Audio node
Birds Synth
Synthesized birdsong -- species measured from real recordings, phrases with true pauses, and the Weird/Matrix knobs for metal and pixel birds. Conversation mode: three birds that talk — one calls, another imitates it, sings its own song back or mocks the ending (Terremoti Vulcana's birds); Density is how often. Add inside an Audio Modular System.
Inputs
| Port | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| EnableTurns the bird off without removing it. A syllable mid-flight finishes. | bool | true |
| NotesThe stream the bird hears. In Triggered mode each note cues a phrase; in Answer mode the bird yields to it and replies into its gaps; in Free Song it is scenery. | float | — |
| SpeciesWhose song this is. Wren, Robin and Spring Chips are measured from real recordings; the rest are invented relatives. Each carries its own register, phrasing and pauses. | int | 0 |
| ModeWho decides when it sings. Free Song: its own clock. Triggered: a note cues a phrase. Answer: sings alone, replying into the input's gaps. Direct: one syllable per note, at once. Conversation: three birds talking (Terremoti Vulcana's) — Density is how often. | int | 0 |
| ThinTriggered mode only: the fraction of incoming notes politely ignored — 0 sings on every note, 0.9 on roughly one in ten. Turns a dense Pulse into a sparse forest. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0 |
| LevelOutput volume. Clamped to 0…1.5. | float | 0.7 |
| PitchTransposes the whole bird, in semitones. | float | 0 |
| DensityHow often the bird chooses to sing at all — a probability on each phrase. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0.7 |
| RestStretches the silences between phrases up to 3× — in birdsong the pauses are the song. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0.5 |
| SpeedTime scale of everything — syllables, gaps, pauses. 0.5 is a hurried bird, 2 a lazy afternoon. Clamped to 0.25…4. | float | 1 |
| WeirdRing-modulates the syllable against a golden-ratio carrier — inharmonic metal birds. Morphs live; loves an LFO. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0 |
| MatrixFreezes the smooth pitch sweep into stepped pixels — the steps grow larger and snap to semitones as it rises. A digital bird at dawn. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0 |
| SoftThe ceiling on syllable loudness. Clamped to 0.05…1. | float | 0.8 |
| SpaceStereo spread of the syllables. Clamped to 0…1. | float | 0.5 |
| SeedThe bird's identity: the same seed sings the same song. | int | 0 |
| Max VoicesSyllables that may overlap. Clamped to 1…8; 2–3 keeps one bird natural, more allows a small chorus. | int | 3 |
Outputs
| Port | Type |
|---|---|
| NotesThe stream the bird hears. In Triggered mode each note cues a phrase; in Answer mode the bird yields to it and replies into its gaps; in Free Song it is scenery. | float |
How It Works
Birds Synth synthesizes birdsong — there are no samples. 362 wren, 83 robin and 307 spring-chorus syllables were segmented and measured, and every number the synthesis uses comes from those measurements: a syllable is a nearly pure sine 45–145 ms long sweeping 0–5 semitones exponentially, a wren phrase is a train of about 49 syllables with 29 ms gaps and five seconds of silence after, a robin warbles ten with 45 % repeated pitches.
Three measured species (Wren, Robin, Spring Chips) and five invented relatives inside the same physiology (Nightingale, Blackbird, Canary, Skylark, Glitch Finch).
Modes and the Magic Knobs
Free Song sings on its own, Triggered waits for a note, Answer replies to a stream, Direct plays what it is given. Two knobs live per-sample: Weird ring-modulates against a golden-ratio carrier (inharmonic, metallic birds) and Matrix quantizes pitch into a pixel grid.
Use Cases
- Ambience with intent — a dawn chorus that reacts to the patch.
- Call and response — Answer mode against a melodic instrument.
- Strange creatures — Weird and Matrix take it far from ornithology.
Tips
- Species changes the whole grammar of the phrase, not just the timbre.
- Rest controls how much silence sits between phrases — silence is what makes it read as a bird.
Open Birds Synth in the interactive catalog →
Birds Synth is one of 381 nodes in Grafit Pro.
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