transfer, allowing resonant bodies to emerge from noise, impulses, and continuous pressure.

Material Simulation

This makes it especially effective for simulating:

• contact mic interactions with wood, metal, glass, membranes, and cavities
• unstable resonances typical of piezo pickups and surface transducers
• low-level feedback and micro-vibrations found in close-range field recording

Liquid-like Behaviors

Beyond solid materials, ENDOGEN can also articulate liquid-like behaviors. By shaping turbulence, friction, and airflow-like excitation, the system can suggest:

• different liquid densities and viscosities
• variations in flow speed and friction
• the perceived size of openings or orifices through which air or liquid is forced
• bubbling, gurgling, splashing, and breathy pressure states that continuously morph rather than loop

Rather than discrete events, these behaviors exist on a continuum: friction becomes tone, noise becomes resonance, and resonance collapses back into instability. At very low amplitudes, this produces soundscapes that feel tactile, intimate, and physically present — closer to listening through a contact mic than to traditional synthesis.

A Max-SuperCollider Hybrid

ENDOGEN is controlled by a Max interface, but the main audio engine is in SuperCollider for very practical reasons:

• Accumulation of code and sonic research
  Over the past two years I've studied Supercollider in depth and accumulated many synthesis "pieces" that, when listened to, felt closer to the kind of behavior and timbre I was looking for: a very direct quality, sometimes even a bit "wrong" (in a good way), with a response that recalls certain LPG-type articulations and certain modular habits.
• Unification in a single system
  At a certain point I did a "collect & save" job: thousands of lines, one single sound patch, and then wiring between sections to create interactions where needed. Not everything is interdependent, but some areas are in subtle ways.
• Better user interface (Max) without giving up sound (SC)
  SuperCollider is extremely powerful, but its standard interfaces are visually harsh and not very ergonomic. Max instead is unbeatable as an interface and control tool. So: SC for the sound, Max to make the instrument usable.
• It's not ideology, it's project choice
  Max remains central and for me it's an irreplaceable way of thinking. Here SC was chosen because that engine, for this specific project, gives me exactly the kind of sonic "matter" I wanted to preserve.

Technology note (Max ↔ SuperCollider)
Communication between Max and SuperCollider happens via OSC. After installing a small set of dependencies, the launcher automatically starts a lightweight SuperCollider server in the background. The engine status can be monitored inside the Max interface, while a parallel macOS Terminal session—opened automatically by the launcher—provides a clearer, more fluid readout of system activity during use. No manual interaction with SuperCollider is required.

electroacoustic lowercase synthesis

endogen is a synthesis environment designed for electroacoustic lowercase music and microsound: very low levels, subtle dynamics, and details that emerge slowly. If you’re drawn to Steve Roden’s micro-event aesthetics or reduced listening practices within minimal electroacoustic traditions, you’re in the right territory.

endogen is not a preset machine and it’s not meant to deliver instant results. It is an instrument for slow listening: patience changes everything.

Listening first (recommended)

Before opening endogen, it helps to listen to a few works that define this territory. This isn’t about references for their own sake — it aligns expectations and makes the instrument easier to understand.

• Forms of Paper — Steve Roden
• Un Peu de Neige Salie — Bernard Günter
• Herbario — Federico Durand (12k) — and other releases on 12k
• Selected works by Thomas Köner (especially relevant for drone + sub/infra approaches)

A Reference:

In terms of lineage, ENDOGEN resonates with the ultra-quiet, material-focused sensibility of Steve Roden especially the way Forms of Paper treats fragile sound as a kind of closeup tactile field, where micro-events, air, and surface become the actual “composition.” That same attention to near-silence and minute behavior is central here: sound is not pushed forward, but allowed to emerge as a granular, intimate evidence of process.

A related point of reference is Bernard Günter’s Un Peu de Neige Salie, where extreme reduction, distance, and barely-there sound events create a fragile perceptual field. In that work, silence, residue, and spectral imbalance become compositional tools rather than absences. ENDOGEN shares this attitude: sound is treated as a minimal trace, shaped by slow internal processes and subtle instability, inviting a mode of listening focused on texture, threshold, and the physical presence of sound at its most restrained.

