It's amazing.

If you haven't checked it, yet. Do it!

Mostly I'm astonished how low the CPU usage is.
Ichiro Toda must have written the whole damn
algorithm in MMX assembler...

It has a LP/HP/BP mode filter that sounds quite
good and a complete FX section with EQ, Tempo Delay
and Chorus/Flanger.

It's just amazing. And it's free. And it's quite frustrating, too.

I was working on a new, scriptable, nice looking, feature rich,
universal graphical user interface I called 'Jewel' and a sample-based
synth engine that would make use of this new UI in a new
VST instrument.

But with all these excellent VST instruments coming out everyday,
bundled with 1280 great sounds, who needs this?

I should save my time for something good, I think I should give
it up and do something else instead...

-LaD-

Naw ... just take it in another totally different if not, wacky direction. Sure, there's alot of good synths around, but there's still a market for truly different stuff.

My opinion (this coming from someone who never codes anything).

Doug

LightHouse,Ganymed was a ground breaking synth please continue to work on your new project.A sample based synth would do well in my opinion and if it is the same quality as your previous work success would be guaranteed.

Hey there LAD(dy) unless "Jewel" was going to sound exactly like Synth1 does, then why even sweat it? Frankly I'm a big fan of having all kinds of sounds at my disposal, so don't worry about it.

Synth 1 is a great VSTi. But all of the creations I find on KVR have provided enjoyment just testing them. Don't get frustrated if you are creating VSTi because you never know when others will benefit also and reward you for it.

Vivaldi and Ganymed are great! I'd try anything you put out there.

LighthouseAtDawn wrote:

I was working on a new, scriptable, nice looking, feature rich, universal graphical user interface I called 'Jewel' and a sample-based synth engine that would make use of this new UI in a new VST instrument. But with all these excellent VST instruments coming out everyday, bundled with 1280 great sounds, who needs this?

I hear ya! I have finished my two VSTi and until I heard Synth-1 I thought they were pretty good. Now I can hardly be bothered releasing them. Still, it made me put more effort into making some decent patches for them so I will probably get around to it.

Come on Bones let them go-set them free! We are all waiting in anticipation of your Killer synths.I'm sure they will sound great.Need any help with those patches?
Here's a theory that has been bouncing around in my head since Synth1 was released(there's plenty of room for things to freely bounce around in my empty head).First let me say that Ichiro Toda is my hero and I consider Synth1 one to be a big step up in quality for freeware vsti's.Second,I don't really subscribe to this theory but it's something that might be fun to discuss.Let's see we get a great new free vsti that has an innovative new patch management system,is suprisingly low on cpu for it's sound quality and has user gui options that doesn't require an installer-a step up if you ask me.It comes from Japan and has an (almost) General Midi soundset.
Could this be a test ballon sent up by say Roland or Korg,maybe Yamaha?Now keep in mind that I don't really subscribe to this theory and if Ichiro doesn't work for any major company I think someone like say ReFx or RGC or Muon should hire him before Native Instruments does.Imagine if Rene or Mike and Markus or Dave collaborated with Ichiro what wonderful things would be born?Come to think of it why hasn't anyone hired LightHouse for his innovative ideas?

Maybe as a word of encouragement to those who feel intimidated by Synth1....I think it's good but I don't think it's THAT good. I dunno maybe it's just me, and I still haven't spent a whole lot of time with it, but something about just doesn't particularly float my boat. Sure it's low on CPU and also comes as a DXi, but aside from the arpegiator I don't seem to be as impressed with it as most around here are. So please anyone with some synths they're working on, please release them, Synth1 is not the be all end all softsynth, at least not for me anyway. You guys just may be working on the softsynth of my dreams and just never know it so please please release the stuff you've been working on. Every synth is unique, so please don't be discouraged, you may have the softsynth I've been looking for and not even realize it.

Don't panic! No freware synth, no matter how damned good it is, is a match for my huge, bloated ego. My little killers are much better at synth-bass thanks to Jeff's great oscillators and reasonable filter and they are beautiful [of course]. I just gotta find the time to get 'em organised.

