TheSuprem [Aleix Riera] Web Page: The SouthPole Project.

***(10/12/2005): A photographic review of my last concert has been uploaded at this link.

I played Chameleon's Australis, Korg Ex-800, Roland JV-80, Roland SH-2000, Deltaflex FX, Keyboard MK-149, and the Fender Rhodes at the end of my concert with Supertramp's "Logical Song" and "Breakfast in America" with my sister Marta at the voice, Albert Casas and Nacho Sánchez.

***(11/3/2005): SouthPole passed successfully through my 5/3/2005 concert. Mixing lines on the Preset #62 (Landscapes), made strings and solo sounds to envolve dramatically the music.
Instruments Set:
Evolution MK-149 Controller Keyboard
Korg Ex-800 Module Synthesizer
Soundart Chameleon -SouthPole- Effects Processor
Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer
Roland JV-80 Synthesizer
Roland Sustain and EV-5 Expression Pedals
Mackie Mixer Desk
More information at my musical page. MP3 and video excerpts soon...

***(14/2/2005): New processed sound MP3 examples have been added at SouthPole 1.0 section.

***(18/1/2005): SouthPole is going to be played live in my next Berlin School oriented Electronic Music concert.

It will take place in 5th March at the Salamandra Sala (L'Hospitalet del Llobregat - Barcelona), preceding the Dom f. Scab's ŤCrosswordsť presentation.

More info:
EM Events 2005 (QuantumProductions)
Dom f. Scab's Concerts
GtrSynth.com Next Concerts
My Musical Page
My Main Page

***(13/9/2004): main.asm little troubles:

-'include' files had to be put after the end of the main loop (therefore, we've not to worry about it, but it isn't elegant due to it executes randomly, but before the DMA preparation)

-getvar.asm task could have been omitted, and then the Y memory single variable declarations too. Thus, we only have to go to ctrltab.asm and define each parameter as an offset of the host buffer (HostDataInput).

***(21/7/2004): Absolut Jazz Vocal french group is about to try SouthPole:
"We work on studio & on stage with Pro Tools TDM, AKG Microphones & Focusrite préamps. Concerning the plug-ins the most favorites are: Recti-Fi , Lo-Fi, Antares autotunes, TC megaverb, Digidesign Reverb One, TC master X, Digidesign Digirack's Delay EQ, Comp, We usually don't use sound transforming effect (we create it directly with our voices) but for the next album, we want to try some like Chameleon Soundskin, cycloop redsound, Bomb Factory etc... All the sound in the album are made by our voices (no sample, no synthé, no bass, no drums...) and as the people who have seen them says: It's better on stage!"

***(6/7/2004): It has been found a little bug at SouthPole's 'fill_tables' family functions (INC group). It means that the highest Delay value is 10,3 seconds and the highest LFO frequency is near 38 Hz (see tables at SouthPole v1.0 section). In order to avoid all the changes it suposes, it has been decided to apply this modification in future versions of SouthPole.

***(24/6/2004): Demo MP3 soundclips have been uploaded at SouthPole v1.0 section.

***(23/6/2004): SP-Delay and LFOs Frequency true value tables have been added at SouthPole v1.0 section.

***(21/6/2004): A selection of SouthPole soundclips and an interview with me are publsihed at Soundart's webpage.

***(20/6/2004): Robert A. Moog took a look at SouthPole Project when he was in Barcelona. Thank you Mr. Moog for being patient and Sergio Koval for the photos.

Overview About SouthPole

South Pole v1.0 is my first open-source skin for the Chameleon, conceived by LlunaSol, that gives you:
4 powerful parallel audio processing lines with SP-Delay and Hot-Saturation units.

Convert your little synthesizer or keyboard or any basic sound source, into a professional electronic instrument.

It is the perfect solution for making long, dynamic and constantly pseudo-random evolutive organic pads, ensembles and strings. The power of the possibility of very low frequency generation gives the musician the opportunity of making huge and endless sustained sounds and chords.

