Currents & Nostalgia - Using Velocity to Slot position for variation in two patches - Coming synth

video upload by Unusable Engineering

"In this video I am not showing off patches, but showing 2 different ways to utilize the slot system and velocity to generate different degrees of variation to patches. The patches are of course included as presets with the synth when it is available.

By using the velocity to position function - the velocity can move to entirely different oscillator settings or filter settings - or both at once. It can be combined with sweeping slot movement too for evolving patches.

The first patch in the video uses the oscillator slot system to increase detuning and feedback with higher velocity and some random movement from there. The filter is set up in a rather flat way across three slots letting mid velocities add extra drive and distortion to the sound.

The second patch is having 5 independent drum sounds set up by using no interpolation, thus giving 5 discrete velocity zones - one for each slot. The system is set up the same way for both oscillator and filter making it straight-forward to adjust the patch.

Currents & Nostalgia is Unusable Engineering's take on a classic subtractive analog-style six-voice polyphonic synth. While the main architecture is rather simple and straight forward - the unique point is the slot system that can be controlled in multiple ways - as a way to make patches evolve, move around, step through settings or be totally different on each key-stroke. There are no modulation matrices - the synth is built around fixed control paths and lets the user visually follow each voice. If you’ve used the additive synth 'Partials & Discrepancies' you should be familiar with this already. For the rest of you, you have something to look forward to.

I expect to release the synth in the first half of November. Current bundle owners will get a discount.

You are more than welcome to leave a comment with any questions you might have or just encouragement, I will try to reply to it promptly and sincerely.

As mentioned, my plan is to release the synth in November 2026. It will be available for Windows and MacOS as VST3i and AU.

Thanks for taking an interest in Currents & Nostalgia!

All the Best,
Rasmus Nyåker
Unusable Engineering"