Charlatan v1.4.1 - free VA synth (Win VSTi 32-/64-bit)

[DuX]

Interesting idea, fluffy. Just min/max and that's it. Tune everything by ears, no lines to distract you. I think I might just edit the skin that way, yap.

[fluffy_little_something]

If the controls look too naked, you could use continuous indicators instead of the scales, like this for the sliders:
http://www.myinkblog.com/wp-content/upl ... -brush.jpg

They also exist for knobs.

[Crackbaby]

A couple of pages back there was a guide showing how to open the dll in a program where you could save the background image (and knobs etc), edit them, and squeeze them back into the dll for a new look

[fluffy_little_something]

A couple of pages back there was a guide showing how to open the dll in a program where you could save the background image (and knobs etc), edit them, and squeeze them back into the dll for a new look

Oh, I see. I did not read all those 40+ pages I don't think I would want to spend time on that, after all, I am not the developer, nor is it important enough, it's just aesthetics for the most part...

[Crackbaby]

variation of charlatan modular cleaner text lables diff sliders, switches more indicative of status.

here:

http://home.comcast.net/~layzer/kvr/charmod2.zip

enjoy!

This is my favorite of them (though there's a new version for the new version of charlatan)

[fluffy_little_something]

Brushed metal surfaces look great That skin looks so realistic, like a hardware photo.

[Evan]

A few more features that would benefit greatly in multi-layering basic synths:

1) Pre-attack time. Basically the period of time between receiving the midi event, and responding to it. Very useful for adding sound layers with short attacks, but start a little later after the initial sound.

2) Pan control. For multi-layering again. For non modular hosts like Reaper, it's hard to control pan for single plugins in a chain.

Can both easily be achieved in REAPER by inserting some channel delay/pan JS plugin or the ChannelTool plugin from my recently released effects suite (lower CPU usage than JS):

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=369138

Thanks. You would have to use a separate track for each layer. I was talking about the case where you stack multiple Charlatans in a single FX chain, single track. Makes it a lot less cluttered project-wise to stack plugins like that.

[DuX]

In Reaper, it is really easy to achieve that "stacking thing". Just put two Charlatans in the FX chain of a track and in the out routing make one left [disable right out], and the other one right [disable left out]. Simple. You gotta love Reaper's FX chain... I do. It's incredible. And you can have as many outs from it as you want. I consider FX chain one of the best Reaper's features.

[Evan]

That's how I do it Dux. But I don't tweak the routing at all usually because it adds complexity that is not immediately apparent. Even though you can do some powerful multichannel routings, this is more suitable for a modular environment where you can see what goes where.

If you stack multiple Charlatans in Reaper's fx chain, and the audio output is combined in the track.

[DuX]

Hmmm, that way you get two stereo outputs one on top of each other. That's kind of not good, from the mixing/technical point of view. You get all the frequencies resonate and make the volume 2x louder. It's the same as having playing 2 voices in unison in synths that are capable of that. It is different sounding to having left and right channels only. More fat, kinda, but it's not. That "fat" is usually not that desirable as there could be some phasing issues, as the phase doubles also. However, if it sounds good... you know that one, I guess. And, it is just another way of doing "things". That's "creative", and it can surprise you in a good way. Or in a bad way. In my opinion, unison is only good when all the voices are subtly out of tune. That makes for a very rich sound. That sounds "phat"

So if you make one Charlatan a little bit out of tune [and phase, consequently], then it could bring you quite a satisfactory sound that is not that hard to mix with. Otherwise, you should use a HP filter [to lower the 2x DC offset] and a bit of EQ after it to make it sound decent for mixing.

Cheers!

[Evan]

@DuX

Yes but I do not use the same sound in all the synths. One synth may be on the bass range (low pitch and/or low-pass filter), the other mid-range (band-pass filter), a third one may be a noise generator e.g. for adding attack to the sound. Of course each Charlatan needs to be at a low volume because it adds up. But it's all pretty easy.

This is why some extra features would be extra helpful in this setup. Some that I already mentioned like pre-attack time, and pan control. A volume meter would also be good.

Charlatan is fine as it is, for a basic synth structure. But I tend to think in expansive ways, what Charlatan could turn into. Perhaps the developer's vision is to keep this one as simple as possible.

[DuX]

hmmm so why would you use the same synth twice in the FX chain, but with different sounds? Why not using two tracks instead then, so you could adjust the output of both completely independently?

I thought you wanted to use Charlatan in a stacked way to get a "phatter" sound. If you put 2 of them in an FX chain, and disable right on first, and left on the second, you get a pretty interesting setting to make some pretty interesting sounds.

[Ingonator]

I just wanted to mention that i like the updated red skin in Charlatan 1.3.


Ingo

[solidtrax]

I just wanted to mention that i like the updated red skin in Charlatan 1.3.


Ingo

Totally agree, I like it a lot. This synth is getting better and better with every update!

[Ingonator]

I just noticed a strange thing. I have not checked if it was already reported.

If you use the init preset and turn the volume of both oscillators to zero there is still a sound that sounds like white noise.
I found this seems to be related to the value of the Cutoff knob. up to the middle position of the cutoff knob and also a bit above the sound is "clean" but at around 65-70% (related to knob position) the noise could be noticed.

I was also able to hear that noise with oscillators on when using a less "aggressive" waveform as e.g. a Triangle.

I tested with Charlatan 1.3 32-bit in Ableton Live 8.3.4.


Ingo