Extract all the juice of the four 4-Pole Low Pass Filters and make your own experimental phaser effects over the largest pads through SouthPole transformation capability, by enabling all the lines at the same time. "Find the end of the rainbow and fly wherever the winds blow".

Never before we heard such evolutive percussion potentials as easily as with SouthPole. Now, by simply enabling few processing lines, you can tranformate your drum and percussion sequences in a real powerful dynamic train of Kraftwerkian sounds. Setting the lowest frequencies in the LFOs will give you the same evolution as the first point we have commented.

In the other hand, by putting a high speed at the oscillators, you will get the fastest variations in its shape, allowing you to have a drastic transform of the original sound, and to invite it to have a special exotic trip to extremely noise screams. Fast percussive loops are waiting you to let them inside SouthPole.

If you want to reach the SouthPole own limits, try to put carefully low values in the Hot-Saturation Unit when a percussive line is being processed. We don't guarantee the musician's integrity if greater values are set.

You can extract the perfect amount of classical electric organs sound through SouthPole. Try to put some SP-Delay send amount of the own enabled line, with a little Hot-Saturator's overdrive. Another non-guaranteed soultion is to try it with a SouthPole Factory Preset.

Special FX can be made approaching carefully the values to really extreme limits. It is very fast and easy to tell the very friendly user interface when we want to reach the schemes. It only can be self-explained by loading a Factory Preset.

Guitars and another acoustic agressive instruments will fall into happiness. It is high time they got the possibility to be processed by high values in the Hot-Saturator Overdrive and low amount of SP-Delay time parameter. It's time to make your sound cry.

Metallic and auto-shaping sounds can be resynthesized with the lowest values in the time delay, directly allowed by the unique SP-Delay Unit.

Stand-alone solos, sound fields and musician electronic suites are possible by putting very high values in the SP-Delay Unit time parameter.

Auto-sequencing and near-permanently sustained loops can be obtained with highest values in SP-Delay feedback parameter.

Convert the SouthPole itself to an easy-to-operate powerful effects unit: Sending to the SP-Delay Unit the appropiate amount of one or more lines, which are switched off, you will obtain an extraordinary professional sound field processor result, allowing you to recreate a really complex sound accomodating of a real or imaginary sound textures and images.

Not only the musicians could take advantatge with SouthPole. Teaching and developing tasks could be complemented with SouthPole fast access and configuration of its modules. In fact, the source code is self-explained, but using directly the SouthPole on a Chameleon Unit you can make qualitative experiments for example with the LPF, BPF and HPF.

128 Factory Presets are prepared to go out from your Chameleon. Take a minute to explore them, with the help of these named presets.

SouthPole has the capability to contain 128 User Presets, to be saved when and where the musician wants.

All you could make with all the possibilities is not known.

Technical Skills

The sound processing has been coded in ASSEMBLER working with totally optimized code using parallel moves allowed in Motorola DSP 56k family. It is programmed in a module-way intuitive vision, including external header files as a virtual cables and virtual black boxes. DMA method of AD/DA 24 bit @ 96 kHz communications between Audio In and Audio Out has been used to optimize computing time.

The user interface has been programmed entirely in plane C. Using RTEMS pseudo operative system, more than one program line executes concurrently in the Motorola's ColdFire, allowing the musician not to worry about navigating and editing menus. INT communication method between the user interface CPU and audio processing DSP has been selected. As in the audio processing case, the source code has been divided in several files in order to make it easier to the future developers.

Menu Hirerarchy

EDIT: Load/Save and their confirmations.
PART: Change Line.
GROUP: Enable/Disable Line.
VALUE: Yes/No and Fine edit values.