This kind of sonic attention — where small objects, quiet gestures, and fragile moments become the focus — is central to endogen's design philosophy.

Video

Watch demonstrations and sound examples from endogen on the official YouTube playlist.

Very low levels: what it means (and what you can do)

endogen runs very quietly by default. This is not a limitation: it’s a design choice that preserves micro-detail and keeps stable headroom when multiple modules are active.

Why start so low

• Preserve micro-transients and fragile detail
• Maintain headroom with many layers active
• Avoid spectral collapse when the bandwidth opens up
• Let infra-low, mid textures, and high micro-detail coexist without masking

Raising level is part of the process

endogen is meant to be turned up. Depending on your destination, you can raise monitoring level, use external soft compression, and do downstream gain staging. As you push level, the bandwidth becomes more explicit: infra-low movement turns physical, and high micro-detail reads as air and grain.

Exercise: Permafrost “shockwave” test

A practical way to understand endogen’s calibration is to test it with a simple, stable source.

1. Open Permafrost.
2. Select the first slider DRONE F.
3. Keep the system stable (few modules, no chaos).
4. Slowly raise your listening level.

That simple sine becomes a heavy, “teutonic” component of the environment. As you push it, you can perceive a kind of slow pressure wave — not because it is aggressive, but because endogen is tuned to hold energy over long timescales without breaking.

Context (why endogen exists)

We live in an era of extremely advanced VST instruments with massive technical possibilities and virtually unlimited palettes. That’s not a problem by itself — but it raises a basic question:

In earlier phases of electronic music, limited technology often made aesthetics more direct and easier to articulate. Today, it’s easier to get lost in possibility instead of making a clear choice. endogen responds to that condition: it doesn’t add more options — it narrows the field and commits to a specific territory.

What kind of technology endogen uses

The system is built on advanced audio technology, designed with a deeply sophisticated modulation and processing structure. It is:

• behavior-oriented, not function-oriented
• systemic, not performance-first
• built for listening, not for demonstration

Under the hood there are complex structures, but the goal isn’t to show complexity. The goal is slow interaction: small changes in density, balance, and time create real differences that only become obvious through attention.

Expectations (important)

endogen is not a “wow in 5 seconds” instrument. It rewards slow listening, careful balance, and small changes over time.

What it is not (and why this helps)

• No presets. endogen behaves more like a bench instrument / tape setup than a recallable synth.
• No parameter-by-parameter manual. endogen works best when you explore modules as behaviors.
• Not fully cybernetic. Some areas are interdependent, others are intentionally more independent.

How to use it (the rule that avoids 90% of questions)

Open one module. Set density to minimum. Listen. Raise density slowly.

Many modules have a Density / Rate / Activity control — treat it as your macro lens.

• All modules OFF (or at zero output if no on/off)
• Enable one module
• Start with very low density
• Raise density gradually (touch nothing else)
• Only then adjust tone / filtering / dynamics
• Add a second module and repeat

Working Slowly with Detail

To generate lowercase soundscapes, work on modules very slowly, keeping the volume of elements low. While you can obviously reach high volumes, creating lowercase textures requires focusing on the small and the detail. All endogen modules are designed for this: from complex noise generators to organic modal synthesis to vactrol LPG synthesis.

Try to model small objects falling, hitting, and resonating on different surfaces. Think of marble impacts, soft wooden taps, glass fragments shifting — micro-events that reveal themselves through careful attention and patient listening.

Patience: what to expect in the first minutes

• Many changes are micro and happen over long timescales
• After 10 seconds it may feel like “nothing is happening”
• In practice, endogen often works through slow emergences

In the lowercase context, this is intentional.

Randomization and organic LFO

Many parameters offer two approaches: randomization (discrete “dice” changes) or an organic LFO (slow, non-periodic continuous motion).

The organic LFO is built in gen and behaves closer to irregular drift than classic sine LFOs. It is conceptually related to the Ghost LFO used in my other tool, Envion (brief mention only).

Resonant Objects: LFO, randomization, TRIGGER

Resonant Objects is built around a complex triple oscillator feeding a vactrol-modeled Low Pass Gate. The result can move from dry, glassy impacts (marble-like) to soft percussive LPG behavior (Buchla-style “bongo” articulation).