BONES wrote:

LighthouseAtDawn wrote: I was working on a new, scriptable, nice looking, feature rich, universal graphical user interface I called 'Jewel' and a sample-based synth engine that would make use of this new UI in a new VST instrument. But with all these excellent VST instruments coming out everyday, bundled with 1280 great sounds, who needs this? I hear ya! I have finished my two VSTi and until I heard Synth-1 I thought they were pretty good. Now I can hardly be bothered releasing them. Still, it made me put more effort into making some decent patches for them so I will probably get around to it.

If you want, we can make patches for your synth. We'll be happy to do fressshh banks.

You can check the patches we made for Synth1 here http://www.elektronicabcn.com/downloads/index_downloads.php?presets=on &id_instrum=2&submit=mostrar+resultado#2

It's interesting to make some sample/preset banks for your Synth/Sampler when finished. Please advise me... Will support 24bit/48Khz .WAV samples?

p:check our samples

LightHouse, I do believe in collaboration and teams, that's the way for the future to create innovative audio software,
ok Synth 1 is good, free, featured etc... but it's nothing really new IMHO

this " individualistic world" is forcing me to learn C++ to code my own project (sorry for the rant) but I hate that, not cuz it's hard (I have math degree) but cuz it's not in my nature to do that,
everyone got his(her)own creative nature I think,
a matching team, even two , three persons, can do wornderful things .

So as I wrote many times, any developer please feel free to contact me for
collaboration

Stupid question time - can I read your site in English somehow - my Spanish is not too good!

Bill wrote:

Stupid question time - can I read your site in English somehow - my Spanish is not too good!

We are currently working on it. We will not translate all the pages of the site: Articles and Tutorials will be only in Spanish but it's not important for all of you 'cause you have KvR and other sites for that. By now you can download without problem all the files (sample libraries, presets, and in about two weeks you can download our first LP, 20Themes /8artists), just clik download!

for more information look at this topic http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10711

yes i feel the same way lighthouse.. except with my lowly Synthedit creations...

I'll make something, and while working on the gui.. someone else releases something that does the same thing (or more.. better) .. grr

oh well..

i think the 'normal' synth categories are becoming saturated.. and like it has been stated here.. that the 'weird' categories are still open and uncharted...

however i STILL havent seen anything that can play with a novation supernova or any of the waldorf stuff (except for maybe the a1 and ES2) ..

not saying that you'd be interested in making something like that (especially for free) but.. its just an example of the market.. and how it is right now...

lots of 2 osc VA synths.. but nothing with a load of modulation abilities.. especially free...

------------

i'd say.. just come up with an idea of something YOU'D like.. and then build it slowly.. add features here and there... let it build.

let the "market" shake the good from the bad.. ahh only with time

For what it's worth...

Even if you're making the most ordinary, plain-looking, dime-a-dozen synth (unless it's Neon ), you're helping the musician community.

No, I'm not talking about some vague, fleety, 'oh-you-help-by-sharing' type of pink socio-religious haze, but real, tangible benefits.

1. We don't all have all the synths we want. Most of us "settle" for something or other because of limited resources (primarily dough and time). I know I'm still looking for *certain* features that I cannot get from any VSTi, freeware or otherwise, and I usually end up forcing a synth I already own to do something it was either not designed or not optimized to do. Sometimes they're stupid little things (e.g. a slider instead of a knob) and sometimes they're structural components (e.g. drawable envelopes combined with a depth knob).

In any case, most good VSTi's (and I know the term is relatively relative) stay in my folder permanently because even if there's only ONE SINGLE thing that they do spectacularly better than the others, that one thing will speed up my workflow or inspire me to come up with stuff I enjoy, without having to try and bend another synth to do it. BONES' synths, for instance, strike me as just that: they're not designed to replace Pentagon or z3ta, but I can do with them stuff that might take much longer on those. The same with Claw.

2. Steinberg and N.I. and all the other overlords will not spend shitloads of money on development if they can get away with the 'same old crap' over and over again. The more clone/replica/specialist VSTi's out there for free/cheap, the less there's a market for them, which means the more the biggies have to try to impress us with radical inventions. Which sets the industry's standards ever higher. Which is DAMN GOOD for us. I doubt Pro53 would have come out had there not been an overabundance of free/inexpensive VSTi's that put Pro52 to shame with a light fart (Muon Tau Pro or Triangle I/II come to mind immediately... ). The Lord knows, Microsoft won't force them to seek out your whims and wishes...