PAGE	PARAM	Controls	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Filter	---	Potentiometers	Cutoff	Ressonance	Panning
LFO Speed	---	Potentiometers	Cutoff	Ressonance	Panning
Send Delay	---	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
Saturation	---	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
LFO Amplitudes	---	Potentiometers	Cutoff	Ressonance	Panning
Select Filter	---	Potentiometers	Low-Pass	Band-Pass	High-Pass
Line Volume	---	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
Delay Params	Time	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
---	Feedback	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
---	Random	Encoder/Value	---	---	---
Global Mixing	---	Potentiometers	Audio IN	Lines	Delayed Lines

Factory Presets

N	Preset Name	N	Preset Name	N	Preset Name	N	Preset Name
0	SING. LOWPASS	32	DISTANT PLANET	64	CASTLE OF MURK	96	SP_NOISE-HIRTZ
1	SING. BANDPASS	33	HITECH GTRONIC	65	SHADOWS HOUSE	97	SP_NOISE-ZHEHN
2	SING. HIGHPASS	34	GOLDEN PYRAMID	66	AERO GENERATOR	98	SP_NOISE-LOHEA
3	SING. LOW+LFO	35	DISTANT CLOUDS	67	COLDER STORM	99	SP_NOISE-IHONE
4	SING.BAND+LFO	36	FIGHT PENGUIN	68	WITHIN A DREAM	100	EARTH MOVEMENT
5	SING.HIGH+LFO	37	SIRENS SINGING	69	MILITARY ZONE	101	FALLING ROCK
6	SINGLE+DELAY2	38	PETROL GLACIER	70	TALKING LOUDER	102	OVER OCEAN
7	2LINES+DELAY3	39	ELECTRIFIED !	71	CRYSTAL LANDS	103	SOUTH POLE
8	MARBLE GARDEN	40	RADIOCOM	72	SYNHARMONICS	104	WE, ROBOTS
9	PLASTIC CUBE	41	ANTARCTICA	73	ORGANIC SAND	105	FIREBALL
10	MAGNETIC FIELD	42	BLUE SNOW CAVE	74	MIDNIGHT CRIES	106	EYE IN THE SKY
11	HOT-SATURATOR	43	IRON TUBE CAVE	75	BAD NEWS	107	NERVE CENTRE
12	SYNCHROTRON	44	TWILIGHT CITY	76	LOVELY ANGEL	108	TECHNO ECHOES
13	METAL ON METAL	45	CITY LIGHTS	77	CROSS-PHASER	109	GREAT CANYON
14	KILL THE BEE	46	GREAT SEAVOICE	78	BRIGHTNESS	110	DISTORTION
15	PULSTAR	47	COLD WIND	79	GREEN DESERT	111	LASER BEAM
16	SUN RAYS	48	WHISPER WATERS	80	EVOLUTION	112	HELIUM BALLOON
17	NUCLEAR ENGINE	49	ELECTRIC STORM	81	SEVENTIES	113	MOON SURFACE
18	DODECAHEDRON	50	DRY OVERDRIVE	82	POLLUTION	114	RED PLANET
19	INTERFERENCES	51	OIL LIQUIDE	83	EXECUTION	115	OXYGENE
20	ALL LINES ON !	52	WALKING CHIPS	84	DETERIORATION	116	RADIOACTIVITY
21	BARNIE'S DREAM	53	INSECT SCAPE	85	AIR SURFING	117	ELECTROPLASMA
22	BIRDS IN HELL	54	PINKY PIGGY	86	THIN TUNNEL	118	RENDEZ-VOUS
23	CATS IN HELL	55	OLD TURBINE	87	FRACTAL PATH	119	DARKNESS LOCH
24	HEAVY HARDRAIN	56	FORCE MAJEURE	88	ALTERNATION	120	PROGRESSIVE
25	KILLING OXIDE	57	POLE POLUTION	89	MAGIC JOURNEY	121	ELASTIC SQUARE
26	EXOTIC FOREST	58	POLAR BREEZE	90	REPETITION	122	SPACE SHIP
27	INSIDE BOTTLE	59	STEEL INDUSTRY	91	ORANGE SKY	123	WAVEOLUTION
28	ANTHENNA ALARM	60	ICEBERG FALL	92	SP_NOISE-AHZER	124	LUNAR APPROACH
29	FRIENDLY GIRL	61	EROTIC NIGHT	93	SP_NOISE-KHELM	125	WOOD VILLE
30	LOVELY PINK	62	LANDSCAPES	94	SP_NOISE-NEOHA	126	LOVE
31	WORST CHOICE	63	FLOWER FIELDS	95	SP_NOISE-DHORM	127	C H A O S !

