Seismic (VST/AU for Mac and Windows)

[syntonica]

You were clear, I was just tired. Late nights and early mornings do not mix. I'm not sure why the Windows side is doing that, but since it's not a show stopper, I'll take a little longer to see what's causing it. I learned Windows about two weeks ago, so...

[yellowmix]

Thanks for the Windows version. It's an interesting concept, and you're right, the manual is necessary, so the link to the manual from the plugin itself is a nice touch.

It's heavy on CPU but it hasn't been machine optimized but we have no way of knowing what difference it makes. The reverb in particular is intensive. Would like to hear more about it since it has no tail.

The Mixers are really cool. The ones that have inherent waveform modulation are particularly fun, and I adore the granulizer (can make some cool Juno-style PWMs). Outside of being a synthesizer, it's great for generating wavetables for other synths.

The Mod Knobs open up even more possibilities. I made a sample-and-hold style patch using Mod Knob 1 to modulate filter frequency with white noise. That it works at all is amazing, given the filter works at the waveform level.

Can we get a true S&H Mixer? I'm thinking it would be like the Mod Knob, but Wave2 would be the value glide (silence would be instant).

One Shot Pitch is nice but it's hard to make a "killer kick" as no available waveform has a 0/minimal attack and all decay to use with it. I noticed none of the factory patches use One Shot Pitch. I kinda got around it by using a Node to generate such a waveform. It's not perfect but it's so fast it's imperceptible. Could definitely use more envelope waveforms. I'll send you the patches I'm talking about.

I'm using Reaper 4.79 x64 Win10 and I'm encountering the same render issue but it's plenty useable. Another issue I'm encountering is that Seismic is ignoring live-played MIDI note-offs when ADSR Mixer is used, but handles it just fine if the MIDI note is in a recorded item being played back.

Another request: a master gain/volume knob.

Very impressive for a first synth and different platforms!

[syntonica]

It's heavy on CPU but it hasn't been machine optimized but we have no way of knowing what difference it makes. The reverb in particular is intensive. Would like to hear more about it since it has no tail.

It depends on the mixer. The code is hand-optimized, but not compiler-optimized yet. Regarding the verb, it's just used for waveshaping--it won't have a tail at all. Since the code is borrowed, I haven't really gone over it in depth for optimization.

Can we get a true S&H Mixer? I'm thinking it would be like the Mod Knob, but Wave2 would be the value glide (silence would be instant).

I'll take a look. S&H is one of those things I hear, but I've never actually looked it up to see what's going on under the hood. I'm sure it's doable.

One Shot Pitch is nice but it's hard to make a "killer kick" as no available waveform has a 0/minimal attack and all decay to use with it. I noticed none of the factory patches use One Shot Pitch.

It works well making goofy 80s toms and the like. I tried to demo a lot of the funky stuff possible, but not everything got in. For the instant attack, a phase shifted sine wave can easily be added that starts and ends high. You might also try the -1/2 Bar wave. It goes from low to zero.

Another issue I'm encountering is that Seismic is ignoring live-played MIDI note-offs when ADSR Mixer is used, but handles it just fine if the MIDI note is in a recorded item being played back.

Now thats an odd one. A VST has no idea where the MIDI comes from... I'll do some testing with real hardware, which I haven't done for ages as that part of the code hasn't been touched for ages.

Also, try moving the envelope to Node 8 since my code originally had to have it there. There may be something vestigial still lurking...

Another request: a master gain/volume knob.

I'm not sure I can fit one in! I never bothered since there's always a fader handy.

Very impressive for a first synth and different platforms!

Thank you!

I've also got my list going for the next release, which should be in a couple of weeks. I need to mop up all the minor bugs, though, so any added features may need to wait. (Any critical bugs will be fixed within a day or two of reporting.)

[Tj Shredder]

Playing a bit with it, its a different little beast.
You should be able to replicate DX-7 sounds to a certain extend, but then it shows how much deeper this is thought of.
As tutorial I would like to have some Classic DX-7 sounds replicated, that would help to understand better how it works. Same for phase distortion... Maybe a row of sounds going from simple to complex...
There is some roughness in it, I am not sure if its not clipping somewhere inside...

Then I don't know how to get my velocity to have an effect...

[syntonica]

Playing a bit with it, its a different little beast.
You should be able to replicate DX-7 sounds to a certain extend, but then it shows how much deeper this is thought of.
As tutorial I would like to have some Classic DX-7 sounds replicated, that would help to understand better how it works. Same for phase distortion... Maybe a row of sounds going from simple to complex...
There is some roughness in it, I am not sure if its not clipping somewhere inside...

Then I don't know how to get my velocity to have an effect...

The FM/RM/AM are not exact copies of anything due to limitations to the design. Feedback necessarily has a latency of 512/1024 samples, depending upon how often the host polls. You can mock up DX algorithms pretty easily:
To make:

V-| <---that's a feedback loop
1-|-2---3

Use the RM mixer as this is what the DX7 actually uses, not true FM. Set:
Node 1 waves to Sine, Node 1. (The first wave should never be assigned to a node.)
Node 2 waves to Sine, Node 1.
Node 3 waves to Sine, Node 2.
Then, take in Node 3 to an Envelope (since the DX had no filter. )

Regarding clipping, it should only happen if you use mixers that clip. I know--not helpful, but you can see clipping in the wave forms. Try the +/Flat mixer--it is designed to clip. However, the majority of mixers normalize the wave to keep in bounds. Some also remove any DC automatically, as well.

