One Synth Challenge #90: Helm by Matt Tytel (Jasinski Wins!)
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- KVRAF
- 2133 posts since 29 Sep, 2011
I am also just getting [re-]started with my track... I made something over the weekend after all month of nothing, no time, no inspiration. But wasn't really happy with the direction it went. I still have no time and no inspiration, but at least I have dedication!
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Hey Z ... you me too! Numerous issues once I hit a small but critical vsti count. I managed 13 instances for my percussion "track", layering up many things. Not satisfactory on the "total realism front" - but most I quite like now. Crashes are a bit problematic. Need more metallic ringing in with the noise burst - tricky!
Going for a still traditional song format again - I did start with a cinematic one, lots of violins and so on, but got stuck with inspiration after about 2 mins of tune, and Helm just did not want to play nice with sounds for me with this type of track- so with time running out, something a bit easier for me to do ... so forgive me, but at least I will have an entry - hopefully - maybe ...
Good luck, get inspired ...
dB
Going for a still traditional song format again - I did start with a cinematic one, lots of violins and so on, but got stuck with inspiration after about 2 mins of tune, and Helm just did not want to play nice with sounds for me with this type of track- so with time running out, something a bit easier for me to do ... so forgive me, but at least I will have an entry - hopefully - maybe ...
Good luck, get inspired ...
dB
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- KVRAF
- 2133 posts since 29 Sep, 2011
Oooh cinematic. I wanted to try that again but unfortunately, I couldn't get Helm to cooperate with sounds. Luckily, it cooperates for some bass music 
Loud, mind destroying, bass music. Mmmm.
Loud, mind destroying, bass music. Mmmm.-
- KVRist
- 313 posts since 16 Mar, 2013 from Perú
z.prime wrote:... Loud, mind destroying, bass music.
I will put my helmet on.
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- KVRist
- 313 posts since 16 Mar, 2013 from Perú
A bit offTopic but maybe someone will find it usefull 
I just found this https://www.packtpub.com/packt/offers/free-learning , Packpub is giving for free the ebook "FL Studio Cookbook", the offer is valid just for today.
I just found this https://www.packtpub.com/packt/offers/free-learning , Packpub is giving for free the ebook "FL Studio Cookbook", the offer is valid just for today.
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Yeah, me too - just could not get the right stringy sounds, bowing, etc etc ... even decent reed sound is nigh on impossible, and even brass is not goodz.prime wrote:Oooh cinematic. I wanted to try that again but unfortunately, I couldn't get Helm to cooperate with sounds.
- I really need some nice brass as I do have a brass section tooting around - got any????????? 
Right!!!!!!! I suspect we might get a few of those.Luckily, it cooperates for some bass music
I really would like my melody line "sung", so may still work on that if I have time. I was thinking that now I have the MIDI track done, I might see if I can do some realtime knob twiddling and furkle some parameters (adsr, filter and formant) and see if I can do something - else it'll just be piano (got quite a good sound for that, but might need some extra layers to bulk out the middle of all things! )See you in the vote off soon. Gotta go get my car, clutch died
, so needed to be fixed - humph!dB
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- KVRAF
- 3008 posts since 17 Apr, 2010 from Croatia
Uuuhh, I must say... besides curious idle behavior, I'm getting some really, really, really interesting sounds out of Helm. I really just started with my track and am going at it rather slowly, but I've made some rather fun sounds with it and it behaves decently, except for those weird processing spikes out of nowhere.
To make nice strings, you should work the lfos carefully, consider that you try to simulate a crowd of violins- or which ever- and have some fun with the unisono options. No need to get carried away with MOD on the OSCs, though! Interesting is also to use the osc feedback section carefully, also using lfo.
The worst part of Helm to me is the filter section, simply because you can't really get a steep filter. They're all too tame. I'm too lazy to get into the code, but a second filter stage might help out there.
Without wanting to give away too much of what I'm having fun with here, I find it's pretty fun to goof around with the formant filter.
Ehehe, Db, yep, sung! I'm pretty impressed with the sound I'm getting! Kind of oriental, though.
