Hello, new user/beta tester reporting 1st impressions.

[Axis1~SL61]

1st impression (after trying it for 1 or2 days) -- WOW !!!
What a great synth project you have here!
So far,I've been trying beta 0.9.190 with Cubase5/Windows7 32bit and it works great -- no bugs so far. My computer is a 3.2GHz PentiumD (2006) with 4GB physical RAM (3.25GB recognized).
Only one thing -- I couldn't make it work with Novation's Automap -- my hardware controller is a Novation ReMote SL61. I guess it's because of the modular nature of the VSTi, as the modules and hence the number of knobs vary with every patch... I wonder if it will somehow be possible to make it work with the Novation Automap+ReMoteSL in the future, cause that would be a great plus for me and the all the many Novation users.
I hope my trial experiments will be of some help, I will keep reporting and will also upload some patches to the kvr patch section as soon as I have enough of them to make a small bank.
Keep up the great work, and thanks for leting us try it without annoying restrictions.

[aMUSEd]

This is always a problem with modular plugins - the level of customisability makes it impossible to approach this with a one size fits all type controller mapping as every patch will have different modules and different params to automate (plus complex patches = lots of user pages as most controllers just have 8 knobs). The way I tackled this for my Kore 2 template for Zebra, which has the same problem potentially, was to create a user page per module. As user pages in Kore can be rearranged on the fly essentially this creates a modular template for a modular plugin - for each patch you just drag the pages needed for each module into the order that maps best to the used params for that patch and save it. Of course that is only possible if each module has its own params - I don't know if that is the case for Sonigen but if it is then that may be the way forward, although I don't know if Automap is as flexible as Kore 2.

[aMUSEd]

Well there is one other approach that might work theoretically but I don't think anyone has thought of using it for a modular synth (although the modular fx plugin Spectrumworks uses it effectively). That is to imagine all the available params exist in a matrix where their param ID is not fixed but is defined by their position in the matrix. Then for each patch the plugin basically just exposes the params it uses and always in predictable ways that essentialy make it auto mappable. In Spectrumworks that is easier though as each module has only 4 params and modules are stacked in a grid defining their order, plus routing is a lot less flexible than a fully modular synth. But in principle I think it might be possible to do for a synth too.

[Axis1~SL61]

Well there is one other approach that might work theoretically but I don't think anyone has thought of using it for a modular synth (although the modular fx plugin Spectrumworks uses it effectively). That is to imagine all the available params exist in a matrix where their param ID is not fixed but is defined by their position in the matrix. Then for each patch the plugin basically just exposes the params it uses and always in predictable ways that essentialy make it auto mappable. In Spectrumworks that is easier though as each module has only 4 params and modules are stacked in a grid defining their order, plus routing is a lot less flexible than a fully modular synth. But in principle I think it might be possible to do for a synth too.

Maybe that's the way to try it with Automap -- because I've seen that Automap does detect something, but not the buttons and knobs displayed in the current patch... I'll have to load all available modules in one patch and see what it detects and what happens then...
I will report about it later tonight...

[aMUSEd]

That approach will only work if that is how the developer has set up param mappings in the plugin. In my experience most modular plugins tend to adopt fixed params per module or avoid the whole thing completely and not be automatable as in Tassman.

[aMUSEd]

OK I'm just looking at this now in Kore 2 and it looks like the developer has not set it up yet for param host automation (not even sure it has midi learn). I can see 11 fixed numbered params exposed to the host but they are not moving any knobs as far as I can see and my attempts to learn any knobs are not working. So maybe this feature is a work in progress?

[EvilDragon]

Kontakt also works like that - it gives you 512 freely assignable automation slots, and then you drag the slots to the parameters you want to automate. I suppose that could also be viable for Sonigen Modular in some way.

Or perhaps it would be better to have it like this: every module TYPE has its own automation parameters, and if you have more than one of same module type in the patch, you get prev/next parameters to switch between those on the fly. That might be good.

[aMUSEd]

Kontakt also works like that - it gives you 512 freely assignable automation slots, and then you drag the slots to the parameters you want to automate. I suppose that could also be viable for Sonigen Modular in some way.

Or perhaps it would be better to have it like this: every module TYPE has its own automation parameters, and if you have more than one of same module type in the patch, you get prev/next parameters to switch between those on the fly. That might be good.

Diva works a bit like that for the filter modules - you can swap them over and they retain mappings. Kontakt is more like Omnisphere or the Virus Ti, you choose yourself what params to expose to the host for automation. What I'm referring to in relation to SpectrumWorks is something that just works automatically - it's a nice system but I've not seen it anywhere else.

[sonigen]

I'm in the process of adding MIDI and VST automation to the front panel controls. (some of them anyway) The way it is likely to work is that you will hold the ALT key and any control that can be automated will have an overlay which displays either the MIDI CC or VST Automation index they are currently mapped to (or "--" if not mapped). You will likely right click to get a popup menu so you can assign a control to a particular MIDI CC or VST Automation index.

The idea is you get the complete state of automation linkage overlaid on top of the actual patch. So it should be real easy to see whats going on!

The way it currently works is that 12 parameters are exposed to the host, but you access them via AutoParam controller widgets. (its in the manual) It's highly likely to be depreciated once i get the new system up and running since it's very clunky and i was never happy with it anyway.