Albino Feature Requests

[DMuzik]

Good suggestions bilbo. Love your work btw

[MacQ]

But the Virus still has a larger amount of timbres available. Why? For two main reasons really:

1. The greater range of signal distortions and shapers available in the Virus - soft, hard, digital, shaper, sample reduction, bit crusher etc...

BTW -I love the filter/sat module on Albino , and abuse it regularly I just wish that it had more of a range of distortion/waveshaping options.


2. The Virus has a bigger chain of effects available - four really - simultaneous phase, chorus, distortion and delay. (I like the vintage sounding phaser on the Virus btw.)

That is about the only difference. Therefore you if you were to include those it would make it equal to the Virus B series.

This is what I alluded to in my first post, and it’s nice to see some corroboration from another Virus/Albino user. Hopefully Peter/Rob will take these comments to heart and see about implementing the above feature suggestions.

I’d love to see a new multi-oscillator for creating big detuned sounds and rich pads. I like the “Spread” knob, but it doesn’t offer me the kinds of timbres that are possible with discrete (or even algorithmically-imitated "discrete") oscillators. Something like a 7-oscillator saw/square with *independent* detune / pan spread controls. The fattest sounds imaginable. Additionally, I’d like to see a 3-band parametric EQ on the master outs of Albino (ala the Virus C series) for small tonal tweaking (post-insert, pre-send) -- althought the current FX routing might make that a little difficult. Are the FX in parrallel? Ooo ... maybe (and this is just a brain storm ... a SINGLE FX box for editing, and instead of the other FX box, a draggable routing dialogue for selecting how the effects are applied. Serial, parrallel, etc. I can see it now! In fact, here is the concept:



I know I’m asking for the world, but I just love this thing so much. Even if it cost twice as much and was a CPU dog because of all the new features … hey, you don’t need fat-saws on EVERY sound.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the great work!

~MacQ

[bilbo]

Love your work btw...

Hello Dmuzik. Glad you enjoy the tunes

Something like a 7-oscillator saw/square with *independent* detune / pan spread controls.

I think that I know where you are coming from MacQ

The king of the multi detune oscillator algorithms has to be the Roland JP8000 "Super saw", but it doesn't have a stereo spread control.

The Vanguard VST comes a pretty close second, but it has no real control over the stereo spread.

The Virus has great control over the detune and spread of muliti oscillator modes, but it doesn't quite have the detuning richness of either the Jp8000 or Vanguard.

Combining the best of these would be a fantastic addition to Albino...

___________________


Another (perhaps small) point is to have an option to change the bacground colour from a default white to something a little more kind on the eyes, as working for extended periods with the interface can get a bit much. Perhaps not full skinning, but just a darker colour option?

Lastly having some of the effects parameters as mod. destinations would be useful.

Phase or flanger frequency to mod. wheel is always a good one and a great way to expand the filtering options - (i.e becomes a comb or allpass filter) For this to work properly, one needs to be able to turn the fx lfo to zero or off.

Cheers,
Bill

[MacQ]

I think that I know where you are coming from MacQ

The king of the multi detune oscillator algorithms has to be the Roland JP8000 "Super saw", but it doesn't have a stereo spread control.

Yeah, that's what I was not-so-subtly hinting at, but I was reluctant to use the words "Super Saw". It's too much of a marketing gimmic when you make a big deal about the fact that it can do those typical cheesey anthem-trance sounds. A multi-saw (better a multi-saw and a multi-square) can do other great sounds, like thick basses for drum'n'bass, and smooth sounding rich pads (like the Nord Lead 3). It's a very useful sound to have in one's arsenal.

The problem with the Vanguard implementation is the phase problems when running in mono, which is why I am reluctant to use it on anything that might be going on vinyl for club play. It's a more CPU-efficient way to achieving that detuned sound, but I think it's only a stereo chorus tuned to sound like unison. Too many club systems are run bridged-mono for maximum power output from the amps, and I'd hate to have my fat-ass bassline disappear.

Anyway, there are some options for the future of Albino, I guess. It's fantastic already, and hopefully it'll be more fantastic some day.

Later,

~MacQ

[bilbo]

Too many club systems are run bridged-mono for maximum power output from the amps, and I'd hate to have my fat-ass bassline disappear.

No, not a good situation

The problem with the Vanguard implementation is the phase problems when running in mono.

Not just Vanguard, all detuned multi oscillator bass sounds on synths with free running oscillators will suffer from this problem.

For this reason I shy away from detuned multi oscillator bass sounds myself.
I will use two oscillators max. and if if the oscillators are not syncable, one an octave above the other, the upper octave mixed in at at less volume. But mainly I use a single oscillator for bass sounds.

But you CAN go fat-ass detuned bass sounds on the Vanguard if you like. Just hit the Retrig. button for multi osc. bass sounds on Vanguard. It syncs all the oscillators to re-start their cycle at note on so the attack on your bass notes will be consistent.

You might want to tweak the detune ("Fat") control to suit the bass sound you are after also.

End of phase problem and the associated random volume fluctuations.