3. Music is subjective; the sound of instruments ditto. Thousands of people may prefer Absynth to Crystal, yet my ears and mind cannot help but prefer Glenn's creation. I'm not saying it's 'better' or 'higher quality' or any some such thing; but I enjoy working with it more, therefore I get more 'emotional profit' out of it.

Honestly, if they were the same price - and I could afford that price - I'd still go with Crystal. I may be the worst musician ever lived, but surely nobody objects to the taste of a customer if s/he prefers their product to that of the competitors? By the same token, there are occasions where I may use Synth1 rather than, say, Cronox (though I own and love both), regardless of the technical specs behind them.

4. No matter what people say, even the most avid tweakers like myself tend to resort to presets every now and then, especially if you find something that's exactly what you were looking for. Since I, like most others, cannot afford large, good quality sample libraries, every time I get a new VSTi it is like buying a new sample CD - 'cept it's free...

5. If you're planning a career in music software coding, you cannot start from scratch. The leap from recall/understanding to application/analysis/synthesis/evaluation is the hardest thing no matter what you're studying. Coding your own baby will make learning a whole lot more fun, ease the transition, and allow you to avoid the same mistakes others have committed. Sure, you don't necessarily need to build an arrowhead if you're in business for developing warheads, but it sure as hell will teach you something about aerodynamics and ballistics...

Not to mention that most great inventors and conceptual revolutionaries (Edison, Einstein, etc.) started with stuff that was already present nay 'clichéd', and put a whole new spin on it that we're still reeling from today.

6. Finally, one of the secrets behind Synth1's success IMHO is the presets. Just by virtue of trying to replicate a soundset that we're all already familiar with, it gave us direct reference points for comparison, and showed just how versatile this little synth can be while still offering great quality. Another example: I've just got the latest version of z3ta with the extra soundbank (now there are 2!), and I discovered a whole new and interesting dimension to this synth that, without the new presets, would have taken me a lot of time to realize.

Moral of the story: you cannot judge a book by its cover, but a good Table of Summary sure as hell helps...

For good or bad, a large part of my view of a free synth comes down to the presets. I want quality and quantity.

I've download a few that had only 16, 8, or even no presets at all.

Every once in a while, the very first preset grabs me, but that's rare. CosmoGirl II, Synth1, and Drumatic did that to me.

Please, devs, load up the presets. I'll have a lot more confidence in your synth if you enjoyed it enough to make some good presets.

Teksonik wrote:

LightHouse,Ganymed was a ground breaking synth please continue to work on your new project.A sample based synth would do well in my opinion and if it is the same quality as your previous work success would be guaranteed.

I'm using Ganymed right now for a tune. It has a unique sound that sits perfectly with what I'm doing right now (and the other synths I tend to use). Thanks for it, and I look forward to using anything else you come up with. (Synth 1 is lovely too)

mistertoast wrote:

For good or bad, a large part of my view of a free synth comes down to the presets. I want quality and quantity. I've download a few that had only 16, 8, or even no presets at all. Every once in a while, the very first preset grabs me, but that's rare. CosmoGirl II, Synth1, and Drumatic did that to me. Please, devs, load up the presets. I'll have a lot more confidence in your synth if you enjoyed it enough to make some good presets.

Tell me what are the synths that have not or a litle bit presets, and if we found them good for programming patches, we will make some banks.

Try or other works looking here http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10711&postdays=0&postorde r=asc&start=0

Juan Mendoza wrote:

Tell me what are the synths that have not or a litle bit presets, and if we found them good for programming patches, we will make some banks.

Hi Juan,

as I often mentioned here the Ganymed default bank desperately needs
some overhaul. As it seems there isn't much user exchange of Ganymed
patches so far. At least not that I know of any other sound bank for
Ganymed except the built-in bank that is publicly available.
Noone seems to program any patches anymore these days.

Or maybe it's all my fault and the synth's too f***ing difficult to program...

If you want to give it a try - please do it!

