Very rough sketch.
https://soundcloud.com/lionsclub-1/juceopl-sketch
One Synth Challenge #110: JuceOPLVSTi by Bruce Sutherland (Taron Wins!)
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
Feels like this could be in some classic game title! 
Thanks, Bob, yeah, uhm...nope, no bending beyond a half note, but my playing might make it feel that way.
...I can't wait to take that "hidden" guitar sound for a good spin. Right now it plays chords towards the end, but in solo mode it sounds really nice and convincing. You'll hear later!
...can't wait to hear your blues, though!
Thanks, Bob, yeah, uhm...nope, no bending beyond a half note, but my playing might make it feel that way.
...I can't wait to take that "hidden" guitar sound for a good spin. Right now it plays chords towards the end, but in solo mode it sounds really nice and convincing. You'll hear later!
...can't wait to hear your blues, though!
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Yup T, the playing of those bends does sound very nice, authentic and correctly placed!
Not sure how much to treat the synth as a pure mono - it does say mono, but it has nine channels, but I wonder about the timing of notes say in chords? Any ideas here???
So, maybe a blues number then, I was thinking a real standard 12-bar thing with maybe organ and guitar solos? And I really mean strict 12-bar! Not just a blues "feel", which can so easily tend towards "swing" if you are not very strict with youself.
Let me think and doodle around a bit ... it's actually something which can fit nicely with a minimal synth, but to be great has to be well polished.
I'll never forget seeing the legendary Muddy Waters in concert in 1968! In the same college dining room as the Who (Magic Bus and guitar smashing times!) and even played support there to prog rockers East of Eden (I remember it well as the left channel of their PA went down! Huge multicores in those days and mixing desks the size of a mini! Frantic re-patching to use their 8 channel WEM foldback mixers!).
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Not sure how much to treat the synth as a pure mono - it does say mono, but it has nine channels, but I wonder about the timing of notes say in chords? Any ideas here???
So, maybe a blues number then, I was thinking a real standard 12-bar thing with maybe organ and guitar solos? And I really mean strict 12-bar! Not just a blues "feel", which can so easily tend towards "swing" if you are not very strict with youself.
Let me think and doodle around a bit ... it's actually something which can fit nicely with a minimal synth, but to be great has to be well polished.
I'll never forget seeing the legendary Muddy Waters in concert in 1968! In the same college dining room as the Who (Magic Bus and guitar smashing times!) and even played support there to prog rockers East of Eden (I remember it well as the left channel of their PA went down! Huge multicores in those days and mixing desks the size of a mini! Frantic re-patching to use their 8 channel WEM foldback mixers!).
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
Man, Bob, time and time again I am impressed by your life, having been in such legendary times and company, hehe. Fantastic!
Yeah, you may have to be careful, going full-on classic blues. With this kind of synth, it could get desperately cheesy, too, hahaha. I mean, I'm already on the cheese train with my track, haha, but yeah... you know, those old Japanese game tracks very often stuck to jazz concepts. Chances are it would end up sounding very "authentic", but not necessarily in an enjoyable way for most outside of the die-hard geek realm.
I mean, if you do it as an exercise, not spending too much time with it, you could get a taste of what it would be and you still should've got time enough to explore other genres. Prog rock should be great, though, hehe!
I haven't even seen "mono", yet, but it has tight enough release without click to "simulate" mono quite well.
The trick with making half note pitch bending seem sufficient is to only do obvious bends between half notes of your scale (major 3 to 4, 7 to 8 and what ever would end up on whole notes of your scale or diminished keys). The other trick is to only do negative or pre-bends into the final note, creating a kind of slur, so to say.
I noticed that considering a guitar as inspiration is very, very useful, because without excessive bending, one mostly just bends half a note on a string anyway (without injury or snapping strings, hahaha).
AS for chords and polyphony: It has one of the best polyphony implementations I know of, really. Only my own are as good, hahahahaha, but really. My "Cirque", which most of you don't know, has a 16 note polyphony with really perfect note swapping. But this one does it fantastically with 8, too. Of course, it doesn't support sustain pedal, pffff, which helps with the impression, hehe.
...anyway, you can be fairly without worries regarding chords, I believe!
