braintrust for ideas/features for as-of-yet uncreated VSTs

[cptgone]

Shane Sanders: superb idea man! i hope someone picks it up. OhmForce? NI?

dubbyah, I've actually worked on such a thing in the past with 2 programmers. Turned out not to be possible at the time. Damn, I want that to happen.

[jobromedia]

1. One thing I've been wanting is sort of an analog synth that controls one of the envelope gates utilizing an advanced LFO.

2. A weather synth letting you play synthetic recreations of wind, rain, thunder, waves, birds etc all synthesized at real time and depending on the influence of the incoming MIDI events in the song.

[Fear the Weasel]

4. A delay that can load up other vst's into the feedback loop. Would be cool for dub type evolving delays.

This is really cool! I've actually made a Reaktor patch in the past that did this, didn't host vst's obviously but you could route the signal into and out of other inputs and set the outboard effects wet/dry.

On the topic of dub delays and something else my patch had....

A time-bend feature on the delay independant of the main tempo setting so that you can do cool speedup/slowdown tempo effects but it always comes back to the original tempo when your done. Think like the pitchbend on a keyboard. This is great for live dubbing where it can be a strain to get back to the normal tempo again quickly.

Good thread!

[Shane Sanders]

Another idea for those of you exploring physical models would be to discover what happens when your virtual string isn't a perfect cylinder. Perhaps it it is a conical string?

I wonder what would happen on such a beast when harmonics are plucked?

Food for thought. Anyway, I think we have enough samplers in the world now. How about some new instrument designs. For instance what if you had a horizontal bed of strings and you tossed a marble on them? And each and every string had a piezo and a mechanical mini-slide that slid across it at complementary intervallic relationships. Stuff like that.

[Shane Sanders]

Okay, thanks Shane

the link is http://www.synthofmine.com and the name is Synth Of Mine, it took 2 days of brainstorming and 2 ms to get this name, it just came up within 2 ms in my brain after these 2 days

The idea of the site is posting of fresh and simple ideas which produce unexpected, interesting and fat sounds, or any new approaches in sound synthesis, sequencing and sampling. I've got some experience with Reaktor since 2000 and decide to start a blog to keep my ideas out of the dust.

But I just began and there is only one article atm. I wasn't in hurry because most search engines have not started to index the site yet and there is not much of visitors. But by end of the week I will continue to post my old and worked out ideas and files.

Feel free to register or just comment. If you got something also to share I'd be glad to make the blog author as well.

Looks like you went all out dude. I'll have to check out your research more closely.

[Benedict]

Hi Y'all

Some of these ideas have/are already being explored

Layer Drum is based on the Korg idea of creating drum sounds from parts.

FM of Samples - see WaveSphere - it is real FM not the Yamaha style but I thinking on the Yamamha style for a V2 of GLaz. Seer Systems Reality (discontinued) did just that.

LFO for Gate Lengths - similar can be achieved with Seq 28-116

Layer Drum, WaveSphere, Seq 28-116 and Glaz are all in my SynthStudio Packs

Interesting ideas

[EkleipSiS]

This is probably my best idea so far.

In 3D animation programs, there is often a type of macro for doing swarms and flocking when animating flying animals. For instance, you create an insect and once you have all the individual things about its wings and legs worked out, you can then create many instances of it and through the use of an algorithm, make a swarm of them move in tandem but with subtle random differences. It makes the work load less and the realism much more convincing. OK so now hold that idea in your head for moment and apply it like this:

Make it so that a subset of your synth/effect controls can be flagged and thus ganged together to be affected by a joystick on an XY pad. Perhaps another controller, such as a real knob or slider could affect the Z axis in some manner. So, for instance, you'd have a bank of filter controls affecting incoming notes but as the player makes a circular motion on the joystick, the tolerances of how much a note is affected by the subset of controls changes slightly over time. Thus, the same player motion, even if perfectly repeated, would induce a different amount of each of the ganged paraments and it would do so on a curve that is reasonable rather than simply random. Yet it could be random or else a morph between predefined value tolerances. The idea is mainly to make it so that many controls can be affected by few controls within a range. There are other applications for this, too, especially with phsymod parameters for the values of a note, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

hmm...I think with some midi plugins and a modular environement like energy xt its already possible...or close to be...
take some midi plugins from acousmodule
http://acousmodules.free.fr/acousmodules5_en.htm
The midi CC# are already "ganged" on a x\y axis...
so we would need another plugin for inducing some random effect on different CC# ...i think soma's cc jitter would do it or some other...
http://asseca.com/soma/index.html
so just link CC# to different vst synth parameters and were set..
am i close?

[knot0fvipers]

This is probably my best idea so far.

In 3D animation programs, there is often a type of macro for doing swarms and flocking when animating flying animals. For instance, you create an insect

there is actually an amazing csound composition called sworm that does this, recreates a song of buzzing flies with an audio particle system.
http://www.csounds.com/compositions/boo ... index.html

it doesnt seem to work now but its on the csound book cd.

same thing with your physical modelling idea, there is something like that for linux
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/taosynth/examples/sounds.html

the only thing we really need is for developers to stop making the same damn synth over and over and over and explore whats out there. hell, you could pull so many synths out of whats in csound and the source code is already available.

[stk]

All I want is a comprehensive, realtime physical-modelling virtual "instrument" designer, with an extensive library of materials, physical properties, etc. Build everything from a 50 meter glass bass drum beaten by a 600psi rubber mallet to a razorwire violin played with a tomato.

