Valo - demo version public beta

[mystran]

These things aren't a problem for experienced users, but I imagine it would make it harder for newbies.

As I've pointed out, I'm looking for the best possible solution, being fully aware that more accurate information will need to be on the GUI and some form of labeling or something will have to be added. The fact is, that is going to be some non-trivial amount of work, and I didn't postpone a public sample, because I wanted to hear what the general response to the sound would be.

You see, it's not that great to work on something that you have absolutely now idea if people are going to like it at all...

Anyway, ignoring full GUI redesign (which isn't impossible, considering that the GUI is relatively modular thing internally), high on my TODO list are at least:

- tooltips for actual values of all knobs
- some sort of indicators as to what parameters are unipolar/bipolar
- longer versions of the text-labels in the popup-menus (the current layout limits space available on the widgets themselves)
- the ability to step the oscillator tuning in semitones...

There are probably half a million other things that I should do eventually, but you have to start somewhere. I also admit I'm considering a more flexible routing system for modulations (I'm not currently happy with what I have and the audio-code could handle more I guess), but I don't want to grow the size of the GUI needlessly, and on the other hand I'd like to keep elements large enough that they aren't impossible to hit with a mouse.

Anyway, is it really THAT confusing?

[rifftrax]

Wonderful.

Did a REALLY quick demo myself (mostly trying to use my awful presets) with 9 instances of Valo, and a Yohng W1 on master (to tame the peaks). Resisted doing any EQ or even panning, just basic level mixing. No samples, no other plugins.

Found here: http://mystran.googlepages.com/ValoX9.mp3

the 303 mockup you did with this instrument is amazing. speaks worlds. this plug is pretty capable.

[mystran]

Ok, to give some perspective, the audio side of of the core synthesizer (the effects obviously aren't too special) took several years of research and development to get where they currently are, since I wanted to give it a character different from the standard stuff. I'm starting to believe it might not have been totally wasted effort.

The GUI it currently has (ignoring the graphics library which I did at some point for general purpose use, but counting the modulation system I guess) I could probably rewrite in a week or so. The hard part obviously is design. The current design is a compromise between the goals I originally set: everything visible at once, yet not too huge window.

I ultimately wrote the synth for myself, and for my own use the GUI is fine. But I realize that since I'm offering (or planning to offer in the future) this for sale, it is not sufficient to please myself.

Unfortunately I cannot afford to hire anyone else to do the GUI design for me. As a matter of fact, I might even have to take a small break (or slow-down) in development in the near future in order to refinance myself again. We'll see, but that's why I admit maybe rushing a release a bit.

But please, suggestions are welcome. Please voice your opinions. Now is the best time for me to take everyone's opinions into account. As soon as I've got the first paying customer (if that ever happens), I'm going to more restricted in what I can do (as I don't want to sell one thing, and give 'em another thing in the end). That's one of the main reasons there isn't a buy-now link anywhere yet.

My current plan is that there will never be any time-limitations or annoying sound interruptions in the demo versions, so even if you had no intention of becoming a customer, you might want to voice your opinion in case you ever want to use Valo for that one bass or lead or whatever that calls for it's character.

And for very angry mobster, thank you for your valuable feedback.

[rifftrax]

how much will this be at its release? ballpark range?

[mystran]

how much will this be at its release? ballpark range?

Somewhere on page 2(?) I think I gave an estimate at around 50 euro or so, at least initially. Not likely much more anyway.

I don't want to set the price too high, but I want to be able to offer updates free forever, and there's a ton of things I'd like to see in it eventually.

[rifftrax]

nice. i might have to look into it then.

[very angry mobster]

Sorry Mystran, I've gotten the wrong impression. I thought the GUI was only going to be developed a little more. I didn't want to be super critical, more "don't stop development yet as the first release is promising".

I'm looking forward to seeing Valo develop.

[napalmbob]

Maybe try getting in touch with Grymmjack or Artvera or another graphic designer that hangs around KVR.

