Saccara
by Visiomedia Software Corporation
(Visiomedia Software Corporation Website)

Download from the
Author's Website

 
Operating System:
File Size: 100K
License:
License Conditions:
System Requirements:

DirectX8.0, mfc42.dll, Windows98 or Windows2000, DirectX Soundcard, Pentium II >400 MHz

Last Updated: 2001-06-10
For more detail about software : Software Description
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Software Description

SACCARA is an ambience syntheser. It utilizes Sphinx Modular Media technology. The purpose of this software is to produce all sort of ambient noise like wind and water. Until version 1.0 this software will be free for noncommercial use.

Saccara SA-01 consists of four sections.

Modulators

This section has 3 LFO's (Low Frequency Oscillator). The shape combobox selects a waveform. You can choose between

  • Sine
  • Triangle
  • Pulse
  • Sawtooth
  • Random

The frequency is adjustable between 0.005 and 50 Hz. With 0.005 Hz the shape will repeat each 200 seconds. The LFO outputs are connected to the other sections. Thus you can take any of the modulators to control a value in the other section.

Noise

The type combobox selects a noise type. Noise is kind of random values.
Currently there are the following noise types:

  • Phased White
  • Uniform White
  • Pink
  • Resonance Pink

More colors and derivatives are planned.

The hold slider sets the sample & hold rate. Moving it sets the rate at which a new random value is produced. In down position new values are produced at the samplerate SR. This means that each sample has a new random value. Moving the slider up produces random values for SR/2, SR/4, SR/8 and so on thus producing lower frequencies. The smooth slider is disabled. The next version of Saccara will support interpolating between the random values to soften the random steps. The modulation section HM allows to control the Hold Time with one of the three LFO's. The modulation section SM is not yet implemented.

Filter

The type combobox selects a filter type. With the filter you can change the color of the noise.
Currently there are:

  • Classic LowPass
  • StateVariable LowPass
  • StateVariable HighPass
  • StateVariable BandPass
  • StateVariable Notch

The frequency slider selects the frequency at which you want to operate. For a lowpass filter all frequencies below are passed. With the quality slider Q you can adjust the sharpness at the selected frequency. This also is known as resonance. Setting the Q slider to 1.0 produces a self-oscillating effect.

The modulation section FM allows to control the filter's frequency with one of the three LFO's. The modulation section QM allows to control the filter's quality with one of the three LFO's. In this version only the Classic LowPass can be modulated by the LFO's

Channel

The input combobox selects between the noise generator and the filter output as source.

The level slider manipulates the volume which is shown in db. 0 db means full level, whereas -100 db is not noticeable. You can mute the channel without affecting the current volume.

The pan slider moves the sound between left and right position. The center button sets the balance at the center position (0).

The pitch slider changes the playback samplerate. At 1.0 you have the original pitch which you always can reset with the button labeled Original. Moving the slider down changes the playrate down to 1/4 of the original frequency, moving it up produces a higher pitch up to approximately 2.5 SR.

The modulation section AM allows to control the output level with one of the three LFO's.

The modulation section BM allows to control the balance between left and right with one of the three LFO's.

The modulation section FM allows to control the playback frequency with one of the three LFO's.

Use the play and stop button from the toolbar to start the playback. Clicking the stop button will also play a short segment of 882 samples. You can adjust any synthesizer parameter with a slider manually or you can select a modulation source to control the values automatically. Please note, that you can't adjust a slider when a modulation source is selected. The slider will move automatically in correspondence to the modulation depth.

The current version is freeware. You can use it for any noncommercial purpose, but for mutual benefit we would like to get some response from you. Caution!
Sound is starting immediatly after loading the program. This product may be capable of producing sounds which can damage your sound system. Please use with moderate volume settings and use this application with care.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Wow!....buggy but very cool....

I cranked out some wav files right away and mixed them with some acoustic guitar/voice samples....very trippy...very nice effect. Simple interface. Quick results. Perfect for the Industrial and Ambient freaks out there with ADD. Looking forward to future releases.

worked well, like it

I would like it if the LFO's could be linked. Maybe having LFO2
modify the frequency of LFO 3 would be cool.

It has some small bugs. Lots of crackling though that might
be my speakers and that can be filtered so that isnt much
of an issue.

But I tried linking the Q slider to an lfo and all sound stopped
and wouldnt come back.

But in total i like this program and i can see myself messing
with it for a few hours atleast.

Worthless

It works fine, produces variations of fuzzy sounds and it's easy to use, the only problem is that this program is COMPLETLY WORTHLESS!

Good program

I had no problems with this software.
It is working very well.
Documentation is incomplete, however. Do not forget to copy explanations from download page!

oops

i am usually an intelligent human being, but not tonight, i had my amp turned right down to 0, so now i can say that i find the sounds interesting, something other than the "white noise" would not go a stray. in fact i would love it if this came in its own little box so i could plug mics and instruments trough it.... it is a neat and tidy little program, and even someone as stupid as me can use it..... however as it is it is not teribly musically benefici.... Mr. Pneumonic is quite right in saying that it would only be really siuted as an intro......who knows maybe radiohead will record fifty minutes worth and call it thier new album ;-)

nothing seems to be happening

nothing seems to be happening, the sliders go bananas which looks cool, but i geuss you appreciate music with your ears not your eyes! never the less the interface seems fantastic, it just doesn't make noise! all in all it looks like a good program.... i guess it doesn't like me.

saccara,4 me it worx

yeh, this worked fine for me, i had no probs, this has quite a simple interface, and i had it producing very slow filter sweeps over , white and pink noise, it could be usefull to use for the intro of a track , or just generaly for an ambient effect,...

Saccara

Shucks, i couldn't get a sound out of this one at all. I'm running DX-8 and have the required .dll file.

Ah well, back to Fruity Loops

Dj Homo Erectus

Re: Saccara

Thank you for trying out Saccara. This software currently is freeware, because we would like some feedback to build a fine release version.
In this version 0702 there are no buffer settings maybe this causes your problem.
Would you please be so kind and send your PC-configuration (soundcard, processor, os etc)
to support@visiomedia.com

Thank you for your time.
Frank

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