MrRay73 mk2: public beta test

[parma]

and I'm looking forward to porting this to Mac

[Musical Gym]

I used to play a Rhodes.
I have a Motif 8, a Korg M1, Windows XP, and nice piano skills with the help of a piano roll editor, and a few other gadgets using FLStudio, but have Sonar, Acid, and one or two light versions of SoundForge.
I could test as your basic bones customer if you need one of those.

[ZioKiller]

For all: a public beta test version

Get the file here

Limitations of Demo version:
- shows a nag screen on startup and is muted for about 5 seconds
- black keys sound 'dead' for the upper 3 octaves

Summary of main features:

- Full Polyphony (73 notes E - E)
- No note-stealing
- Adjustable single sound elements (metal, wood, pedal and damper noises)
- 4 stages Phaser effect
- Dual mode Tremolo effect
- Power amp simulation (Suitcase model)
- Adjustable wear of mallets and other elements (Piano Age)
- Fully Midi controllable with MIDI-Learn function
- Very Low CPU and memory usage

Don't forget to have a look at the included Readme.txt file and let me know your comments

Thank you all.
Guido.

[Stupid American Pig]

hmm doesnt seem to scan in sonar 7...

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

hmm doesnt seem to scan in sonar 7...

I can confirm this. Definately not scanning in Sonar 7.

[Stupid American Pig]

testing in FL 7, I would say it sounds very good. I think that the hard dynamics dont quite have the "heft" to them that a real rhodes has, but other than that Im quite please with it. Also didnt like the action of the Amp on /off switch, I would prefer a mouse click anywhere on the control to a click + drag on off motion...

[shamann]

With the decay turned up, it seems to go on forever like a synth (and seems to build up in a high-pitched feedback loop). Should it do that?

The velocity dynamics don't seem to respond as nicely as they did in MrRay73 Mk1. With the power amp off and the mallet noises all turned down, there's an audible click on the attack of every note.

Also when inserting it the instrument in Audiomulch, it seems to interrupt the audio engine, resulting in brief r-r-r-r stutter.

[ZioKiller]

Also didnt like the action of the Amp on /off switch, I would prefer a mouse click anywhere on the control to a click + drag on off motion...

You can click and drag it up and down with the mouse, or click it up to turn the lever up, and down to turn the lever down...

[ZioKiller]

> With the decay turned up, it seems to go on forever like a synth (and seems to build up in a high-pitched feedback loop). Should it do that?

I can fix that, anyway the effect is nice


> The velocity dynamics don't seem to respond as nicely as they did in MrRay73 Mk1.

Infact I was unsure whether or not to add a 'dynamics' scaling feature like in version 1. The Dynamics knob just widens and tightens the available dynamic range.

> With the power amp off and the mallet noises all turned down, there's an audible click on the attack of every note.

That's normal.

> Also when inserting it the instrument in Audiomulch, it seems to interrupt the audio engine, resulting in brief r-r-r-r stutter.

Audio-what?!
OMG, why so many different hosts out there?
This is the usual "wait while I initialize all my stuff" problem that every host and every single computer handles its own way. Fortunately this is a minor issue because you won't insert a plugin while playing or recording.

[shamann]

Fortunately this is a minor issue because you won't insert a plugin while playing or recording.

I do, all the time, when recording live playing.

Unfortunately, MrRay73 Mk1 always does it, too. It's actually the only VSTi I have that does it, so I assume it has something to do with copy-protection initialization routine you've used. I've tested in Ableton Live, Bidule and energyXT, doesn't seem to do it there, so presumably it's some kind of conflict with the way Audiomulch initializes audio for each new plugin.

One thing in Bidule, for some reason, the plugin shows up with a whole bunch of MIDI in and MIDI out ports exposed, aAlthough not in energyXT (the only other host I have that displays MIDI ports).

[ZioKiller]

MrRay73 version 1 was made with Synthedit and some custom sdk module, this one is only c++ code, the only thing they have in common is my name in the about screen

Also the copy protection system is different.

I'm testing my plugins with EnergyXT (1 & 2), Cubase Studio 4.1 and VSThost/SAVIhost and nothing of all you said happens.

MrRay71 v.1 had a sort of speaker protection, it's muted for about 1 second when you load it in the host to prevent a pop coming out of your speakers (must be due to SE internal initialization of something when using DC offsets...)

Anyway thanks for your reports

[Stupid American Pig]

Also didnt like the action of the Amp on /off switch, I would prefer a mouse click anywhere on the control to a click + drag on off motion...

You can click and drag it up and down with the mouse, or click it up to turn the lever up, and down to turn the lever down...

I guess to clarify what I mean here- I would prefer an "on/off" switch to only require a mouse click to toggle its setting. click the control and it changes its value, instead of relying on mouse movement in conjunction with the click.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Ok, the dynamics on this do not feel right at all. There really is almost no bark on this and very little volume difference between a medium velocity hit and a hard one. On my Mark I, the difference between a medium hit and a hard hit is huge, especially in the lower and middle registers. Once you get to that last octave there's almost no difference at all.

Also, the piano age feature would be much better if it changed the dynamic response randomly across some keys instead of dulling the high end. There are keys on my Mark I that I can barely get to bite, and others than want to go into that bite zone a little easier than perhaps they should.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

BTW Guido, if you want MP3s or anything, let me know. My Mark I probably isn't in the best shape, but I think it fairly represents what the average vintage Mark I sounds like.

[ZioKiller]

Hi FET, thanks for your feedback.
My Mark I isn't perfect either, but sounds quite good, is balanced and in very good shape. When I was about to recreate a "not so healthy but very natural" Rhodes piano, many people told me that they preferred a more balanced piano with less irregolarities along the keyboard. Now that I voiced my Rhodes to match what an ideal Rhodes piano should be, and to start to model my new plugin after this piano, there's still someone that prefers a less balanced piano This is very funny, on the other hand it's crazy, sometimes drives me nuts, because many people who haven't any clue of what a real Rhodes sound like, expect that a good plugin sounds like their NordElectro or Motif ES but with more velocity levels and some more tweakability; as opposite, people who do have a real Rhodes and are used to its sound, pretend that a good simulation has that dynamic, that sound, that... whatever.
I always think that the truth is in the middle. So this simulation isn't perfect, like a Rhodes isn't perfect. All my other simulations have something wrong, exactly like the instruments they try to simulate.

Now let's make a distinction between a wanted imperfection and an unwanted bug/error/mistake.
About the dynamics, I'm testing this plugin with a Motif7 keyboard which has a very nice dynamic response and a good touch. But I reckon that not everybody have a good controller keyboard, so I will include at least 2 or three dynamic curver to choose from, like in MrRay73 version 1.

Thanks for your help