SP-Delay Time Table

V	Time (ms)	V	Time (ms)	V	Time (ms)	V	Time (ms)
0	0,11	32	11,06	64	138,37	96	1308,68
1	0,11	33	12,08	65	148,85	97	1400,66
2	0,12	34	13,17	66	160,09	98	1498,94
3	0,12	35	14,35	67	172,14	99	1603,95
4	0,13	36	15,63	68	185,05	100	1716,15
5	0,13	37	17,01	69	198,89	101	1836,00
6	0,15	38	18,49	70	213,72	102	1964,04
7	0,16	39	20,09	71	229,62	103	2100,81
8	0,19	40	21,81	72	246,63	104	2246,88
9	0,21	41	23,68	73	264,86	105	2402,90
10	0,24	42	25,68	74	284,39	106	2569,51
11	0,27	43	27,84	75	305,31	107	2747,43
12	0,33	44	30,17	76	327,70	108	2937,42
13	0,38	45	32,67	77	351,69	109	3140,28
14	0,46	46	35,37	78	377,36	110	3356,85
15	0,56	47	38,27	79	404,83	111	3588,07
16	0,67	48	41,40	80	434,24	112	3834,92
17	0,82	49	44,75	81	465,71	113	4098,41
18	0,99	50	48,35	82	499,38	114	4379,67
19	1,22	51	52,24	83	535,42	115	4679,87
20	1,50	52	56,42	84	573,98	116	5000,27
21	1,84	53	60,89	85	615,21	117	5342,20
22	2,26	54	65,71	86	659,32	118	5707,10
23	2,77	55	70,89	87	706,50	119	6096,50
24	3,41	56	76,45	88	756,96	120	6512,00
25	4,18	57	82,41	89	810,91	121	6955,32
26	5,13	58	88,81	90	868,60	122	7428,34
27	6,30	59	95,69	91	930,29	123	7932,98
28	7,72	60	103,08	92	996,23	124	8471,35
29	8,47	61	111,00	93	1066,73	125	9045,66
30	9,26	62	119,48	94	1142,07	126	9658,30
31	10,13	63	128,60	95	1222,62	127	10311,77

LFOs Frequency Table

V	Period (seconds)	V	Period (seconds)	V	Frequency (Hz)	V	Frequency (Hz)
0	No oscillation	32	24,93	64	0,51	96	4,79
1	No oscillation	33	22,81	65	0,54	97	5,13
2	25000,00	34	20,90	66	0,59	98	5,49
3	25000,00	35	19,17	67	0,63	99	5,87
4	12500,00	36	17,59	68	0,68	100	6,28
5	12500,00	37	16,16	69	0,73	101	6,72
6	6250,00	38	14,85	70	0,78	102	7,19
7	5000,00	39	13,67	71	0,84	103	7,69
8	3571,43	40	12,58	72	0,90	104	8,23
9	2777,78	41	11,58	73	0,97	105	8,80
10	2083,33	42	10,68	74	1,04	106	9,41
11	1666,67	43	9,85	75	1,12	107	10,06
12	1250,00	44	9,08	76	1,20	108	10,76
13	1000,00	45	8,39	77	1,29	109	11,50
14	781,25	46	7,74	78	1,38	110	12,29
15	609,76	47	7,16	79	1,48	111	13,14
16	490,20	48	6,61	80	1,59	112	14,04
17	384,62	49	6,12	81	1,71	113	15,01
18	308,64	50	5,66	82	1,83	114	16,04
19	245,10	51	5,24	83	1,96	115	17,14
20	196,85	52	4,85	84	2,10	116	18,31
21	158,23	53	4,49	85	2,25	117	19,56
22	126,90	54	4,16	86	2,41	118	20,90
23	102,46	55	3,86	87	2,59	119	22,33
24	82,78	56	3,58	88	2,77	120	23,85
25	67,02	57	3,32	89	2,97	121	25,47
26	54,35	58	3,08	90	3,18	122	27,20
27	44,09	59	2,86	91	3,41	123	29,05
28	35,87	60	2,65	92	3,65	124	31,02
29	32,68	61	2,46	93	3,91	125	33,13
30	29,83	62	2,29	94	4,18	126	35,37
31	27,26	63	2,13	95	4,48	127	37,76

