New drum-synth called smackbox. Beta-testing has commenced!

[stefancrs]

Hey!

SynthMaker requires GDI+, which isn't included by default in Windows 98, this is probably why they don't work for you. IIRC, you can install this.

One stereo + two mono and no stereo-width thingy? I want stereo-width thingy! I think I can come up with something that works for a very small CPU hit. If I can't, I'll leave it to other FX plugs

BTW, FWIW I will soon be going on holiday too. LA ftw!

[Lance]

It would be great if this plugin can compete sonicwise with these:
http://www.elektron.se/products/?prod=ES_SPS1-std
http://www.jomox.de/xbase.html

Highly subjective, and people friggin adore the machinedrum Plus, it has a whole bunch of features that smackbox does not have (sample support etc) that I don't plan to add.

Hehe. I mean smackbox is very close to them already regarding the endproduct, the sound. I see this would be a better rival then:
http://www.jomox.de/mbase.html

Otherwise I don't want sample support and I don't want smackbox to be as bloated with features as Machinedrum.

What do you think about an LFO on a drumsynth for controlling some parameters? It could expand the sound palette a lot. Just an idea. I have to admit this little plugin is a very decent and cool drumsynth already.

[Andywanders]

Hey!

SynthMaker requires GDI+, which isn't included by default in Windows 98, this is probably why they don't work for you. IIRC, you can install this.

One stereo + two mono and no stereo-width thingy? I want stereo-width thingy! I think I can come up with something that works for a very small CPU hit. If I can't, I'll leave it to other FX plugs

BTW, FWIW I will soon be going on holiday too. LA ftw!

So if I grab GDI from MS and install it on my 98 box - problem solved..?

Cool..

Thanks and have a nice holiday too.

[stefancrs]

So if I grab GDI from MS and install it on my 98 box - problem solved..?

Cool..

Thanks and have a nice holiday too.

It might be, unless something else is causing the problem. And oh, not GDI, GDI+!

[saulc12]

Ok, the image rescaling makes the screenshot look quite crappy, but anyhoo:


Brief feature-list:
- Two generators, sine and noise with dedicated volume envelopes
- Dedicated pitch envelope for sine generator
- Colour control for the noise generator
- Noise generator can frequency modulate sine generator
- Dedicated morph-able resonant filter for noise generator
- Dedicated "stutter" envelope for noise generator, for claps etc
- Adjustable shape (or "slope") for all envelopes
- Distortion and parametric EQ control for each sound
- Twelve sounds that can be freely mapped over an octave.

Current known issues:
- The sound selector patches sometimes bug out when they "flash" upon note-on.
- High CPU usage (about 9% for four active sounds on Athlon64 3200+). This was ok until yesterday, when I due to a flaw in my design had to remove a whole bunch of optimisations. Will keep on working on this.

And I'm thinking of adding a pan control for each sound, plus that it'd be nice if one could apply some stereo width somehow to the sound. I'm still thinking about that one, making the noise generator truly stereo is not a good option due to the increased CPU usage it would cause.

Anyway! If you're interested in helping out beta-testing this and later maybe building some kits, let me know. I reserve the rights to freely choose which ones to grant beta-tester status! If I do want you to beta-test, I'll mail you the vst and exe versions of this and then you can post feedback here in this thread.

Let me know!

Yo!

edit: SOUND EXAMPLE YAY!!! \o/

must try this - sorry I never noticed this one sooner - I hope the beta is still available...

[grillo]

Hey, just tried it and it's very good, sound has a lot of punch, that's great and inspiring to work with. My only gripes with it are with the velocity controls, uhm, i never seem to be able to get a good control over it and pretty much end up setting them all the way up just to get some dynamics.

and uhm, shouldn't the colour knob be in the noise section? i'm a bit thick with these things, so sorry if i pointed out something stupid.

[lazerkind]

I want stereo-width thingy! I think I can come up with something that works for a very small CPU hit. If I can't, I'll leave it to other FX plugs

Well, I don't see the need for stereo width FX. They usually just causes phase problems. If you implement a pan control per sound then you can set up two pads with the same settings panned left and right. And if the noise and oscillators are free running, triggering both will result in true stereo.

Or do you mean some sort of pan control that was in old Cubase VST?
/Cheers

[stefancrs]

must try this - sorry I never noticed this one sooner - I hope the beta is still available...

You're one of the people already known to me. PM me your e-mail add

[stefancrs]

Hey, just tried it and it's very good, sound has a lot of punch, that's great and inspiring to work with. My only gripes with it are with the velocity controls, uhm, i never seem to be able to get a good control over it and pretty much end up setting them all the way up just to get some dynamics.

But then you do get "full" dynamics, right? Zero velocity = silence etc? Otherwise there's a bug Maybe some editable velocity curve is needed.

and uhm, shouldn't the colour knob be in the noise section? i'm a bit thick with these things, so sorry if i pointed out something stupid.

It really should be, yeah. Makes much more sense.

[stefancrs]

I want stereo-width thingy! I think I can come up with something that works for a very small CPU hit. If I can't, I'll leave it to other FX plugs

Well, I don't see the need for stereo width FX. They usually just causes phase problems. If you implement a pan control per sound then you can set up two pads with the same settings panned left and right. And if the noise and oscillators are free running, triggering both will result in true stereo.

Or do you mean some sort of pan control that was in old Cubase VST?
/Cheers

I don't mean a conventional adjust-phase-thingy-to-fake-stereo effect, but something else that provides stereo width. Noise and oscillators are not free running. I don't want the osc to be, the noise used to be. But I prefer if every hit sounds the same unless some form of modulation (velocity counts as modulation mind you! ) is applied to the sound. You get quite unpredictable bass response with free running stuff.

[R.A.W.]

I don't mean a conventional adjust-phase-thingy-to-fake-stereo effect, but something else that provides stereo width.

this is what i thought when i wrote this:

some "stereo" option would be nice for the noise (another feature of microTonic i really like).

in µTonic you can press a button and then get stereo noise.. i think it's just two noise-gens hard panned left and right. as the noise is random, this isn't like phase-shifting-fake-stereo.

[stefancrs]

in µTonic you can press a button and then get stereo noise.. i think it's just two noise-gens hard panned left and right. as the noise is random, this isn't like phase-shifting-fake-stereo.

Indeed, but I'd like to try to aim for something with slightly lower CPU hit, since I'd have to run both two noise generators and two filters. I might be able to come up with something that works. Or not, we'll see. I should probably investigate the CPU punishment for running it in full stereo too.

[R.A.W.]

in µTonic you can press a button and then get stereo noise.. i think it's just two noise-gens hard panned left and right. as the noise is random, this isn't like phase-shifting-fake-stereo.

Indeed, but I'd like to try to aim for something with slightly lower CPU hit, since I'd have to run both two noise generators and two filters. I might be able to come up with something that works. Or not, we'll see. I should probably investigate the CPU punishment for running it in full stereo too.

tbh i found it using only little cpu on my machine when i tried it yesterday (AMD Athlon 64 2800).. i personally could live with a bit more hit on the cpu, it's far away from being a hog at least on my setup.

[stefancrs]

I will give it a go. Maybe tonight. We'll see.

[dariusofwest]

Yes I want to beta test

check http://hosted.filefront.com/dariusofwest for some of my songs