Randomization vs LFO (in this module)

Here, randomization is mainly for fast exploration: generating dozens of configurations (including fine-tuning variants) to map the range of resonances the module can create. The organic LFO is for long, coherent evolution once you’ve found a region you like.

TRIGGER (daily sound design)

With single triggers or very low density, you can generate isolated hits. This supports a quick collect & save workflow: generate → record → reuse anywhere outside endogen.

Complex VCO & Mechanics

ToyVCO — FM Oscillator

ToyVCO is a three-operator FM oscillator with ladder filter control, resonance, and FM-of-FM routing. It's capable of generating everything from small, sweet, slightly lo-fi toy-like sounds, reminiscent of children's instruments, to striking basslines with a sharp, pronounced bite.

The Mechanics Section — Beyond Simple Tape Emulation

The Mechanics section demonstrates the depth of ENDOGEN's object modeling approach. This is not a simple tape emulation—the system was developed with extremely demanding specifications for physical behavior and timbral authenticity.

The system reproduces warm dual-stereo characteristics, alongside a capstan modeled on a solenoid that introduces frequency inversion as part of its mechanical behavior.

As speed increases, low frequencies grow exponentially, becoming powerful and almost oppressive. When slowing down, the low end gradually thins and depletes—mirroring real physical tape mechanics.

There is also dedicated control over capstan flutter and an equalizer with inverted phase. Combined with the deck section, the entire object modeling turns into an ancient machine, operating at a very high level of abstraction.

From Fragile to Rural-Industrial

ENDOGEN can move effortlessly from subtle, fragile soundscapes to a rural-industrial sonic environment, without breaking coherence. The Mechanics section is essential to this range, providing the mechanical character that grounds synthesis in physical, tactile reality.

Cybernetic areas

endogen is partly cybernetic: some regions self-influence through simple feedback relations. This becomes more evident when balancing higher-energy / noise modules alongside other layers. These behaviours open a space for a deeper exploration of cybernetic thinking, in particular the work of Roland Kayn and Jaap Vink, and of feedback understood not merely as an effect, but as a generative and structural principle shaping the system’s long-term behaviour.

• Air Pressure
• Cybernet
• Mstnagra
• Herbario

Synthesis Modules

ENDOGEN includes 30+ specialized synthesis modules, each designed to generate specific sonic behaviors. These modules are not presets but distinct synthesis engines, capable of producing textures ranging from microsound to large-scale emergent patterns.

Core Synthesis

Generative Oscillators

Modal & Resonant Synthesis

Cybernetic Systems

Tape & Mechanical Systems

Noise & Textural Generators

Spatial & Environmental

High-Frequency Layers

Processing & Utilities

Lowercase & Microsound Generators ~ ENDOGEN 9.0

Harmonic & Spectral Synthesis ~ ENDOGEN 9.0

Sub-Bass & Deep Structures ~ ENDOGEN 9.0

Noise Architecture ~ ENDOGEN 9.0

Corpora Sample — 2D Corpus Explorer

What is a Corpus?

A corpus is a collection of recorded sounds that ENDOGEN analyzes and breaks into many small fragments, organizing them in a 2D explorable space. Instead of playing samples linearly, you navigate their micro-parts—attacks, tails, textures, and near-silent details—using them as compositional material.

Machine Listening & Audio Descriptors

The system uses machine-listening tools to analyze large collections of sound through audio descriptors—numerical representations of features such as spectral shape, energy, noisiness, brightness, and temporal behavior. These descriptors enable sounds to be automatically segmented into thousands of micro-units: transients, tails, resonant fragments, and barely audible details.

Lowercase & Microsound Practice

This approach is particularly valuable for lowercase practices, allowing composers to work with microscopic structures and near-silent material that would be difficult to isolate manually. The ability to navigate sound at extremely low dynamic levels, combined with precise segmentation control, enables detailed exploration of fragile sonic components and unstable resonances.

(Eno)gen — Hypnagogic Wavetable Oscillator

(Eno)gen is a complex wavetable voice with strong cinematic and hypnagogic capabilities—perhaps the most dreamlike of all ENDOGEN's oscillators. Originally adapted from SuperCollider code by composer Eli Fieldsteel, it has been extensively recalibrated for ENDOGEN's architecture with custom headroom management, OSC integration, and performance-oriented controls.