Source Code

Here's the project folder zipped (the entire source code). It includes header files. Open the .PRJ file with your compiler in order to obtain directly the original structure of SouthPole code.

All Project Source Code (ZIP)

See the Project Hirerarchy for more details about the contents.

Project Hirerarchy

COLDFIRE SIDE (User Interface)		DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR SIDE (Signal Processing)
Level 0	Level 1	Level 0	Level 1
Spole.h		Ctable.asm
Main.c		Ctrltab.asm
(INC)	Dsp.c	Delaying.asm
	Flash.c	Getvar.asm
	Init.c	Line0.asm
	Leds.c	Line1.asm
	Presets.c	Line2.asm
		Line3.asm
		Main.asm
		Mix.asm
		Mixing.asm
		(DMA)	Cdma.asm
			Dma.asm
		(MODULES)	3mixer.asm
			4mixer2.asm
			4mixerd.asm
			Addk_.asm
			Addklim.asm
			Delayl.asm
			Delayr.asm
			Filter2.asm
			In.asm
			Osc_.asm
			Out.asm
			Sati.asm
			Sub.asm
		(WTABLES)	Cosine.asm
			Longpul.asm

File Description

FILE	TYPE	DESCRIPTION
Spole.h	UI Header	Contains all the constants and function declarations. Furthermore, there are all the structs and character redefinitions.
Main.c	UI Main File	Basicly, it is implemented the endless loop of the main program, controlling the navigation menu. Most of the variables are declared as a global data, in order to make it accessible from multiple routines.
Dsp.c	UI Include	Here is the parameter buffer preparation and sending with "prepare_and_send_DSP()" function, to be sent to DSP.
Flash.c	UI Include	There are all te routines referred to managing memory and code to load/save and prepare the parameter buffer in all cases.
Init.c	UI Include	Contains all the initializing functions: the menu, new characters, variables, panel and DSP, initial LED sequence and parameter tables. There's also low level functions that help the programmer to initialize easily the tables and the frequency tables (preparing integer and fractional parts of the values).
Leds.c	UI Include	There are the 3 concurrent routines using RTEMS programming. They control the LEDs (dancing over the LFOs), updating their flashing frecuency near the real time.
Presets.c	UI Include	This huge file contains all the factory presets initializing. It's only included zipped in All Project Source Code above.
Ctable.asm	DSP Include	This intuitive file helps the developer about linking all the modules and "black boxes", from the Audio IN to Audio OUT.
Ctrltab.asm	DSP Include	Similar to ctable.asm, this file defines all the control parameters and buffers wich will be used in audio modules. Then, the developer has not to worry about changing some variables in the processing code. It only have to be changed here.
Delaying.asm	DSP Processing	It perfoms the lines mixing, and then the stereo delay.
Getvar.asm	DSP Include	This essential file catch the parameters buffer, sent from the ColdFire and put on HostBuffer by the defined RSI, at the beginning of each DMA cycle, and put all of them into the proper DSP defined variables at main.asm.
Line0.asm	DSP Processing	Audio processing for the first line, calling the LFOs, the adders, the filters (and mix them), and the saturator.
Line1.asm	DSP Processing	Audio processing for the second line, calling the LFOs, the adders, the filters (and mix them), and the saturator.
Line2.asm	DSP Processing	Audio processing for the third line, calling the LFOs, the adders, the filters (and mix them), and the saturator.
Line3.asm	DSP Processing	Audio processing for the fourth line, calling the LFOs, the adders, the filters (and mix them), and the saturator.
Main.asm	DSP Main File	Appart of the constant defines, the buffers and variables declarations, module includes and initializations, it makes the Audio IN and Audio OUT task, making the "include" of line0.asm, line1.asm, line2.asm, line3.asm, mixing.asm, delaying.asm, and mix.asm
