Which Synths allow to set dedicated pan position for each voice?

[SamDi]

Hi,

last time there came a special use-case in my mind, and I asked myself, which VST-synth could do it:

Which synths out there are able to set a separate pan value for each (new) voice? The idea is to play a developing chord with the first note in the panorama mid and each new tone then should appear on a more outer position.

I have many VST synths now, but I could not recall, which of these would allow this. My hope is, that there will be a synth proposed, which I already have. If you should wonder, which synths I have, ehm it's like 60% of the top 10, 20 50 lists out there, which I own, thus there is a realistic chance that I have already one, able to do this

Any proposals?

[sleepcircle]

Repro-5 and Diva (both by u-he) let you do that, i believe.

[Niowiad]

Arturia Prophet VS
Arturia OB-Xa
Arturia Matrix-12 (not continuous control, but 5 positions from left to right)
Arturia CS-80
Arturia SEM
OP-X
Obsession
PolyKB

Repro-5 and Diva (both by u-he) let you do that, i believe.

Repro does it, but I don't think Diva has actual per-voice panning.
EDIT: my mistake, I was actually pleased to find out Diva can do this too, few posts below.

[discoDSP]

OB-Xd https://www.discodsp.com/obxd/

[Niowiad]

I've always wondered why it's something you basically only see in vintage hardware emulations and not in modern softsynths which come packed with all kinds of "advanced" features for sound design.

[sinemotor]

Repro does it, but I don't think Diva has actual per-voice panning.

Yes it does! You have to set the Pan Mod parameter to "Voice Map Modulator" and adjust for each voice knob. You can also do that for other parameters as well like the vca, filter cutoff, resonance, fm etc...

In Massive X there is this MIDI tracker feature and you can set a specific value for each individual note of the keyboard for example. I use "voice randomization" a lot as well but it's a bit different.

[Niowiad]

Repro does it, but I don't think Diva has actual per-voice panning.

Yes it does! You have to set the Pan Mod parameter to "Voice Map Modulator" and adjust for each voice knob. You can also do that for other parameters as well like the vca, filter cutoff, resonance, fm etc...

Pretty cool.
I've often played with the demo but never figured this out, and it actually always seemed strange to me, considering the synth gives other per-voice options
I'll edit the post above (and I'll also have to buy it at some point). Thanks.

[Examigan]

Not sure if unison voices count here, but Tracktion's Collective has unison of up to 16 voices (per layer) and you can transpose each unison voice in semitones separately for the left/right channels. But you can't dial in the panning exactly how you want, it is either left or right for each voice.

unison voices.jpg

[foosnark]

Aalto can do it.

[Armagibbon]

Dune 3 is all about that... can even pan each osc per voice

[parawave]

Rapid can do it.
In fact it's per oscillator, per voice, per layer and per mixer channel.

In the design stage we came to the conclusion that it's really important for evolving pad presets.
Sometimes you want the bass part of a patch centered while a mid range slightly panned to the left and right, and for example a high arp "wandering around" via LFO.

"Flip Flop" on balance as modulation is also a cool thing. Every press it's left or right. Almost like a ping pong effect. Always wondered why a majority of "classic synths" do not offer a dedicated balance and volume and only OSC MIX or something like that. I guess (for analog synths) it's to save the additional knobs and signal splitting on the circuit board.

[SamDi]

Oh wow, thanks guys for all the anwers, I was not aware that so many synths support it. For Repro it's obvious - just double checked it. For Diva, sounds a bit more complicated, but OK, at least there is a way, I'll check it. Massive, doesn't sound like panning linked to the voice but rather to the note - I'll check it. For Dune and Rapid (which of course I also have ) - I am going to check it. So my evening is filled

[Urs]

For Diva, sounds a bit more complicated, but OK, at least there is a way, I'll check it.

It's actually merely economic than complicated. By using a general purpose modifier that can be routed on pan with 1 click, you can also route it on filter cutoff, oscillator detune etc. etc. Hence, you can do a lot of different things per each voice, not just pan. This works similarly in Hive and Zebra as well, "per voice stuff" has become a staple in my synth design habits.

[e-crooner]

Rapid can do it.
In fact it's per oscillator, per voice, per layer and per mixer channel.

In the design stage we came to the conclusion that it's really important for evolving pad presets.
Sometimes you want the bass part of a patch centered while a mid range slightly panned to the left and right, and for example a high arp "wandering around" via LFO.

"Flip Flop" on balance as modulation is also a cool thing. Every press it's left or right. Almost like a ping pong effect. Always wondered why a majority of "classic synths" do not offer a dedicated balance and volume and only OSC MIX or something like that. I guess (for analog synths) it's to save the additional knobs and signal splitting on the circuit board.

I don't like it, I prefer compact sounds without too much spread and stereo effect going on. Often those effects rip the sound apart, pads for instance. They can be outright irritating in my view.
With piano sounds I like a slight keytrack to pan modulation, because it is natural.

[SamDi]

For Diva, sounds a bit more complicated, but OK, at least there is a way, I'll check it.

It's actually merely economic than complicated. By using a general purpose modifier that can be routed on pan with 1 click, you can also route it on filter cutoff, oscillator detune etc. etc. Hence, you can do a lot of different things per each voice, not just pan. This works similarly in Hive and Zebra as well, "per voice stuff" has become a staple in my synth design habits.

Hm, for Repro and Diva it's obvious. Though I did not reach what I wanted: Idea was, to have 1st tone in the mid, second a bit on the side, third tone even more outer on the opposite side and so on. Since Repro and Diva don't allocate 1st voice to first played note, 2nd voice to 2nd note and so on, I cannot fix a dedicated pan position dependent on the played order. I'ts rather that thy try to use all voices in a ring manner. Is there a way to change it? For Repro you can set reallocate to on, but then you need to be lucky that it really plays the order you want, if played other notes before it can behave different. Is there a way to reset reallocation, that 1st played note is then really 1st voice?

For Hive and Zebra it was not clear to me how to put different pan positions to different voices. For Zebra I just found the MidiMapper, but no modulation source like voice-anything and then it's nailed to notes not played order. On Hive I found also no voice modualtion source. What is the way to go to modulate parameters dependent on different voice there?