Hi all
Another Feebie from AlgoMusic!!
AlgoMusic String Synth




===========================
Emulation (no samples here!)of those String Synthesizers of the late 70's made famous by ARP and Solina .

The characteristic "ensemble" sound of those machines was not realised by adding expensive oscillators, but by using a (at the time) brand new and relative low cost technology: the BBD chip (Bucket Brigade Device), which was basicly a analog delay line. This technology has been emulated here. A few presets by Tim Conrardy are included to get you started.

http://www.algomusic.nl/freeware.html

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The Dr did it again. This is the best String synth I have heard bare none! Not only strings, but the structure allows you to get nice synth sounds and pads as well. There are also seperate pages for the effects section, using the new page system of SE. Works great!

So ENJOY!!...and would love any presets you guys make for it. I only made a few to show off some of the sounds.

TC

thanks Tim, just in time for my birthday, too!

Very welcomed, I'm downloading this already. I wonder how it compares to Cheese Machine?

dor-x wrote:

Very welcomed, I'm downloading this already. I wonder how it compares to Cheese Machine?

Hmm... I have Cheeze Machine, Crazy Diamonds, Ensembler, and Stringer (which is sample-based)... what's another decent string pad VSTI ?

Doug, who likes synstrings & synbrass...

Hey!

Aren't you guys supossed to be working on the M42 fx unit?!

*SMACK*

Get back ta woike!!

[this is a really nice freebie, loads of potential. The AlgoMusic arsenal grows in potency.]

Thanks guys!!

Thank you for this plugin. It does sound very good. However, I am getting CPU jumps at times, so I will have to render... but I was just messing with it for 1/2 hour. Very nice...

This sounds great. I just wish I didn't get the cpu jumps... I turned up my latency very high. I set the polyphony to 3. Any other solution aside from rendering?

Playing minor chords of the "06 phaze a string" patch is perfect for drum and bass. Really rich, bright sound, and it isn't dull.

Cool, DL'n right now.

Very nice synth TC! Thanx.

Nice synth, very warm sounds and the CPU load isn't bad at all. Simple but useful, just like wot we like

wow...this is fantastic!
my thanks to you and the doctor!

-ugo

SRF wrote:

..... and the CPU load isn't bad at all.

Yes. I forgot to mention that. CPU load is nice and low on my PC.

I believe the Arps (Solina and Omni [I owned an Omni2])
use a divide down technique on the oscillator
and not delays! The circuits just sub divide a
single oscillator for each octave with microtonal
divisions for phasing to get the string sound.
Essentially a multi-phase shifter with 90,180 and
270 degree offsets.
See Vintagesynth.org for some more info.

I am currently working on digital divide down code
in the SE SDK to derive new multi-waveforms from
a single Osc.

Regards
Etric

================================
T Conrardy wrote:-
>>Emulation (no samples here!)of those String Synthesizers of the late 70's made famous by ARP and Solina .
The characteristic "ensemble" sound of those machines was not realised by adding expensive oscillators, but by using a (at the time) brand new and relative low cost technology: the BBD chip (Bucket Brigade Device), which was basicly a analog delay line. This technology has been emulated here.<<

bluedad wrote:

thanks Tim, just in time for my birthday, too!

Happy Birthday BlueDad!! Glad we were able to honor it in some way:-)

This was something the Dr put together rather quickly, and I made a few presets. We were going to expand it even further, but then decided to work on the M42FX...but I thought...it's in pretty good shape for what it is already...lets do another freebie. Low and behold...he agreed. Great minds think alike


and UGO just sent me a batch of patches for it too..THANKS UGO..Thats was Quick! We'l get it on the site in a bit.

TC

tconrardy wrote:

Happy Birthday BlueDad!! Glad we were able to honor it in some way:-) TC

BlueDad, I used my Astrological powers to manipulate the heavens so this release is time for your B-day.

Enjoy!

dougsyo wrote:

Hmm... I have Cheeze Machine, Crazy Diamonds, Ensembler, and Stringer (which is sample-based)... what's another decent string pad VSTI ? Doug, who likes synstrings & synbrass...

GRRR wheres Etiquet or etEquet in that list!!!

Very good, in my opinion . Between this and cheeze machine I can't decide... I think they shouldn't be compared, just two different (and great) machines

jax wrote:

Very good, in my opinion . Between this and cheeze machine I can't decide... I think they shouldn't be compared, just two different (and great) machines

I love Cheese Machine ( and any Big Tick stuff) but this sounds a bit different as you mentioned. Glad you like it! You can do some nice Pad stuff ( up my allay) , but if you use short envelopes, you can get synth bass and lead sounds as well.

TC

jax wrote:

Very good, in my opinion . Between this and cheeze machine I can't decide... I think they shouldn't be compared, just two different (and great) machines

I love Cheese Machine <EDIT and SNIP>
sorry for double post..the server barfed

but..I STILL love cheese machine

TC

Hey looks good.. nice work fellas! - Imm'a grabbin 'er when i gets home. And yes Cheezemachine is sweet.

