Naive LPF v0.5. Now we're getting GUI!

[AdmiralQuality]

Thanks for the kind words folks! Its funny how one person's "flaky" is another person's "sweet" and "analoge" (You are both entitled to your opinions, of course!) I'll look into the Wavelab thing...

I did it on an angle because I wanted to see if it would "work". All those interfaces drawn in orthographic get a little boring after a while. So I wanted to see if it still felt like the knobs were following the mouse if I offset it at an angle (I'd say it does). It obviously wastes some space, and I'll readily admit this interface is way too big for what it is (both in screen real estate and disk/memory footprint) but, it's mainly a test platform for me to try out these ideas... that it developed into something useful happened somewhat by accident.

One advantage to doing it as a more traditional orthographic projection would be that I could potentially use the same graphics for all the knobs and save some memory/disk space. As it is now, each knob has it's own set of graphics as no two knobs show up as the exact same size or under the same lighting angles.

I know it's not the prettiest thing either but I wanted it to look like something I designed with pieces of leftover 70's stereo equipment in the garage, and use to tune up the car (there's even grease marks on it...hehe). But now I find I'm kind of liking the utilitarian "fire-engine" look. Anyway, I'll be careful not to used any more "brushed metal" in my next interface... it's lumpy bakelite knobs from now on, I swear!

[bduffy]

Thanks for the kind words folks! Its funny how one person's "flaky" is another person's "sweet" and "analoge" (You are both entitled to your opinions, of course!) I'll look into the Wavelab thing...

I did it on an angle because I wanted to see if it would "work". All those interfaces drawn in orthographic get a little boring after a while. So I wanted to see if it still felt like the knobs were following the mouse if I offset it at an angle (I'd say it does). It obviously wastes some space, and I'll readily admit this interface is way too big for what it is (both in screen real estate and disk/memory footprint) but, it's mainly a test platform for me to try out these ideas... that it developed into something useful happened somewhat by accident.

One advantage to doing it as a more traditional orthographic projection would be that I could potentially use the same graphics for all the knobs and save some memory/disk space. As it is now, each knob has it's own set of graphics as no two knobs show up as the exact same size or under the same lighting angles.

I know it's not the prettiest thing either but I wanted it to look like something I designed with pieces of leftover 70's stereo equipment in the garage, and use to tune up the car (there's even grease marks on it...hehe). But now I find I'm kind of liking the utilitarian "fire-engine" look. Anyway, I'll be careful not to used any more "brushed metal" in my next interface... it's lumpy bakelite knobs from now on, I swear!

Oh, I just noticed that it's 13 Megs! I guess that is a little big for an LPF! Is that just form the graphics, mostly?

[rogerperrin]

my sig is a quote...I didn't write it, but I think it's funny.

"KVRaudio, home of the largest, best, and most knowledgerble electronic music forum in the world."

Yeah, I wrote it and I've been wondering when you're going to start giving proper credit to me for writing it!!!!!!

I am kidding Snooky! Of course you can use it, and I was flattered that you saw the humor in it. You have no idea how long I spent on the word knowledgable. I wasn't quite sure how to spell it so I mangled it as best I could for effect.

[snooky]

well, it kinda summs up KVR me thinks, everyone is an expert, but most can't even spell to it, even less know what they're talking about most of the time.

[rogerperrin]

"knowledgeable" - got it right this time. If you put your mine to it youl can usually does it!!

[AdmiralQuality]

Enter the knowledge-gerbil! Lemmywinks?????

And yes, it went from 112 kB in the last version to 13.4 MB this version as it's filled with all those pictures of knobs. Each knob has 100 positions, and no two knobs are alike (yeah, I went a little nuts.)

But again, that was kind of the point. Figured going overboard was the best way to learn how to swim.

[soulkraka]

Hi

this thing sounds fantastic! Its a bit of a CPU hog though but I guess thats the trade off.

[spacedad]

i tried it in xt,sounded real nice,getting nice gatey things with loverly warmth.but when i turn down the filter real low,the sound disappears,is it supposed to?
thanks anyway,seemed stable enough.

[topaz]

sounds great.

it's using about 30% of an amd 2000+ idle

the UI is cool but the side angle is somewhat odd.

[ohm]

I really like the character. It rises above the usual "overly muffled and brickwall limited" idea of "analog sound". This is definately a keeper. Thank you very much. It will be interesting to hear your synth when it starts to sing.

I don't like the saturation. Mostly because it didn't sound good on the drum loop I used for testing and because I find it hard to ajust, I mean: you activate it and immediately the volume drops dramatically, then you turn the knob further and increase the volume and the saturation simultaniously ? I'd like if the saturation only affected the character and not the volume if possible.

I don't like the 3D look, but that's a matter of taste I guess.

And it crashes energy XT v.1.36 if you close and open the gui while automating the cutoff frequency.