Core Architecture

(Eno)gen is a dual-layer generative wavetable pad: a harmonic ambient foundation built on a minor pentatonic scale using 8 detuned oscillators per note, layered with algorithmic microsound rhythmic patterns. It features 10 procedurally generated wavetables with increasing complexity and 7 weighted rhythmic patterns shaped by a chaos parameter.

Key Parameters

• Density — controls click rhythm and event distribution
• Brightness — defines frequency range and spectral content
• Chaos — introduces pattern variability and rhythmic unpredictability
• padAmp — harmonic layer amplitude
• padDensity — pad layer texture complexity
• reverbDecay — spatial depth and tail duration

Enigma Modulation Mode

Enigma is a specialized modulation behavior within (Eno)gen that creates harmonic ambiguity through slow, controlled structural modulation. It does not introduce new pitch material or scales—instead, it acts on how pitch is articulated over time.

Enigma constrains pitch movement to an internal interval logic while continuously deforming the oscillator's behavior. Harmonic relationships remain coherent but are subtly reweighted and recontextualized, making the tonal center feel present yet unstable.

Creative Applications

(Eno)gen excels at creating soundscapes suitable for extended listening—hours-long generative sessions. The pitch shift capability allows movement between cinematic territories and more abstract, Ligeti-like atmospheres. The 12 dB/octave filter brings sounds to the very edge of perception, supporting ENDOGEN's design philosophy of accompanying sleep and deep listening states.

The Enigma modulation mode is particularly suited for long-form pads, suspended tonal fields, and cinematic or hypnagogic textures, where pitch becomes material rather than destination. The oscillator integrates seamlessly with ENDOGEN's flutter and dropout mechanics, and pairs naturally with material from the Corpora sampler.

Sampler Reservoir — Sound Accumulation Layer

Architecture

• 120 playable keys spanning the full frequency range
• Polybuffer architecture allowing entire folders of sounds to be loaded at once
• Instant switching between one-shot and looping behavior

Natural Percussive Envelope

Both one-shot and looping modes include an optional exponential percussive envelope, carefully tuned for ENDOGEN's dynamic behavior.

This makes every gesture feel physical, responsive, and integrated into the ecosystem's headroom philosophy.

From Gestures to Evolving Textures

In one-shot mode, Reservoir behaves like a precise gestural sampler—perfect for microsound articulation and electroacoustic phrasing.

In loop mode, the same material becomes something else entirely: dense, drifting textures emerge as sounds accumulate, overlap, and interact over time, generating rich evolving structures rather than static loops.

Shared Spatial Engine with Phase Garden

Sampler Reservoir includes a dedicated reverb engine that is shared with Phase Garden, placing both sampled material and multichannel temporal layers inside the same acoustic space.

This creates a unified spatial field where synthesis, corpus processing, sampling, and phase-distributed structures coexist naturally.

Design Philosophy

Sampler Reservoir is not meant for triggering clips. It is designed to store sound energy, reshape it, and let it drift back into the system.

INSIGHT — Stochastic Sequencer for Reservoir

Sequence Creation Methods

• Manual step drawing for precise gestural control
• Random generation for instant evolving patterns
• Probabilistic behaviors for organic variation and controlled chaos

Rhythmic & Structural Control

INSIGHT drives the Reservoir ecosystem with:

Integration with Reservoir Modes

INSIGHT works seamlessly with both one-shot and loop modes, adapting its behavior to support both precise microsound articulation and dense evolving textures.

Source material matters — you can sculpt sound first inside Corpora Sample by isolating thin spikes, residuals, or microsound fragments, then re-import the processed material into Reservoir for sequencing and performance.

Live Recording & MIDI Performance

Two Powerful Performance Modes

Envelope Behavior Options

Both modes support flexible envelope behavior:

• One-shot — Percussive, single-trigger playback
• Loop — Continuous looping for evolving textures
• One-shot + loop gate — Hybrid mode combining both behaviors

Live Recording & Cybernetic Sampling Flow

You can now record live directly into Reservoir and Phase Garden buffers, with remote normalization control. Buffer length is fully adjustable, and recording defaults to circular looping — perfect for evolving textures and microsound workflows.