/Majken

Hey guys, am I the only one that gets CPU jumps sometimes though? Is it because I have a P4? I love the sound of this thing. Anyone know of a trick to stop the CPU meter from shooting up?

Hey guys, am I the only one that gets CPU jumps sometimes though? Is it because I have a P4? I love the sound of this thing. Anyone know of a trick to stop the CPU meter from shooting up?

No, I got bad cpu spikes making patches & hung notes. I PM'd Tim about it a little while ago.

Nothing that can't be fixed I imagine.

Thanks Sickle... I'll just render the parts to wavs and use them. The sounds are impressive...

pheeleep wrote:

Hey guys, am I the only one that gets CPU jumps sometimes though? Is it because I have a P4? I love the sound of this thing. Anyone know of a trick to stop the CPU meter from shooting up?

Checking into this. I am getting it too. Did not get it on the SE1 file. Thanks for the feedback

TC

sickle666 wrote:

No, I got bad cpu spikes making patches & hung notes. I PM'd Tim about it a little while ago. Nothing that can't be fixed I imagine.

Hi all,

Glad you all like the sound that much.
However, I wonder, those cpu spikes, could this be a P4 specific (denormal) problem?
As always, when reporting a bug, it helps a lot when you specify the CPU type, and which OS and vsthost you're using.

Thanks!

P IV/XP running Orion Platinum.

Hello,

Yes indeed. Running on a Pentium 4, Win XP home edition, 2.4Ghz, 512 mb Ram. Host: FL Studio.

Thanks for confirming the problem.

Hi! This plugin is lovely. I tried alot of ensemble like or padlike synths in Madtracker but this one here has the lowest cpu usage and still very good sound quality! The sound is very wide due to the delay and phase settings. It is also compact you and you won't see all its features at once. But click on some buttons and, tada there are the effects, modulators. Its really well done.

Good work!

BMX

Thanks for making this!

DrAmbient wrote:

sickle666 wrote: No, I got bad cpu spikes making patches & hung notes. I PM'd Tim about it a little while ago. Nothing that can't be fixed I imagine. Hi all, Glad you all like the sound that much. However, I wonder, those cpu spikes, could this be a P4 specific (denormal) problem? As always, when reporting a bug, it helps a lot when you specify the CPU type, and which OS and vsthost you're using. Thanks!

ok...Just confirmed. I booted it up in Tracktion and took off the " add low level noise to advoid denormalization"...and I got the spikes. Turned it back on...and it's just perfect. SO..its a P4 denormal problem. Just glad I have Tracktion...or..a reason to GET TRACKTION ( hint

TC

..i got spikes 2 , running 1200 Athlon , win2000, FL studio. I hope u can do something about it cause i wanna use it, it sounds good

BTW: the "hidden panels" are the switches to the left of DCO which acceses the global parameters such as Midi Channel, Pitch bend and Portamento ( yes..this has Portamento!!!) and the FX which switches between phasser and delay settings. Just in case you guys were curious!

TC

I am very impressed with this synth. The sound has that "authentic" quality and I've not heard that timbre in my sample library or vst library. Great work and very usuable. This would be a great module combined with a sample based oscillator hybrid. Thanks for this little gem. - Scott Harris

tconrardy wrote:

BTW: the "hidden panels" are the switches to the left of DCO which acceses the global parameters such as Midi Channel, Pitch bend and Portamento ( yes..this has Portamento!!!) and the FX which switches between phasser and delay settings. Just in case you guys were curious! TC

...and while you can switch the delay and phaser on and off, there's also a switch to assign the phasers Fc (sweep) to a CC (#81) instead of to the LFO...

So...does this denormalise thing have a remedy aside from using Traktion?

Not being an ass, just curious.

sickle666 wrote:

So...does this denormalise thing have a remedy aside from using Traktion? Not being an ass, just curious.

Don't know. We will have to investigate. Curious bug.

TC

Is this fixable? If it is.. please try to fix it...

It's not your fault.. but man.. once again, I wish I didn't have a P4...

Tim, thanks! Awesome synth. Any plans to add a mono mode and tempo-synced delay? Or is there something I'm missing?

geeseaplenty wrote:

Tim, thanks! Awesome synth. Any plans to add a mono mode and tempo-synced delay? Or is there something I'm missing?

This was a taste of what is to come, so instead of developing it further into a monster synth ( which might have the above), we decided to make a freebie out of this experiment.So ENJOY the FREEBIE!

TC

hey tim and the doctor, thank you very much for this. i like it.

I would also really like to purchase the superSID at some point, so what d'ya say? feel like working day and night to get that one out?

Etric: interesting idea that you're working on. So that's where you've been...
looking forward to what you come up with, as always.

Cheerz, all.

Quote:

This was a taste of what is to come, so instead of developing it further into a monster synth ( which might have the above), we decided to make a freebie out of this experiment.So ENJOY the FREEBIE!

