Voice Dispersion (randomness) in Halion's Analog Synth

Virtual instruments HALion
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Hi,
just demoing H7 and liking it a lot. One quick question: Is there anything similar to “Voice Dispersion” the new-ish Arturia synth have f.e.? Unison or Chorus sound completely different, so they are not a workaround unfortunately. Panning via Step Modulator is far from it, too. So is there a way to do it?
Thanks.

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In Halion, you can apply subtle randomness or “analog drift” similar to Arturia’s “Voice Dispersion” to any parameter which can be modulated.

To do this, head to the LFO Section, and set one of the LFOs to the S & H 1 wave shape, then set the Shape parameter to 100, to make the randomness as smooth as possible. I would recommend setting the Frequency parameter to a very low value.

Now, click any parameter to which you want to apply randomness, then click the “+” button (Add Modulator) at the bottom of the screen and select the LFO you edited.

These parameters are good candidates for subtle randomness:

  • Oscillator Pitch
  • Oscillator Level or Amplifier Level
  • Cutoff
  • Resonance
  • Waveform parameter of the Sync/CM/XOR/Square PWM Oscillator types.

This is perhaps not as convenient as dedicated “Analog Feel” controls, but it gets the job done. If you think you’ll be creating Programs with analog drift frequently, I recommend saving a preset with at least a LFO pre-configured.

If you don’t want to waste a LFO to do this, you can also try using Noise as a Modulation Source.

Of course, none of this is limited to Halion’s Analog Synth Layer. For example, some Pitch and Level randomness are great ways to spice up old samples with short loops.

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Do you mean something like this?
RAST-A for HALion and HS is inspired by an OB-X and should have the dispersion you’re talking about.

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Ok, turns out I was being stupid. I was actually thinking what ‘Pan Spread’ does was part of these randomizing dispersion settings. Aaand in Halion’s amp section there’s literally a ‘Random’ knob for the panning that does exactly that. Embarrasing :dotted_line_face: Your post is very helpful though, because these micro movements really make a difference.