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.

All plug-ins also feature:

• Full MIDI and OSC control.
• MIDI/OSC scriptability.
• Sample-accurate handling of MIDI note messages.

Silent Way DC
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
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.

New in 2.5

• Added exponential envelope shapes to Silent Way Voice Controller and Silent Way Trigger.
• Added FSK (‘tape sync’) support to Silent Way Sync.
• Silent Way Learner now supports MIDI channel pressure (aftertouch).
• Bugfix for an issue with MIDI clock generation in Silent Way ES-4 and ES-5 Controllers.
• Bugfix for the behaviour of the Offset control in certain circumstances in Silent Way ES-4 and ES-5 Controllers, and Silent Way Sync.

New in 2.4.3

• Now supports MIDI output of Song Position Pointer.
• Now supports MIDI output of sysex data to the AAX version.
• Bugfix for possible crash when using the OSC browse dialog in 64 bit hosts.
• Added ‘Match Note Offs’ feature to Silent Way ES-4 Controller and Silent Way ES-5 Controller.

New in 2.4.2

• MIDI output at 192kHz supported by ES-4
• MIDI output at all sample rates supported by ES-5 Controller, including when used with SMUX.

New in 2.4.1

• Retina-resolution rendering when the plug-ins are used in a compatible host

New in 2.4.0

• Implemented Apple’s newer Audio Component API
• New Run modes
• New Periodic reset feature to Silent Way Sync.
• Added virtual MIDI input ports to Silent Way ES-4 Controller and ES-5 Controller.
• Added ‘Manual DAC’ feature to Silent Way Step LFO.
• Updated Silent Way Soundplane’s OSC support for the new t3d format in the Soundplane Client v1.0 and above.

New in 2.3.0

• Added ESX-8CV Combiner
• Added polyphonic MIDI splitting to Silent Way ES-4/ES-5 Controllers
• Added ESX-8CV mode to Silent Way Voice Controller.
• Bugfix for a bug that causes glitches in the paraphonic envelope outputs of Silent Way Voice Controller in poly master mode.

New in 2.2.2

• This fixes an issue with some 64 bit hosts, notably Presonus Studio One.

New in 2.2.1

• 32 & 64 bit release compatible with ProTools 11,
• Maintains compatibility with ProTools 10.3.6.

New in 2.2.0

• Added Silent Way Logic Project.
• Added controls for Interface Categories.
• Silent Way Step LFO can now be reset and/or triggered by MIDI notes and/or incoming CVs.
• Added ‘Gate Length’ control to Silent Way Step LFO.
• Added ‘Random’ feature to Silent Way Step LFO.
• Silent Way CV To MIDI, VST version, can now output MIDI direct to the host.
• Silent Way CV To MIDI can now output MIDI directly to Silent Way Learner.
• Silent Way Learner now supports MIDI polyphonic pressure messages.
• Added ‘SMUX Proof’ mode for Silent Way ESX-4CV Combiner.
• Bugfix for Silent Way Learner, VST and AU versions, to correctly output silence.

New in 2.1.0

• Bugfix for issue where Silent Way Follower locks up the host application.
• Added a new plug-in: Silent Way Function
• Added "Calibrated" mode to Silent Way Follower
• Added "Transport2" sync mode to Silent Way LFO
• Added a “Transfer” button to Silent Way Soundplane and Silent Way Follower
• Added support for the Expert Sleepers ES-5 module to Silent Way Sync.
• Added sustain pedal support to Silent Way Voice Controller.

New in 2.0.2

• Bugfix for a problem that prevented use of the plug-in status bar (mute, presets etc.) in Cubase Mac OS X 32 bit.
• Bugfix for blank UI problem in Cubase.
• Added the ability to skin the colours of the various graph elements in the UIs (e.g. envelope displays).

New in 2.0

• Now official version
• 5 new plug-ins: Silent Way ES-5 Controller, Silent Way ESX-4CV Combiner, Silent Way Follower, Silent Way Learner and Silent Way Soundplane
• 64 bit support
• New and customizable GUI
• MIDI Learn
• New OSC control features
• Single bundle installer
• Various other fixes and improvements

New in 2.0 beta6

• fixed Logic AU validation of 64 bit SW Quantizer and SW Soundplane
• fixed sending of OSC (from SW Learner and CV To OSC) in 64 bit
• plug-in UIDs are now stored with the song file (so OSC paths remain consistent after a save/load)
• SW SMUX wasn't working in Logic, now fixed
• SW Soundplane now saves its calibration with the song
• SW Learner now stores its outgoing OSC path and the MIDI controller mappings

New in 2.0 beta5

• new plug-in: SW Learner, providing centralised MIDI learn and OSC support.
• new plug-in: SW Follower, providing pitch and envelope tracking
• new plug-in: SW Soundplane, providing support for the Madrona Labs Soundplane instrument
• v2 beta 5 now uses a Silent Way v2 licence.
• v2 licences are available to purchase now.
• v2 is $59.
• an upgrade from v1 to v2 is $20.
• if you purchased v1 in 2012, the upgrade is $10. Contact Expert Sleepers for a discount coupon.
• a new Licence Manager (1.0.18) is required
• SW Sync in beta 5 now has the same Logic bug workaround as v1.7.3
• SW Sync has new parameters: Mute Clock, Multiplier and the option to invert signals when using an ES-5 or ESX-8GT
• SW Trigger has an envelope multiplier (as in the Voice Controller)
• there's now an effect version of SW Trigger which can be triggered by incoming CV

New in 2.0 beta

• 64 bit support (Windows and Mac OS X).
• New UI design.
• UI skinning.

New in 1.7.0

• Added a new plug-in, Silent Way Sync. This expands the DIN sync generator from the ES-4 Controller plug-in into a general purpose clock/trigger/sync plug-in.
• Fixes various issues with parameter automation and GUI updates.
• Fixes the ES-4 Controller plug-in’s response to MIDI channels (previously it would respond to mes- sages on any and all MIDI channels) and adds a ‘Channelise’ capability to the MIDI Out section.