Synth Building Blocks

The Synth Building Blocks (SBB) package is a collection of RNBO abstractions that make building synths easy and intuitive. In contrast with building synths from scratch in RNBO, this collection of abstractions focuses on higher level synthesis techniques—such as those used when making music with a modular synth or a DAW plugin. Making rich sounding MIDI sequencers, keyboard synths, and generative modular patches thus becomes much easier with SBB at your disposal.

Package Breakdown

SBB features a collection of tools that allow you to build complex synthesizers with a minimal amount of Max patching skills. The package can be divided into five parts, each of which will be covered in detail in this guide: generators, buffers, filters, envelopes, and control signals.

Here's a list of every abstraction in the SBB package...

Generators

• sbb.osc.analog - Multi-waveform oscillator
• sbb.osc.fm - FM oscillator
• sbb.osc.additive - Additive harmonic oscillator
• sbb.osc.karplus - Karplus-Strong implementation

Buffers

• sbb.osc.wavetable - Wavetable oscillator
• sbb.osc.granular - Granular synth

Filters

• sbb.filter.lp - Lowpass filter
• sbb.filter.hp - Highpass filter
• sbb.filter.bp - Bandpass filter
• sbb.filter.br - Bandreject filter
• sbb.filter.ladder - Bandreject ladder filter

Envelopes

• sbb.env.ad - Attack-Decay envelope
• sbb.env.adsr - Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release envelope
• sbb.env.follower - Envelope follower
• sbb.env.lpg - Lowpass gate
• sbb.util.sustain - MIDI sustain utility
• sbb.util.xfade - Panning utility

Control Signals

• sbb.mod.lfo - Low-frequency oscillator
• sbb.mod.rand - Random generator
• sbb.mod.seq - Step sequencer
• sbb.mod.arp - Arpeggiator