Erica Synths Steampipe Polyphonic Modeling Synthesizer

The Erica Synths Steampipe is an 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer, but it has no conventional oscillators. Instead, it mimics the way sound is created in wind and string instruments and it is fine-tuned to create a wide range of sounds. The Steampipe is optimized for performance with wind MIDI controllers and it works great with any MIDI keyboard. The overtones the Steampipe produces are very organic and rich. It also comes with great-sounding presets.

The Steampipe is quite versatile and allows for nuanced sonic exploration, conjuring sonic imagery ranging from from wisps of cloud to fairground band organs, then to industrial horns of the railroad and finally, to massive, otherworldly ambiences. Due to detailed controls over multiple physical modeling parameters, the Steampipe is capable of generating very organic emulations of real instruments, but it goes well beyond the conventional pitch and dynamic ranges they can produce – imagine how a flute or clarinet would sound in C1 or C7!

PHYSICAL MODELING OF WIND AND STRING INSTRUMENTS

The pipe is essentially a very heavily modified Karplus–Strong algorithm (a tuned delay with a feedback), adapted in such a way that it not only works well for plucked strings, as the algorithm originally was intended for, but can also create an authentic simulations of stroked inharmonic instruments like bells, xylophones and something the Steampipe particularly excels at - wind instruments, such as flutes, clarinets and pipe organs.

An important component in this respect is the push-pull mechanism inserted in the feedback that allows for the pipe to oscillate instead of just resonate to the steam. This forms the foundation needed for wind instruments, and creates the "whistle sound".

A saturator is inserted to ensure the maximum amplitude of the resonances is tamed within limits and the pipe does not explode. The amount of saturation can be modified to change the "harshness" of the sound. The saturator can also be asymmetric to allow for balancing between odd and even harmonics. You can shape the sound of your instrument, so to speak.

A high-pass and low-pass filter are inserted in the feedback to control at which frequencies the pipe will resonate. Because you can also to modulate these filters, it becomes possible to 'overblow‘’ (jumping a pitch without changing fingering position) the Steampipe, like an actual wind instrument. Together with the option to modulate the gain of the steam generator, which is equivalent to blowing harder, you can quite convincingly simulate the expression of wind instruments. Attach them to the mod wheel of your keyboard, the controls of your wind or MPE controller and you can add vibrato or overblow while you are playing.

Further additions are the ability to split the pipe in two unequal parts and stretch their harmonics. This creates inharmonic frequencies that are good for bells, and percussive instruments such as woodblocks.

FEATURES:

• 8-voice polyphony
• Physical modeling engine with 32 adjustable parameters
• 5 assignable LFOs with delay and sync
• Extensive modulation matrix with MIDI controller-specific configurations
• 64 factory presets and 192 user preset memory
• Preset export and import via USB
• DIN5 MIDI Input
• MIDI Thru/Out
• All parameters are MIDI CC controllable
• Stereo line level output
• Headphone output