Ambi Encoder Medium

Ambi Encoder Medium turns clicks, MIDI notes, internal patterns, or mono track audio into sound inside an eight-corner resonating cube. Energy travels between the corners, making each strike part of one shared body rather than an isolated voice. The corners become spatial directions in selectable first-, second-, or third-order ACN/SN3D.

Use it without input as a self-playing spatial instrument, or let track audio and MIDI animate the same resonator. PERCUSSIVE, BOW, REED, and AIR JET move the sound from short impacts toward sustained, breathy, and friction-like tones. These are musical starting points rather than replicas of specific acoustic instruments.

Workflow

1. Set the track to 16 channels, insert s3g Ambi Encoder Medium 16, and choose 1OA, 2OA, or 3OA from ORDER.
2. Follow it with an ambisonic decoder.
3. For an input-free patch, open SEQ, raise SELF, and set RATE. To play it directly, click a cube node or send MIDI notes. Mono track audio is optional.
4. Choose the exciter. Begin with PERCUSSIVE for impacts, then try BOW, REED, or AIR JET with SUSTAIN or MIDI envelopes for continuous tone.
5. Balance SPEED and SIZE for the desired register, then shape decay, absorption, nonlinearity, radiation, and dispersion.
6. Select a node before editing its Euclidean lane or MASK. The rings and halos in the cube show which node is selected, struck, held by MIDI, or still ringing.

Signal Flow

1. Mono input, a node click, a MIDI note, or a sequencer hit excites one of the eight cube corners. INPUT, STRIKE, SELF, velocity, and the chosen exciter set the strength and character of that gesture.
2. Energy travels in both directions along the cube's twelve edges. SPEED and SIZE set the travel time together, so they also establish the basic register and scale of the body.
3. DECAY, ABSORB, NONLINEAR, and DISPERSE shape how the sound fades, darkens, roughens, and spreads as it moves.
4. Each corner radiates from its own direction. Its MASK can make the corner that received the event stand out more clearly in the field.
5. The eight radiators are encoded at their cube directions. The selected order occupies the first 4, 9, or 16 output channels; unused channels are silent.
6. OUT sets the final level, and one linked guard protects all active channels together without independently changing the field balance.

Waveguide Field and Camera

Click a node to select and strike it. The selected node has a white ring; a held MIDI voice has a cyan ring and note label; triggered or circulating energy expands as a halo. Edge width and brightness show live energy moving through the waveguides.

TOP and SIDE provide fixed views. 3/4 restores the perspective view. Drag empty field space to orbit, and use − or + to zoom. Camera actions affect only the display, not ambisonic coordinates or sound.

Source and Exciters

On the SOURCE page, choose the node you want to play and the kind of gesture that will excite it. SUSTAIN adds continuous drive, CHARACTER changes the exciter's color, INPUT sets how strongly mono track audio enters the cube, and STRIKE sets the level of clicks and MIDI attacks. MASK sharpens the selected node's spatial focus.

The SEQ page has the same exciter menu. Each pattern hit borrows that exciter's character, so a lane can play short bow, reed, or air-jet gestures as well as percussion even when SUSTAIN is down.

Euclidean Sequencer and Ratchets

SELF enables input-free excitation and sets its level. RATE is the free-running step rate, and STEPS sets a shared cycle of 4–32 steps. Each node stores its own PULSES and ROTATE values; select a node in the cube or NODE menu before editing its lane.

At densities up to one pulse per step, hits are distributed as evenly as possible around the cycle. When PULSES exceeds STEPS, every step receives an equal base number of hits and the remainder is distributed as extra in-step ratchets. A 5-step lane with 12 pulses therefore produces two hits on every step plus two additional ratchets spread across the cycle.

The MIDI MODE also changes how pattern hits move around the cube. STRIKE and MONO NOTE keep each Euclidean lane on its own node. POLY SEQ sends successive hits through nodes 1–8. POLY RANDOM shuffles all eight nodes, uses each one before starting a new set, and avoids repeating the same node at the join.

Scale-Locked Note Dispersion

The last MIDI note you play becomes the center of the self-running pattern. SCALE selects Major, Natural Minor, Dorian, Mixolydian, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Harmonic Minor, or Chromatic. NOTES chooses one to eight variations: one keeps every hit on the center note, while larger values spread the nodes above and below it within the scale.

For example, with C4 as the last note, Major, and eight variations, nodes map to C4, D4, B3, E4, A3, F4, G3, and G4. TRANSPOSE shifts the complete set. When several nodes fire together, each keeps its assigned pitch while the cube blends their resonance.

MIDI Note Layer

Send notes to Waveguide MIDI / Strike In. MIDI works with all four exciters, including PERCUSSIVE. TRANSPOSE shifts pitch by ±24 semitones; ATTACK and RELEASE shape the note envelope, while VELOCITY sets how strongly playing dynamics affect the result.

Strike-Following Directivity

Each node has its own MASK setting. When a click, MIDI note, pattern hit, or continuous exciter plays that node, the mask follows the event to the matching corner. Higher settings make that location stand out more sharply; lower settings let the sound spread more evenly through the cube. Several active nodes can remain distinct at the same time.

The mask changes spatial emphasis rather than moving a node or replacing the natural dispersion of energy through the cube. For a clear eight-position sequence, raise each node's MASK and reduce DISPERSE or decay; for a more diffuse body, lower the masks and allow the shared network to ring.

Primary Controls

Speed, Size, and Auditioning

SPEED and SIZE work together to set the body's register. Different combinations can produce low drones, a resonant sweet range, or very bright and unstable colors. Begin from a preset, move one control at a time, and adjust DECAY and ABSORB when the body moves into a new register.

You can move SIZE while the cube is ringing. Changes are smoothed so the resonator glides instead of cracking or abruptly restarting. Small, slow moves are best when auditioning a tone; fast or extreme moves create a more obvious pitch sweep. SPEED also retunes the body and responds in the same musical way.

Order and Routing

The output is ACN/SN3D. Place compatible Ambisonic effects between Medium and the decoder only when their supported order and channel count match the field.

Presets

The preset menu provides INIT, RESONANT CUBE, BOWED GLASS, REED CHAMBER, AIR JET LATTICE, GLASS LATTICE, and DARK DRONE. Each is a complete playing condition with its own medium, exciter, rhythm, scale, note spread, and spatial focus. LOAD and SAVE exchange plugin presets; RANDOM creates a playable variation within bounded ranges.

Limits

Medium is designed as a flexible musical resonator rather than a calibrated model of one room, string, bore, or instrument. The bow, reed, and air-jet names describe broad playing gestures, and the useful range depends on the relationship between SPEED, SIZE, decay, and absorption.

The sequencer's RATE runs in hertz rather than following host tempo. All eight nodes belong to one resonating cube, so overlapping notes and simultaneous hits influence the same body instead of behaving like eight unrelated synthesizers. See Modal Synthesis and Physical Modeling for the digital-waveguide background.