Night Flight VSTi - String Ensemble Synth

[fluffy_little_something]

A suggestion: Disable the keyboard when any other panel is displayed instead of the keyboard. Currently one can play notes by clicking on certain slider and background areas.

[Numanoid]

A suggestion: Disable the keyboard when any other panel is displayed instead of the keyboard. Currently one can play notes by clicking on certain slider and background areas.

Yeah, same here, especially notable on the VCA sub-menu, clicking on the grey areas there is like playing the keyboard.

[codec_spurt]

A suggestion: Disable the keyboard when any other panel is displayed instead of the keyboard. Currently one can play notes by clicking on certain slider and background areas.

Yeah, same here, especially notable on the VCA sub-menu, clicking on the grey areas there is like playing the keyboard.

Confirmed. Is it a bug or a feature? Doesn't bother me. Would be good to get rid of the white surround on the gui too. But no big deal.

Sounds great, looks great. Bought. Big fan of Daniel's delays. Been using them for years.


Great job!



cheers.

[fluffy_little_something]

Some parameter values seem odd to me, e.g. LFO rate from -6 to 0, LFO delay from 1 (instead of 0) to 10, the ensemble and other values as well...

Thinking about it, I guess it would be better to remove the value displays completely so that one listens to one's ears. And all sliders should be white when at 0.

[Numanoid]

Great fun layering Elektrostudio's eSline with Night Flight in FL Studio

[interruptor]

Thanks to all of you for the great feedback!
I am very happy that many of you like the sound. It has been a long journey since I started building Night Flight back in Nov-2009. A first version had far more options regarding the routing of the three ensemble units and a completely abstract but colourful 2D GUI. Soon I found out that only few of the routing options actually yielded interesting sounds so I redesigned the signal path and created a "vintage style" GUI which seems suited far better to the nostalgic idea behind the project. Still insecure about the audio quality I travelled to the Netherlands in late 2011 to acquire an original Eminent 310. Therafter fine tuning the waveforms and ensemble parameters got a lot easyer. The Eminent 310 and Oxygen presets were done using direct A/B comparisons with the original unit.
Thanks again to the buyers! I was surprised that a substantial number of you actually added a donation on top of the price.

@fluffy_little_something:
Thanks for your detailed comments and also for buying the synth after initially thinking differently
- fonts: True, these can be improved.
- "oscilloscope" sliders for waveform selection: These were a lot of fun to build. Just let me know if you want the Knobman files to see how they are made.
- "The filter section header seems flawed and too short" ==> Well, I had to make the right end shorter due to the screw on the GUI. Just have to respect the screws.. I don't want to take a risk that the sub panel could eventually become loose because a screw is missing, you know.
- "symmetry knob on the Ensemble panel": Yes, it's the way I wanted it. With a value of 0 the three delay lines are modulated by the same sine wave with the phasing set 120 degrees apart from each other. Moving the dial in either direction will result in skewed angles and thus a more irregularly evolving ensemble effect. The end values just happen to be the extremes beyond which the effect would start behaving unpredictably. (The user manual has a section explaining the ensemble effects, please see the details there..)
- "Disable the keyboard when any other panel is displayed": That's a good idea. I noticed this behaviour once but didn't think about fixing it later, since it didn't disturb me much.
- "Some parameter values seem odd to me": You are right. What you see on the control are the actual internal control "voltages" used by Synthedit. I should build a default control which shows the user only values from 0 to 100 and keeps some hidden parameters under the surface which scale the value according to the needs of the synth inside. I intentionally put the values on the GUI because it gives you the freedom to type in values manually, i.e. for precise settings or when you want to go outside of the range which the slider shows on the GUI.
- "all sliders should be white when at 0": The concept is that a slider is white when the control has no effect on what you hear. So the ADSR attack rate is still green even when at zero. Attack zero means a very short an thus a very aggressive attack. I have to admit though that I was not completely consistent everywhere with this approach.

best regards
Daniel / Interruptor

[fluffy_little_something]

Thanks for the explanation. I will read the manual again, didn't quite understand the phase thingy, yet. Usually I don't have to do with phase stuff, so I have never really had to learn about it.

Yes, initially I did not want to buy it, but then I got some very nice patches within so little time that I thought, why not? Sure, I got other synths and effects that could in theory do the same thing together, but it would be so much more work. Your synth just appeals to me

One thing I noticed, I think it is a bit dangerous to set the feedback slider to maximum in the delay section as is the case at least with the init patch, and probably some others as well. When you simply switch the Delay on on the main panel and feedback is set to max, the sound builds up immediately, potentially destroying the sound card and speakers 50% is more than enough I think. If required one can still set it higher manually.

[jack [psychicmodulation]]

What a gem this is! I'm so glad I stumbled on it
Great sound with plenty of character. Just the right balance of versatility and simplicity. I love it! The keyboard splits are a brilliant idea too!

[codec_spurt]

There are some great dubby sounds in here. I don't know why I'm surprised. Even the delay is half-decent.

It can do smooth and laid back, but it also does raw and cutting. Instant Manasseh, Jah Shaka etc.


And really loving the gui. The manual is a nice read too. Made with love.




Working fine in EnergyXT2 and Reaper so far, no problems.


