Okay, so I've actually been having a play with it today, whereas I originally just thought "aaargh, another VA" and went back to playing with Lunchbox...
My basic response is that it sounds fantastic, and a couple of hours work could make it into a really great synth, but at the moment there are a few little things that hold it back.
1) The gui is rather counterintuitive. Specifically
1a) Why are the waveform selectors in the mixer section away from all of the other oscillator controls?
1b) Why are the envelope generators and the filters grouped together? If the EG's were specifically filter envelpe generators and had an 'envelope level' control next to them it'd make sense, but instead you have to decide what they modulate and how much via the 'Modifiers' section.
1c) It's nice to have a semitones readout by a 'coarse detune' knob and the master tuning. Being able to zero the 'fine detune' somehow would be nice too.
1d) I know it's not the literal meaning, but to me 'FM' means 'pitch modulation by an audio frequency oscillator' - if the mod source is an envelope or LFO, I'd call it Pitch Mod. Again, why is this control next to the mod target whereas the other modulation options are in their own section? I think having only the word 'depth' appear naturally on the GUI doesn't help either...
2) Most of the GUI is very pretty (I love the gratuitous colour changing) but the default synthedit 'list selector' switches and (to a lesser extent) the 2D on/off switches spoil it a bit.
3) Could you offer a freerunning LFO option? For a bass / lead type synth it'd be nice to be able to do those techno / trance type wuggawugga woggawogga weggawegga wiggawigga wiggawigga weggaweggga woggawogga wuggawugga stype riffs with a slow LFO on the cutoff.
So yeah, it's still a lovely little synth, and I hope you can take all of this as constructive criticism rather than random abuse! If the stuff above was fixed it'd see a lot of use...
(Btw, it might be nice to have more single-subject threads to talk about specific entries, rather than have to follow a load of branches in the 'favorites so far' thread...)
Mini-Vyn
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Chris Roberson Chris Roberson https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49114
- KVRian
- 520 posts since 24 Nov, 2004 from Texas
Sorry I missed this thread until now, I've been rather wrapped up with things. I love how no one else seems to care about it though. 
Well to be totally honest, when this project was started up about two years ago I was intending to make an Arp Odyssey simulator, so if you've seen one you may see some vague similarities, but instead I just ran with it in some different ways. You wouldn't believe the amount of changing that has happened to it since it's birth.
But that said, time permitting I intend on doing a rehaul on the GUI. I don't know how extensive, I may even change the focus from the retro-ish VA to a digital type design seeing as how many people are thinking of it as a more digital sounding instrument.
The freerunning LFO idea is actually a lot tougher than it may seem, but that falls into the quirks of my synth design. I can't specifically remember why it wouldn't work, but I did try to make a switch between keysyncing the LFO and having it freerun, but basically it was the difference between having it sync to each voice or re-sync after a key was pressed from being allnotesoff. I can look into it, but success is doubtful.
I am in fact though in the process of making a true Odyssey sim synth, with a much less focus on grindy harsh tone and a much more analog sounding filter (it's pretty sweet already.
) and above all, A SMALLER GUI! 
So yeah if the Mini hasn't been everyone's cup-o'-tea this competition, I've got plenty coming in the near future in that respect.
Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions by the way.
Well to be totally honest, when this project was started up about two years ago I was intending to make an Arp Odyssey simulator, so if you've seen one you may see some vague similarities, but instead I just ran with it in some different ways. You wouldn't believe the amount of changing that has happened to it since it's birth.
But that said, time permitting I intend on doing a rehaul on the GUI. I don't know how extensive, I may even change the focus from the retro-ish VA to a digital type design seeing as how many people are thinking of it as a more digital sounding instrument.
The freerunning LFO idea is actually a lot tougher than it may seem, but that falls into the quirks of my synth design. I can't specifically remember why it wouldn't work, but I did try to make a switch between keysyncing the LFO and having it freerun, but basically it was the difference between having it sync to each voice or re-sync after a key was pressed from being allnotesoff. I can look into it, but success is doubtful.
I am in fact though in the process of making a true Odyssey sim synth, with a much less focus on grindy harsh tone and a much more analog sounding filter (it's pretty sweet already.
) and above all, A SMALLER GUI! So yeah if the Mini hasn't been everyone's cup-o'-tea this competition, I've got plenty coming in the near future in that respect.Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions by the way.
