Wish list for DC 2023

[cthonophonic]

In the physical modeling realm, I'm always astonished that no one has bothered to release a dedicated MIDI-controlled polyphonic resonator effect - whether a comb/waveguide thing, a modal resonator, or something more sophisticated. Basically, I just want to be able to use drums, noises, live input or whatever to excite a resonator that can be controlled via MIDI to play chords, melodies etc. You can do this with Tassman, and there are a few ways to do this in VCV Rack, but no dedicated effects plugins that I'm aware of.

The Geoffroy NoteFilter is still one of my favorite Buzz machines:
notefilter.jpg
It's dead simple - just 10 bandpass filters tuned to harmonics of the fundamental. Set the amplitudes of the harmonics to control the timbre and play the whole thing with notes. It's over 20 years old, and there's still no VST equivalent. Seems like a wide open niche if anyone is inclined to take it on. Adding a GUI and a modulation system and such would just be gravy.

Funny, something in this direction will be my entry for the Dev. Challenge. Its almost finished.

Fantastic! I look forward to using it.

[BlindMusician]

Nix808, thanks a lot of your ideas and that you are interested in working with me on KVR DC 2023! I already would want to say you that have an idea about a synth with some oscillators and so on, but I would want to tell the public announcements of it once it would be posted on KVR server or otherwise agreed by the team members on the team where I would be working on. Even though I would start working with you, let's wait for few more days to see if someone else is interested in getting a blind beta tester with years' experience in accessibility issues of the plugins and using more or less inaccessible VST plugins successfully to produce music. Luckily, the rules of KVR DC would allow to use the source code of an accessible plugin (Surge XT) as a basis but that would mean committing to the rules of the license of the Surge XT (GPL V3.0). I would see it important that the team where I would work would release its code openly as open source because that would sread the word of accessibility in the open source community, because there is a lot of potential in open source software (even though the ownership of the code is not a privilege of us but the copyrights, however, would remain in force since GPL V3 is a copyleft license). Finally, I would want to say you all that I would strongly recommend using JUCE for the accessibility features (since Surge XT uses JUCE) but would not mind if the accessibility would be brought to Flowstone product as well. However, should it be the case that the other people (than nix808) are not wanting to take a blind beta tester to their team, I would then start working with you nix 808. But, like I said earlier, let's wait for few more days to see if others are interested in venturing to the accessibility in their KVR DC projects.
Kind regards,
Juho Tuomainen

[FranklyFlawless]

Luckily, the rules of KVR DC would allow to use the source code of an accessible plugin (Surge XT) as a basis but that would mean committing to the rules of the license of the Surge XT (GPL V3.0). I would see it important that the team where I would work would release its code openly as open source because that would sread the word of accessibility in the open source community, because there is a lot of potential in open source software (even though the ownership of the code is not a privilege of us but the copyrights, however, would remain in force since GPL V3 is a copyleft license).

The point of copyleft licenses is to ensure others receive the same rights as you if the work is modified and/or changed in some way. These rights are irrevocable, even if the original license is changed to a different one by the intellectual property holder(s). If you want the privilege to relicense the work for your own project fork, you will need to request and be granted explicit permission from those relevant parties.

[BlindMusician]

Hello KVR Members,
FranklyFlawless, I would want to say you that you are right in what you said, thanks for your clarification! What I meant was not to relicense anything, just respect GPL V3 rules (provided that the other KVRDC 2023 team members on the team where I would work on) also accept that we would use some GPL V3 code from another project as a basis of our plugin so that we would concentrate (in addition to the accessibility) on functions and features as well. However, if the team members would not accept the GPL V3 option, then, we would have most likely to design the accessibility features from scratch. Naturally, these are points of view that we would discuss privately inside the team long enough before the product is made and released to the KVR server so that we all have a common understanding on how to proceed with this topic and our product.

Like I said earlier, I would be interested in knowing if others than Nix808 are interested in collaborating with me this year. I would want to clarify that, besides mentioning your interest, please also mention if you have experience in JUCE programming or not (as I would only be eligible for a beta tester this time) and if you have experience using JUCE, how many years/months you have used it.
Kind regards,
Juho Tuomainen

[FranklyFlawless]

Please note, however, that Surge XT currently is accessible only on Windows and Mac platform, and I would want to say you that I would hope that it would be accessible on Linux platform some day.

This is not correct. Surge XT has installable binaries for Debian and Fedora distributions. I use the nightly binary build on Debian to play MPE patches using the LinnStrument, but 1.2.0 stable works fine, and 1.1.2 stable worked before that as well.