Best,
Lighthouse

If you're worried that your synth is too hard to program, maybe you should add a couple "auto-programming" buttons.

Maybe a few buttons that randomize parameters (light, medium, heavy, and undo, please).

And maybe a way to blend (0=100%) two existing patches.

Many hosts can do this, but, as has been pointed out to me, the synth knows more about itself than the host does and can do a better job making reasonable "random" patches.

If anyone is making good Ganymed or Vivaldi patches, I'd love to download them.

Juan Mendoza wrote:

Tell me what are the synths that have not or a litle bit presets, and if we found them good for programming patches, we will make some banks. Try or other works looking here http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10711&postdays=0&postorde r=asc&start=0

Juan,

The Machinedrum kit is not in an mpk format, which is fine (it's not a big thing to load it up and then save it out as a set), but I think it'd be a nice thing.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, it seems Machinedrum II is unable to load 48/24 wave files (that's what the error message I get says), and SoundForge doesn't allow me to convert it to 44 for some mysterious reason. Is there a chance you could upload a compatible version...?

Thanks,

Dingo865 wrote:

Juan, The Machinedrum kit is not in an mpk format, which is fine (it's not a big thing to load it up and then save it out as a set), but I think it'd be a nice thing. MORE IMPORTANTLY, it seems Machinedrum II is unable to load 48/24 wave files (that's what the error message I get says), and SoundForge doesn't allow me to convert it to 44 for some mysterious reason. Is there a chance you could upload a compatible version...? Thanks,

Hi, these samples are not for use with the machinedrum... they are maked with machinedrum for the users that don't have it.

The kits in "Machinedrum Format" will be avalaible soon for all MD users, now i'm in trouble to export them, but i'm waiting for an Elektron response. I'll advise all of you when i finished them.

The samples will be recorded at 24/48 until 32bit format become a standard. Then they will be released in 32 bit format.
To record digital audio is recomended that you take a minimum of a double of the sample rate humans hear (humans hear betwen 15 and 22Khz) to ensure the recording of the harmonics. Because that, we decided to record just above the recomended sample rate to guaranty the keeping of the maximum harmonics at a reasonable download weight (files at 96Khz are too big for download). I don't recomend you conversions to 44.1 (its prefereable that you take Linplug RM F or other freeware or commercial SW that support 24bit/48Khz stereo .wav Samples, most of actual SW have no problems with that), but if you still want to do it you should do it without problems with Soundforge . Which version of soundforge do you have?, this can be the problem...?

Ohh i forgot it... using RM F or any other SW Sampler with samples at 24/48 in a project at 16/44.1 will work without problem (no pich changes as much people thik), the problem is when you put these files directly in the arrangement of your sequencer.

On the subject of presets, I would be eternally grateful for any that are posted. I have no time or talent to create my own so I'm at the mercy of all of you who are good at it. I would love to see some presets for all the interesting Synth Edit creations that have shown up lately. Generally they only come with a handful but alot of them sound pretty unique so I can only imagine what one could do with them. Hopefully we'll see more. Thanks

mistertoast wrote:

If you're worried that your synth is too hard to program, maybe you should add a couple "auto-programming" buttons.

You're right, that'd be a cool feature.
Would be only kinda hard to randomly "invent" patterns for
the modulation-sequencer... but for the sound parameters it would be cool!

Best,
Lighthouse

Juan Mendoza wrote:

...

Well, I guess that means NO.

How irritating, it reminds of that old joke:

A man comes to the psychologist, telling him:
"Doctor! Doctor! Everyone's ignoring me!"

And the Psychologist says:

"The next one please!"

-LaD-

Thank you guys for all your kind words and for
trying to "build me up" again.

I'll put up on my website what I have so far,
then YOU can judge if it's something worth
or not.

Of course in it's current state it's not more of
a "technology preview", I doubt that anyone
will be able to really work with it, yet.

Let's see.

