Modular Synth - Technology Choices

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Are there any similar libraries around that compete with this set of tools?
yes:

http://mat.ucsb.edu/gamma/
http://www.icst.net/research/downloads/dsp-library/
http://code.google.com/p/ugen/
http://code.google.com/p/pl-nk/
https://github.com/micknoise/Maximilian
http://sndobj.sourceforge.net/
http://redmine.jamoma.org/projects/dsp/wiki
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That's not a big deal really. I'm sure this would be a fairly mature SDK by now. But, even if there are some bugs, I'll find them quickly and workaround them, or find some replacement code for that part of the SDK.
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Sweet! Spot on.
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I've finally gotten around to looking in to this stuff.

Thanks to everyone who posted here but especially koalaboy, and hibrasil.

Koalaboy - the cinder/openframeworks/juce route is looking good. I've been told by others that this is the way to go. I cracked open Juce over the weekend and it's a great library/toolset. I was ablet to build a basic UI after using it for a couple of hours and get a plugin up in Ableton, and bind parameters from Ableton in to variables so that I can use them for audio processing.

Unfortunately, Juce is pretty light on for audio processing. It seems like it's mainly there to provide the UI and framework for a VST. But, it does at least have a simple sine wave voice synth. So, now I need to provide the rest of the audio part.

I tried to crack open Maximilian (audio engine). But, I'm getting a compiler error in VS 2010. Does anyone know where the forum/supoport is for this SDK?

So, now I want to look at using openFrameworks for the audio engine, but the website is a bit offputting because it's all focused on fancy pants audio/visual interactive type stuff where you touch the screen and make noises and stuff. I'm just looking for something very simple - oscs, filters, sample players, ADSRs etc. Does open frameworks just have this basic stuff?

Hibrasil, I will also look in to your other recommendations. Any one of this that you prefer?

PS: Gamma looks good but no Visual Studio projects at the moment. Uggh - C++ is a pain.

PSS: UGen looks like the money. It just hooks straight up to Juce, and if Google's minimoog emulator was anything to go by, Yeah!!!!!
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Uggghghh.

Lots of compilation errors with Ugen++ + Juce as well. Perhaps the Juce library has changed too much since they built the Ugen++ demo.

Oh well. I'll muddle through this somehow but any tips would be helpful.
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If you want a pre-made library you can use then take a look at Csound. It has a c/c++ api allowing you to interface with it from your own software and is lgpl too incase you want to keep it closed source. I have used Csound as the audio engine in my own software a few times and it works great :)

There is also libpd which allows you to do something similar using Pure Data's library. I haven't tried it but I have heard that it is fully of static variables and is not suitable for having multiple instances running so may not be suitable for creating VSTs with.

A few people have mentioned Synthmaker but be aware that is now a dead product. The devs have incorporated its features into a new program called Flowstone that now seems to be focused more on robotics that dsp.
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CSound huh? Actually CSound seems pretty good. I have a few patches which are wrapped in MaxForLive which sound great, but it seems kinda annoyng to hook it all up. I will look in to it. Hopefully there is a way to make straight VSTs with it. Probably not though - you probably have to redistribute the entire runtime environment.

Wow, flowstone looks amazing. Actually SynthMaker looked amazing as well. If it weren't for the Windows only thing, I'd probably go with SynthMaker instead of trying to build my own.
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Syncretia wrote:CSound huh? Actually CSound seems pretty good. I have a few patches which are wrapped in MaxForLive which sound great, but it seems kinda annoyng to hook it all up. I will look in to it. Hopefully there is a way to make straight VSTs with it. Probably not though - you probably have to redistribute the entire runtime environment.

Wow, flowstone looks amazing. Actually SynthMaker looked amazing as well. If it weren't for the Windows only thing, I'd probably go with SynthMaker instead of trying to build my own.
I have created my own VSTs with Csound as the engine and it is actually pretty easy to hook it all up. You do need csound installed on your computer to use it though.
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mahaya wrote:Pure Data is a programming language. Of course it lacks at the GUI side and you won't get any VSTs out of it.
That's not entirely true, I think. there's work going on in making sure libpd can be integrated into an AU/VST.