Roger Linn has made Surge XT the official LinnStrument softsynth, so there is a dedicated thread on the Roger Linn Design board here at KVR Audio where members of the community contribute LinnStrument-optimized MPE patches for it.

Request for LinnStrument-optimized Sounds for Surge XT

I am grateful for this situation, but my wish list for Surge XT is physical modeling synthesis. That would grant sound engineers better tools to create more realistic, lifelike timbres from our world. Since Surge XT is gratis and libre open-source software, physical modeling would become accessible to anyone who wants to use it. It would be most beneficial to those who utilize MPE hardware controllers that offer greater expressive control than standard MIDI hardware controllers.

Perhaps worth mentioning to you Juho, the LinnStrument was the winner of the One Handed Musical Instrument Trust Competition for 2015 and 2018. The playing surface has Braille regulation-sized dots on the "C" notes within the string fourths layout. There is also a substantial 20% discount applied towards new LinnStrument orders for educational institutions and those who's abilities are physically impaired when using conventional instruments.

Past Winners

Where To Buy - Discounts

[Kott]

Please note, however, that Surge XT currently is accessible only on Windows and Mac platform, and I would want to say you that I would hope that it would be accessible on Linux platform some day.

This is not correct. Surge XT has installable binaries for Debian and Fedora distributions. I use the nightly binary build on Debian to play MPE patches using the LinnStrument, but 1.2.0 stable works fine, and 1.1.2 stable worked before that as well.

accessibility means here the audio tips for visually impaired or blind people

[FranklyFlawless]

accessibility means here the audio tips for visually impaired or blind people

Okay, but Orca Reader was mentioned. Does Surge XT not support AT-SPI? There are quite a lot of accessibility functions, detailed in the manual.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/man ... essibility

Is the problem that announcing patch browser entries is Windows only?

[Kott]

accessibility means here the audio tips for visually impaired or blind people

Okay, but Orca Reader was mentioned. Does Surge XT not support AT-SPI? There are quite a lot of accessibility functions, detailed in the manual.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/man ... essibility

Is the problem that announcing patch browser entries is Windows only?

JUCE (the framework which Surge-XT built of) supports such features on Windows and Mac yet.

[sqigls]

i'd like to see some kind of creative MIDI effect plugin, in VST3 format for MacOS preferably.

[Debutante]

A nice FILTERBANK

[BlindMusician]

Hello all KVR Audio members,
FranklyFlawless, I would want to inform you that I just checked the accessibility features at https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/accessibility/ and noticed that the accessibility is for only Windows and Mac operating systems which suggests to me that the Linux version of Surge XT does not yet support AT-SPI (or, more recommended, AT-SPI 2) interface between the GNOME-Orca screen reader and the application (in this case either the standalone or program version of Surge XT). The patch browser options of Surge XT are announced on Windows with the SAPI 5 (Microsoft Speech Application Programming Interface version 5) because of a Windows bug whereas on the Mac platform the support is native (i.e. VoiceOver screen reader, which is built-in to the operating system and can be activated or deactivated with Command+F5, speaks them directly without an extra work-around.

Secondly, I would want to add to the Kott's post that the accessibility means the audio cues for the blind and visually impaired (and also to the other screen reader users), meaning how the screen reader presents the contents of the screen to the user with either speech or Braille enabled. Generally speaking, screen readers recognize the standard Windows controls (i.e. when using Windows APIs or other API that supports standard Windows controls such as the JUCE) such as a list box, a combo box, a List View or a radio button which all are different types of Windows controls. As much as I would want to explain them technically, I do not currently have the knowledge to do it. I also would want to tell you that I read the Surge XT's current accessibility manual (link to it is above) and the text said that in all the operating systems, the screen readers do not recognise a user has exited a menu with a keystroke (such as with Escape). However, this can be worked around by using a modifier (mainly Tab or Shift+Tab key combination). This appears to be a JUCE accessibility bug, and more information about it can be found at https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/surge/issues/6426. The further investigation of the bug announcement and the discussion post shows that the problem is present on Windows when both the stand-alone or the plug-in version of Surge XT is used, and on Mac, the bug appears a bit more differently than on Windows because it does not appear on the stand-alone version of Surge XT but appears on the plug-in version only. However, I would want to tell you that deeper discussions like this would perhaps be done in another forum thread such as "Accessibility Issues in Virtual Instruments and Effects when Using a Screen Reader" on the "Everything Else (Music-related)" forum.

