Link: Venom VB-303 VSTi (Beta release)

[Woody Aki]

Is the link to the latest beta on the original post, or have I missed it in between the pages of replies to this thread?

[antto]

yes, altho it's far from "the latest beta" http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 67#3779367
it's from 2009

thanks for the kind words and patience everyone
altho i completed the "Pattern Edit" mode - i sent it to my 303-interface-expert and it turns out there were some bugs with the sequencer, fixed them but one remains which is involved with the menu system and i have to compare it to a TB-303, which right now is impossible
but in the mean time i'm finalizing the GUI

[Woody Aki]

Thanks antto. Looking forward to the final release!

[audiojunkie]

yes, altho it's far from "the latest beta" http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 67#3779367
it's from 2009

thanks for the kind words and patience everyone
altho i completed the "Pattern Edit" mode - i sent it to my 303-interface-expert and it turns out there were some bugs with the sequencer, fixed them but one remains which is involved with the menu system and i have to compare it to a TB-303, which right now is impossible
but in the mean time i'm finalizing the GUI

Thanks for the status update on this! I doubt I'm the only lurker on this thread.

--Sean

[Crackbaby]

Haha you're not the only one

[robogone]

So is it close to the final release? (Sorry, haven't been following this thread lately)

[davidka]

Haha you're not the only one

Definitely not!

[antto]

you could say it's close to a release

i might call it v0.99 when it is usable enough, then polish it a bit and fix any bugs which get discovered by users and put this into v1.0 finally

i finished the top-bar controls (load/save buttons, tempo display, sync mode selectors and other things like midi settings)
made new trimpot-knobs for the internal tweaking and other little skin details

i will now start coding the "Pattern Play" mode which isn't very complicated
and i have to implement the *.303 pattern format import (parsing involved)
and finalize the distortion, haven't got a clue what skin i'm gonna make for it, maybe something green
i'll post a more-recent screenshot of the GUI these days

[JoaCHIP]

Hi,
I've been playing around with it a bit, and I'm generally impressed. There is but one thing that strikes me as a bit of a limitation: I think the lowpass frequency doesn't go down far enough. I'd like it to go 20% lower or such. Especially once you turn up the "ENVMOD" the cutoff frequency is moved up a bit by the added value of the decay curve, and in these cases I'd really like to be able to go lower with the lowpass frequency.

I've been working with a lot of different analog synthesizers (Roland, Korg, Moog and a few others), and many of these allow the lowpass frequency to go much lower than this plugin.

Would it be possible to extend the range of the cutoff freq. a bit further downwards? I'd really appreciate that.

PS: A little demo for the curious. Notice that I'm starting with the lowpass at its lowest position. Then I increase the ENVMOD. After that I just start messing with various buttons...

[Retrofox]

Hello,

i have to agree with Joachip here. It would be really nice if the cutoff frequency could go even lower. Also, it would be nice if you didn't have to move the mouse so far while using the buttons, but thats just me nitpicking i guess (took me a while to figure out how it worked..)
Anyway, i have to say this is by far the best sounding free 303 plugin I've ever tried! (Haven't really tried any commercial ones). Its gold! Keep up the good work :]

Here's a short breakbeat demo i made. I added an additional filter to bring the cutoff lower

http://box.retrofox.dk/sp/Venom_VB_303_loop.mp3

[antto]

ignore those things from beta1 and beta2
since then, i changed the filter further more, as well as the envelopes (which are as important as the filter)

i finally managed to get the behaviour of the envelopes right, and to calibrate them with my x0xb0x
there's a trimpot (TM3) which adjusts the cutoff offset (it's there on the 303 and x0x, it's for calibration)
i got this into my equation too, it will be on the rear-panel of Venom and with it you can push the cutoff uber-low (as on the real thing)

most of the important switches and rotary encoders (waveform selector, BANK knob, MODE knob, etc...) now use a custom module with which i've adjusted the mouse sensitivity as well as the visual feedback
so, they visually appear to "snatch" sort of like real switches, and also now it's much easier to switch them (increased mouse sensitivity)

all knobs have been rendered with pretty dense animation, so they visually rotate very smoothly

all of the important controls (sequencer buttons, knobs and switches) have big "hit areas" (that's the area which you can click on and grab the knob or press the button)
since there is a lot of empty space around most of them - you can click "around" a control and you still hit it

altho, keep in mind, this is no longer the "old" synth you saw in beta1 and beta2
you aren't encouraged to even click on the buttons, this sounds odd, i know..
remember, you are supposed to use midi notes for pressing the buttons, because you cannot program patterns only with the mouse
it will be a bit weird at first (till you familiarise with the button mapping)
but after that - it feels like you're pressing real buttons (because you are, the keys/buttons on your keyboard)

speaking of trimpots, there will be more trimpots on the rear-panel
TM3 as explained above, for adjusting the cutoff offset
TM4 and TM5 for the oscillator - offset and width for the pitch, yes you can mimic detuned 303 with these ;]
R97 - feedback adjust (aka resonance boost mod)

haven't decided about the distortion yet
but i'm thinking more and more about making it maybe less realistic, and more like a generic software multi-distortion.. i mean:
there will be a selector to chose from a number of different distortion algorithms
and probably 3 knobs which will have different meaning depending on the distortion type selected (their labels could automatically change)
i don't have much room for fancy stuff

i *do* have lots of room on the rear-view, it will be almost empty
okay, enough for now, will return when i have some pictures or sounds..

[antto]

https://www.box.com/s/79hdxg8oc1jo5l4lrsko
very short audio sample
comparing "TM3" at 76% in the first part, to 50% in the second part
in both cases i start with Cutoff and Envmod at 0, then bring Cutoff up, Envmod up, cutoff down, envmod down

[Crackbaby]

Wow!!!!!
And an extra Wow! for the keyboard control! Will it be midi controllable as well? the programming i mean (else i think piz has a midi->querty converter)

[davidka]

haven't decided about the distortion yet
but i'm thinking more and more about making it maybe less realistic, and more like a generic software multi-distortion.. i mean:
there will be a selector to chose from a number of different distortion algorithms
and probably 3 knobs which will have different meaning depending on the distortion type selected (their labels could automatically change)
i don't have much room for fancy stuff

i *do* have lots of room on the rear-view, it will be almost empty
okay, enough for now, will return when i have some pictures or sounds..

I'm not sure if a built-in distortion would be that mandatory. I hope I'm not the only one who says it can be skipped. Nowadays the free market is full of greater and greater effects as alternatives. TSE 808 is just one fine example

But it's really good to see some updates, antto! They are great news, and I hope everything's going as expected if not better!

[Crackbaby]

plusdistortion works VERY well with synths, especially for acid style growlscream
I have the 808 installed, but not tried it yet ... thanks for the reminder