hm.. i think this is another bug, when reloaded, i guess it doesn't display properly that it's locked (led is lit)
turn it off, then back on, should be correct then, damn little init bug ;]
btw the -1 is the index of the pattern in the Clipboard, not the Current pattern..
the current pattern and current step (and the pattern length) are in the 3 displays on the left side
ClipBoard shows -1 when it *thinks* there is no pattern in it (and thus, prevent's you to paste/swap)

if you don't have SSE2 (or SSE) i think the plugin will crash instantly

well, i followed the advices from the D-BD/SR-D2 - "it's too dark"
btw the horizontal switches - you can grab the whole rectangle, not just the handle
you may think you haven't grabbed it, since you have to move the mouse alot to make it move to the next position..

bugs are revealing themselfs, that's good ;]

stupid me
Still hoping to get it working at home

Hello

Congratulations for programming your own SEM.

I noticed a typo : "Venom pattern sequencer".

Maybe that the beautiful but somewhat empty back panel could be used for some basic advices (such as "how to make a sound") ?

About the GUI size : on my 1280x1024 screen, the GUI is small, and it is sadly unusuable on my 1540pix wide laptop screen...

About the stepsequencer : i know that in order to get the classic 303 sound you have to use the stepseq, but for different stuff, it can be nice to get rid of the HW limitations sometimes, when it allows you to get a sound quicker... Maybe an optional trigger mode switch ("stepseq/keyboard") ?

One note about the cpu usage : i notice it is quite high (around 8% here), and when i stop th ehost's playback, the cpu usage stays around 5%.
Last edited by sinkmusic on Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:17 am; edited 1 time in total

+1

hah! really dumb typo.. silly me

the empty space on the back pannel is reserved for probably a few more switches that i wanted to add but i forgot (like 2 levels of Max Reso (one that's fair, and the other - extreme) and so on..)
also probably something new that i may come up with before the next version
and ofcourse - some Ventilation holes ;P~
i will explain everything in the documentation, don't worry

GUI: the GUI takes a lot of hard work with the Magnifier + Pencil and i'm not sure if i'll change it.. just imagine if i make all the chars that are 3x5 - 5x5, i would have to rearange everything.. and the layout will be extremely different (and it'll be quite a pain for me, again)

Sequencer: well, as i mentioned, at first i didn't even dream to have a sequencer in the synth, i never did such a thing before
anyways i hated how fake the patterns sounded..
then i started reading about patch memory in SE_SDK2 and i said - what the hell, i'll try, besides, with this poor sound (the fake patterns) i just don't see a reason to continue with it.. it doesn't sound good to me at all
then when i finaly did the most significant features/functionality of the Seq, and when i played a pattern with it, i said - holly cow! that's acid!
then i decided to just put a switch for External or Internal sequencer.. (external = midi notes)
and a little bit later i had a big problem..
i had to either drop the internal sequencer, or drop the external..
guess what i decided to do.. ;]

there are other 303-like-synths out there, that have both internal and external sequencing modes..
and in my opinion, as a "musican" i could spend some more time to program my pattern, because i want it to sound good, not to throw some notes on the Piano Roll and say "well, it doesn't sound too bad"
..and i would have to rearange the whole synth's circuits to make external sequencing possible.. it'll run even slower then

i'll do a backup of the synth now, and start making changes/bug fixes, i got enough information to begin with ;]

edit: CPU Usage:
i know it's high.. i did my best to optimize my C++ code, bad thing is i have no clue of inline assembly.. i would like to have, but it's too far for me yet
even when you stop the synth, the oscs still run, i've put the Volume Envelope (VCA) before the filter, but i forgot (eeek) to make the oscs turn off when they see Volume 0
and i have to do some stuff so they keep the phases correct, so when they are awaken later - the phases will be the same as if they were running silently
i'll try to do that..
otherwise, the CPU usage is high, because the circuit itself is quite big for a small synth like this.. and the whole sections between OSC > VCA > FILTER > DISTORTION are 4 times larger (because of oversampling)
and the 4x oversampling is vital for the filter, i can't (don't want to) change that ever..
i know i really need asm in here.. and manual SSE code, not to hope that the compiler will do some SSE magic..
Last edited by antto on Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:52 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks for the programming tips, Antto ... really helpful

thanks! ;]
btw i would love to hear a nice acid track with this synth, so you guys please let me know if you make one ;]
i still don't have enough time to make some music actually..

ok, as you didnt get the quotes...


do you know what a 303 sounds like or not? or are you just trying to emulate an emulation?

we already have at least 2 good 303 emu's with sequencers that sound and look much better than your product, and im guessing the devs do actually know what a 303 sounds ike

also, telling someone they NEED a seq to get the sound 'or they sound like kids' or whatever you said, is so insulting its not funny...its incredibly easy to program virtually any synth to sound like a 303 in a basic sequencer, but as you only have youtube to go by, you wouldnt know that would you.

ciao

Hey GOL, go f**k your self cuntlips

he was speaking about the earlier version of his synth - that it sounded bad when externally sequenced. Not that someone else's music sounds bad.

