I released a new version of my free & open-source modular synth plugin "blocks"

[BONES]

It's way more fiddly than I can see any use for in my work. I have more important things to do than build an instrument from scratch when I am working on a song. I thought that PhasePlant might allow me to create my own instruments to use as starting points but that didn't work out, either.

That said, I am really impressed with what you've done here. A lot of thought has clearly gone into it. The GUI looks really good - simple and straightforward - and what I've heard in the videos sounds good, too. It's just that I have no interest in a modular synth, it's not something I see any value in.

[soonth]

I assume the algorithms are all stock JUCE objects/functions (not that this is bad at all, JUCE is a very high quality library for audio).

the previous versions were using some JUCE for the audio processing, but now the entire sound engine is vital's

[Scotty]

I often separate sound design from song writing. I do enjoy just tinkering with sound sometimes without a clear purpose in mind. Admittedly, a time killer. The design looks somewhat like Meldaxxx but more refined. Looking forward to taking this for a spin,

It's way more fiddly than I can see any use for in my work. I have more important things to do than build an instrument from scratch when I am working on a song. I thought that PhasePlant might allow me to create my own instruments to use as starting points but that didn't work out, either.

That said, I am really impressed with what you've done here. A lot of thought has clearly gone into it. The GUI looks really good - simple and straightforward - and what I've heard in the videos sounds good, too. It's just that I have no interest in a modular synth, it's not something I see any value in.

[sprnva]

I think I've found a bug. While I can enter values for the parameters, they are not set correctly.

For the oscillator, if I enter a positive value for the Tune, Spread or Pan sliders they will jump to their maximum value. Negative values for Tune and Pan will go to maximum negative.

Level doesn't reflect the correct value. If I enter 0.2 it will go to 0.04. 0.9 will go to 0.810.

Transpose and Stack work correctly.

It's a similar story with filter parameters so I guess it affects all blocks.

[gentleclockdivider]

I assume the algorithms are all stock JUCE objects/functions (not that this is bad at all, JUCE is a very high quality library for audio).

the previous versions were using some JUCE for the audio processing, but now the entire sound engine is vital's

iow , it will sound like vital

[BONES]

I often separate sound design from song writing. I do enjoy just tinkering with sound sometimes without a clear purpose in mind.

I don't. Not ever. It's boring, even housecleaning (or "boatcleaning", to be more precise) has more appeal.

[JerGoertz]

Seems pretty cool, thanks for giving this to us!

[ampetrosillo]

I often separate sound design from song writing. I do enjoy just tinkering with sound sometimes without a clear purpose in mind.

I don't. Not ever. It's boring, even housecleaning (or "boatcleaning", to be more precise) has more appeal.

Thanks for telling us about it.

[HiEnergy]

If I enter 0.2 it will go to 0.04. 0.9 will go to 0.810.

That's the square of the input value... interesting bug.

[z.prime]

I often separate sound design from song writing. I do enjoy just tinkering with sound sometimes without a clear purpose in mind.

I don't. Not ever. It's boring, even housecleaning (or "boatcleaning", to be more precise) has more appeal.

Thanks for telling us about it.

100%... "let me post on this forum topic about a synth, how i don't use synths."
I really don't understand what goes through people's heads sometimes...

P.S. this synth is pretty neat; thanks a lot! I'm sure it will make its way into the one synth challenge one day!

[Borbolactic]

I assume the algorithms are all stock JUCE objects/functions (not that this is bad at all, JUCE is a very high quality library for audio).

the previous versions were using some JUCE for the audio processing, but now the entire sound engine is vital's

That begs 5 questions:

1. Can Blocks input the output from this? (If not could it be made to do so?):

https://forum.vital.audio/t/ai-patch-cr ... tool/13996

2. Is Blocks as flexible/efficient (work-flow, etc.) as Vital?

3. Is Blocks as skinable? (Does it inherit Vital's attributes in this and other regards?)

Nice work. (Looking at the UI, I am somehow reminded of U-He's Zebra. In any case, sometimes, if not usually, great things come from fusions of other, often great things.)

[soonth]

https://www.soonth.com/

new version is out!

some important crashes were fixed, "rand" modulator added, ui improvements & copy/paste functionality added for blocks.

[sprnva]

I can't run the latest linux version. It crashes with a segmentation fault. Initially I built it from source, as I did with the previous release (so I could add lv2 and vst2 formats). It all goes fine until the end when it spits out a string of -Walloc-size-larger-than= warnings for all the vital source files and then the lv2 build crashes with a segmentation fault. The vst, vst3 and standalone builds complete but then fail to run.

Here's one of the warnings for context:

Code: Select all

In member function ‘setupBuffersForSampleRate’,
    inlined from ‘setupBuffersForSampleRate.constprop’ at /home/sprnva/Documents/blocks/Source/vital/synthesis/effects/reverb.cpp:67:6:
/home/sprnva/Documents/blocks/Source/vital/synthesis/effects/reverb.cpp:84:59: warning: argument 1 value ‘18446744073709551615’ exceeds maximum object size 9223372036854775807 [-Walloc-size-larger-than=]
   84 |     allpass_lookups_[i] = new poly_float[max_allpass_size_];
      |                                                           ^

To rule out any issues with my debian sid setup I tried running the precompiled standalone in a freshly-booted debian 12.5 live environment on another machine and it segfaults as well.

[BackInCheck]

I thought that PhasePlant might allow me to create my own instruments to use as starting points but that didn't work out, either.

If you don't mind me asking: what prevents you from building your own instruments in Phase Plant? Instruments as in presets / patches?

[ahmadfarihan]

Some people are technical and more, and some people are preset expert.

That said, this instrument could be good for both.

Love it.