SynthMaster 2.6, 2.7 roadmap, add your feature requests...

[BlackWinny]

Synthmaster needs a new GUI !

More precisely I would say that the major problem with Synthmaster is the management of the mouse and of the keyboard. That part of the synth (the interactions from the musician with the GUI by the mouse and by the keyboard, more the visual parts themselves) is to rewrite totally from scratch!!!

And the management of the presets!!! The management of the presets in Synthmaster is enough for a little synth but absolutely not for a synth being able to have more than a thousand of presets! In a synth which can gather so many presets and with so many styles, so many types of synthesis, etc... it is TO BE MANAGED BY FREE TAGS BY THE USER, PLEASE!!!!

It's not difficult to manage a little internal DBF or CSV database in C++!! it is something which is learned by the young students at school!!! When a developer is at the level to create in C++ a huge synth having so many types of synthesis embedded... he has a level far more than enough to create a little internal database to allow the musician to manage keywords and tags for his presets!!!

Bülent! You want a synth really innovative and pioneering and very efficient? So:

1. Rewrite totally from scratch the management of the GUI by the mouse and the keyboard... As it is now it is a nightmare to struggle permanently with the mouse and the keyboard to manage the values... and even to browse in the vertical columns of the presets! A shame for a synth of that huge level!
2. And create a little internal database to allow the musicians to manage the presets by personal tags and keywords that they will search with combinations of booleans like "OR" and "AND" (or equivalent symbols)!!! It's very easy (we make that in all the IT school!), it allows even to put as many tags as the musician wants on presets which are read-only!... and you can't imagine how much your synth will be applauded for that really useful feature!!!

[Dasheesh]

That would be nice, I worry about the CPU hit it migh take though...

Sorry, but could give a crap about the cpu hit. If your box can't handle it don't use it, but I find it necessary for a high end software instrument that calls itself "master".

[Gone soft]

Yeah you got the idea. Granular is just breaking sound up into tiny pre defined pulses that you can then redistribute to creat new sounds. Granular filters will break up the sound as an fx, while granular oscillators are called "pulsar train" synthesis because they emit a regular pulse of sound like a pulsar or neutron star emits radiation in regular intervals. Hope this makes sense I'm on my phone.

As far as I know "pulsar train synthesis" only refers to a specific implementation of granular synthesis, and was cooked up somewhat later than "regular" granular synthesis. There's no demand on granular oscillators to emit a certain kind of pulse or in any sense have much in the way of regularity, that rule only applies to the pulsar train variety. Good old granular synthesis can have randomized distribution of grains (as well as randomization of pitch and other parameters for each individual grain) and still be considered granular.

And I wondered if you by granular filter specifically meant the kind where each singular grain is sent to its own bandpassfilter or if "granular filter" just refers to most any kind of granular processing. Also if you want the bandpassfiltered variety do you want the classic randomization of bpf frequency, an option for scaling according to musical scales such as available in Absynth 5 and a choice of how many octaves and semitones that randomization should cover and all that. What parameters would you like to see available?

[Dasheesh]

Yeah you got the idea. Granular is just breaking sound up into tiny pre defined pulses that you can then redistribute to creat new sounds. Granular filters will break up the sound as an fx, while granular oscillators are called "pulsar train" synthesis because they emit a regular pulse of sound like a pulsar or neutron star emits radiation in regular intervals. Hope this makes sense I'm on my phone.

As far as I know "pulsar train synthesis" only refers to a specific implementation of granular synthesis, and was cooked up somewhat later than "regular" granular synthesis. There's no demand on granular oscillators to emit a certain kind of pulse or in any sense have much in the way of regularity, that rule only applies to the pulsar train variety. Good old granular synthesis can have randomized distribution of grains (as well as randomization of pitch and other parameters for each individual grain) and still be considered granular.

And I wondered if you by granular filter specifically meant the kind where each singular grain is sent to its own bandpassfilter or if "granular filter" just refers to most any kind of granular processing. Also if you want the bandpassfiltered variety do you want the classic randomization of bpf frequency, an option for scaling according to musical scales such as available in Absynth 5 and a choice of how many octaves and semitones that randomization should cover and all that. What parameters would you like to see available?

As far as I'm aware the term "pulsar train" came later in the development of granular because the original experiments with granular (I first heard about them with c sound and then with makeshift software from oddballs in the late 90's and then with the max msp crowd) were a type of filtration where samples were broken up into pieces and then reorganized. The granular oscillators do emit a regular pulse that is THEN pitched and reorganized using "windows" I believe (just envelopes applied to each pulse) AFTER being produced. I think the camel audio has the best granular filter I've seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears so use that as a reference (too much to go into here and I'm no computer programmer).

[natufian]

I'm not sure if it's too late to make a feature request, but mine seems pretty simple and important (I'm sure all users say that ).

I'd like to see it become much, much easier to deal with large wavetable libraries by:

1) implementing drag and drop into the wavetable field which would then simply load the file (no dialogue box, etc)

2) (especially if no. 1 is not implemented) allowing for nested sub-directories of the User Wavetable folder.

Two incredibly simple features that would finally allow users to choose SynthMaster when doing custom synth design where as right now it's just too laborious.


Adding a "Delay" feature to the ADSR envelope would be a welcome addition as well, but first things first.

Thanks for the great synth guys.

-D

[architec]

Some wishful thinking here, but still. Arranged in order from simple to involved:
1) Some visual feedback on modulation sources/targets would be great. At least like changing the text color or making the text bold whenever a knob has ANY modulation sources assigned and making the same change to any modulation source captions that are in use.
2) Delay parameter on the ADSR's.
3) Drag and drop modulation assignment would be great. Makes the workflow much faster.
4) Normalization for wavetable synthesis - lots of waveforms, even the included ones, have tiny amplitudes.
5) Sequencer GUI (specifically, the arpeggiator is OK imho). Very difficult to navigate, especially to set note-specific velocities/lengths. And as far as I understand no possibility to set portamento and retriggering for each step specifically. Also, the note range is only +- 12. Could be at least +- 36.
6) Granular synthesis (though isn't it in the plans already?)
7) A brickwall limiter in the FX section.