To make nice strings, you should work the lfos carefully, consider that you try to simulate a crowd of violins- or which ever- and have some fun with the unisono options. No need to get carried away with MOD on the OSCs, though! Interesting is also to use the osc feedback section carefully, also using lfo.
The worst part of Helm to me is the filter section, simply because you can't really get a steep filter. They're all too tame. I'm too lazy to get into the code, but a second filter stage might help out there.
Without wanting to give away too much of what I'm having fun with here, I find it's pretty fun to goof around with the formant filter.
Ehehe, Db, yep, sung! I'm pretty impressed with the sound I'm getting! Kind of oriental, though.
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Yeah Taron, you can get some neat sounds via the formant filter, just not what I wanted sadly. Also, with so many parameters to change the sonic capabilities are endless (filter aside!!). Probably a very good synth for creating unique sounds rather than one for emulating other sounds, if you see what I mean.
I really wanted to get some single violins rather than string sections, and that just did not pan out for me.
The other thing I found a bit "annoying" was that if I get a single sound e.g. a reedy/oboe like sound, or even a better trumpet, they sound great as solos, but when you up the voice count for say "brass hits", it all sort of goes pants and you lose all the character of the original solo sound. Not quite sure why.
Got some good sounds though, so quite happy. Still not got a good crash! Anyone???
Anyways, got another "tune" for you all, but will work on it to the last minute to see if I can get the sounds better honed to my liking.
So ... how many singing synths will we have? More than one methinks!
dB
I really wanted to get some single violins rather than string sections, and that just did not pan out for me.
The other thing I found a bit "annoying" was that if I get a single sound e.g. a reedy/oboe like sound, or even a better trumpet, they sound great as solos, but when you up the voice count for say "brass hits", it all sort of goes pants and you lose all the character of the original solo sound. Not quite sure why.
Got some good sounds though, so quite happy. Still not got a good crash! Anyone???
Anyways, got another "tune" for you all, but will work on it to the last minute to see if I can get the sounds better honed to my liking.
So ... how many singing synths will we have? More than one methinks!
dB
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- KVRist
- 47 posts since 4 Apr, 2015
https://soundcloud.com/toggleaudio/toggleaudio-seattle
22 x Helm
Used effects (all built-in Logic):
3 x Stereo spread
3 x Channel EQ
3 x Compressor
2 x Stereo delay
2 x Space Designer
1 x Multiprocessor
1 x Limiter
22 x Helm
Used effects (all built-in Logic):
3 x Stereo spread
3 x Channel EQ
3 x Compressor
2 x Stereo delay
2 x Space Designer
1 x Multiprocessor
1 x Limiter
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- KVRist
- 91 posts since 15 Apr, 2013 from Perth WA
As I mentioned in an earlier thread square waves or similar are a good way to go for crashes.doctorbob wrote: Got some good sounds though, so quite happy. Still not got a good crash! Anyone???
dB
Stack them up in unison and turn on the H button
use osc cross mod and the feedback add more metallic tone
Highpass of course
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- KVRist
- 91 posts since 15 Apr, 2013 from Perth WA
Bob, let me know if you can open this FBX file, I had a quick go at making a crash
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B85oSO ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B85oSO ... sp=sharing
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Hi, thanks. Couldn't import the file.Laxplanet wrote:Bob, let me know if you can open this FBX file, I had a quick go at making a crash
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B85oSO ... sp=sharing
Can you save it as a ".helm" using the SAVE in Helm itself? Should be able to get that into the beast ...dB
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- KVRist
- 91 posts since 15 Apr, 2013 from Perth WA
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 7 Mar, 2014
Thanks, got them! Quite like what I had got to already. I added some noise into the equation and modulated the OSC Xmod with an lfo (just a little). Still have a lot of refining to do, but in the end, it's not gonna be great with this synth (a crash that is - hehe). Still have about 30 tracks of sound design to get on with as well. Got a pretty good sounding set of toms - nicely tuned, although I say so myself - interesting to see what people think, irrespective of the track (of course!!).
Thanks again for your help and input. It's all gotta help eh?
Cheers,
dB
Thanks again for your help and input. It's all gotta help eh?
Cheers,
dB
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- KVRist
- 335 posts since 12 Aug, 2016
I really want to like Helm.
