Operation Manual

16 Architecture of Chromaphone
3 Architecture of Chromaphone
Chromaphone is synthesizer built around the combination of acoustic resonators. The resulting in-
struments are played using a mallet or the signal from a noise source. It is very simple yet the range
of sounds it is capable of is surprisingly wide, from realistic reproductions of acoustic percussion
instruments to creative and innovative tones simply not possible with traditional synthesizers. Its
graphical interface is shown in Figures 4.
Figure 4: Graphical user interface of Chromaphone.
3.1 General Organization and Signal Flow
The main modules of the synthesizer are located in the center of the interface. On the right one
finds a mallet and a noise module which are used to excite the resonators. Resonator A and B are
located on the right of the sources. Available resonator types are: string, open and closed tube,
plate, membrane, bar, marimba bar and a manual mode. Resonators can be configured to be in
parallel or coupled mode as shown in Figures 5 and 6.
In parallel mode, both resonators are excited by the sources and the output signal from the
resonators is a simple mix between the output of both resonators, the balance between the sources
being determined by the position of the Balance slider. In coupled mode, resonator A is excited and
energy is transmitted to the second resonator at their junction point. At first sight this configuration
could appear like a simple series configuration in which the signal from Resonator A is sent to
Resonator B but Chromaphone really takes into account the bidirectional nature of the energy flow
that occurs in real life when two objects are coupled. In other words, once energy is received