Anacreon Synthesizer | Anacreon 2.5 Released

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Erich.Pfister wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 2:36 pm EDIT Thanks for the high praise on the sound! It's lovely to hear that I've got something worthy in Anacreon.
Most definitely! It sounds absolutely unique and has a very clear "own" character. It's also highly teakable due to the multiple layers of gain staging vs saturation involved.

Very unique yet good sounding is a great combo to have.
Erich.Pfister wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 2:36 pm Is the demo really that bad? It works off of random timing so people don't hack it. Maybe that random needs to be more constrained more than it is..
Yes the demo is HORRIBLE. However, you can fix it easily. Every time it goes into "noise mode" make sure it NEVER lasts more than 1 second maximum and that it is very clearly noise/demo restriction

I counted up to almost 10 seconds at one point.. waiting for the demo to get it's shit back together.. only to have it go into demo spasms once again after only a few seconds.

Yeah, worst demo restrictions in the history of the universe. :P

(no seriously, it sucks donkey balls).
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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@akira2 - thank you for the compliment! yes, I'm definitely going to run with a resizable GUI. I will post here once the new update is out.

@bmanic - YIKES! okay, that did NOT happen on my test machine. I'll add a clause that takes over from the random timing code if it exceeds 1 second, as well as some code that prevents it from kicking in too often. As a point of reference for my random number generator, does Anacreon's noise module sound okay on your machine?

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Got preset load/save working from GUI - just need to make it look right and fix the things I broke while making that work. Definitely will be publishing 2.5.2 today or tomorrow.

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Erich.Pfister wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:47 pm Definitely will be publishing 2.5.2 today or tomorrow.
Nice to hear :)
And thank you for all your informations!
teacuemusic (Musicals)
youtube

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There are quite severe preset saving problems using Reaper as the host. I've tried saving both with the built in preset saving (I guess reapers own format) and VST3 preset format.

Reaper's own seems to load the cabling and knob positions correctly but on most of my complex presets I get no sound at all. I have figured out that by detaching all the oscillator cables and any cables going to the main outputs and then re-attaching them, fixes the issue.

However, saving as VST3 preset format, completely wrong settings are recalled. Nothing resembling the original preset remains.

I've also noticed that if I save a preset in Reaper as "Save preset as default.." so that it loads up immediately when loading the synth plugin, the preset in question works 100% of the time.

Same thing if I save a complete track template that includes Anacreon.. then the sound as it was gets recalled.. sort of. It stays silent and non-working until I open the GUI of the plugin! Then the sound suddenly works.

So yeah, I highly recommend downloading Reaper and doing some troubleshooting there.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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@bmanic I have experienced each of those issues in Ableton after some tweaking. I'm happy to report that those issues shold be solved with tomorrow's release. Basically, VST3 saves a controller state and a processor state. The processor in version 2.5.1 and below saves a non-normalized version of the patch, while the controller saved a normalized version. This was a non-issue in Ableton, but it became an issue when I started working on the save/load buttons in the GUI. By solving these problems and getting everything standardized to normalized representation, I'm confident that we're not going to see the same issues in this next release.

Unfortunately, any vstpresets made before tomorrow's version will be incompatible going forward for two reasons:
-I am adding the extra control row, which will have extra controls, which makes the old preset files outdated / not line up right with the new VST.
-The normalization issue above.

That being said, I'm hoping that you'll be able to recover your patches by saving the settings via a reaper project file and recalling that entire project with the new version of Anacreon. If that doesn't work, please PM me your patches and I'll do my very best to rebuild them in the new version of Anacreon and send them back to you.

Edit I will test this release with Reaper before it goes out.

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No worries, I'll be able to recover all the presets. I'm still in the experimenting stage so nothing lost yet. :)

In the meanwhile, here is a pad sound I just made in about 5 minutes of tweaking. Anacreon 100% vanilla. No EQ, nothing added.

Anacreon - Simple PWM pad thing (google drive link, mp3)
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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As for the keyboard tracking thing. Yes, for monophonic sounds there should definitely be a "glide" for it. For polyphonic sounds it's also useful but less of an issue as everything is (I assume?) polyphonic in the pipeline. Your implementation of glide for all kinds of stuff is actually really cool. It's possible to do some highly expressive and evolving sounds abusing that parameter. Very clever and well done sir!

I also noticed that there is no support for a sustain pedal. On most other VSTi plugins sustain pedal "just works". Here it doesn't do anything, which is detrimental to playing longer pads and keyboard stuff.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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@bmanic - I'll look into the sustain pedal. I think I know what needs to be done there, shouldn't be too difficult to implement. Also, that's the first sound that anybody has sent me using the plugin. Thanks for that awesome moment! That's a great sounding pad - reminds me of the song "surface of the sun"

Edit I'm glad to see you like the multi-glide parameters! It's a little weird at first, but I think it's great. I love to detune that parameter between multiple oscillators and use it with electro bass sounds that have subtle legato glide, it helps them sound a little bit disorganized / lets them go out of phase a bit between notes. Also, you can do some cool stuff with "laggy" filter tracking.

Finally: it sounds like you might be using soft reset already, but if you haven't, I recommend it for pads/strings.

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@All Paying Customers,
Anacreon 2.5.2 is live - go download the update! See original post on this thread for changelog. Thanks!

@All Demo Users,
Anacreon 2.5.2 demo will go live tomorrow - sorry for the delay, I ran out of time today and wanted to put my customers first. I plan to have a better demo tomorrow via implementing @bmanic's suggestions. My apologies for excessive protection measures in the current demo version.

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Created something in 2.5.1, not yet saved as a preset because FL Studio doesn't save VST3 presets.
Anacreon 2.5.1 preset.png
When I open it using 2.5.2 it looks like this:
Anacreon 2.5.2 preset.png
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the old free version may not work boots successfully on new generations of computers, instruments, and hardware

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@pough - Unfortunately, plugin presets from previous versions no longer work. When I went to add new parameters / was working on the preset save/load system, I had to upgrade the preset file in some fundamentally functionality-breaking ways. Going forward, I will be able to maintain backwards compatibility.

In addition to releasing an updated demo tomorrow, I'm hoping to issue everyone a "getting started" preset pack barring any preset related issues with the new release.

Although they are inactive and not visible on screen, I have allocated space in the parameter package for new controls that will be added in version 2.5.3. That extra row of controls will have patchable modulation sources including:
  • velocity w/ glide
  • keytrack w/ glide
  • mod wheel
  • pitch bend
  • aftertouch

    "just works" Sustain pedal support to be added in 2.5.3 as well.

    2.5.3 is a difficult step compared to 2.5.2. I will issue an expected completion date before this weekend.
    2.5.4 is the colorized GUI update.

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Erich.Pfister wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:35 am @pough - Unfortunately, plugin presets from previous versions no longer work. When I went to add new parameters / was working on the preset save/load system, I had to upgrade the preset file in some fundamentally functionality-breaking ways. Going forward, I will be able to maintain backwards compatibility.
Not a big deal! My presets are quite pedestrian and I can re-create them using screen captures if I really want to. I'm looking forward to playing with your presets and also the pitch bend and mod wheel.
the old free version may not work boots successfully on new generations of computers, instruments, and hardware

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@All Demo Users: Anacreon 2.5.2 demo download available from the KVR Product Page.

Presets will be released today and will continue to be released as time progresses. These presets will work for demo and paid versions starting at version 2.5.2.

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Here's that first patch bank, 9 patches today. I will release patches on a daily basis, then consolidate them once I have 100 or so.
Preset / Patch Banks

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