Yeah, you may have to be careful, going full-on classic blues. With this kind of synth, it could get desperately cheesy, too, hahaha. I mean, I'm already on the cheese train with my track, haha, but yeah... you know, those old Japanese game tracks very often stuck to jazz concepts. Chances are it would end up sounding very "authentic", but not necessarily in an enjoyable way for most outside of the die-hard geek realm.
I mean, if you do it as an exercise, not spending too much time with it, you could get a taste of what it would be and you still should've got time enough to explore other genres. Prog rock should be great, though, hehe!
I haven't even seen "mono", yet, but it has tight enough release without click to "simulate" mono quite well.
The trick with making half note pitch bending seem sufficient is to only do obvious bends between half notes of your scale (major 3 to 4, 7 to 8 and what ever would end up on whole notes of your scale or diminished keys). The other trick is to only do negative or pre-bends into the final note, creating a kind of slur, so to say.
I noticed that considering a guitar as inspiration is very, very useful, because without excessive bending, one mostly just bends half a note on a string anyway (without injury or snapping strings, hahaha).
AS for chords and polyphony: It has one of the best polyphony implementations I know of, really. Only my own are as good, hahahahaha, but really. My "Cirque", which most of you don't know, has a 16 note polyphony with really perfect note swapping. But this one does it fantastically with 8, too. Of course, it doesn't support sustain pedal, pffff, which helps with the impression, hehe.
...anyway, you can be fairly without worries regarding chords, I believe!-
- KVRist
- 195 posts since 16 Mar, 2018 from Canada
Thanks Taron for the feedback! I guess with this synth its hard to sound realistic. But I'm having fun with itTaron wrote:Feels like this could be in some classic game title!
Just wanted to note that I"m learning a lot from this forum, and really appreciate the experience everyone here has. The only way for me to get better is to immerse myself with people beyond my skill level.
And I too am looking forward to doctor Bob's blues piece
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Ok - here's a little bit of WIP ... I like the organ sound - gotta work on guitars (T???) and keyboards - well everything really. And of course, the composition - ah well ... anyway enjoy a few seconds of 12-bar blues.
https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/blue-juice-wip
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https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/blue-juice-wip
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- KVRian
- 937 posts since 31 May, 2017
Sounds fantastic!doctorbob wrote:Ok - here's a little bit of WIP ... I like the organ sound - gotta work on guitars (T???) and keyboards - well everything really. And of course, the composition - ah well ... anyway enjoy a few seconds of 12-bar blues.
https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/blue-juice-wip
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Like an 8 bit Booker T & the MGs. I love it!
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Thanks .. but his Hammond tonewheel is oh so much better ... but like I said, just a rough sketch, lots to do on all instrumentation, arrangements and of course, more composition ... but the 12-bar is there eh?Local Man wrote:Sounds fantastic!
Like an 8 bit Booker T & the MGs. I love it!
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
That's swampy, man!
...at first listen I really felt uneasy about the loud lead, but the second time around I realized its authenticity. It's like a bar, where the band just has a mean mix that desperately tries to drown the wild chatter in the room and clinking of glasses and such. They still smoke there and the air is really hard to breathe. But the air doesn't bother you too much anymore, though, because at that time you're already sort of drunk and annoyed enough to simply let it all happen to you. You gave up on really understanding a word that's being yelled at you from the laughing and groaning around you. Your sleeve is wet, because somebody spilled a beer over the table earlier, but thankfully it's so warm and sticky that the little coolness of it is almost pleasant and the stench is everywhere anyway.
In a moment, some old singer is eating up the mic, you'll just know it. This will happen right at the moment when the new acquaintance, sitting next to you, leans into your ear to ask you some question about your life that seems to hold some meaning. At least that's what you believe, since you're already quite hammered. You just know it's not really a laughing matter as you're already starting to think about an answer, but the seemingly important part of the question gets drowned out by the agonizingly loud mumbling of the blues singer's PA, distorting exhausted by the three notches above its possible peak.
