One Synth Challenge #107: VK-1 Viking by Blamsoft (Jasinski Wins!)

[eraze the borders]

Mind you, I am treating every midi track as requiring *polyphony* - even the basslines - and stick pizMidiPolyphony as the only VST on the midi track and then route on "n" tracks with different midi channels and each with their own instance of VK1. So far so good - had one complete reaper crash - but just once (first ever on this machine). Takes about 10% cpu with all fx in as well (light fx use!).

Cheers

dB

Wow, that's amazing! Just tried the pizMidiPolyphony, what a great utility. Thanks Doc

I don't have any problems with the VST until now. I'm on Reaper 5.70, Windows 7.

Wouldn't mind to bend the rules a little bit though.

[Darksynth FX]

It's unfortunate some of you are having trouble. There's been a suggestion to massage the rules this month, just a wee bit, to allow duplicating bounced loops to get a better consistency. Would this be desirable?

Which issue does duplicating bounced loops solve? It's all working fine for me in Reason (!), so I've not paid too much attention to people's issues, but with the hanging and missing notes stuff, would this solution really help?
If it does help a bunch of people, then personally I don't have an issue with the rule tweak if more people will enjoy the OSC this month

I am the one who suggested this "solution". It works for me for very short parts of a track and with a bit of luck (the hanging and wrong notes occur very randomly in my current setup). I just worked on the lead melody and it gets difficult even with a few notes. It's not fun at all but with this special rule allowed I could at least try to finish my track. So well YES from me of course for allowing this "short part freezing and duplicating".

[TheNeverScene]

It's unfortunate some of you are having trouble. There's been a suggestion to massage the rules this month, just a wee bit, to allow duplicating bounced loops to get a better consistency. Would this be desirable?

I don't mind that as long as it doesn't pertain to making drum one shots and such, since part of the challenge with a synth of this nature is getting consistency in the oscillators and filters.

It took a little while to warm up to VK-1, but it really does have a nice sound. Very darkwavy

[doctorbob]

Wow, that's amazing! Just tried the pizMidiPolyphony, what a great utility. Thanks Doc

Yup, very useful to get nice chords etc !!!

I don't have any problems with the VST until now. I'm on Reaper 5.70, Windows 7.

In reaper I set up like this (to keep nice and organised!!).
First, nothing on the MASTER track at all, I always make Track 1 a "pre-master" and stick all mastering fx on that.
Now, lets say you have a track with chords - on that midi track use the pixMidiPolophony fx, and set the lo channel to 1 and the high channel to the max+1 number of simultaneous notes in your biggest chord (check your piano roll!). Then create those tracks after the midi track (ctrl-T) and then route from the midi track to each of those, setting "audio none" and setting the MIDI channel as 1,2,3 up to max+1 (as per the piz fx).
Stick VK1 on the first of those tracks and dial in the sound you want - save the preset! - then drag a copy of the VK1 across to each of your other tracks. Now audition and you should have nice chords.

Next - personally - I create a dummy track in front of the chord group (ignore the midi track), and call that say "Chords" and another at the end of the group called say "End Chords" - now make "Chords" a folder and the "End Chords" the last folder in the group. Now you can adjust the volume of each note in the chord (maybe the higher notes sound better a little quieter etc), or even set their pan differently too. You also have in the start folder the volume of the "Chords" group automagically via the clever routing decisions Reaper does for you.

For *overall" mixing control I then create a track after the "Pre-Master" track, called "CHORDS" and colour it. Route the folder track "Chords" to this and remove the master send on that track.

The final view will be a master track followed by a set of tracks which have their audio from the various group folders routed to them - and now form a convenient and accessible group of faders to mix then final versions. A reverb buss will be there to with the signals routed from these final mix faders! Also I put EQ (and some fx) on the folder tracks.

The difference making a pre-master can be very substantial on the RT Cpu use (ie how much cpu is needed to access the audio thread). On the setup with 28 VK1's and 61 FX, the RT cpu changes from 0.3% to 1.7% using master fx on the reaper master (eg. SlickEQ, Ferric and Limiter N.6)

Phew! Hope this makes some sense to Reaperites at least.

dB

[Frostline]

I don't mind that as long as it doesn't pertain to making drum one shots and such, since part of the challenge with a synth of this nature is getting consistency in the oscillators and filters.

I agree with this.
Maybe a 2 bar minimum repeating length rule or something similar might help with issues while maintaining the spirit of working with synth limitations/quirks ?

[TheNeverScene]

[/quote]

I agree with this.
Maybe a 2 bar minimum repeating length rule or something similar might help with issues while maintaining the spirit of working with synth limitations/quirks ?[/quote

I think that would be fair as long as it's not 2 measures at 8000 bpm

*epic fail at quoting haha*

[Distorted Horizon]

Is anyone experiencing hung notes?

Yup. So bad on fast basslines and leads that I just have to bounce them.

[zarf]

I am the one who suggested this "solution". It works for me for very short parts of a track and with a bit of luck (the hanging and wrong notes occur very randomly in my current setup). I just worked on the lead melody and it gets difficult even with a few notes. It's not fun at all but with this special rule allowed I could at least try to finish my track. So well YES from me of course for allowing this "short part freezing and duplicating".

Thanks, makes sense. Sounds very irritating to have to do that, I admire your dedication to want to try to work that way!
I think it would be in the spirit of the OSC to do this and let people who want to make that effort participate!

If this wasn't allowed for the drum sounds etc though, would it still be a workable 'solution'? - don't they hang as well?

[Darksynth FX]

I will try with 2 bars on the drums. Waiting for bjporter to decide if he allows this rule bending...

[TheNeverScene]

Here's my work in progress. I got new cans for Christmas so hopefully they are helping!

Crash cymbals need a lot of work still and tom rolls are a little ridiculous right now, but starting to sound like something I guess.

https://soundcloud.com/the-never-scene/ ... 07/s-0d7nV

[doctorbob]

@TNS ... excellent start - can't wait for the finished version! Such nice snare and hats! Just avoiding crash here!

dB

[functionform]

Ah the piz utility is going to save me a lot of work! Thanks!

[TheNeverScene]

Thanks, dB.

Yeah, that utility looks promising! The whole piz suite looks chock full of goodies, most of which will make no sense to me

[doctorbob]

Thanks, dB.

Yeah, that utility looks promising! The whole piz suite looks chock full of goodies, most of which will make no sense to me

Sure is a good set of goodies! Been using it for ages - along with JSMidiNoteFilter - perfect for separating out multi channel 10 drum tracks

Will PM you with my WIP - not good enough to go truly public (blush!)

dB

[Blamsoft]

The bug is fixed now. Please re-download.