KVR Audio

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:48 pm

This is an active equalizer I threw together in a couple hours to mess with complex animated GUIs. Please let me know how it runs.

When I say "active" I mean that it's interactive, never stops changing so long as it gets action, and is controlled with the mouse. If you want to change the points for the highest and lowest frequencies, try holding down shift or alt (or both!) when you click and drag frequencies around. The physics is pretty unrealistic and the CPU use is way high, but please let me know if it runs okay! I haven't seen any other EQ's quite like it.

You'll need the Pluggo RUNTIME (not the full program) from here:

http://www.cycling74.com/download/pluggoruntime354.zip

The plugin itself is here:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~afaulsti/ActiveQ.dll

It's definitely still a highly undeveloped work in progress, but I wanted some feedback on concept and such.

Oh, and the giant volume drop when the plug is enabled will be fixed in the next update!

Jason Brian Merrill · Post by **Jason Brian Merrill** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:00 pm

looks sort of interesting!

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:36 pm

However, installing Pluggo runtimes isn't

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:50 pm

Are you having a problem installing it?

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:17 pm

DuX wrote:However, installing Pluggo runtimes isn't

Pluggo Runtime is all of 3-4 MB or something... I installed it for some plugins from Tritone, and it's no big deall at all.

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:24 pm

Anyone give it a shot, yet?

PTV · Post by **PTV** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:52 pm

Hello skrasms!
Very nice EQ, working smoothly here on energyXT & AudioMulch.
But it is taking alot of CPU (35% here on AMD Athlon(TM)XP 2400+ 2000 MHz)

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:09 pm

What a FUNKY little plugin this is!!!! An I'm only getting a 7-10% cpu hit on my AMD 1.83GHz. It's definately a very interesting plugin. If there were a few more controlls it would be even more amazing.

My thoughts specifically revolve around the depth of the modulation, speed and frequency type stuff... like if you could st a maximum rise in db, as well as Q and how fast it moves and the number of ripples you get... It would still be tough to control, but it could have fantstic use for randomization in pads for example. After checking it out, I'm kind of sorry I didn't try it before

It's pretty cool! And I'm surprised about the CPU usage too. I'd be very interested in where this goes... it fits somewhere between an EQ and a flanger/phaser, but not as pronounced.

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:50 pm

That's all the CPU hit you're getting? Wow, I'm getting something like 30-40% on my computer (though my computer is a reasonably aged P4). That gives me more hope!

There are a LOT of things I want to add, first of which is a logarithmic frequency scale (right now it's just linear, but I think logarithmic sounds more musical from some of the other filter-type stuff I've made). I haven't figured out an efficient way to do that yet, though. Speed, depth, Q, better control of the "drawing," etc will all hopefully be added over time. Lately it's just a matter of finding time to develop.

Glad to hear a couple positive responses!

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:10 pm

It's too bad... I think people stayed away from it because of the Pluggo Runtime, even though it's really nothing. Pluggo plugins take a bit longer to load for me, and I really only have two other ones from TriTone Digital so I don't have much experience with them as per stability etc. I gladly installed the runtime for the Phasetone plugin alone, so it's great to be getting more use from it.

In any case, it would be great if you kept super-fying this plugin. It's quite novel, and I would be interestes in in seeing how it ends up for controlability....

sinkmusic · Post by **sinkmusic** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:26 pm

Pluggo is boring :
1- you have to install it, which is an operation you don't need to do with VST
2- you can't put the plugins where you want : it has to be in the root folder, and this is not the way i do.
3- i had the phase tone plugin, and also 2 or 3 free pluggo plugins, but i removed them all... There are so many VST here that works at least as well as every pluggo stuff i've found, i don't see why i'd bother with ways of doing that are not mine... I mean, what does Pluggo allows to make that makes it so special, that other standard vst dev tools don't do ?