Set your Vanguard vst input channel to mono, (via the channel's pan controls) turn it up and play your bassline to check the result in mono - if you need confirmation...

but I think it's only a stereo chorus tuned to sound like unison.

You really think so?

Personally I love the sound of the oscillator detuning on Vanguard and find it completely convincing. One of the best on a VST imo.

Try selecting a single saw wave, turn off retrig. and and detune by just 1 (fat control...)

some options for the future of Albino, I guess. It's fantastic already, and hopefully it'll be more fantastic some day.

Yeah, Albino is fantastic It has a great interface for programming.

Cheers,
Bill

[Rob Papen]

But the Virus still has a larger amount of timbres available. Why? For two main reasons really:

1. The greater range of signal distortions and shapers available in the Virus - soft, hard, digital, shaper, sample reduction, bit crusher etc...

BTW -I love the filter/sat module on Albino , and abuse it regularly I just wish that it had more of a range of distortion/waveshaping options.


2. The Virus has a bigger chain of effects available - four really - simultaneous phase, chorus, distortion and delay. (I like the vintage sounding phaser on the Virus btw.)

That is about the only difference. Therefore you if you were to include those it would make it equal to the Virus B series.

This is what I alluded to in my first post, and it’s nice to see some corroboration from another Virus/Albino user. Hopefully Peter/Rob will take these comments to heart and see about implementing the above feature suggestions.

I’d love to see a new multi-oscillator for creating big detuned sounds and rich pads. I like the “Spread” knob, but it doesn’t offer me the kinds of timbres that are possible with discrete (or even algorithmically-imitated "discrete") oscillators. Something like a 7-oscillator saw/square with *independent* detune / pan spread controls. The fattest sounds imaginable. Additionally, I’d like to see a 3-band parametric EQ on the master outs of Albino (ala the Virus C series) for small tonal tweaking (post-insert, pre-send) -- althought the current FX routing might make that a little difficult. Are the FX in parrallel? Ooo ... maybe (and this is just a brain storm ... a SINGLE FX box for editing, and instead of the other FX box, a draggable routing dialogue for selecting how the effects are applied. Serial, parrallel, etc. I can see it now! In fact, here is the concept:



I know I’m asking for the world, but I just love this thing so much. Even if it cost twice as much and was a CPU dog because of all the new features … hey, you don’t need fat-saws on EVERY sound.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the great work!

~MacQ

Hi MacQ,

Nice picture and suggestion. Sure the Albino3 will offer more on the FX section. Be sure about that.

But also something else I do have in mind which is "wicked" as well. More about it the moment we start working at Albino3.
First we need to release Albino2.2 and make the RTAS people happy!

Rob

[leonkane]

Hi there,

I was just about to post my ideas for albino 3 and then read billys post, he seemed to cover it all.
It's true, if it was to have all those extra features. It would be the ultimate synth, even better then my beloved virus c:)

By the way, great work billy. the new album is inspiring .
Just to remind you, I'm leon met you at liquid outdoors a few years ago, saw you at chichime also.
My music is really comin together now, maybe i could send you a track for some feedback:)

Cheers

Leon

[andyeb]

Any possibility of some additional modulation matrix options for Albino 2.2? e.g. being able to route Amp Env to Amp Attack/Amp Decay (recursive modulation) to get non-linear attack/decay, just like I can on my Virus A

Alternatively, just being able to tweak the shape of the envelopes would be nice . This is about the only thing that stops Albino becoming my work-horse synth...

Peter: any comment/word/progress on this? At one stage you were considering it for a future version.

thanks,

Andy

PS. How do I join in beta testing Albino 2.2? Is there an AU version available?

[Rob Papen]

Hi Andy,

A better solution would a knob that sets the curve (from expo to linear).
Something like that is planned for Albino3.
Best,
Rob

[andyeb]

Hi Andy,

A better solution would a knob that sets the curve (from expo to linear).
Something like that is planned for Albino3.
Best,
Rob

Cool! Where do I pre-order my upgrade?

Andy

[Rob Papen]

Hi Andy,

That will take a while because also other new features will be included into Albino3.

Rob

[loachm]

... I would also like to see the ability to save the settings of each module, i.e. saving filter settings, envelope settings, oscillator settings and so on. I like how this has been done with Absynth 3 - it may not sound like a new killer feature, but in the long term it would really improve the workflow.

PS. Perhaps two additional oscillators and waveform import for the oscillators so that I could stop comparing Albino against Z3ta...??

[Rob Papen]

Hi loachm,

Good idea. Will put it to the list of user wishes.

Ps. no use in comparing Albino2 with Z3ta. Totally different synths with each strong points and weak points

[loachm]

Hello Rob,

glad you liked the ideas. I forgot to add that adjustable randomisation options for each module might not be too bad. Surely the global randomisation is great for creating new patches but sometimes you'd like to see variations only on some specific modules which you can't control with the global randomisation. Also, the effect types may change while randomising - it should also be possible that the effect types may stay fixed, while their parameters are being randomised.

[Dave Bourke]

Agreed. A parameter mask like this shouldn't be too difficult to implement (I hope).

Kind regards.