Finally: what's with all the inputs and outputs? They all go through the same signal chain apparently. And why are they not configured as stereo pairs but as mono? (it's a matter of implementing the getInputProperties / getOutputProperties functions to save you from googling it if you didn't know already)

[AdmiralQuality]

i tried it in xt,sounded real nice,getting nice gatey things with loverly warmth.but when i turn down the filter real low,the sound disappears,is it supposed to?
thanks anyway,seemed stable enough.

Yes, it's a low pass filter (which cuts out high frequencies), so if you turn the cutoff frequency down all the way to zero Hz, nothing will get out. That's normal.

Gatey sounds, eh? Hmmmmm... I suppose that's possible. I think of it more as for wahs and distortion. You're probably using the envelope follower if you're hearing something gatey. Note that if the Envelope follower is set above zero, you'll usually want to set the cutoff low. And if it's below zero (in the negative range) you'll want to set the cutoff high.

The envelope follower essentially moves the cutoff knob for you, either up or down depending on the input peak levels.

OH! I know what you're probably hearing. Many of the included presets are optimized to work best on signals that are peaking at JUST below 0 dB. Try using the input trim control to add some gain to the input signal, this will make the envelope follower respond more, and that may open the filter up more. (I should really add an input meter. Next version I guess. )

And soulkraka, yes, it's a CPU hog, but that's "intentional". Part of how this effect works and why it's different sounding than most other filters you'll find out there. While I do intend to try to optimize it's performance a bit more, there isn't a whole lot I'll be able to do. Maybe I'll provide a control to cut the oversampling in half (right now it's 8X!!!) for those who need some power back. Also note that when you use fewer stages and/or disable the envelope follower, you get some power back as well. Using a mono track will cut the power in half compared to a stereo track too.

As it is now, I can barely run it on my system on a 5.1 mix, as that means there's 6 channels processing at once, as opposed to 2 for a stereo track or 1 for a mono track. (I'm on a P4 3.0 GHz 533 MHz FSB & RAM) I may just take the 6 channel ability out and make it stereo or mono only (as the 6 channel thing is also causing a bug loading into Wavelab. I've since fixed this bug but now it always runs as 6 channel in Wavelab.. even when processing a stereo track... or is this just me not knowing how to run Wavelab?)

What does everyone think, anyone actually using it for 5.1?

[paradiddle]

I'd like to try it out but 13 megs for a LPF is too much. If you do post a cutdown version without the graphic hog, I'll gladly check it out.

[ohm]

13 megs for a LPF is too much

the download is "just" 6 megs Don't tell me you don't have space on your harddrive for 13 megs of filter - at least check out the sound first.

[paradiddle]

Oh I have enought space but I don't have that much memory. I know I'll try it and dump it out afterward.

Anyway the filter is 112k or so without the graphic. Am I the only who thinks that 13 megs just for graphics is too much? I don't care much about gui and pretty knobs. That's not what makes the sound.

[AdmiralQuality]

I don't like the saturation. Mostly because it didn't sound good on the drum loop I used for testing and because I find it hard to ajust, I mean: you activate it and immediately the volume drops dramatically, then you turn the knob further and increase the volume and the saturation simultaniously ? I'd like if the saturation only affected the character and not the volume if possible.

Yeah, it was a last minute thing I threw in there to help get the resonance peaks back down below zero dB. Normally I use a mastering compressor which lets me safely have levels way over 0 dB, so I don't use the saturation either.

The reason it pops off at the bottom is exactly that, it's disabled at the zero setting and you get the full output signal out.

It does add a very colorful distortion, which I agree, isn't usually what I want. But then, you don't have to use it. Use your favorite compressor after this effect instead (or just turn down the overall track volume so the peaks arent too loud.)

And it crashes energy XT v.1.36 if you close and open the gui while automating the cutoff frequency.

I'll look into that. Is there a free demo of Energy XT I can use to test? Have never tried it.

Finally: what's with all the inputs and outputs? They all go through the same signal chain apparently. And why are they not configured as stereo pairs but as mono? (it's a matter of implementing the getInputProperties / getOutputProperties functions to save you from googling it if you didn't know already)

This effect is 6 independent filters. It should process as many channels as the track you plug it into has (and no more). None of the channels are locked to each other in any way, though they all share the same set of controls. I recently added those two functions to make Wavelab happy, but as I explained in the post above, that made it run 6 channel in Wavelab all the time, regardless of how many channels I was running into it. In Cubase SX 3, it works as I intended... put it on a stereo track and it runs as 2 channel. On a mono track and it runs as 1 channel. Put it on a 5.1 track and it runs 6 channel. (How other apps manage to overcomplicate what should be such a simple arrangement is beyond me... one of the downsides of VST I guess.)

So I havent posted that fix yet as it's not really a fix if its processing 4 empty channels on top of the two stereo that you wanted -- but I don't feel it's really my plug-in's fault cuz the HOST is passing 4 empty inputs to it! (If the input isn't connected, my filter doesn't process it) Like, WTF??? Any clues anyone might have about this would be much appreciated!