PTV · Post by **PTV** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:10 pm

Mmm... can't agree with you about it, sinkmusic:
1- There are many VSTs that you must install, like KarmaFX, Polishofit & others. It's not that big dael to install it IMO.
2- I installed PluggoJr and then changed the location of the plugins & i still can use them. Same thing with Color Tone Free.
3- Some pluggos are very unique, i have PluggoJr (The Pluggo free pack from Cycling 74) and some of them are really great.

The only problem i have with Pluggo is that most of the time it's take too much time for them to load, but it's not that important to me.

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:36 am

sinkmusic wrote:Pluggo is boring :
2- you can't put the plugins where you want : it has to be in the root folder, and this is not the way i do.

You sure on that? I tend to haphazardly put all my pluggo plugins whereever while I'm testing them, and I've never had a problem. I mean, you *do* need to keep them in your host's search path, obviously. Beyond that, though, I'm not even sure what you mean by "root folder"... do you mean that "pluggo" folder that gets installed in the VST directory? I deleted that long ago with no negative effects.

Oh, and the reason for using Pluggo to develop is that for people using Max/MSP it's a pretty straight-forward port over into VST. Personally, I can do things with Max/MSP in a few minutes that would take me hours upon hours of frustration in C++, or aren't even possible as far as I know Synthedit/Synthmaker (quick coding of openGL GUI stuff, for example), so it's the path for me right now.

skrasms · Post by **skrasms** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:38 am

Debutante wrote:What a FUNKY little plugin this is!!!! An I'm only getting a 7-10% cpu hit on my AMD 1.83GHz. It's definately a very interesting plugin. If there were a few more controlls it would be even more amazing.

Just out of curiosity, how nice is your graphics card? The GUI is in javascript openGL right now, so I wonder if your videocard might be taking some of the load off the openGL commands.

Debutante · Post by **Debutante** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:33 am

sinkmusic wrote:Pluggo is boring :
1- you have to install it, which is an operation you don't need to do with VST
2- you can't put the plugins where you want : it has to be in the root folder, and this is not the way i do.
3- i had the phase tone plugin, and also 2 or 3 free pluggo plugins, but i removed them all... There are so many VST here that works at least as well as every pluggo stuff i've found, i don't see why i'd bother with ways of doing that are not mine... I mean, what does Pluggo allows to make that makes it so special, that other standard vst dev tools don't do ?

I also believe you have a couple of things wrong there. I have been able to have my Pluggos anywhere I want them. I know that the default installation recommends, or goes straight, into the Pluggo folder, but once the effects are there, you are able to place them anywhere you want. FL only allows detection of 1 additional VST folder (there's another thing missing), so I just took all the Pluggos from their folder and gave them one in my regular VST folder. Hell, I even renamed all of them to keep with my folder format. Once the runtime is installed, the plugins seem to work fine anywhere they are.

In fact, spurred on by this Active EQ, I went around looking for free Pluggos and came across Pluggo Jr... very nice indeed. 12 Plugins I was able to move to my VST folder with no problems. They are extremely light on CPU, . And yes some of them are interesting indeed. There are a couple that do things other format VST's would require a couple of different plugins for, like a phaser and a filter, say. From Pluggo Jr. I most like:

Spectral Filter - very, very steep cut, easy rival for the Bugpass' 48db and then some, in real time, only it's graphic... and bands are TINY!, with 1-2% CPU.
Filter Taps - somewhere between a feedback delay and a filterbank, with 1-2% CPU.
Resosweep - 3 band independant channel resonance sweeping, 1-2% CPU
Resonation - looks like a resonant tap delay, 1-2% CPU

I wish there were more somewhere. You really should try them out before you simply write them off.

CONS - No real gauge or known experience for their stability and they take a while to load (4 - 6 Secs ...sometimes) but maybe that's for screwing with the installation.

As for my videocard?!... I don't have one

. I'm using an ASUS motherboard with onboard VIA/S3G Unichrome for display. I can't explain it either. The computer I'm using isn't that great: AMD 2500, ASUS mobo with 512 mb RAM. I'm dumping it in a month or so, but there you go.

An "Active" EQ Plugin