Best,
-LaD-

LighthouseAtDawn wrote:

Juan Mendoza wrote: ... Well, I guess that means NO. How irritating, it reminds of that old joke: A man comes to the psychologist, telling him: "Doctor! Doctor! Everyone's ignoring me!" And the Psychologist says: "The next one please!" -LaD-

No ... i would not want to say NO as you think. The fact is that you have to be patient to get responses from people, or.. do you think that we can make a soundbank for an FM synth in 3 hours? ,and yours seems to be no much intuitive and fast to program, but i'm sure that is possible to make realy amazing sounds with Ganymed, the presets included are also of high quality. Keep in mind that i firstly have to answer to the "elektronicabcn visitors" posts which are reporting me bugs. Later i have to do the most urgently work (now Mastering of our first LP that will be avalaible in 1 week). Then, when i finished all these tasks, i was trying your synth to see if we can do something that can be better or different than the work you done. I'm still at this point!. Now i'ts 00:26 AM in Spain and i'm just finished my work for today, so please KEEP IT IN MIND.

Hoping tomorrow will be a quiet working day i say you Good Night.

LighthouseAtDawn wrote:

mistertoast wrote: If you're worried that your synth is too hard to program, maybe you should add a couple "auto-programming" buttons. You're right, that'd be a cool feature. Would be only kinda hard to randomly "invent" patterns for the modulation-sequencer... but for the sound parameters it would be cool! Best, Lighthouse

On more thing and i'll go to sleep..

I think that would be better and easier for making sounds (i don't beleave in luky random casino patches) if FM synths link many functions in different ways to control many things with only one control (something like "EASY" mode in FM7 but not...), with the hability for advanced users to adjust every function separatedly. That probably would make FM avalaible for the mases.

Re: Random patches.

It depends on the synth. CosmoGirl2 gives you something great every 5th random patch or so. :->

Lots of synths give you pretty much nothing when begged randomly.

Aodix 3 lets you choose how much to randomize. Heartburn is a synth that lets you change patches slowly.

As always, it depends.

LightHouse,

If you could make Ganymed significantly less CPU hungry, I believe that would be a large step in the right direction. It's by far one of the most unique and useful instruments I have the pleasure of using. However, it is also by far the most CPU hungry, often consuming upwards of 70 percent of the cycles, whereas Absynth uses perhaps 10, 15 percent at the most. And while I understand that you make these goodies out of fun and love of the community (and you can see, you are well-praised for it), it'd be fantastic if Ganymed could use less CPU. Even 30 percent would be tolerable. Any lower would make it a real "contender" I'd think.

Best regards,
Nick

nlamartina wrote:

If you could make Ganymed significantly less CPU hungry, I believe that would be a large step in the right direction.

Hi Nick,

you're right, but be assured that I've done my best to optimize the
C++ algorithm where I could. I also added the ability to reduce polyphony
and the 3 quality settings to address this, but I know compared to
other (commercial) synths Ganymed is very heavy on the CPU.

These commercial synths make extensive use of assembly language
including processor specific extensions, such as MMX or SSE/SSE2, which
are CPU extensions designed to drastically speed up multimedia
algorithms.

I have no clue about assembler, and even if I wanted to learn it, I would
have to learn it twice, because assembler is NOT platform independent,
so I would have to write the whole stuff twice, for PC and MAC.

If you wanted to do it REALLY good, you'd even need a special
implementation for different X86 CPUs, such as AMD Athlon, P3, P4,
etc!

Believe me, programming in assembler is a pain in the ass, it is a very
low-level "machine-language" and it would be no fun at all. Companies
only do this, because they get paid back for it, because the likeliness
that customers buy their instrument is higher, the better the performance
is.

Anyway, I see if there is something I can do...

-LaD-

Actually, assembly language is fun! At least for some of us old-timers.

But I wouldn't worry about it. Computers are getting faster and faster. My 1.8GHz runs it pretty well. In a couple years, we'll be running at 4GHz.

Are you sure you've done everything you can to speed it up? In my experience, there's always another lookup table to be built. :->

ganyamed is a great synth back before my HD crash ( ) i was creating sounds like sandstorm and even some 303 style sounds. (which i doubt was the real intention of the synth but shows the power), i will get back to it soon and see if i can get the sounds remade and then send them to you(but most were made by a fluke so i have a challenge) this synth is great it may eat cpu and it may be hard to program for some but i have sounds coming out of this synth that could be compared to the big commercial synths