In early 2021, I had an idea for a Twitch Plays project where users control a synthesizer. Searching around, I found someone who was already prototyping a similar concept. We teamed up and launched after a few months of development.

The stream runs 24/7 from a remote computer that we maintain via remote access. Users can control a synthesizer using chat commands, and collaborate with their friends in realtime. Essentially, typing !cutoff 50 will move the knob for Cutoff Frequency to 50%.

Using Native Instrument’s Reaktor, I made a custom synthesizer that I then loaded into Ableton as a plug-in. With our custom Max4Live device, I map the parameters of the synth to chat commands. The UI of the synthesizer is then captured in OBS and streamed to our Twitch channel.

I decided to go with a 2-oscillator subtractive design to keep things conceptually simple. The ranges of each control are adjusted so things always sound somewhat decent. The pitch of each oscillator can only drift so far apart, for example. Reaktor was a platform I was familiar with already, and had the tools I needed to sketch things out quickly.

The UI was designed in Blender as a 3D object, so I can render and swap out different skins on the fly. This is also handy for promo assets because we can change lighting, camera angles, and environment.

Ableton was used as the host DAW mainly because of its integration with Max4Live. We expose the parameters of the Reaktor plug-in, and map them to our Max device that parses the commands from the chat. Ableton also allows me to have various field recordings, and other audio loaded into tracks that users can control.

OBS was the obvious choice for streaming, as it’s light weight and very stable. I initially ran the stream from an old 2012 Macbook Pro in my apartment, but found the internet connection to be unstable. To save my bandwidth and get things more stable, we ported over the rig to a remote computer in a data centre. Since then, things have been running smooth. Definitely recommend deploying projects like this remotely if you are able to.

In early 2021, I had an idea for a Twitch Plays project where users control a synthesizer. Searching around, I found someone who was already prototyping a similar concept. We teamed up and launched after a few months of development.

The stream runs 24/7 from a remote computer that we maintain via remote access. Users can control a synthesizer using chat commands, and collaborate with their friends in realtime. Essentially, typing !cutoff 50 will move the knob for Cutoff Frequency to 50%.

Using Native Instrument’s Reaktor, I made a custom synthesizer that I then loaded into Ableton as a plug-in. With our custom Max4Live device, I map the parameters of the synth to chat commands. The UI of the synthesizer is then captured in OBS and streamed to our Twitch channel.

I decided to go with a 2-oscillator subtractive design to keep things conceptually simple. The ranges of each control are adjusted so things always sound somewhat decent. The pitch of each oscillator can only drift so far apart, for example. Reaktor was a platform I was familiar with already, and had the tools I needed to sketch things out quickly.

The UI was designed in Blender as a 3D object, so I can render and swap out different skins on the fly. This is also handy for promo assets because we can change lighting, camera angles, and environment.

Ableton was used as the host DAW mainly because of its integration with Max4Live. We expose the parameters of the Reaktor plug-in, and map them to our Max device that parses the commands from the chat. Ableton also allows me to have various field recordings, and other audio loaded into tracks that users can control.

OBS was the obvious choice for streaming, as it’s light weight and very stable. I initially ran the stream from an old 2012 Macbook Pro in my apartment, but found the internet connection to be unstable. To save my bandwidth and get things more stable, we ported over the rig to a remote computer in a data centre. Since then, things have been running smooth. Definitely recommend deploying projects like this remotely if you are able to.