Currently, there's no way to apply any velocity sensitivity, but I will add it to my list of upgrades. It can easily be used to modulate in a similar fashion as the knob mods.

[syntonica]

http://www.syntonica.net/seismic

New Update: Uploaded version 1.2 for Mac & PC. Beat the Reaper bug (PC), added S&H and Velocity sensitive mixers, fixed a couple of lurking bugs.

[Halonmusic]

Thank you

[Debutante]

Also very interested in trying this one out. In FL the GUI only partially shows, and CPU usage is hitting 100% moving some parameters... then after a few moments, placing the mouse over anything, even FL itself, after the plugin is initiated crashes the program with the quickness. Seems very promising.

FL 12
AMD FX-8350
Win 8.1
16G Ram

[Halonmusic]

Also very interested in trying this one out. In FL the GUI only partially shows, and CPU usage is hitting 100% moving some parameters... then after a few moments, placing the mouse over anything, even FL itself, after the plugin is initiated crashes the program with the quickness. Seems very promising.

FL 12
AMD FX-8350
Win 8.1
16G Ram

Try this:

https://support.image-line.com/action/k ... se?ans=501

[Halonmusic]

Hmm seems like i have the same problem as Debutante, only in energyXT 3. Only parts of the gui is showing. Also its very heavy on the cpu.

[syntonica]

Also very interested in trying this one out. In FL the GUI only partially shows, and CPU usage is hitting 100% moving some parameters... then after a few moments, placing the mouse over anything, even FL itself, after the plugin is initiated crashes the program with the quickness. Seems very promising.

FL 12
AMD FX-8350
Win 8.1
16G Ram

Can you let me know which parameters are doing this? There seem to be edge cases that show on the Windows side that don't appear on the Mac side. I just dealt with one regarding the Speed knobs. If you set a Speed too fast (less than say, .001 seconds), the CPU usage will spike. Now, it just eats half my CPU rather than crashing everything. I can set the lower limit higher, if needed.

Anyways, keep the reports coming in! I want to get the Windows version settled so I can attack the latest version of Logic and why it hates on the Seismic.

Regarding CPU usage, some mixers can be CPU hogs while others barely register any usage at all.

[syntonica]

Hmm seems like i have the same problem as Debutante, only in energyXT 3. Only parts of the gui is showing. Also its very heavy on the cpu.

Let me get the FL demo and do some testing. If I have to add per-host coding, I shall be very cross indeed! (I just added some extra code to deal with Reaper and its putting its own stuff in the child window rather than offering an empty window. I suspect this may be what's causing the issue in FLS.)

Regarding CPU, as long as there are no edge case settings or heavy abuse of FFT, my CPU (i5 4200m 2,7ghz) only uses a percent or two per note played. Seismic does a lot of calculations on a per note basis due to the highly mutable state of each wave. I've done hand optimization on everything and can get 2-2.5x improvement on the Mac side with compiler optimization, but I'm only getting about 10% on the Windows side for the moment.

Can y'all check your CPU usage for having the GUI open? It's all built on GDI/GDI+ and has been optimized to give the best look with least amount of CPU effort. I've never seen it run more than 5% of my CPU and usually far less. Thanks!

[Halonmusic]

Hmm seems like i have the same problem as Debutante, only in energyXT 3. Only parts of the gui is showing. Also its very heavy on the cpu.

Let me get the FL demo and do some testing. If I have to add per-host coding, I shall be very cross indeed! (I just added some extra code to deal with Reaper and its putting its own stuff in the child window rather than offering an empty window. I suspect this may be what's causing the issue in FLS.)

Regarding CPU, as long as there are no edge case settings or heavy abuse of FFT, my CPU (i5 4200m 2,7ghz) only uses a percent or two per note played. Seismic does a lot of calculations on a per note basis due to the highly mutable state of each wave. I've done hand optimization on everything and can get 2-2.5x improvement on the Mac side with compiler optimization, but I'm only getting about 10% on the Windows side for the moment.

Can y'all check your CPU usage for having the GUI open? It's all built on GDI/GDI+ and has been optimized to give the best look with least amount of CPU effort. I've never seen it run more than 5% of my CPU and usually far less. Thanks!

I haven't tried Seismic in FL, only in energyXT 3. I think I got around 30-35 percent cpu load when i tried it in energyXT. I played a 2 note chord. But the biggest problem was that only parts of the gui was shown.

[syntonica]

I've solved the note off issues (spurious F0s playing) and the GUI issues. I'll have a minor update pushed out in a few hours.

Since I've gone cross-platform, I've been fighting with version management and I've concluded it all sucks. But I've got my code organized, so preparing updates should be a lot quicker now.

[syntonica]

Update has been pushed!

Everything known had been fixed except the Logic issue. It's still having issues with note offs AND it just doesn't seem to like Symbiosis anymore. Mac Reaper still does fine with the AU version.