Performance & Sound Design

The combination of MIDI performance, live recording, and stochastic sequencing transforms ENDOGEN into a complete ecosystem where:

Gestures become material → material becomes texture → texture feeds back into new synthesis. You can perform live with your MIDI controller, capture those performances into buffers, process them through Corpora or Phase Garden, and re-introduce them into the generative flow.

This workflow is especially powerful when combined with INSIGHT's probabilistic sequencing — allowing you to create hybrid compositions that blend human performance with algorithmic evolution.

Phase Garden — Multichannel Spatial Motion Engine

Concept & Origins

Phase Garden is based on and re-adapted from a patch originally developed by Umut Eldem (aka Hearing Glass), an active creator and educator within the Max/MSP community, known for exploring multichannel spatial techniques and advanced sound design.

It introduces a dynamic spatial motion layer that goes far beyond simple stereo panning, distributing sound across multiple channels through continuously evolving, synchronized pan movements driven by multichannel LFOs and playback-position-based spatial algorithms.

Spatial Behavior & Psychoacoustics

Phase Garden operates across the full frequency spectrum, but is designed so that textures and sonic landscapes constantly migrate between left and right channels in an organic and unpredictable way. This behavior is grounded in psychoacoustic principles of perceived motion, spectral variation, and micro-temporal phase shifts, enhancing depth, presence, and spatial immersion even in standard stereo listening.

Extensive refinement was invested to avoid static or overly digital results, aiming instead for a living, breathing spatial environment in constant transformation.

Transforming One-Shot Sounds

Phase Garden can transform short one-shot sounds (808s, kalimba hits, percussion) into melodic material and complex evolving textures through pitch variation, timestretching, and multichannel panning.

Key Parameters

Formula: Channel_N = base + (step × channel_number)
Example: step=0.1, base=0.1 → Ch1=0.1x, Ch2=0.2x... Ch10=1.0x

Effect: Creates temporal displacement across 10 channels where identical audio material plays at different speeds simultaneously, generating dense polyrhythmic textures and evolving spatial depth.

Panning Modes

1. Linear Pan — uniform stereo spread
2. Custom Pan — individual channel control (use multi-dials)
3. LFO Sine Wave — automatic oscillating pan
4. Loop Sync — pan follows buffer position
5. Loop Sync L&R — independent L/R sync panning

Additional Controls

• Multi-dial row — Individual channel pan positions (custom mode)
• Linear pan dial — Global stereo positioning (linear mode)
• Timestretch toggle — pitch correction on/off
• Replace — load new audio file

Note: To turn off the module, set all dials to zero.

External Input Recorder — Live Capture to Reservoir

What It Does

External Input Recorder is a direct recording interface designed to capture live audio from external sources and inject it seamlessly into ENDOGEN's sampling environment. Unlike traditional audio import workflows that require stopping, browsing files, and loading audio, this recorder provides instantaneous capture and integration.

The recorded material bypasses the typical file management process and flows directly into the Sampler Reservoir and Phase Garden, making it immediately available for:

• Real-time granular processing — fragment and reshape the captured audio
• Spatial distribution — spread recordings across Phase Garden's multichannel field
• Temporal manipulation — time-stretch, reverse, and layer recorded gestures
• Cybernetic feedback loops — feed live input back through synthesis chains

Typical Use Cases

Technical Features

Workflow Integration

The External Input Recorder is designed to feel like a natural extension of the instrument rather than an external utility. It operates in the background, always available, requiring minimal interaction:

1. Select your audio input (hardware synth, microphone, contact mic, or any connected device)
2. Hit record and capture your material (gestures, textures, or sustained tones)
3. Stop recording when finished
4. Material is instantly available in Reservoir and Phase Garden with zero delay

From that moment, the captured audio behaves exactly like any other sample in the ecosystem—it can be granularized, looped, reversed, spatially distributed, modulated, and fed back through the synthesis chain.

How to Use ENDOGEN — Performative Approach

Performative Instrument Design

ENDOGEN was conceived as a performative instrument—almost like an album that could be sent back into a live context. For this reason, the controls behave like an auto-mix system, with gradual transitions, companding, and continuous fade-in / fade-out processes.