Mix.asm	DSP Processing	It's the 3 channel global mixer calling.
Mixing.asm	DSP Processing	This is the calling of the Line mixing.
Cdma.asm	DSP Configure	It contains the ConfigureAudioDMA subroutine, that configures DMA channels 0 and 1 for audio transmitter and receiver.
Dma.asm	DSP Configure	It changes the active ADC and DAC buffers waiting if CODEC is still working with it.
3mixer.asm	DSP Module	A 3 stereo channel mixer, used to add the Filters' output signal of each processing line. Programmed by Aleix Riera.
4mixer2.asm	DSP Module	This is a 4 stereo channel mixer with a control of panning by buffers. Programmed by Aleix Riera.
4mixerd.asm	DSP Module	A 4 stereo channel mixer, but without the panning control. It was reprogrammed to optimize computing time, and then no to lose instruction cycles. Programmed by Aleix Riera.
Addk_.asm	DSP Module	This module simply adds a number at a single variable only one time per DMA cycle. It is used only for taking a frequency band in cutoff to prepare de BPF. Programmed by Aleix Riera.
Addklim.asm	DSP Module	The same module as addk_.asm, but taking care about the final result. If it's lower than the given constant, the result will be this constant. This is used to avoid too low values at LPF's frequency cutoff. Programmed by Aleix Riera.
Delayl.asm	DSP Module	This is a mono delay (L) with time and feedback controls. It only puts to the output audio buffer the delayed signal (modified by me) and don't let the IN buffer to pass through. It allows to us the possibility of enabling individual send controls. Programmed by SoundArt.
Delayr.asm	DSP Module	And it is the right one (R).
Filter2.asm	DSP Module	This module implements a mono 24dB resonant lowpass filter (the code is based in the source code of the filter Moog VCF variation2 of the musicdsp.org filters source code page, thanks to Bram de Jong. I've modified the code, obtaining an efficient stereo filter.
In.asm	DSP Module

The Filter Bank	3 types of 24 dB filter (Low-Pass, Band-Pass and High-Pass) in parallel mode with each line. A total of 12 stereo auto-oscillating Moog-way conceived filters.
The Low Frequency Oscillator Bank	3 LFO's with their 3 offset adders in each line connected directly to the Filter Controls (cut off, ressonance and panning). A total of 12 0-to-40 Hz logarithmic LFO's working in parallel mode. All parameters are easily and directly controllables thru the knobs by the user (amplitude, frequency and offset).
The SP-Delay Unit	A 4-channel mixer followed by a logarithmic stereo Delay (0,1 miliseconds up to 11 seconds) gives the complete control of the 4 send levels, including a Random control of the echo times.
The Hot-Saturation Unit	A stereo Hot-Saturation Unit will burn slowly the sound, making it strongly hot all the time the sound cries. It works directly on the Filter Bank (after them, in lines 1 & 2, and before in 3 & 4). The perfect emulation of the first sounds of electronic organs, and really specific for the most agressive drums and percussion.
The Global Mixer	A 3-channel stereo mixer allows you to sepparate the original sound, the line-processed sound, and the delayed sound to adjust the perfect amount of each one at the final mix.
The Factory and User Presets Bank	A total of 256 flash memory containers with 256 Factory and User Presets. The 128 Factory Presets and the 128 User totally editable Presets Bank gives you the fastest acces to your own SouthPole configurations and patches.

News

Overview About SouthPole

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