The app consists of three editors, one each for Instrument (ie the object that creates the majority of the sound), Tool (ie the object which strikes / scrapes / taps etc the former) and Stage (the space in which all this takes place).

The editors resemble CAD/CAM software. Complexity of surface and internal structure for all elements is limited only by available cpu (:hihi:).

You may construct and place as many Instruments/Tools around the Stage as you have available cpu. All Items within the space will contribute to the overall soundstage via sympathetic resonance.

The x/y/z coordinates of the Tool(s) are freely controllable by whatever remote control protocol you can think of. Midi cc probably wouldn't cut it, but will do in a pinch.

There is of course be 21 freely positionable virtual microphones to cover any possible future standard of surround sound.


Oh, and some crazy NSA cpu grid to run it on, I guess.

sk

[runagate]

I posted this here (as rurik offered to make something for my new touchscreen interface [!!!]) and, as you can see, Shane reminded me about this thread.
Which I have a lot to contribute to, time allowing.

Midi Ornamentation VSTi

plays small tempo-synched ornamental passages
triplets thru nontuplet triggers
arpeggiator-like ornamentation midi send, wherein you can assign the notes to be played rapidly
with several different beat-synched ornamentation: the classic dotted-then-sped-up ornament, the "jazz syncopation" ornament, the "raga fill" etc. Possibly not only with the ability to assign the notes in the blanks of the ornament to be played, but maybe definable relative to the midi note received? Perfect for those with a keyboard that also has drum trigger pads that can send note data on another midi channel for the purpose of triggering fills - I suppose a "drum mode" that ornaments the same note for drum fills would be highly valued, too, with an X-Y like the Korg to choose to speed or slow the fill on one axis, with volume control or some midi CC value on the other

Midi CC Sequencer

sends out midi CC data according to a step sequencer/groovebox paradigm:
each "track" has an assignable midi cc/channel
the step seq has a timeline with various steps on which you can choose whether to send a value to that CC#, a fixed value or a selection of curves-over-time, just enter the beginning and end value or even the beginning, peak, and end value... Perhaps each channel could have a user-selectable duration, choices such as 1/4 note, whole note, etc... a tap-tempo button would be nice for live playing...I wonder if it's possible to utilize the VST's ability to receive beat/bar info to play the fill within the confines of a certain part of a bar, synched to the song that's playing along, say choose "play ornament over 1/8th note the next time beat three of the bar arrives until beat 2 of the next bar? steppy, S&H type CC value or spline-type - perfect for "I don't have Numerology but love 3am's music" type rythmic fx mayhem. Most likely used for tarnce filter controls, but alack!

Spectral Bitmap Fx

Load .bmp or draw in the box:

Choice of bitmap spectral filter, bitmap additive partials/harmonic excitation or waveshaper
With a "focal dot" on the picture one can move around with a changeable diameter like a Q/freq control

Breeder Reactor

A midi CC# or note send plug-in based on the Game of Life wherein you can mouse in a variety of interactive bots or double-click them out of existance which interact according to a set of rules which them churn out an ever-evolving set of algorithmic data to be sent to other plug-ins

Ribbon Controller Strips X-Y Midi GUI

Instead of one midi data sending X-Y Gui, a strip of skinny but long long-X/skinny-Y strips with midi data send type choices at the bottom of the strips for more control choices in the same space

Hammer-On Virtual String

A string GUI which represents a physically modelled string. Double-click to choose the "anchor point" like a virtual capo, single tap to excite the string at the chosen point. Duration of click-hold defines the sustain, moving the held mouseclick up introduces tremolo, down causes vibrato. Of course it'd be nice if sliding along the string changes the pitch of the string in real time based on the string length according to the current anchor point.

3D Virtual Knobs

Three dimensional cubical knobs which spin on three axes depending upon which edge of the cube your click-and-drag upon for 3-midi CC controls.

Visual Live Audio Capture and Manipulation

Visual display of incoming audio. Click to define loop points, double click to define "play-from" point and once click is held acts as audio scrub control from that point. Right-click to change tempo according to right/left cursor movement. Up/down could be a separate, user-definable midi control message parameter.

Touch Tap Drum Trigger Pads with Zones

Six big squares on the GUI. Each square represents a drum trigger pad. The up/down axis of the pad controls midi velocity. A user-definable CC# value for the left/right axis for resonance or filter freq or whatnot. A super drum pad plug would have an X-Y ribbon alongside the left side of the pad, a choice of drum ornament buttons to the right of them, a volume/pan/etc control per pad, then a master section with triggers for user-loadable mini midi files for fills utilizing any of the 6 drums, a master volume and a master X-Y pad for master CC automation for whatever fx you load after the plug-in in one's DAW.

These are the things I've dreamt up that perhaps xoxos can make. Or I may attempt if not. ANyone who cares to run with these ideas, in fact, go for it just let me know so I don't try it. I'm not back into SE enough to know what modules I might not have (I haven't even DLed the freeware ones yet) but there it is and hopefully I can eventually obtain this for my touchscreen player, Soon. Not as in asap, but as in that's her name: Soon.

[amiga909]

- jobromedia:
1. One thing I've been wanting is sort of an analog synth that controls one of the envelope gates utilizing an advanced LFO.
2. A weather synth

1. dont get u, ur a pro dev urself..hmmm: I mean every arpeggio does modulate the env gate time (+pitch)..and on the other hand controlling the gate is mostly done in the sequencer piano roll (or eventlist, whatever)..
2. weather synth: u didnt check the kvr vst challenge?? sounds of nature by xoxos!

- the swarm thing:
there also is that midi vst freebie where you have bouncing ball physics.