You've been ready to go home hours ago, so it seems. In your mind spiral for a while now questions about your life and what vicious sense of obligation has shackled you to this painfully hard chair and this unending misery of the night. It's all just brewing higher and higher, the ravaging urge inside of you to run out and pretend you've done so at least a few hours earlier;"...it's over, no harm, no foul". But then, for reasons unknown, your resistance kind of blows a fuse and you just decide to go with it. Possibly pick a moment of the song you can somehow remember and start loudly singing along with words that seemed similar enough to what you had heard earlier. Folks around you break into laughter, noticing the bullshit you're singing and then join in. Aaaahhwwww, the night is saved!
...at first listen I really felt uneasy about the loud lead, but the second time around I realized its authenticity. It's like a bar, where the band just has a mean mix that desperately tries to drown the wild chatter in the room and clinking of glasses and such. They still smoke there and the air is really hard to breathe. But the air doesn't bother you too much anymore, though, because at that time you're already sort of drunk and annoyed enough to simply let it all happen to you. You gave up on really understanding a word that's being yelled at you from the laughing and groaning around you. Your sleeve is wet, because somebody spilled a beer over the table earlier, but thankfully it's so warm and sticky that the little coolness of it is almost pleasant and the stench is everywhere anyway.
In a moment, some old singer is eating up the mic, you'll just know it. This will happen right at the moment when the new acquaintance, sitting next to you, leans into your ear to ask you some question about your life that seems to hold some meaning. At least that's what you believe, since you're already quite hammered. You just know it's not really a laughing matter as you're already starting to think about an answer, but the seemingly important part of the question gets drowned out by the agonizingly loud mumbling of the blues singer's PA, distorting exhausted by the three notches above its possible peak.
You've been ready to go home hours ago, so it seems. In your mind spiral for a while now questions about your life and what vicious sense of obligation has shackled you to this painfully hard chair and this unending misery of the night. It's all just brewing higher and higher, the ravaging urge inside of you to run out and pretend you've done so at least a few hours earlier;"...it's over, no harm, no foul". But then, for reasons unknown, your resistance kind of blows a fuse and you just decide to go with it. Possibly pick a moment of the song you can somehow remember and start loudly singing along with words that seemed similar enough to what you had heard earlier. Folks around you break into laughter, noticing the bullshit you're singing and then join in. Aaaahhwwww, the night is saved!
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
awwww ... thanks Taron - you know - maybe I'll cut 'n' paste all that into the track description if it makes it to a final track!
Very rough mix and instrument tweak - but, you can make some fine sounds with it if you work at it ... sometimes the combo of different waveforms can lead to interesting results. Never thought I would get such a nice organ sound. I might try layering that with a more percussive attack as well and another with some overtones -
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Very rough mix and instrument tweak - but, you can make some fine sounds with it if you work at it ... sometimes the combo of different waveforms can lead to interesting results. Never thought I would get such a nice organ sound. I might try layering that with a more percussive attack as well and another with some overtones -
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
It's a bizarre little synth for sure! I've just tried making a cymbal, which is like a whole journey of exploration, going through notes and the Frequencies. Finally there is some tolerable combination and with a bunch of aggressive EQ work (sorry about that) one can get some very nice drum set pieces, while it may not be a cymbal per se, but a kind of splash of sorts. Really interesting stuff. Also, if you goof around with pitch bending, one can get some very natural sounding instruments with it, too. Pretty amazing, actually!
My song is taking some curious turns (as usual, I suppose), but I like where it's headed now. It starts off as you know it already, but now it's like the Tarot's fool, so to say, who gradually becomes aware of his surrounding, his life and all the stuff he had managed to ignore. I'm really enjoying the trip.
Oh, and, haha, yeah, thanks! I do believe, you should explore at least one different style with it before you lock yourself into the swampy standards, you know. Thing is, to be honest, you can most certainly impress people, who didn't expect such a track to come out of this synth, but the ungrateful irony is, the better- or more convincing- it gets, the more it slips into a kind of...uhm...oblivion of random blues improv, you know. At times I don't mind it at all, but it's got to have something very special to pull itself "out of the swamp" again or "even deeper into it" and that way manage to stand out again. You are, no doubt, fully in control of this style and show perfectly seasoned proficiency. How do you now give it that special something that makes one identify THIS song, you know. Who is this?!
