Resonator

An inharmonic modal resonator that rings like struck metal, glass, or a bell. Feed it any signal and it answers with a glassy, pitched resonance — turning drum hits into chimes, noise into bowls, and sustained tones into shimmering metallic bodies.

How it works

The input excites five parallel bandpass filters tuned to a fixed inharmonic ratio set, so their pitches don't line up into a clean harmonic series — that's what gives the tone its bell-like, struck-metal character rather than a vowel or a chord. Pitch slides all five modes together to set the fundamental, while Decay raises their shared Q: low for a short, dry ping, high for a long ringing tail. Tone tilts the balance between the low and high modes to swing from a dark bowl to a bright clang, and Spread stretches or squeezes the inharmonic spacing to reshape the resonating material itself. The two channels run independently, so a stereo source keeps its width.

Controls

  • Pitch — the fundamental the whole resonant body is tuned to, swept exponentially from roughly 50 Hz to 2000 Hz.
  • Decay — how long the resonance rings, from a quick percussive ping up to a sustained bell tail.
  • Mix — blends the dry input against the resonated signal; at 100% you hear only the resonance.
  • Tone — tilts the spectral balance of the modes, from a dark, fundamental-heavy bowl toward a bright, upper-mode clang, sweeping roughly -6 dB to +6 dB per mode with the center position leaving the bell's natural weighting untouched.
  • Spread — sets how far the upper modes detune from the fundamental, from 0.25× (pulled toward unison for a fused, pitched ring) through the stock bell at 1× out to 1.75× for a wider, more dissonant clangor; the fundamental itself stays pinned to Pitch.

Inputs & outputs

  • In L / In R — the exciter; transients and noise bring out the ringing most. Patch a mono source to both for matched output.
  • Pitch / Decay / Tone / Spread / Mix CV — voltage control over each knob; patch envelopes or LFOs to make the body shift, the tail breathe, the timbre tilt brighter or darker, the inharmonic spacing stretch, or the wet/dry blend move on its own.
  • Out L / Out R — the resonated, mixed signal.

Tips

  • Short, sharp excitation is key: drum hits, clicks, and noise bursts strike the modes hardest, like a mallet on metal.
  • Push Decay high and feed in sparse triggers for evolving bell and gong tails; pull it down for tuned percussive plinks.
  • Sweep Pitch CV under a steady input to bend the whole metallic body — eerie, vocal-but-not-vocal glides.