Transversus Legio
Morphing lofi drum kit
Transversus Legio is a 2-operator, phase-modulation-based percussive synth voice for Noise Engineering’s Legio platform. It is based heavily on the synth voice included in the esoteric and obscure Nintendo DS music software DSpTracker. It comes pre-loaded with five preset drum sounds in its five drum slots. Flaunting ten synth parameters and a morph parameter that blends seamlessly between the five slots, it presents a sprawling multidimensional sonic landscape to explore.
A quick press of the encoder allows the user to rotate through editing one of the five sound slots, while the morph knob/cv chooses which sound slot is being played by morphing from one preset’s parameters to the next, locking fully onto the preset near every whole volt. The leftmost LED shows a color corresponding to the currently playing sound slot, while the rightmost LED displays the current sound slot being edited.
Turning the encoder modifies one of the nine main synth parameters that are used to define the drum sounds/presets. The parameter this is modified is determined by the position of the two switches. Refer to the following parameter matrix for which combination selects what parameter.
Turning the encoder while it’s pressed down modifies an auxiliary tenth parameter, a per-slot semitone offset, letting you set an optional base note for each sound. Each parameter can be adjusted to one of 256 discrete levels. Modulation and feedback envelope amounts, as well as semitone offset, are signed/bipolar. The other parameters are unsigned/unipolar.
A:
X: Modulation amount
Y: Modulation frequency
Z: Feedback amount
B:
X: Modulation envelope amount
Y: Carrier frequency envelope amount
Z: Feedback envelope amount
C:
X: Envelope skew (attack vs decay)
Y: Modulation envelope curve (linear to exponential)
Z: Amplitude envelope curve (linear to exponential)
Long pressing the encoder for one second will load one of nine default presets into the currently selected sound slot. If the encoder continues to be held after this, the module run through each of the sound’s parameters randomly either resetting or randomizing (or both) each one.
The time knob controls the overall length of the sound being played. The bang(!) input triggers the sound. The pitch input provides v/oct control over the frequency of the sound, and the phase inputs modulate the phase of the left or right channels.
The right channel outputs a second instance of the Transversus synth voice, but with a 10%-of-a-volt offset applied. The result of this is that the right channel is ever-so-slightly morphed toward the next sound slot, resulting in a slight variation of the selected sound if used monaurally, or a gloriously wide stereo field when used in stereo.
Transversus Legio is deliberately undersampled at a beautifully-aliasing 24kHz to replicate the low sampling rate of the Nintendo DS hardware. Where possible, all sound synthesis mathematics are performed with 12.4 fixed point arithmetic, providing crunchy digital harmonics and extraordinarily chaotic FM feedback.
We guarantee that you’ve never used a drum synth like this one. Well, unless you’ve used DSpTracker. Then you’ve used one almost exactly like this one. Oops.