In every other regard this synth is close to perfection:)

[Gercek_KV331]

Hey folks,

Ok, i'm taking notes of your wishes... and be sure we'll discuss on them and we have already working on several of them too

Thanks for your feedbacks and wishes, these are very important for us.

We have come long ways and we have way to go together...

G.

[BBFG#]

My request:
A website server that doesn't take 27 attempts to download a file.

[Oberheim 8000]

Hey folks,

Ok, i'm taking notes of your wishes... and be sure we'll discuss on them and we have already working on several of them too

Thanks for your feedbacks and wishes, these are very important for us.

We have come long ways and we have way to go together...

G.

Hi, it is better post Feature request on the forum or through contact on the website?

[BBFG#]

Both.

[Oberheim 8000]

Ok, there is what i post SM.

More detune and Unison options and possibilities:
- detune option for unlimited range, or max range 10 semitones for cluster effects and strange sounds.

- detune will have two options for detune range (like this - one knob will be set up for -0.2 cent and second for +1 semitone for example. Maximum will be +/- 5 semitones for each knob. If i use 4 voices in unison, first voice will be detuned to -0.2 cent and last voice will be detuned to +1 semitone. Other voices are detuned between this number.)

- option how will be detuned voices between this two numbers - that means, if voices will be detuned linear, exponential etc.. for example, if i have knob in center and range knobs on values -0.5 and +0.5cents, detuned will be linear (voice 1 = -0.5 cents, voice 2 = -0.25 cents, v3 = 0c, v4 = +0.25c, v5 = +0.5c. in 5 voice unison), if i move knob to right, detune will be like this - v1 = -0.5c, v2 = -0.49c, v3 = 0, v4=+0.49, v5=+0.5c.
- one special knob for random detune or little chaos detune. This means if my detune will be linear and i use this knob, voices between min and max detune will not be exactly linear and each voice will be little off, for example v1 = -0.5, v2 = -0.27c instead -0.25, v3=+0.05 or -0.05, v4= +0.23 instead +0.25, v5=+0.5.

- this detune options will be affect only if unison is used
- each unison will have this options - that means this options will be under Osc section and in layer section.

Voices
- more unison voices, 32 or better 64 for each unison section
- add voices by knob no from pop up menu.
- allow set up 3, 5, 7 voices, not only voices with even numbers.

FM unison problems?
- if i use unison under FM osc. it is does not work. If i set up more voices, oscilator sounds like i duplicate the same sounds and sounds louder and detune option does not work. Unison working only under layer section well.

[Gercek_KV331]

Ok, there is what i post SM.

More detune and Unison options and possibilities:
- detune option for unlimited range, or max range 10 semitones for cluster effects and strange sounds.

- detune will have two options for detune range (like this - one knob will be set up for -0.2 cent and second for +1 semitone for example. Maximum will be +/- 5 semitones for each knob. If i use 4 voices in unison, first voice will be detuned to -0.2 cent and last voice will be detuned to +1 semitone. Other voices are detuned between this number.)

- option how will be detuned voices between this two numbers - that means, if voices will be detuned linear, exponential etc.. for example, if i have knob in center and range knobs on values -0.5 and +0.5cents, detuned will be linear (voice 1 = -0.5 cents, voice 2 = -0.25 cents, v3 = 0c, v4 = +0.25c, v5 = +0.5c. in 5 voice unison), if i move knob to right, detune will be like this - v1 = -0.5c, v2 = -0.49c, v3 = 0, v4=+0.49, v5=+0.5c.
- one special knob for random detune or little chaos detune. This means if my detune will be linear and i use this knob, voices between min and max detune will not be exactly linear and each voice will be little off, for example v1 = -0.5, v2 = -0.27c instead -0.25, v3=+0.05 or -0.05, v4= +0.23 instead +0.25, v5=+0.5.

- this detune options will be affect only if unison is used
- each unison will have this options - that means this options will be under Osc section and in layer section.

Voices
- more unison voices, 32 or better 64 for each unison section
- add voices by knob no from pop up menu.
- allow set up 3, 5, 7 voices, not only voices with even numbers.

FM unison problems?
- if i use unison under FM osc. it is does not work. If i set up more voices, oscilator sounds like i duplicate the same sounds and sounds louder and detune option does not work. Unison working only under layer section well.

Thank you Oberheim 8000 i got my notes and we discuss on these. Thank you for your feedback

G.

[ontrackp]

Only a few things:
- tuning. When changing the pitch parameter for an oscillator there is not a "detent" or firm stopping point for semi-tones and octaves. Can you make it so that when you turn the knob it locks into semi-tones and octaves, and then holding the shift key gives you the finer control. It sometimes takes a long time to find the right place between an octave and the next semi-tone when making coarse pitch adjustments.
- delay parameter on envelopes
- better display of modulation routings (although the "Automatic" display is super useful). Someone mentioned color coding parameters that are modulated, that seems like a good idea.

The quality of the sound is superb -- it would be great if the interface was at the same level of quality.

Thank you.

[Dasheesh]

I want the noise oscillator from that OTHER new wave table on the market. You can load what ever waves you have into the noise oscillator and then assign it as a modulator. Nifty.

[Dasheesh]

No, scratch that I have a better idea. Inspiration has hit! How a about a convolver module? One that could load different impulses from amps and filter responses and such and then assign or apply it to the amp or filter. That would solve my problems!