I know you always want something new to play with. well, here you go: A public beta of my current Project WFX

here some audio demos:

a short walkthrough with no variation on the drums:
http://www.synarc.de/tmp/LazyTest05.mp3

Al the bassplayer:
http://www.synarc.de/tmp/LazyTest07.mp3

some ambient stuff:
http://www.synarc.de/tmp/Project-WFx-Test10.mp3

Links to the public beta:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2iieb6agm4klfdc
http://www.4shared.com/zip/aXUWbXa8/WFxPB.html

As suggested below: help to find a catchy name and win this one or any other of my VSTi (even Scapes Wizard 2 or The Dreammachine 3) - so get your brains busy to win.

We have the name: Ghost Machine and the winner is Graham Smith as he gave the right direction on my facebook page
But no contributor of suggestions here will get short: each one will get a (more or less) little surprise goodie soon.


Now what is Project WFX ??? Now Ghost Machine

A 4 part algorithmic composition tool - or simpler an algorithmic music machine

And, no, it's not an X-WoF - that series is definitively past. It's something quite different. It's more based on my very 1st 'Wheel of Fortune' as in AutoPlay the whole thing runs on my very special algorithms like shown in the recent demos. But you'll be able to transpose manually via MIDI kb but still many algorithms will take effect. Yet still a lot of work to be done esp. when it comes to the GUI then ... yep, still the draft GUI ...

This one is far easier to use than the X-WoF series as it doesn't require a complicated setup for note sequences or so. Next note in the queue is shown in advance and can be changed if wanted, or simply transpose via MIDI. Due to the option of wave changes there is even more variety possible than has been with the X-WoFs. This is real fun to play with at realtime

A public beta means it is stable running so far but still not fully complete.
To cut it short: you can have fun with it, record some audio or report a bug, or even better leave a comment here on kvr or my facebook pages.
But IT IS NOT READY for doing patches - so please abstain from saving patches as these will not work later. If you are interested in doing patches for the later versions please let me know.


Some general hints (Also included in the zip file):
It is very important to set the appropriate levels of each part so might need some deliberate attention because it is easy to push one part to the front by using knobs for Drive, Presence or Saturate but this might affect the other parts to be pushed too much into the background. Thus one has to be very careful i.e. considerate in setting levels for the best mix.
Next is to choose the best matching waves for a patch for. As of patches: this is an algorithmic tool which widely uses pattern variation to create the music so please don't be focused too much on specific patterns to show up first in your patches. Every program change will result in new patterns by default.

If you want to do more atmospheric stuff mute the drums, or, at least
the Kick and do not use snare sounds, rather than percussion sounds, then You can do quite nice atmospheric stuff.

Using AutoPlay On you can not use realtime Transpose via MIDI kb (which is prossible from MIDI note 48 to 72)

Using AutoPlay XWF can basically play indefinitively ... using either
scale steps or note steps (+/-5) for automated transposition variations.

Playing drums via MIDI kb for editing is possible on MIDI notes 36,27,38, and 39.

As of Tempo you can set an offset up to 50% minus to host tempo.

Lowering the tempo might require to lengthen Decay and/or Release
settings of the Bass & HiSq EG. And, yes, there is only one EG for each
synth part as this is more efficient in the end. To each seq part you can set Pattern Variation to Off in order to 'freeze' a pattern set - which can be nice for live interaction ...

some more explanations:
Algoritmic Motion: Knobs for Notes and Waves allow to change the range up to 16 for next change to happen.
Basically the AutoPlay Sequencer for notes drives the Wave sequencer at the Pad part - simply follow the numbers for Cur and End at Note/Wavechange on the GUI. This sequencer is similar the Lazy Sequencer used in ScapesWizard 2 adopted the special needs required here.

have fun
HG
Last edited by Fortune on Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:00 am; edited 2 times in total

How can anyone not have fun with it ? It's gorgeous. I think I need an initialize patch so that I can start at nothing and gradually learn to really take control of this orgasmatron beast rather than the other way around. It's so easy to let it just take you along and before you know it, you'll be missing days out.

Great fun though, thanks.

this is very interesting, thanks so much HGF! i just had a quick play today and everything seemed to be working fine. looking forward to testing it a bit more in the upcoming days.

Very cool An init patch would be wonderful though.

Thank you! That's great that you always have something innovative... I haven't tamed The Tiger yet (which I bought from you), as already comes the next innovative "play-station" to explore.

For a normal musician maybe there are too much knobs and modulation possibilities but for a sound designer this must be the absolute paradise...

BTW, is there a "Number One Hit" knob? Would be nice! I think it wouldn't be so difficult to create as all Number One Hits anyway sound the same...

(Sorry to all Number-One songwriters, of course you're much appreciated by me -but only if you're taking me to Number One... )

BTW, have I read it right -- I can't save patches because the finished version won't be able to read them correctly?

So does this mean that I have to delete the beta version if you're publishing the finished version?

LOL - number one hit button

Atm progress is slower than expected - fixed some bugs and optimized some things.
Added fixed selection for number of bars to be set for note & wave change (Pad)
and optimized response of the related knobs too
Added 4th wave to Bass & HiSq (also required rework of memorizing all sel. waves)
Added option AuxDelay1 to kick part

also still pendant: assigning MIDI CC, MIDI learn, adding VST automation labels and of course the GUI ... so at least three weeks to go.

yes - already by now patches are no longer compatible. The finished version will have a different VST ID and of course a proper name. Thus you might keep this beta alongside.

You could make a competition for the best name for it...and the winner gets it for free...

My suggestion would be: "Magic Music Maker"

nice idea ...


For sure that would get me into trouble with Magix and their Music Maker
And I'm sure there is even something better.

You could call it the "Al Gore Rhythm Machine", but it would always be popping up nag screens telling you to reduce your carbon footprint.

well, up to now over 350 downloads of the beta so the pool is widening to find a catchy name and win

My 1st idea was to name it WoF X (Wheel of Fortune X) as it is a (far more sophisticated) descendant of my very 1st algorithmic WoF while the X-WoFs went into a fairly different direction with too complicated setups as of the inbuilt note sequencers etc. That was due to input by some folks back then. From my point of view that went into the wrong direction though those X-Wofs had been quite nice, innovative, and I did learn a lot from doing these. But: Project WFX is actually what is more my innermost ideas and concept of such an algorithmic machine

Now let your suggestions for a catchy name come ...
Last edited by Fortune on Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:32 pm; edited 1 time in total

I'd suggest 'Fun factory" but the name is already taken...

Transcendence (or Transcendance)

on my official facebook page there are already some nice suggestions:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/HGFortuneSynthesizer/15884330 0815610

you may like me there too