Roberson Audio Synthesizers
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1811 posts since 18 Jan, 2005 from Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra
That's cool. Thanks for the synth!Chris Roberson wrote: Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions by the way.
Is it SE, btw? Because I thought global LFO's were fairly simple there...
It's a rave, Lewis!
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Chris Roberson Chris Roberson https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49114
- KVRian
- 520 posts since 24 Nov, 2004 from Texas
it's SE, but don't get me started on my design. I don't do things orthodox with SE any more, so 'simple' things can actually get fairly complicated when actually implemented.
Like I said, I'll look into it, but no promises.
Like I said, I'll look into it, but no promises.
Roberson Audio Synthesizers
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- KVRian
- 1498 posts since 21 Nov, 2005 from The Netherlands
Hi,
As far as i know it should be this ( using the basic SE OSC as LFO ):
synced LFO : connect sync to midi-to-CV gate
Freerunning LFO : don't connect to midi-to-CV gate.
Cya,
Rob.
As far as i know it should be this ( using the basic SE OSC as LFO ):
synced LFO : connect sync to midi-to-CV gate
Freerunning LFO : don't connect to midi-to-CV gate.
Cya,
Rob.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1811 posts since 18 Jan, 2005 from Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra
IIRC, you'd also need have it in the same container as (or possibly one container up from) the MIDI to CV module, to avoid it being duplicated every time a new polyphonic note hits. I might be wrong, though...XGmode wrote:Hi,
As far as i know it should be this ( using the basic SE OSC as LFO ):
synced LFO : connect sync to midi-to-CV gate
Freerunning LFO : don't connect to midi-to-CV gate.
Cya,
Rob.
It's a rave, Lewis!
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Chris Roberson Chris Roberson https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49114
- KVRian
- 520 posts since 24 Nov, 2004 from Texas
Dudes, seriously I'm not retarded with SE I've been doing it for five years. I use different voice combining and splitting techniques to get my synths to behave the way I do, it's no accident that they work the way they do.
So just leave me to trying to fix it, 'kay?
So just leave me to trying to fix it, 'kay?
Roberson Audio Synthesizers
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1811 posts since 18 Jan, 2005 from Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra
I had wondered - it's pretty obvious from the synth that you're not retarded! There should probably have been an 'I'm assuming it's not just a case of...' '...is it?' or similar disclaimer in there somewhere.Chris Roberson wrote:Dudes, seriously I'm not retarded with SE I've been doing it for five years. I use different voice combining and splitting techniques to get my synths to behave the way I do, it's no accident that they work the way they do.
It's a rave, Lewis!
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1811 posts since 18 Jan, 2005 from Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra
That said, it'd be a fairly fcuked up set of combining techniques that wouldn't just let you stick in an extra level of containers at the top with an oscillator in it and have that run freely. I'm quite curious now...
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- KVRAF
- 8110 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
I should offer an apology to Chris cos this was pretty much my response too, especially with the 'typical' SE GUI...DWb wrote:Okay, so I've actually been having a play with it today, whereas I originally just thought "aaargh, another VA"
But, yeah, it's capable of some really great sounds and if DWb's GUI suggestions could be taken into consideration, then it would be even better (obviously not soundwise, just in usability terms...
). It's not the easiest vst to use on a limited 1024x768 res display (which a lot of laptops still use...)Cheers,
.g
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Chris Roberson Chris Roberson https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49114
- KVRian
- 520 posts since 24 Nov, 2004 from Texas
Yeah, mostly I see the keyboard going away, and an alternative method for those button selector switches to make them less wide (and giving me more free space to compress things to. )
But indeed, to DWb, that is a possible option I've thought of, but I'd be lying if I said this is on my front burner lately. I'm very wrapped up in many different things right now, so don't expect some immediate rework of this GUI and DSP section, it just can't happen. My goal is to fit it *comfortably* into 1024x768, but the main goal is to get it to fit at all with any room to spare first.
)But indeed, to DWb, that is a possible option I've thought of, but I'd be lying if I said this is on my front burner lately. I'm very wrapped up in many different things right now, so don't expect some immediate rework of this GUI and DSP section, it just can't happen. My goal is to fit it *comfortably* into 1024x768, but the main goal is to get it to fit at all with any room to spare first.
Roberson Audio Synthesizers
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Chris Roberson Chris Roberson https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49114
- KVRian
- 520 posts since 24 Nov, 2004 from Texas