Not sure why you are being so negative about it though, yes there are some good emus out, but they are quite pricey.
And I don't really see why that should mean that he just shouldn't bother. You made an EDP inspired synth, and there's one of those already, a free one even. Yes, yours is a gnat (inspired) the other is a wasp, but really, nobody said why do you even bother there is already daHornet. No, they said, "thanks, Krim, nice of you to go to the trouble" (paraphrasing).

I don't know... I take your point about emulating an emulation, but this thing sounds bloody brilliant for an acid synth, is FREE as opposed to the very expensive other emus out there (which have the pattern seq anyway) and the internal sequencer does a bang up job at getting that feel, which (perhaps I suck, I don't know, but I have heard rather accomplished techno artists say the same thing) I just can't seem to nail with a piano roll. Once you get used to the 303 style pattern seq, it's very quick and easy to come up with wicked riffs.

well, that's my opinion anyway.

edit: nevermind, better things to do.

WTF

yes, i'm quite sure i know how a 303 sounds.. i've listened to a lot of tracks
i've listened to comparisons between TB-303 and other clones/emulations, including software ones..
and no, i don't have a real 303, nor a hardware clone of it.. and i'm quite sure i will never do..
so, i know how it sounds like, but i don't know how it looks on a graph/oscilloscope, and i cant input an impulse to the filter to see the response.. some of the developers in other companies had such a chance and probably did an "emulation" quite good



sure they do, they probably got money to do research..
and in my opinion, there are 3 really good software emulations out there
1 that is freeware but it's not a VST, another that isn't quite freeware
and the other is more like TB+devilfish, and it's not quite freeware either
nothing wrong with that, the companies invested money, and a lot of effort to do really good emulations, i respect that
i don't claim i've done an "emulation" my synth is sort-of-a-303
TB-303 doesn't have 2 oscs, neither PW, nor built in distortion, right? so i just can't say my synth is a clone/emulation, i can't! it is not!
i hope you get this clear ;]



i didn't mean to insult anyone, either i didn't express myself correctly, or you interpret my post differently than i do..
btw, english isn't my native language, sorry for that..
i got a question here.. have you heard how the original TB-303 sounds when played with an external keyboard? have you?



then why do people pay for the expensive software 303 emulations, or even the more expensive hardware clones, or even buy an old cracked up original TB-303..?
i can argue with that last statement of yours..
there are some things in the 303 sequencer that you won't find in any other synth.. believe me
and even if we imagine for example that the 3xOsc in FLStudio, had the exact same filter and waveshape of the 303.. NO, you couldn't make a 303 pattern using only the PianoRoll with velocity.. not to mention the accent and the gimmick effect, and the slides.. you _can't_
prove me i'm wrong, would you? ;]
i don't mean to insult you, or anyone, but i believe that you are saying things that you haven't got exactly an idea of..

thanks for the criticism anyway ;]

let me say things simpler:
if you remove the sequencer of a 303, then you got something like a synth with Gate, Velocity, Pitch inputs
the synth could only guess the accent, if the Velo is above some level - there's accent
that's all it can do!
so, it will be up to _you_ to make everything else
first of, you won't be able to make the pattern in the PianoRoll to look the way it would look like in the 303 sequencer
when you have a slide on step3, the 303 sequencer does some decisions depending on the next (and i believe, somehow on the previous) step.. in a very specific way
but that's easy, since the sequencer is a _machine_ that is what it does it's lifetime!
if _you_ had to do the same things in the PianoRoll all the time (tho some of them are impossible) - you would be pissed of after programing about 10 or more patterns
not to mention that you have to learn these specific details that the sequencer does.. that's a job for a machine, not for a human!
it's like a human doing what a list.sort() algorithm does..
i hope you don't get me wrong here

so.. again, i am not saying that my sequencer works exactly like a 303 sequencer, no, i can't tell that
but it is close, i'm not sure how close, the thing is, it sounds like Acid to me, that's what's important ;]


exactly!
there was a moment when i though that this would be a nice synth, but poor 303 imitation, no chance for it to even be called "sort-of-emulation"
then i stopped working with the filters and envelopes and oscs, and began work on the sequencer
then when i finaly routed it in, i had the chance to play the synth with either Keyboard, or Sequencer (and i believed the synth is a poor imitation then) ..until i heard what the sequencer does
believe me, there is a huge difference, i started jumping around.. it's _so_ different! i said "omg it's making my synth go ACID" so this is what's the difference between external, and internal 303-sort-of sequencer ;]

EDIT: there's a really solid reason why i don't plan to implement external (keyboard) sequencing again after i made an internal sequencer
now i understand why it is not possible to sequence <acid> with a Common DAW's PianoRoll..
so if you think for a moment what the sequencer has to do, to make these simple steps in the pattern, turn into a wicked acid riff, then you would prefere to use the pattern editor..
it might be difficult, but it's actually a lot easier to "tell" the sequencer you want true Acid sound, then to try do it yourself with a PianoRoll..
..the synth may squelch, may do the gimmick effect, but people could tell something is wrong with that riff there..

i would never bother trying to make acid with a piano roll! ever!