se:modular collection for £1?

[spacedad]

i'd like to know people's opinion on this.
it's made with synthedit,windows only oc.tested it energyXT1.4.1.and it may cost £1.
there'll be a free starterpack,then members would get all the new vsts as they came out.
it's called s.i.c.k modular and it started out as a test to see how small i could make a vst.
i was surprised that i could even make a slider vst!
here's a pic of a little starter pack...

i've grouped them into colours (midi plugs=green waveform/osc=lilac etc) so that when they are dropped into the s.i.c.k folder,each group will be easy to find alphabetically.
the ins and outs are coloured too,'roughly' into groups(red=audio,green=midi etc).

there's various oscillators,filters,controls,mixers,fx,midi,little step sequencer,bpm clock,even managed to make a simple midiplayer and whatever i can get working.

i'm not very technical so it won't be too technically accurate ,more for experimental folk i guess.though i'll try to make the parameters useful.i've never own,say,a moog modular so i'm just making it up as i go along.doing what i think will useful.

i'll listen to peoples suggestions,if you tell me about a real useful component that i've missed,i'll add it,if it's within my knowledge.

i can't guarantee it will work in all hosts though.i like eXT1.4.1 cos it loads in a second and you can just drag and drop dls from your folder straight onto the main screen and start wiring things up.
save it as a song,(don't bother saving each plugins preset,in fact i didn't put a patch selct in them for that reason.)and you could load it into another host as a vst and off you go.
it may work in other hosts like bidule,but i haven't had time to test it and my time is tight,so i don't want to have to test every host.

i think xt1's clock sync is better than xt2's atm.oh and there'll be a wave recorder to capture your mayhem too.so hopefully you'll have everything you need to make noise and record it,more or less,if not a bit rough at the edges.but that kinda takes me back to the old days where things would be different every time you played it and you had to try to capture it on tape.

ok,things people might object to;

it's just se modules wrapped as vst,anyone could do that..
3rd party freeware devs might object to being sold?(ephonic license was like that,i couldn't find any others though)

things that might not be good about selling it;

it wouldn't be on the freeware listings,
less people would use it.
membership/password bollox hassle.
people complaining it don't work in their host.
i don't want get bogged down in bug fixing.

it would be easier to make it free,but i need to make a few pounds to buy some new se modules that i can't afford.i though i could sell a new synth which would be simpler,or do the modular membership which would be better value.
and even though i'd only make about 75p,i think selling things for a pound is a nice idea.
though i will become a freeware traitor and capitalist scum.
what do you think,
a good idea or no way,you idiot?

[RunBeerRun]

Possibly. You gotta put your money where your mouth is.

Demo(vst demo, not MP3s), would work.

[BONES]

I think you'd be surprised how little money you'd make from selling it. You'd probably need to charge around $10 to make enough to buy some new modules, I reckon [you probably won't get a dozen sales].

So how does it work? Is that image of eXT itself or is that the instrument? I'm a little confused about how it could work.

[spacedad]

that's just a diagram to show the wiring,but it's the same in xt really.pretty much the same as you'd do it in se.
i hear ya about the money.5 quid would be more viable,but a pound is just so cheap.it appeals to me.

@rbr;i just needed some feedback first before i put it up.
like possible host problems.i new that bidule needs individual ID's so i made sure of that.i know live has some quirks,but it might not be very practical in that environment anyway?
any other modular hosts?

[jonnyG]

any other modular hosts?

Mu.Lab.

[BONES]

But the thing is, it is just a bunch if individual VST plugins that require someone else's modular environment to work, right? i.e. It would be next to useless in something like ORION?

[spacedad]

i don't know what orion can do,but yeah it's just a bunch of vsts.
mu.lab? thanks,i'll have a look.

[spacedad]

ok here's a pic of it in xt1.4.1

[RunBeerRun]

That pic above looks weird/informative. I didn't read the above post, it was too long.

It's just modules exported to vst's?

[xoxos]

give it a run :p especially with bright colours i think you'll excite some imaginations and lure a few to dabble deeper.

ymmv, imo it "takes a special breed" to appreciate a low price. there may be a strata who decide it means low quality not worth pursuing.

query: how did you manage to declare multiple inputs?!!

[Benedict]

I played with this idea many years ago before SynthStudio Pack I. I think mine had the charming name of Capitalist Pig Modular or the like and was used by no one for more than 5 mins. While in theory it worked (my modules were more than 1 straight SE module wrapped) in practice it proved too cumbersome to be of any value esp. when there were free things that did better.

Maybe start free till the bugs are sorted and you have a fan base. Then you can up the ante and go payware.

[BFunKu]

So what is it exactly? To me it seems like you have rendered out all the basic elements of a Synth(Oscs,LFOs,Envs,Filters,etc.) to .dll files? RH made a Moog Modular emulation in SynthEdit a few years ago if I remember right?

[spacedad]

thanks for the feedback.

'low quality not worth pursuing.'

sounds like a good advertising slogan!
about multiple ins,i just added them.don't think i did anything special.

oh,it's not all just se modules wrapped as vst,things get more 'built',like step sequencers etc.
i wasn't sure how low-level to go really.i guess i'll do both the tiny components and a few built things too.

so far i've had about 10 or so going at once with no cpu problems.i'll keep pushing and see what happens.

it might actually take less cpu than having a few monster synths and bloated drummachines loaded.
i like the idea that you can share adsr's and filters etc.you can build strange beasts.
well in xt it's easy to drag drop and connect,i would imagine it's a pita in some hosts.

buzz would be a good host,though i haven't tried it in there yet.

oh yeah,and richard brooks did a wicked one called mogue modular,but unless you're used to operating a moog modular,then it's a bit confusing.
at least with mine you can always read the synthedit manual.hehe.
it might actually get people into trying synthedit.

[spacedad]

http://www.vickers-armstrongs.com/synth ... odular.htm
there's richard brooks' mogue modular if you're interested.

[colin@loomer]

Looks interesting. A minor point about having each module as an individual VST plugin and relying on the host means that module-to-module feedback is likely out of the question, right?

Also, echoing what BONES said about your price point, £1 is way underselling yourself. If you're going to release at that point, you may as well give it away for the amount you'd make. I'm sure that more than 20% of the people who'd buy it at £1 would also buy it at a £5 (me, for example...)