KVR Audio

Aly James · Post by **Aly James** » Mon May 19, 2014 12:55 am

May I shamelessly plug my FMDrive YM2612 Sega Genesis VSTi in here?
It seems appropriate as most of you are using VOPM right know, which is also often used to mimic Sega Genesis soundchip... But some of you may not know this is not exactly the same soundchip, VOPM is YM2151 which was used in the Sharp X68000 Japanese computers and other systems. The YM2612 is unique, it was only used in the Sega Genesis and features many cool features the YM2151 has not, like for example, looping envelopes and that characteristic DAC distortion in early models...
Check it out ! it can bring a different flavor

(OSX will be available next year btw)
All the infos you need are there http://www.alyjameslab.com/index.html
And here is a bunch of demos!
https://soundcloud.com/alyjameslab/sets/fmdrive-vsti

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Fri May 23, 2014 3:36 pm

Silly question... seems like I must have missed something: does anyone know where to specify the pitch bend range for the PB wheel on either VOPM version?

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Fri May 23, 2014 3:40 pm

Aly James wrote:May I shamelessly plug my FMDrive YM2612 Sega Genesis VSTi in here?

No. Please don't promote commercial products here, thanks.

Freeware would be best to mention in the general thread.

artao · Post by **artao** » Fri May 23, 2014 8:30 pm

z.prime wrote:Silly question... seems like I must have missed something: does anyone know where to specify the pitch bend range for the PB wheel on either VOPM version?

AFAIK you can't

...
and now MY turn for a question

Regarding the "no sampling the synth" rule ... Does that mean that we can't copy/paste phrases in our DAW? ... I don't see the difference between doing that in the MIDI track/piano roll and doing that to a rendered out .wav file.

.. .. except that makes it a real PITA if I want to change some phrasing or arrangement. .. I'd hafta go back to the file with all the MIDI tracks, adjust there, then re-render that MIDI track down ....
I'm really really hoping that's not the intent of this rule.

Similarly, I've taken one track and copied it, then shifted it VERY VERY slightly off-beat with its "parent" track. I could easily do this in the MIDI editor as well, but then I'd hafta render down that track twice: once for unshifted, and once for the slightly shifted one. It just makes more sense and is more efficient to do it the way I've done it, and it doesn't alter the sound I get at all. It would sound the same if I did it in the piano roll, so I'm not altering the sound of the synth at all there.

EDIT: I did it this way because I originally created the song and laid it out in LMMS .. and then moved all the rendered-down tracks into Reaper for mixing and whatnot. So to make changes in phrasing etc, I'd hafta go back into LMMS and re-work from that file. ... which would suck

loris16148 · Post by **loris16148** » Fri May 23, 2014 11:24 pm

https://soundcloud.com/loris-solic/loris-ds-steamroller

Created using 45+ instances of VOPM, maybe a few more because of layering, I layered then rendered the sound so as to not waste precious CPU.
Created in REAPER

I hated the fact that I could not automate anything except my native DAW effects. VOPM here has no automation. except portamento using MIDI CC - which took me until two days prior to this submission to figure out.

recomp
reaeq
reaxcomp
stereogate(rea)
Meqalizer
MGA js limiter (rea)
ReaGate
MstereoExpander
TalDub
tal Reverb
Reaverb
TDRfeedback Compressor
ixox delay
FerricTDS

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Sat May 24, 2014 1:12 am

artao wrote:It just makes more sense and is more efficient to do it the way I've done it, and it doesn't alter the sound I get at all. It would sound the same if I did it in the piano roll, so I'm not altering the sound of the synth at all there.

If that's 100% the case, sounds good.

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Sat May 24, 2014 1:22 am

editing...

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Sat May 24, 2014 1:36 am

z.prime wrote:Silly question... seems like I must have missed something: does anyone know where to specify the pitch bend range for the PB wheel on either VOPM version?

Hey got it to work here:
I basically told my DAW to set CC100 and CC101 values of 0. Then told it to send a value to CC6 - not exactly sure what 0-96 specifies, but it works.

Manual text (In case anyone wants to see) + Daw screenshot:

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Sat May 24, 2014 1:34 pm

Wow I had this typed up in a browser window, forgot to hit send. Winblows crashed. Restarted and Chrome kept the text!

artao wrote:Regarding the "no sampling the synth" rule ... Does that mean that we can't copy/paste phrases in our DAW? ... I don't see the difference between doing that in the MIDI track/piano roll and doing that to a rendered out .wav file. .. .. except that makes it a real PITA if I want to change some phrasing or arrangement. .. I'd hafta go back to the file with all the MIDI tracks, adjust there, then re-render that MIDI track down ....
I'm really really hoping that's not the intent of this rule.