Nothing is instant or abrupt—everything unfolds over time. The system communicates via OSC (Open Sound Control), so especially at the beginning it can feel disorienting.

Parameter Movement: Gestures, Timing & Pacing

The way you move the controls is an essential part of the sound and of the instrument's behavior itself. People often interact with ENDOGEN parameters in a reactive or "strange" way because they expect immediate feedback.

Pay attention to gestures, timing, and pacing. Smooth, gradual movements allow the auto-mix system to respond musically. Rapid changes can cause the system to lag behind or create unintended buildup as multiple fade processes overlap.

Auto-Mix System Behavior

The auto-mix system includes companding, which redistributes dynamic energy across ultra-quiet micro-events, mid textures, and deep low-frequency structures. This means parameter changes don't just affect volume—they affect the entire timbral balance of the system.

When performing, consider that you're not just controlling individual modules—you're conducting an ecosystem where every action influences the whole. This is why gesture quality matters more than speed or precision.

Multi-Channel Phase-Shifted LFO System

ENDOGEN features an advanced 5-channel LFO architecture with independent phase relationships, feeding a 4×9 modulation matrix (36 destinations) that enables nuanced parameter modulation across multiple synthesis modules simultaneously.

This transforms the system into a hyper-active, hyper-generative modulation machine, capable of exploring vast parameter spaces and revealing emergent sonic behaviors that would be impossible to achieve through manual control or single-LFO modulation.

Core Features

• 5 independent LFO outputs with phase offsets (0°, 72°, 144°, 216°, 288°)
• Multiple waveform types — sine, +ramp, -ramp, triangle, square, sample & hold
• Flexible modulation modes — unipolar, bipolar, additive, absolute
• 4×9 modulation matrix — 36 parameter destinations across synthesis modules
• Synchronized movement with phase-staggered relationships
• Per-channel velocity control and dedicated capture of subtle micro-variations

Design Rationale

Traditional single-LFO systems modulate all parameters in phase, creating predictable and uniform sonic results. By distributing modulation across five phase-shifted channels, the system explores parameter combinations that would be impossible with synchronized movement, revealing hidden resonances, micro-timbral shifts, and emergent textural behaviors across the entire synthesis environment.

Creative Applications

Technical Implementation

Master phasor with 5 parallel processing chains feeding a 4×9 modulation matrix. Phase offsets applied via additive delay with wrapping. Independent scaling and gating per channel. Multiple waveform types available (sine, ramps, triangle, square, sample & hold) with selectable modulation modes (unipolar, bipolar, additive, absolute) for maximum flexibility. Common enable/disable control across all channels. Fully backward compatible with existing workflows — no changes to OSC protocol or core module behavior.

Core architecture (overview)

Companding (dynamic balance)

A central part of endogen’s sound design is an extensive companding system (upward + downward compression). Instead of flattening the mix, it redistributes dynamic energy so ultra-quiet micro-events, mid textures, and deep low-frequency structures can coexist without masking each other. The goal is a dense but transparent field that remains stable over long durations.

Monitoring

endogen is designed for full-range monitoring. Use good headphones or proper speakers/sub to catch the infra-low movement and the high micro-detail safely.

Development Journey

During the development of this system, I had to find a way to make the pure coding environment communicate, and the only robust and viable path turned out to be Open Sound Control from Max/MSP. So I designed a fairly substantial interface to articulate the timbre of the coding side with very little effort, and above all oriented toward performance and recording.

This approach bypasses the classic method of real-time evaluation and compilation in SuperCollider. Of course, this required a significant effort, mainly to understand not only the automation logics (gen~ DSP and pure Max), but also levels and scales, in order to make the whole system sound coherent in terms of frequency response.

I can finally say that I managed to achieve my goal. I have been experimenting with modular synthesis for years, and I am a huge enthusiast of vactrol circuits and field recording. For this reason, I always tried to benchmark at home, carefully evaluating the timbral response of the low pass gates I own.

It was an exhausting process for me, living secluded in my own small world.

About the Author

endogen is developed by Emiliano Pennisi, a contemporary sound artist and composer. Learn more about his work and projects.