...just some thoughts. If I done right by you, you should feel energized and inspired to forge a unique soul into it. If I did horribly wrong, I'd have taken the wind out of your sails and that would be THE LAST THING I'd ever want, of course. I'd just be thrilled, if something could get you back on your toes, which is where I think you can do amazing stuff! I don't mean crafting amazing sounds or anything like that. This will happen all by itself when you work on this stuff. I mean musically. Special hook, strong idea, identity. You know all the songs, you know the craft, ADD one!
My song is taking some curious turns (as usual, I suppose), but I like where it's headed now. It starts off as you know it already, but now it's like the Tarot's fool, so to say, who gradually becomes aware of his surrounding, his life and all the stuff he had managed to ignore. I'm really enjoying the trip.
Oh, and, haha, yeah, thanks! I do believe, you should explore at least one different style with it before you lock yourself into the swampy standards, you know. Thing is, to be honest, you can most certainly impress people, who didn't expect such a track to come out of this synth, but the ungrateful irony is, the better- or more convincing- it gets, the more it slips into a kind of...uhm...oblivion of random blues improv, you know. At times I don't mind it at all, but it's got to have something very special to pull itself "out of the swamp" again or "even deeper into it" and that way manage to stand out again. You are, no doubt, fully in control of this style and show perfectly seasoned proficiency. How do you now give it that special something that makes one identify THIS song, you know. Who is this?!
...just some thoughts. If I done right by you, you should feel energized and inspired to forge a unique soul into it. If I did horribly wrong, I'd have taken the wind out of your sails and that would be THE LAST THING I'd ever want, of course. I'd just be thrilled, if something could get you back on your toes, which is where I think you can do amazing stuff! I don't mean crafting amazing sounds or anything like that. This will happen all by itself when you work on this stuff. I mean musically. Special hook, strong idea, identity. You know all the songs, you know the craft, ADD one!
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- KVRian
- 711 posts since 11 Mar, 2014 from Netherlands
Penguins. JuceOpl is now in the kxstudio repos.
https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.ph ... 105#p91750
https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.ph ... 105#p91750
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generaldiomedes generaldiomedes https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=396947
- KVRian
- 674 posts since 15 Apr, 2017 from Canada
Not a 'monster' synth, but definitely nice with a lot of potential. Worlds better than the vst2413 chip emulation a while back.
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
Haha, I would say "different"! 
I think, I have fond memories of vst2413, because it was my first mac compile and I did get to fix some things. Made it pretty exciting to me, hehe.
But, yeah, I like this one, too.
I think, I have fond memories of vst2413, because it was my first mac compile and I did get to fix some things. Made it pretty exciting to me, hehe.
But, yeah, I like this one, too.
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marks-a-whybikky marks-a-whybikky https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=156576 - KVRist
- 184 posts since 30 Jul, 2007
Sorry for interrupting … there is one thing totally in „fog“:
we had just a heavy discussion about character of a synth … buck.meow, me and a bottle of sauvignon are seating here to clear out that question. My opinion is, equal if it is a fm/addetive/subtractive synth it depends on waveforms and how they are modulated to higher/lower notes. buck.meow say that the character is always the modulation via the ADSR/LFO ….
We did not find a solution! and finally used a couple of reverbs. We made a test. 8 Instances of JuceOPL. First 28sec. are dry, after that six modulated reverbs, no EQs, Comps or Limiters on master … question:
where or what is the character of this synth?
https://soundcloud.com/buck_meow/output-1-2
p.s.: musical theme: even ping-pong is not a sport for turtles
we had just a heavy discussion about character of a synth … buck.meow, me and a bottle of sauvignon are seating here to clear out that question. My opinion is, equal if it is a fm/addetive/subtractive synth it depends on waveforms and how they are modulated to higher/lower notes. buck.meow say that the character is always the modulation via the ADSR/LFO ….
We did not find a solution! and finally used a couple of reverbs. We made a test. 8 Instances of JuceOPL. First 28sec. are dry, after that six modulated reverbs, no EQs, Comps or Limiters on master … question:
where or what is the character of this synth?
https://soundcloud.com/buck_meow/output-1-2
p.s.: musical theme: even ping-pong is not a sport for turtles