http://createdigitalnoise.com/discussio ... plug-in/p1
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Syncretia wrote:The aim is not to write the best possible sounding synth. My goal is to reinvent the wheel and make yet another modular synth. Really, it's partly because I enjoy programming and enjoy the challenge, partly it's because I'm interesting in opening up avenues to get out of the business programming world that I've been stuck in for 10 years, partly it's because I have a very clear idea in my mind of how I want my particular synth to work, and it's nothing like the other modular synths that are out there.
What do you mean by "modular"? On the user-end, here are basicly 2 types of "Modular" synths:

Synths that have a matrix of on/off switches/knobs like these:
http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra
http://www.numerisson.com/novaflash/vst ... index.html
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-analog-matrix/

Synths that allow free-rewiring; these are the synths to beat IMHO:
http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/

http://www.audiogl.com/en/audiogl

==
I might be interested in helping out; I am very experienced with SynthMaker, & good with ASM maths.
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I have created my own VSTs with Csound as the engine and it is actually pretty easy to hook it all up. You do need csound installed on your computer to use it though.
Yeah. I'm hoping to avoid that. However, CSound is very powerful. Not sure where all this is going to end up. I want to take on this challenge because I'm a programmer and want to build a synth that I'll be happy with. I like the idea of CSound but getting CSound up and running is really hard for a lot of people and I'd really like to share what I create eventually.

Re8 - Some good stuff there. I use Zebra a lot. I really like Zebra, but it's far from being what I would call a modular synth. It gets called semi-modular. I only say this because I'm a programmer but I basically find the traditional approach to digital synthesis offensive. Almost condescending. I'm not taking a stab at u-he here. Zebra was an attempt to bridge the gap between normal run of the mill synthesizers and a full modular system which most users find too daunting.

The reason I don't like normal synthesizers is that they are so wasteful and inflexible, and they defeat their own purpose by being overcomplicated and bloated. If you don't like rants, stop reading here.

Synthesizers started out being modular. People placed analogue components together at will and mixed and matched what they understood and what they wanted. A synthesizer would only have as many components as was necessary to create the desired sound. Then, companies like Moog, Yamaha and Roland decided to box up synthesizers by pre-building all the parts and selling them as a unit. Why? Because musicians wanted something they could grab and play around with without having to understand too much of the inner workings.

After this, modular synthesis started becoming more of an elitist area of synthesis. Musicians boughts synths like crazy because they were cheap and they needed little knowledge about synthesis to use them.

This got carried on in to the world of digital synths in the form of keyboards. People expected the digital keyboards to work in the same was as the older analogue synths. Eventually virtual instruments started appearing on computers which again followed the same sort of paradigm that musicians were already used to in the world of synthesizer keyboards.

Ever since, we've seen synth after synth being released where there are a couple of configurations of oscs, filters, ADSRs etc. and some room for changing their routing. Zebra is unique in my opinion in that it jumps out of this mold to a certain extent, but I believe still remains in the paradigm that people have come to expect.

Modular digital synthesis is completely different however. I'll refer to Reaktor only because it's something that most people have had experience with. Reaktor is basically a piece of crap to use. Of course you would expect it to be seeing that is was invented in the late 90s. But, it has an extremely powerful engine underneath the hood. And, anyone who has used a few of the instruments will understand how powerful a thing it is that you can place a user interface over the top of all that complexity to have only they controls and components that you want to use, for a particular purpose.

SynthMaker looks like another prime example. You can build what you want to build with whatever components you like, and then place a user interface over the top of that which is designed in exactly the way you want to use it. Unfortunately SynthMaker is not cross-platform.

Re8- I'm sure reason has a good modular approach to synthesis. However, as a DAW, I didn't really find it intuitive. AudioGL looks amazing. In fact AudioGL is basically what I want to build. I don't think it really needs that 3D interface, but unfortunately, it's not finished yet.

All that aside, I still want to build a modular synth - even if it's not the best out there because I want to.
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Actually AudioGL says that it will be released in less than a month. Can't wait for that. I'll also get in to Bitwig as soon as that is released.
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Syncretia, Since you're a Mac user, you might like my app as well: http://audulus.com

cheers
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I am looking into this as well.

http://www.csounds.com/manual/html/Comm ... ndVST.html

Seems to be a vst front end for csound so the user does not need csound installed to use it.

Mike
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I spend nearly all my day in front of the computer. There's no place I'd rather be than in front of the computer. Coding and music are my life.
I guess you are not in a cubicle environment at the workplace.
~stratum~
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