The UI to me is excellent. I like how the assignment of things work and how there is a visual representation of what is happening as it happens.
The sounds can be really interesting.
But, it easily crashed for me over 80 times. That is a low estimation too.
I base this on the fact that I decided to try Reaper and it's license nag screen stated something like I have used this software 102 times in 15 days and I'm unsure if it even counts as a start if it crashes before the nag screen pops up.
It would crash often when designing sounds.
It would crash often when unfreezing tracks
It would sometimes crash when trying to freeze a track.
Once it crashed it might take 1-5 attempts to get the project to reopen.
CPU usage was extremely high when Helm was sitting idle. According to the resource monitor in Reaper in a new project with a single empty track with Helm the CPU use would slowly climb from an initial 2-3% to over 20% all while no sounds were being made and the Helm UI closed. If I played a note the CPU usage would drop back down to 3-4% but when the note stopped the CPU usage would slowly start to climb back to over 20% again. I tested Tunefish4 and Synth1 and they did not exhibit this creeping CPU behavior which makes me think it is a Helm issue rather than something in my PC or in Reaper. But I have not messed with synths since way back when Cubase SX3 was popular so I could be wrong.
I decided to start to participate in the OSC and make a submission every month to push myself to get better. Hopefully in time my skill will develop. In retrospect I think I picked a rough month to start. But since it is a poor carpenter who blames their tools I am going to go ahead and submit my first track despite knowing I am submitting a poor example of what Helm can really do.
So track info:
OS Win10 x64
DAW Reaper 5 x64
9 instances of Helm x64 VST3i v0.8.6
1xReaXComp
1xReaFir(EQ)
2xReaEQ
2xReaComp
Now there might be a discrepancy in the numbers of either ReaEQ or ReaComp. The track I am submitting is number 10 of 16 renders I attempted while trying to repair some of the low level and some of the ugly sound issues in my track. And I didn't start writing down effects in the frozen tracks until around attempt 12. I need to unfreeze them to fix properly but they crash pretty much every time I try. Hopefully next month will be better.
https://soundcloud.com/user-975888547/helmashed-010
The UI to me is excellent. I like how the assignment of things work and how there is a visual representation of what is happening as it happens.
The sounds can be really interesting.
But, it easily crashed for me over 80 times. That is a low estimation too.
I base this on the fact that I decided to try Reaper and it's license nag screen stated something like I have used this software 102 times in 15 days and I'm unsure if it even counts as a start if it crashes before the nag screen pops up.
It would crash often when designing sounds.
It would crash often when unfreezing tracks
It would sometimes crash when trying to freeze a track.
Once it crashed it might take 1-5 attempts to get the project to reopen.
CPU usage was extremely high when Helm was sitting idle. According to the resource monitor in Reaper in a new project with a single empty track with Helm the CPU use would slowly climb from an initial 2-3% to over 20% all while no sounds were being made and the Helm UI closed. If I played a note the CPU usage would drop back down to 3-4% but when the note stopped the CPU usage would slowly start to climb back to over 20% again. I tested Tunefish4 and Synth1 and they did not exhibit this creeping CPU behavior which makes me think it is a Helm issue rather than something in my PC or in Reaper. But I have not messed with synths since way back when Cubase SX3 was popular so I could be wrong.
I decided to start to participate in the OSC and make a submission every month to push myself to get better. Hopefully in time my skill will develop. In retrospect I think I picked a rough month to start. But since it is a poor carpenter who blames their tools I am going to go ahead and submit my first track despite knowing I am submitting a poor example of what Helm can really do.
So track info:
OS Win10 x64
DAW Reaper 5 x64
9 instances of Helm x64 VST3i v0.8.6
1xReaXComp
1xReaFir(EQ)
2xReaEQ
2xReaComp
Now there might be a discrepancy in the numbers of either ReaEQ or ReaComp. The track I am submitting is number 10 of 16 renders I attempted while trying to repair some of the low level and some of the ugly sound issues in my track. And I didn't start writing down effects in the frozen tracks until around attempt 12. I need to unfreeze them to fix properly but they crash pretty much every time I try. Hopefully next month will be better.
https://soundcloud.com/user-975888547/helmashed-010