I believe the intent of the rule is to prevent sampling individual hits. So, take for example a synth that might have free-running oscillators or LFOs, making it very hard to get a consistent sound because of it (for example, a kick drum)... but every now and then, things line up so you get a great kick, so you may be tempted to sample that and use that best single-shot sample as part of a percussion kit. But really, the synth doesn't exactly allow you to do that so you've circumvented a limitation of the synth. Might not be my preference for making tracks but seems to fit with the nature of the contest (for me, I layer LOTS of instances for my drums often and kill my CPU before I can even get to the real sounds and refuse to sample down to tracks because I constantly tweak things... haha

).

However, sampling full-phrases (for CPU reasons, at least) is allowed, as Brian already said.

artao · Post by **artao** » Sat May 24, 2014 2:29 pm

z.prime wrote:Wow I had this typed up in a browser window, forgot to hit send. Winblows crashed. Restarted and Chrome kept the text!

LOL yeah .. I think we've all had that happen.

z.prime wrote:I believe the intent of the rule is to prevent sampling individual hits. So, take for example a synth that might have free-running oscillators or LFOs, making it very hard to get a consistent sound because of it (for example, a kick drum)... but every now and then, things line up so you get a great kick, so you may be tempted to sample that and use that best single-shot sample as part of a percussion kit. But really, the synth doesn't exactly allow you to do that so you've circumvented a limitation of the synth. Might not be my preference for making tracks but seems to fit with the nature of the contest (for me, I layer LOTS of instances for my drums often and kill my CPU before I can even get to the real sounds and refuse to sample down to tracks because I constantly tweak things... haha ).

However, sampling full-phrases (for CPU reasons, at least) is allowed, as Brian already said.

Allright, cool. That's what I was thinking (and hoped) .. Altho, just to be on the safe side I already went back into LMMS and re-worked a few things. Now I've got everything back in Reaper -- which seems to be much more CPU efficient. I only had like 14 VOPM's running in LMMS, and only had effects added to a couple of those, and it was getting difficult to work smoothly.
It is nice to know tho that I can shift stuff around a bit -- if needed -- without going back in to LMMS to edit the MIDI directly.

Thanks for taking the time to answer such n00by questions z.prime .. this is my first OSC.

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Sat May 24, 2014 2:55 pm

artao wrote:Thanks for taking the time to answer such n00by questions

No problem. We were all n00bs once.

pedalsteeldrummer · Post by **pedalsteeldrummer** » Sat May 24, 2014 10:01 pm

I was intending to write a drum and bass tune but ended up with something totally different... I think this track contains all the cliche FM sounds! (bells, slap bass, electric pianos etc.)

Enjoy

http://soundcloud.com/pedalsteeldrummer ... esandcream
A nostalgia-tinged summer-time tune. (Strawberries and cream is a traditional English summer dessert).

TRACK NOTES:

Created for the KVR One-Synth-Challenge 63: VOPM.

All sounds from Sam's VOPM synthesiser chip emulation plugin. I used a mixture of my own presets and those from the community pack.

20 instances of VOPM. Mixed/mastered in Cockos Reaper 4.61/64 with native fx (ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaGate, ReaDelay) and free fx (Voxengo Marvel GEQ / OldSkoolVerb, Klanghelm IVGI, Sonalksis FreeG Stereo, Vladislav Goncharov Molot / Limiter No6).

DR9
http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/en/our-aim
better and more dynamic sound

doctorbob · Post by **doctorbob** » Sun May 25, 2014 12:48 am

Yup DR9 - all the great FM sounds are there ... really has that summer feel- great track. I like it a lot!

Rob

bh9090 · Post by **bh9090** » Sun May 25, 2014 11:47 am

Entry:

https://soundcloud.com/hennessey/bh9090-exposed-vopm

34 instances of VOPM
Abusive use of Tal Reverb-2
Camel Crusher
Live 9 with Saturaton, Reverb and EQ8

As someone else said, lack of automation was a bummer, and the MIDI CC stuff was odd. I had a lot of crashes when a new track would receive a MIDI note. Never really figured out what that was about. Also I was dying to use some chorus and phaser.

I'm a little unclear on bouncing/ rendering. Is at acceptable to bounce down percussion sounds and load them in a drum rack/ sampler if you leave the sound unchanged?? Just to save CPU? (EDIT: disregard - I just read the posts above)

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Sun May 25, 2014 11:57 am

bh9090 wrote:I'm a little unclear on bouncing/ rendering. Is at acceptable to bounce down percussion sounds and load them in a drum rack/ sampler if you leave the sound unchanged?? Just to save CPU?

My interpretation of that rule explained just a few posts back in this thread.

(Aside: I would definitely vote for allowing sampled hits, though)

One-Synth-Challenge 63: VOPM (Ended)