Panharmonium: Mutating Spectral Resynthesizer

Rossum Electro-Music Software Architect Bob Bliss (who also, as it happens, fathered E-mu’s famed “EOS” Emulator Operating System) has created Panharmonium, a unique music and sound design tool that lets you analyze the spectral content of any audio signal and use that analysis to drive a bank of from 1 to 33 oscillators. Depending on various control settings, Panharmonium can accurately reproduce the input spectrum in real time or modify it in a multitude of wildly creative ways. All with an interface whose immediacy encourages performance and interaction.

Panharmonium input can be anything from a single oscillator to an entire mix (including vocals). From dense, swirling pads and drones that evolve with the input’s changing spectrum, to clock-syncable spectral arpeggiation, to as-yet unnamed harmonic effects, Panharmonium opens up an entirely new world of sonic possibilities.

Additionally, Panharmonium can take a snapshot of an instantaneous spectrum and use that as a complex harmonic oscillator, which can then be modified and modulated by all of Panharmonium’s other controls.

Panharmonium accomplishes its magic though a combination of functional submodules.