There are some very capable free synths out there and we’ve covered a fair few in this series. Nevertheless, they do tend to follow established synthesis methods, and this may not be particularly inspiring.
This time around we have something considerably more interesting. Pendulate (VST, VST3, AU, AAX) is a chaotic monosynth that offers a refreshingly different set of sounds.
Designed by developer Newfangled Audio and based on aspects of its paid-for synth Generate, Pendulate is made available in association with Eventide and you can grab your free permanent license and plugin instrument at its official site.
Pendulate’s design is heavily influenced by the synthesis concepts of Don Buchla and the so-called West Coast synthesis scene. In particular the interconnection between the oscillators, where one modulates the other.
Further Buchla influenced aspects include a lowpass gate and also waveshaping using a wavefolder. It combines these ideas with its very own chaotic oscillator design, which is based on the physics of a double pendulum, and this results in real time changes in the oscillator section that are chaotic but not random.
Total Chaos
Despite its slightly left field fundamentals, Pendulate’s layout is straightforward and pretty easy to understand. There’s also extensive use of graphic visualisations, which certainly helps confirm what you’re hearing. Let's take a look at the various components.
Sound generation and shaping occupies the top half of the plugin and the three sections are Double Pendulum, Wavefolder and Low Pass Gate.
The first includes the main double pendulum-based oscillator and two sub oscillators. The double pendulum combines a sine wave oscillator and chaotic generator.
The balance between the two is set with the Chaos Amount and the shape of the chaotic generator is set using the Chaos Shape. These two controls wield considerable power, but only once you introduce some differences between the sine wave oscillator and chaotic generator.
You do this using Animate, which detunes the chaotic generator from the sine wave, and by using Interval, which sets the relative musical interval between the sine wave and the chaotic generator.
To test this try setting a basic 1 octave interval and tweak the Chaos Amount and Chaos Shape. Further controls in this section include a Sync option for the sine wave and chaotic generator, and two controls to set the sub 1 and sub 2 oscillator levels.
The Wavefolder section shapes the resulting wave by folding it back on itself and is loosely based on the wavefolder in the Buchla 259 complex oscillator. This additive process generates additional harmonics.
The amount of harmonics is determined by the Folds parameter and the type of harmonics (Odd / Even) by the Symmetry parameter. Further parameters (Drive and Cutoff) let you finesse the effect and the Mix control provides a handy wet/dry balance.
The Low Pass Gate combines VCA and low pass filter. Once again this is based on a Buchla design. Options include cutoff Frequency and Resonance, meanwhile the Poles parameter shifts the filter slope between a gentle 1 pole option and a resonant 3 pole option.
You can also set the cutoff depth based on Key Track and Velocity, and also Pressure, as Pendulate supports MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) controllers. Gate settings are controlled by an ADSR envelope.
In the lower half of the plugin window you’ll find the modulators section. Pendulate uses a patch cable style system to connect these to target parameters and in the Settings page you can make these cables always visible, which can be quite handy when working out what’s going on in a preset.
From an operational perspective there are two ways you can set up a modulator. Firstly, clicking the node above a modulator reveals the available target parameters and then you can select these and set depth with the localised dial.
Alternatively, clicking the plus icon next to a target parameter reveals all available source modulators, and this provides a quick way to set up multiple modulators with a single target parameter.
In the modulators section you have the global options on the left, then the ADSR in the centre and LFO to the right. The global section includes typical core settings such as Portamento and Pitch Bend and just above this are 5 global modulator outputs - Velocity, Modulation, Keytrack, Pressure and Timbre.
The first 3 are pretty self explanatory. Pressure meanwhile is aftertouch, but this can also be polyphonic with a suitable MPE controller and MPE enabled. Finally, by default Timbre is MIDI CC74, which is usually mapped on an MPE controller. However, you can change this to any MIDI CC in the Settings page.
At first glance the ADSR looks pretty standard, but on closer inspection it actually produces three simultaneous outputs (ADSR, AD and ASR). Couple this with the looping option, which allows you to use the envelope more like an LFO, and you have a surprisingly flexible envelope.
Pendulate includes a single tempo syncable LFO with unipolar and bipolar options. Much like the envelope this also features simultaneous outputs, with five available shapes - sine, triangle, square, saw, and ramp. There’s also a global output level and this is available as a modulation target parameter, thus allowing collective control of all LFO targets.
Finally, typical housekeeping tasks including preset Library access, A/B compare, Undo/Redo, parameter Randomise, MPE (MIDI polyphonic Expression) mode and Settings are found in the top navigation bar. In the Settings page you can also make further changes to what’s visible including removing all controls so you can only see the visualisations, which can be a nice option.
Creative Chaos
Pendulate’s monosynth design makes it good for certain tasks such as basses, leads and effects. Let’s start by building a simple bass sound. Load up a fresh instance and you should have the factory Default preset.
First thing to do is remove any modulation patch cables by clicking on the target parameters. We’ve also zeroed both sub oscillator levels and set the Low Pass Gate Frequency to its maximum (20kHz). Turning to the double pendulum, the first thing to do is set the Interval - we’ve set this to Octave.
Next up, set the Shape and Chaos parameters to taste - we’ve set ours to about 56 and 31 respectively. To add some movement we’ve also increased the Animate parameter. Now is a good point to add the sub oscillator back in and here we’ve used just the -1 octave option.
This basic sound is solid but lacks character, so we turn to the Wavefolder settings. By increasing the Folds (ours is set to about 2) and adjusting the Cutoff (ours is on about 2kHz) you get a nice balance of harmonics. Now finesse this using the Symmetry control - ours is set to about 35%.
Next up, use the Low Pass Gate to set the main filter and envelope. For the Filter we’ve increased the Resonance and Poles to 4 and 3 respectively, reducing the Frequency to about 2kHz. Meanwhile, set the ADSR to quite short values - Attack 1ms, Decay 30ms, Sustain 0.10 and Release 100ms - for a more plucky sound.
Finally, heading to the Global section we’ve turned off Legato and set Portamento to Always with a medium speed of about 125. For added width we’ve activated the Stereo output. That’s our basic bass sound which we’ve saved as a preset using the Save button on the navigation bar.
Presets
Now let’s take a look at the presets. Pendulate has a very capable library of over 200 presets and with the library open selecting the Filters option reveals the relevant categories and corresponding number of presets.
There are plenty of solid basses such as Simple Bass and Triple Bass, but it’s the character bass sounds that really shine such as Power Acid or Aphexseqarpeg4. The same concept follows through into the Leads category where more regular sounds, such as Instant Autechre for example, are upstaged by more upfront presets such as Phantom Lead Us and the very edgy Broken Organ.
This isn't surprising given Pendulate’s core sound generation, which really lends itself to creative rather than functional sounds. Indeed, some of its best sounds can be found in the Texture, Rhythmic and FX categories. Check out the textures Spacelings and Chaos To Order for example. Meanwhile for more rhythmic sounds check out Back and Forth and for effects Unstable Connection.
If you fancy expanding your presets with some 3rd party extras you can import them individually or simply by adding folders, which Pendulate will add to its Banks category when you select the Rescan option.
There are plenty of free presets available on the web, and to get started you may want to check out the following:
Finally, as mentioned Pendulate uses elements of its paid for sibling, Generate, and this along with other Newfangled plugins can be found at the company’s official site.
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