HI all

UGO made some patches for us...and they are here:

http://www.algomusic.nl/ARimages/synthstring%201%20UGO.zip


ENJOY...and Thanks UGO!

and more user patches to come! Thanks guys...but KEEP'EM Coming! Looks like we are one big family here.

TC

Thank you Tim and Dr. A.

It runs great on my P4 system in Cubase SL 1.06 - no more than 5% CPU usage.

Yes, thanks very much. It fit into a current project perfectly, first try. Beautiful sounds from this!

In hosts that don't give you the option to natively correct denormal problems, I believe Digital Fishphones "Normalizer" does the trick. I loaded it up the other day while looking for a compressor/limiter of sorts.

I use Tracktion and an Athlon, so no problems here, but I remembered stumbling across that plugin.

Greg

tconrardy wrote:

DrAmbient wrote: sickle666 wrote: No, I got bad cpu spikes making patches & hung notes. I PM'd Tim about it a little while ago. Nothing that can't be fixed I imagine. Hi all, Glad you all like the sound that much. However, I wonder, those cpu spikes, could this be a P4 specific (denormal) problem? As always, when reporting a bug, it helps a lot when you specify the CPU type, and which OS and vsthost you're using. Thanks! ok...Just confirmed. I booted it up in Tracktion and took off the " add low level noise to advoid denormalization"...and I got the spikes. Turned it back on...and it's just perfect. SO..its a P4 denormal problem. Just glad I have Tracktion...or..a reason to GET TRACKTION ( hint TC

or a reason to just download this

Quote:

or a reason to just download this

This is great! A solution to the problem.
!!

Guys: let us know if this works for you!

TC

did you never hear of something like this?

b.t.w.: it's not the only one

I guess if I want glory next time, I'll have to get off my lazy ass and actually post the link, rather than just name the plugin and developer.

<laff>

sorry, Greg, I missed your post

Lunch Money wrote:

In hosts that don't give you the option to natively correct denormal problems, I believe Digital Fishphones "Normalizer" does the trick. I loaded it up the other day while looking for a compressor/limiter of sorts. I use Tracktion and an Athlon, so no problems here, but I remembered stumbling across that plugin. Greg

regarding the normalizer plugin. How should I set it? To AC or DC on the switch? And should I turn the knob to the left or the right?

I'd say try till the spikes are gone and listen carefully for artifacts

well it's hard because the spikes only happen once in a while. If they happened all the timne I could easily adjust the normalizer... thanks jens. I'll figure it out eventually..

pheeleep wrote:

well it's hard because the spikes only happen once in a while. If they happened all the timne I could easily adjust the normalizer... thanks jens. I'll figure it out eventually..

for me once I get the spike, the synth goes kabloeey..the note holds & I have to dump the instrument & reload. I only get spikes when I'm tweaking parameters. I'll have to pay attention to which ones & I can post where it hits at.

weird.. for me the cpu meter shoots up to about 98 percent but shoots back down. It doesn't freeze my host.. but I do hear "choppiness" in the sound etc..

pheeleep wrote:

weird.. for me the cpu meter shoots up to about 98 percent but shoots back down. It doesn't freeze my host.. but I do hear "choppiness" in the sound etc..

Hello,

ATM we're trying to fix the problem on our side. The thing is that I don't have a P4 which makes it very difficult to track down the exact problem.
So... WE NEED YOUR HELP!
There's a special download link on our freeware page: StringSynth_t1.zip. This might fix the problem.
If doesn't please report back and I'll upload another test version.

Quote:

There's a special download link on our freeware page: StringSynth_t1.zip.

Oops.. forgot to link:

http://www.algomusic.nl/ARimages/StringSynth_t1.zip

Thanks!

Hello.. will do when I get a chance... It won't be today though I am going to a party straight after work, and I work again tomorrow. I will keep you posted...

In Tracktion, with the denormal noise injection OFF, I'm seeing the spikes in the latest "test" version at the end of the release portion when I release a chord and don't trigger a new note before everything fades to silence. Minimal CPU usage when idle, and not a lot more when continually playing. With the denormal noise injection on, there's still a brief spike up to around 45% at the end of the release, but not the 95% I was seeing before.

These kinds of things are a pain to debug if you don't have a "problem" system around to work on, bleah.

Hi all

Just got this from the DR:

==================

Just uploaded v1.1.
I put in denormal cleaners, hopefully the problem is fixed now.
The factory bank now includes UGO's and Matthew's patches, and I did another 5.

Regards,
Dr. Ambient

==========================

Go and GET IT!!! (on the freeware page)

TC

Thanks Tim.

Hopefully, we won't see a crack of this one. Oh wait..it's free..

Tested the latest release in Tracktion with the denormal noise injection turned OFF, works like a dream! Not seeing any spikes at all so far, after playing with it for about 15 minutes on various patches.

Bravo!

It's still spiking for me in FL Studio. Oh well. I still appreciate the free synth. It sounds great.