X-Or
Key Features
- Two free-running saw oscillators with crossfade, coarse interval tuning, and fine detune for beating or octave-stacked bass sounds.
- Resonant low-pass filter with a dedicated attack-decay contour envelope for plucky bass movement and acid-style cutoff snaps.
- Loudness ADS envelope uses soft retriggering so legato notes can transition without hard clicks.
- Pedal-bass voicing shifts incoming MIDI down one octave by default, keeping middle-keyboard parts in the low register.
- Glide can be enabled per patch, with timing from fast legato movement to long portamento sweeps.
- Live waveform and spectrum views plus output meters make it easier to see the synth's low-end behavior while programming.
Description
X-Or is a focused monophonic bass synth built around two free-running saw oscillators, a resonant low-pass filter, a contour envelope, a loudness envelope, and glide. It is designed for low-end parts first: sub layers, plucky basslines, fifth-up stabs, and pedal-bass riffs that benefit from a narrow control set instead of a full workstation synth.
The oscillator section keeps the sound simple but useful, with OSC A following the incoming MIDI note and OSC B available for coarse intervals, octave offsets, or fine detune. Because the saws are free-running rather than phase-locked, small fine-tune offsets can create the slow beating movement that works well for low, sustained bass tones.
The filter and envelopes push X-Or toward punchy mono parts rather than broad pad or lead design. A dedicated attack-decay contour opens the low-pass filter on note-on, while the loudness envelope uses soft retriggering so overlapping notes can move into the next attack without a hard reset.
X-Or also includes practical workflow touches that make the limited architecture easier to use in a DAW. The default one-octave-down transpose keeps middle-keyboard MIDI in the bass register, glide handles overlapping-note portamento, and the resizable editor adds waveform and spectrum views for visual feedback while shaping patches.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of synth is X-Or?
X-Or is a two-oscillator monophonic bass synthesizer. Its sound path is two saw oscillators into a resonant low-pass filter, then a loudness envelope and output gain.
Why does X-Or play an octave lower than expected?
The synth applies a -12 semitone transpose by default for pedal-bass voicing. If you want it to follow your keyboard literally, transpose the MIDI track up one octave in the host.
Does X-Or support macOS, AU, or AAX?
No. The initial release is for Windows and Linux only, with VST3 and CLAP formats.
How does glide work in X-Or?
Glide applies portamento only between overlapping MIDI notes when the glide toggle is on. Non-overlapping notes retrigger normally, and glide time can be set from 0 to 2000 ms.