Not the smooth sound and not the dubby sound, but pure Nightflight, no FX:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8602770/nightflight.wav


I thought it would be all tranquil and sweet, but it's got a dirty side too. Which is always nice.


EDIT:
Sorry, that sounded terrible. I got a bit carried away and I am still learning how to use a compressor. I'll leave it up for y'all to have a laugh at.



cheers.

[core]

Sounds great

[murnau]

thank you! bought!

[interruptor]

@fluffy_little_something: You are right. It would be better to have the delay feedback setting at save values also for patches where delay is not enabled. I'll keep an eye on that..

cheers
Daniel / Interruptor

Thanks for the explanation. I will read the manual again, didn't quite understand the phase thingy, yet. Usually I don't have to do with phase stuff, so I have never really had to learn about it.

Yes, initially I did not want to buy it, but then I got some very nice patches within so little time that I thought, why not? Sure, I got other synths and effects that could in theory do the same thing together, but it would be so much more work. Your synth just appeals to me

One thing I noticed, I think it is a bit dangerous to set the feedback slider to maximum in the delay section as is the case at least with the init patch, and probably some others as well. When you simply switch the Delay on on the main panel and feedback is set to max, the sound builds up immediately, potentially destroying the sound card and speakers 50% is more than enough I think. If required one can still set it higher manually.

[Numanoid]

Think this deserves a friendly bump, sounds brilliant

"Get it before April 15 at the intro price of only US$9"

[HunterKiller]

Interruptor can you add:

a) a slider for velocity
b) a slider for keyboard tracking
The Eminent has this keyboard tracking "effect", though implemented in completely different way than your usual synthesizer keyboard tracking as described below:

Keyboard tracking means applying the same control voltage output that you're using to control pitch to the filter through which the keyboard-controlled oscillator is passing. The point of this is if the filter (say, a low-pass filter) stays at a fixed frequency as the oscillator pitch goes up, the sound will get progressively darker as you go up the keyboard, as the fundamental frequency of the controlled oscillator gets closer to the cutoff frequency of the filter. Since instrumental sounds usually get brighter as their pitch increases, this effect sounds unnatural. If you use the same keyboard voltage to progressively open the filter as the pitch goes up, the sound will become brighter as the pitch increases.

If the filter is set to track the pitch exactly, the brightness of the sound will stay the same throughout the keyboard range. If the filter tracking is slightly less than the pitch tracking, the sound will get slightly darker (still assuming you're using a low-pass filter) as the pitch goes up. If the filter tracking is slightly greater than the pitch tracking, the sound will get slightly brighter as the pitch goes up and slightly darker as the pitch goes down - which is a good trick for attaining a more realistic acoustic simulation, since with real world instruments, the higher the pitch, (usually) the brighter the sound.

- Richard Lainhart

The end result for the Eminent is that it had more refined strings when compared to just about any other string synthesizer. They weren't as raw and fizzy. The lower keys cut the highs in such a way as to provide space in the mix when one was playing chords or many keys at once. If you played a melody with a single key and chords at the bottom end, the top key really cut through clearly.

c) more polyphony
d) seperate ADSR envelope for bass
e) Make the plugin's levels slightly louder, I can barely hear the thing.
f) Give us the ability to route any of the 3 options of Bass, 8' & 4' into either Ensemble A or B - seperate of the effects. This is good for both internal and external effects routing, because then you free up the user to apply effects where they want, instead of the current way it is implemented.
g) can we have a wood skin, with a more arty design?

[interruptor]

@HunterKiller:

Hi, thanks for your comments/requests. Some of the features you ask for are already there:
a) a slider for velocity ==> see the "VCA" sub panel (velocity>loudness) or the LFO+filter sub panel (velocity>filter cutoff)

b) a slider for keyboard tracking ==> see the LFO+Filter subpanel where you can find a slider "KEY FOLLOW"

c) more polyphony ==> increasing polyphony is no big deal. If you buy the plugin and make an additional donation i can create a special version for you and send it by email. Keep in mind though that high polyphony will cause a bigger CPU load particularly when your sound has a very long release time. Notes which are not audible anymore might still be slowly fading away in the background and thus be slowing down the CPU for no reason.

d) seperate ADSR envelope for bass ==> I will keep this one in mind.

e) Make the plugin's levels slightly louder, I can barely hear the thing. ==> I had to keep some headroom for full chords and also because the filter and Equalizer can easily create high peaks particulary when the resonance settings are cranked up. That's why a single oscillator plus ensemble effect will not result in an output level close to 0dB. Since there is no analog hiss nothing speaks against simply increasing the channel level in your DAW as needed.

f) Give us the ability to route any of the 3 options of Bass, 8' & 4' into either Ensemble A or B - seperate of the effects. ==> I might create a synth with a more general approach in the future. This one was meant to stray not too far from the string engines of yesteryear and thus I tried to keep it nice and simple.

g) can we have a wood skin, with a more arty design? ==> I was a bit bored with the "wooden side panel look" of just about any vintage synth VST on the market. So I decided to go with this look inspired by an airplane cockpit at night (night flight, you know.. ) I hope you still enjoy the sound.

best regards
Daniel / Interruptor