Silent Way is a suite of plug-ins designed for use as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system. The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound - rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs etc. of an analogue system.

There are currently two plug-ins in the Silent Way suite - Silent Way DC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future - watch the website for product announcements

Silent Way DC is a simple plug-in that generates constant output signals. It is intended to be used in conjunction with parameter automation (via MIDI or directly by the host application) to generate varying signals. For example, you could use it as an LFO where you draw out the LFO waveform in your host’s parameter automation GUI.

Silent Way Voice Controller is a virtual instrument plug-in designed to directly control an analogue synthesiser by generating the appropriate CV and gate signals via an appropriate audio interface.

By listening to the synthesiser’s output signal, the plug-in is able to calibrate itself to generate the appropriate pitch CV for the incoming MIDI notes.

As well as the basic pitch and gate signals, the plug-in can generate three multi-stage envelope CVs which you can feed to VCAs, VCFs etc. in your synth.

Device Compatibility
For Silent Way to work, the audio interface between the computer and the synth needs to be "DC coupled" i.e. capable of maintaining a DC voltage at its outputs. Many interfaces include high-pass filters on the outputs which makes this impossible. Refer to the device compatibility page for up-to-date information.

Silent Way should work with pretty much any modular synth modules. Because the Voice Controller can calibrate itself by listening to the output of the synth, it is not limited to standard 1V/octave standards. Indeed, it can drive modules not originally intended as oscillators (e.g. LFOs) and still correctly track pitch. Again, refer to the device compatibility page for information on which modules are known to work.
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