Finally, I would want to add that if anyone has used JUCE in the past, please indicate that clearly and if so, how many years/months of experience you would have in using JUCE. FranklyFlawless, I would want to ask you you if you would be eligible for taking part to the KVR Developer Challenge 2023. By the way, for the possible team candidates, it would be a good if they showed their interest till Friday (April 28th, 2023) so that I would choose the desired team ans we would have enough time to build our KVR Developer Challenge entry.
Kind regards,
Juho Tuomainen

[BlindMusician]

Dear KVR Members,
I would want to inform you that I would work with Nix808 during KVR DC 2023 this year. He is interested in improving the accessibility for the visually mpaired, and the attitude towards the accessibility would be the first step towards the accessibility. However, even though we would not have as accessible plugin as Surge XT, I would want to clarify you that it would not mean that we would not improve the accessibility of the KVR DC 2023 plugin (and possibly other plugins of ours if we decided to develop them) in the future, and I well well understand that the time of KVR DC is limited. However, the plugins (others than those made with JUCE) I have tested) have an accessibility option through an accessibility addon (OSARA on REAPER or using the Parameter List feature in Psycle Modular Music Creation Studio DAW), (generally speaking) allowing the visually impaired user to change the parameters by browsing them with the Up and Down Arrows and changing their value of the parameter with the slider with the Arrow, Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys. Additionally, the OSARA addon used with the REAPER DAW also has a search option with which ou can search a given parameter (or group of parameters containing a certain string (i.e. characters). However, then there are plugins where I cannot access the parameters at all because they have not been made accessible for the add-ons discussed earlier (like the oSARA add-on), also meaning that the plugin automation window of a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) does not allow the automation of such parameters. Therefore, I would want to say you that I would hope that our plugin would have the accessibility so that the every parameter (if in any way possible) of it would be accessible from the automation window of a DAW and with the accessibility add-ons described earlier.

I would have, actually, wanted to wait a few more days, but knowing the limited time of KVR DC to develop a plugin, this collaboration would be the best option for me to get my hands concreticall to a plugin development and, most importanty, gain experience in working as a beta tester, which is something that I have dreamed so many years of.
Kind regards,
Juho Tuomainen

[Saffran]

I sometimes feel tempted to join the OSC. I do not have a hardware controller with knobs and sliders.
To be able to adjust settings in smaller steps it feels necessary. So...
Make a midicontroller plugin. Keep it simple.
Ten vertical sliders and gui resizing keeps the size down so users with single monitors can use it. A name input for each slider. Ability to save and load the names.
The use would be that on the plugin you wish to control you do a midilearn on a button or a slider and then move one of the vertical sliders on the midicontrol plugin to connect them.
Hopefully there should also be a setting with each slider that makes the numbers you send to be 1:0.5/1.1/1:2. Maybe less than 0.5 for extreme fine tuning. Those settings should be visible all he time.

[xbow]

I sometimes feel tempted to join the OSC. I do not have a hardware controller with knobs and sliders.
To be able to adjust settings in smaller steps it feels necessary. So...
Make a midicontroller plugin. Keep it simple.
Ten vertical sliders and gui resizing keeps the size down so users with single monitors can use it. A name input for each slider. Ability to save and load the names.
The use would be that on the plugin you wish to control you do a midilearn on a button or a slider and then move one of the vertical sliders on the midicontrol plugin to connect them.
Hopefully there should also be a setting with each slider that makes the numbers you send to be 1:0.5/1.1/1:2. Maybe less than 0.5 for extreme fine tuning. Those settings should be visible all he time.

I've seen this was released recently, have not tried it myself. It might fit the bill, even if the UI seems to be a bit bigger:
https://gs-dsp.com/products/mmm/

[Saffran]

I sometimes feel tempted to join the OSC. I do not have a hardware controller with knobs and sliders.
To be able to adjust settings in smaller steps it feels necessary. So...
Make a midicontroller plugin. Keep it simple.
Ten vertical sliders and gui resizing keeps the size down so users with single monitors can use it. A name input for each slider. Ability to save and load the names.
The use would be that on the plugin you wish to control you do a midilearn on a button or a slider and then move one of the vertical sliders on the midicontrol plugin to connect them.
Hopefully there should also be a setting with each slider that makes the numbers you send to be 1:0.5/1.1/1:2. Maybe less than 0.5 for extreme fine tuning. Those settings should be visible all he time.

I've seen this was released recently, have not tried it myself. It might fit the bill, even if the UI seems to be a bit bigger:
https://gs-dsp.com/products/mmm/

Thanks, i saw it.
The idea with vertical sliders is that it lends itself very well for mouse use.