SOMA Laboratory Rumble of Ancient Times 8-Bit Noise Synthesizer

RoAT proposes a new kind of ecological thinking with the innovative use of chips that were developed and produced decades ago, instead of turning them into millions of tons of trash. SOMA can still use technology that the industry forced us all to consider obsolete, with the added benefit of extremely low power consumption. It’s an environmentally friendlier approach than galloping in the rush of planned obsolescence that damages our planet and wastes precious resources.

Rumble of Ancient Times was designed and programmed by Kakos Nonos, a new creative mind who joined the SOMA development team. His very unique style of building electronic musical instruments combines quality craftsmanship, advanced programming, and a love for medieval acoustic instruments such as gusli, wheeled lyre, and bagpipes.

The heart of the synthesizer contains four sound oscillators, each with a tunable waveform and an LFO, which can modulate the tone or volume of the oscillator. The modulated signal of each oscillator is mixed with other signals in one of three ways: Each mixing method has three nodes where two signals are summed into one. Each mixing node can have a different summing algorithm.

Next, the signal goes to the filter with resonance, and then to the audio output. The buttons switch the channel state between On and Off, while the sensors and sequencer invert it. When the channel is off, touching the sensor will turn it on, and when it is on, the sensor will turn it off. The current state of the oscillators is displayed on the LEDs.

The mixing pots control how and in what order the oscillator signals are mixed to get the final sound. Available mixing algorithms include:

• Addition: simply adding together two signals.
• Addition with overflow: if the sum of the signals crosses the upper or lower border, the result is directed to the opposite edge and continues growing from there.
• Subtraction 1: the second signal is subtracted from the first. If the first signal is lower, the result will be zero.
• Subtraction 2: the lower signal is subtracted from the higher signal.
• Multiplication: both signals are multiplied. This effect is also called ring modulation.
• Exclusive OR (XOR): in this mode, a bitwise XOR is performed between the signals. The values of each signal are 8-bit.
• Frequency modulation (FM): the first signal is modulated by the second.
• Waveform modulation: the two signals are added using the first algorithm, then the resulting signal is waveshaped.
• Each node has its waveform algorithm.

The synthesizer has a built-in sequencer that lets you record short looped sections. The length of the recorded section is one 4/4 bar (or 4 clicks of the metronome, or 4 LED signals from the clock). The sequencer is controlled with two buttons—Record and Erase.

To record, press and hold the Record button, and play the rhythm on the pads. Further recorded parts will be layered on top of each other. To erase, press and hold the Erase button and the pads for whichever channel(s) you want to clean. To delete all data from the sequencer, hold Erase and all 4 pads for the duration of the whole loop.