MPowerSynth improvements & feature requests

[goldglob]

When I mentioned Ctrl + F1, I was thinking Fn +F1, sorry for confusion.
On my laptop the function buttons default to acting as things like play, pause, wireless switch, screen brightness. To act as actual function buttons I have to hold the overall Function button (Fn) then press F1, F2...etc. I can swap this behavior in All Programs/Accessories/Windows Mobility Center to have them acting primarily as F1, F2...etc rather than play, pause etc.
Now with my desktop I'm using a keyboard that does not share function buttons..there's no overall Fn button...F1 is F1 and I don't need Ctrl as well. Somehow or other your F1 key must be captured by something other than Melda's stuff and I would think that there would be a way of changing that?

[CableChannel]

I havent set up anything in Windows, so most likely it's default settings that Windows reserves these keys, or its Cubase.

Anyway fortunately this problem won't persist, once I have learned all buttons by memory I won't need the help function. But for now I find it really awfully tedious compared to how efficient a statusbar would work.

[goldglob]

Yes, Ctrl+F1 is like having to unravel your vacuum cleaner's cord and hose!

[synzh]

I must agree that the status bar is industry standard, I've grown used to it in my hundreds of other plugins and come to expect it, it really is far quicker and more intuitive to use (read: quicker=more efficient, particularly when you're clicking around on button after button as we do in DSP plugins, any savings in workflow make a BIG difference), such that something like this stands out immediately when trialing new plugins and becomes a noticeable annoyance. All that being said - once again - over time you learn what they are/do, but initially it is vexing.

re: reverbs - I find that cheaper, less-professional, older plugins all have metallic/plastic sounding oscillators/effects, so when trialing a new plugin I'm looking for *not* those qualities in general. I do find most of the top-of-the-line plugins (and I have quite a few) don't have those qualities, and it is definitely a good thing in my opinion to have smooth reverbs. This is all borne of experience over time, not just a spot judgement.

[dmbaer]

Simple question - just that, no criticism implied: Is the documentation the final version? I downloaded the manual yesterday and overwrote what was there before, so I have no way to compare what I have now with the previous. There seems to be a few items that I don't recall seeing before (tremolo adjustment panel, for one), but I'm not at all sure.

Thanks.

[MeldaProduction]

Docs: Yes, this is "final" version, but it gets recreated with new features from time to time .

Keyboard shortcuts: For help you can actually use Ctrl+H, that usually isn't taken by the host.

Status bar: Absolutely not, sorry guys. You know I usually get open to new ideas, but not this one. Even if it would be just my personal opinion. For me it's an archaic junk that only occupies space. It is not used anymore anywhere except for audio plugins .

[farfadetfarfelu]

For the record, i'm also under the impression the reverb in it's current form is the weak point of the whole melda range. on a desert island i could do everything with my melda plugins, except a really stunning algo reverb. But then the convolution comes to the rescue.

re: first recommend just above - yep, I was slow on the uptake. I see on the "?" button relative to the entire GUI, the descriptions for those particular buttons there, and other "?" buttons relative to their areas describe those other controls. I assume this was your solution instead of filling in a status text box with a short descr. or something like that when each control is tweaked, so fair enough (and now I remember seeing that on your effect plugins too.)

[CableChannel]

Status bar: Absolutely not, sorry guys. You know I usually get open to new ideas, but not this one. Even if it would be just my personal opinion. For me it's an archaic junk that only occupies space. It is not used anymore anywhere except for audio plugins .

That's simply not true. It's used in every graphics program, web browser, text editor, ftp client andwhatnot I have. It's standard. Space is plenty nowadays on the huge (double/triple) screens the majority of serious workers have. For pros the status bar is really a huge time saver and efficiency booster compared to archaic keyboard combinations opening popup windows. Sorry, but it is really like that.

As said multiple times, it's not a question of life and death, but a status bar would make the learning curve way faster compared to the current way, that's for sure. Those who have a small screen might just hide the status bar as this is an option in almost every nowadays program, too.

[CableChannel]

PS: You can have a look at Firefox, it displays an overlay text field in the left bottom corner of the main window showing the destination of links when hovering them. This way you wouldn't even waste space. Maybe that would be feasible with MPS, too. Basically it's a tooltip but with it's position locked to the bottom left corner, that way it's less distracting and no lag time is needed.

That's really the smartest way to do this I think.

[MeldaProduction]

Look CableChannel, don't take it personally, but repeating all the time that something is standard and that's just how it is doesn't change anything. To ensure I was right I just went through literally all programs I have here on my new laptop , from chrome, cubase, file manager, settings... to development tools. Do you know how many status bars with info I found? 0!

Whether you like it or not, this was a "standard" about 15 years ago. Then it disappeared from development tools. I a dev, I'm watching standards... Status bar being a completely idiotic feature disappeared from 2 obvious reasons:
1) It takes space - the fact that you are focused on your 24" display setup proves that I cannot take this seriously... check the stats, you'll see that most people are using laptops...
2) People have problems watching 2 different places at once, obviously. That's same thing as on Macs where you have the stupid menu on top of the screen, so when you think you are working with an app, you cannot be sure until you check the top of the screen... Horrible. Sadly Apple designed it without thinking into the future, so it will stay there until...forever probably. But in apps & plugins we have a choice...so...

I close this thing, period. It took already way too much time...

[CableChannel]

Still disagree heavily on what you say, but I can't do anything about it, you are the boss

[MeldaProduction]

True, let's agree on disagree .

[DonHepe]

Bit by bit learning what's possible to do with this great/"out of the box" synth, huge amount of potential ways to create sounds. But couple less complex features would be nice to have:

-drift per oscillator. Just a simple free-running smooth random lfo with one knob: amount. Now only way to do this is waste one modulator (heavy on cpu) for a simple job.

-random panning per voice (note on) with one knob: amount (in comparison to actual panning).

-tremolo also in release stage.

[MeldaProduction]

Thank you!

- Drift - what do you mean exactly??

- Random panning per voice - well, it wouldn't be a problem, but to be honest it doesn't really make sense to me. Why would you want that? When I imagine voices jumping from one channel to another, it's like a mixing engineers nightmare

- Tremolo in release stage - hmmm, I suppose that could be useful.

[DonHepe]

About drift, I sent you email with simple 3osc sawtooth demo preset.

Random note on panning per voice can be really expressive,
for subtle or extreme movements.
And yes, I'm also mixing engineer
...btw, MEqualizer harmonics feature is really clever and handy.

And one more feature request: alternate "fixed ratio" detune mode
to keep osc beating frequency constant from lo to high notes.