synthesizerwriter: 126 Devices Built Around Modulated Feedback
126 devices and 128,667 downloads spread across them works out to roughly a thousand downloads each, and that arithmetic tells you something about how synthesizerwriter's catalogue is shaped. There is no single monster hit pulling the average up. The most-downloaded entry sits under 5,000, and a dozen devices cluster in the 2,000 dash 3,000 range. What you get instead is breadth: a long shelf of small, specific machines, most of them versioned 0.01 to 0.06, made between 2009 and 2018.
Read enough of the descriptions and a method emerges. Take a familiar building block dash a delay line, a clipper, a wavetable oscillator dash then put modulation somewhere unusual inside it and expose the result as controls. That's the through-line.
Modulation inside the feedback loop
The clearest statement of the approach is Missing Echo. Two independent delay lines, two independent LFOs, and dash this is the part that matters dash the LFOs modulate the feedback loops rather than the output. As the description puts it, the number of repeats you hear varies with the LFO. Echoes appear and vanish instead of decaying at a fixed rate. The modulation also scans across in-channel and cross-channel paths, and the results get auto-panned across the stereo field. It carries a 5/5 rating and 2,270 downloads.
Delay Delay is the same territory approached from the routing side rather than the modulation side: two stereo delay sections, with control over in-channel feedback, cross-channel feedback, and feedback and "crossback" around both sections together. No LFOs, just a patchbay of feedback paths. It's the device to reach for when you want a specific stereo echo topology that Live's stock delays don't give you.
Dopplator modulates delay time instead of feedback amount. An LFO drives the delay time, with feedback available, and the LFO waveform can be slipped in time dash the control is labelled swing dash and reshaped with a power-law waveshaper. The description points at rhythmic alteration of sequences and drum patterns, and suggests going un-synced for stranger results. That combination of swing plus waveshaping on a modulator is characteristic: rather than adding more LFO shapes, the device gives you two ways to bend the one you have.
If you only install one thing from this catalogue to understand the sensibility, make it Missing Echo and put a simple loop through it.
Distortion described as a mechanism
Both distortion devices here are documented by how they work, not by what they sound like. Differential Distortion ring modulates a signal with a time-delayed copy of itself. The stated result is distortion that affects only the inharmonics of the signal, and the description includes a warning worth heeding: the effect can self-oscillate at high feedback levels. With 4,868 downloads it's the most-downloaded device in this group, and it dates back to December 2009 with a final update in June 2011. Five comments sit on the page.
AutoFuzz splits the audio into positive and negative half cycles and then amplifies, clips and filters each half separately. That asymmetry is the whole point dash you get control over how distortion is applied rather than a single drive knob. Three LFOs handle the filtering and the wet/dry mix, which again puts movement inside the process instead of after it.
Neither is a drop-in amp sim. Both are worth a send channel where you can push them and blend back.
Three approaches to generating sound from nothing
The instrument side of the catalogue covers wavetables, noise and grains, and each one is written up as an experiment with a stated goal.
The wavetable pair are the oldest entries. Wavetable Sound Effects WSEmr0v01 arrived in December 2009 with an unusually candid note about re-learning Max after a few years, and a recommendation to add echo and reverb after it since those aren't built in. Two weeks later WSEmr0v03 landed as a thorough revision, described as closer to the original intent dash but with a caveat that the changes altered the character, so you may prefer to keep 0v01 around. Both hold 5/5 ratings and together account for over 6,000 downloads. Keeping both installed is the sensible move; they're different instruments.
Waverne mr is described as Laverne with a different sound generation method: wavetables with start position selection and modulation instead of preset waveforms, using tables borrowed from the Wavetable Sound Effects generator. It has eight comments and a 5/5 rating, and the description is honest that the version isn't perfect.
Noise Generator mr is the most practical instrument of the set. White or pink noise into a resonant filter bank driven by LFOs and a 16-slider gain window, with LFO-panned outputs, and then all of that again for stereo. The stated targets are wind, rain and surf, plus other noise-based possibilities, with a suggestion to add your own phaser. The advice to put Spectrum after it in the chain is good practice for any filter-bank device dash you want to see where the resonances land. Reach for this when a track needs atmosphere that isn't a sample loop.
gFreez-mr builds sound from grains rather than longer samples, FM or feedback algorithms. It captures and plays back four separate grains of frozen spectra, then animates them with a four-phase LFO and LFO-controlled panning. Version 0.04 is noted as fixing clicks and improving the LFO, which tells you the earlier versions had audible artefacts dash so make sure you're on the current one. It sits at 4/5 with eight comments. If freezing and grain playback is your interest, the monolake catalogue covers adjacent ground from a different angle.
The Probably devices: chance as a first-class control
The two MIDI effects from late 2017 are the most ambitious entries here, and the most divisive.
MIDI ProbablyLFO mr starts from a complaint: a normal Live LFO gives you speed, waveform and a mapping. ProbablyLFO keeps all three but extends each one. The speed options alone include free-running for smooth progress across the grid and a noise mode for stepped movement. It sits at 4/5 with four comments and 2,274 downloads, and it's the more approachable of the pair.
ProbablyGEN mr is described as the offspring of step sequencers and a/synchronicity: three timing-generator channels, each either free-running or synchronous (divided from Live's transport), each with a probabilistic velocity grid using a purpose-built interface variation. It has ten comments and a 1/5 rating, the lowest in this group, against 2,263 downloads dash a gap between interest and satisfaction that's worth knowing before you install. The concept is strong and the device is free, so try it, but expect to spend time with the interface rather than getting results in a minute. Producers who want probabilistic timing with a shallower curve might compare notes with the skinnerbox devices.
What to know before you install
These are old builds, and the metadata is specific about it. The wavetable instruments and Delay Delay target Live 8.1. Differential Distortion and Waverne mr list Live 8.2.2 and Max 5.1.8. Dopplator and AutoFuzz sit on Live 8.4.x with Max 5.1.9. Missing Echo and gFreez-mr move up to Live 9.6 and 9.7.4 with Max 7. Only the two Probably devices were built against Live 10 and Max 8.
Practically, that means the Max 5-era devices will want converting when they open in a current Live, and it's worth auditioning them on a duplicate track before committing. Version numbers stay low across the board dash 0.01 to 0.06 dash and the update dates show real maintenance where it happened: Differential Distortion updated eighteen months after release, Waverne mr five years later, Noise Generator mr a year on, gFreez-mr through four revisions.
Licensing is mostly listed as none, with Dopplator under Attribution.
Where to start
Three sessions, in this order:
- Start with Missing Echo on a drum loop or a short vocal phrase. Set both delay lines to different times, then bring in the LFOs and listen for repeats appearing and disappearing. This is the idea the whole catalogue circles.
- Then Dopplator on the same loop, un-synced, with the swing and waveshaper controls moving. It's the rhythmic counterpart to Missing Echo.
- Then Noise Generator mr with Spectrum after it, as an instrument. Build a wind or surf bed and map the filter bank sliders.
After that, pick by appetite. Differential Distortion if you want the highest-download entry and the most unusual distortion mechanism here dash just keep the feedback control in view. Delay Delay if you need cross-channel echo routing that stock devices don't offer. Both Wavetable Sound Effects versions together, since the author says outright they sound different. gFreez-mr if grains and frozen spectra are your thing, on version 0.04.
Leave ProbablyGEN mr for a day when you have patience. It's the most interesting design in the set and the most likely to frustrate.
For broader shortlists in the same territory, the current audio effects roundup and the guides are the next stop.