[osiris]

Like this very much & am in agreement about the GUI. There are so many envelopes here I don't know what goes to what. My wishlist: More voices. Unison with detune (would really push this over the top), an arp. Unfortunately, 50 euros = 79$... out of my price range.

[mystran]

Like this very much & am in agreement about the GUI. There are so many envelopes here I don't know what goes to what. My wishlist: More voices. Unison with detune (would really push this over the top), an arp. Unfortunately, 50 euros = 79$... out of my price range.

I'm going to upload a new version with a "info-display" added to the GUI hopefully today, and I'm trying to figure out if I can have the current layout accommodate some more labels as well. The "display" currently (in dev version) shows actual values for the knob currently tweaked, but it still lacks more helpful names for the parameters, and I'm working to have it also show related values (say stuff like tune/finetune for an oscillator added together)... Hopefully that'll make the GUI less hostile until I can think of something better.

The voice limitation is something that is really just a demo limitation (sorry). The version I made the example sound with (since I needed several instances as well) would happily go to 16 voices (well in the voices menu it gives me 4/8/12/16 in addition to mono/legato). Even that's really just an arbitrary limit defined at compile-time, so trivially adjustable.

As for unison with detune, I've been thinking of that. Doing it the trivial way wouldn't be hard either, but I'd like to do it such that only the audio signals are calculated separately for each unison voice (so you don't need to pay the CPU to regenerate identical control signals), and that'll mean some restructuring of certain parts of my code.

Arpeggio? Basic arpeggio I'm not so interested in doing, because a good host, or a separate MIDI plugin can do that already. Step sequencer I've been thinking about (and that could probably double as arpeggio as well), but I guess I'll have to do a million other things first.

[mystran]

Ok, uploaded new version (didn't update screenshot yet) that has some sort of an info-display...

That's a rather quick implementation, so it's not quite perfect, but should provide some band-aid for figuring out what does what and what are the ranges and so on..

Things that still don't so quite so accurate info are the LFO amounts (it just shows generic percentage) and ... I really wanna make it show related parameters with a smaller text when tweaking one parameter, but that's some more work, and I'm not sure if I can complete that today, and I didn't want to wait...

So... hmmh.. does that help any?

Right-click on the info-display also gives a menu of presets.

In the (right-click anywhere except controls) colorscheme chooser menu there's also now a "Full-view" option that allows collapsing the GUI into just the first line. Whether it's useful yet is questionable, but I'd like to hear if it works, or if it causes any trouble on anyones host...

New version identifies "pb1e"..

[mystran]

Unfortunately, 50 euros = 79$... out of my price range.

Weak dollar isn't fun. I know..

[mystran]

Two things: first, it would be very nice, if people would post "works/fails on XXX" if they've tested it, so I know if somebody somewhere is having trouble.

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The other: do people have interest in buying this thing as "early adopters" in it's current form, let's say to support the development, while it's still getting updates daily?

Full version will be otherwise identical, but no limitations on the number of instances, and max voice limitation at 16 (or more if somebody needs more).

There are basically two reasons I'm asking:

1. Should I keep concentrating on working the thing, or take a day or two to get the full version to the point where I can let it out of the door?

2. I'm also wondering whether there'd be enough interest that it would finance couple of weeks more of full-time development, before I have to go do "real" work again.

Nobody's reported any serious bugs, so it seems the thing is stable, and as such there shouldn't be any big problems for me to start accepting money from interested users.

I'm pretty sure the initial release price will be at 50 euro, but I might be willing to offer it at 40 euro until I can officially call it 1.0; upgrade policy is going to be "valid for all 1.x versions", but no less than full year from purchase. But if I decide to sell early adopters, those will start counting the year from the first 1.0 release.

So if you're interested, drop me a private message here, or send mail to mystran@gmail.com (I'll get a proper mail with proper domain as soon as I can afford such things again).

Updates to the demo will continue for now, but like I said, I'd like to get an idea if there's any interest whatsoever for a full version.

[mystran]

Time for an updated..

There was a serious bug after all (or two related bugs actually):

- LFO1 when set to filter, now no longer runs double-fast or does other strangeness
- Both LFOs will now properly reset on note-on like they should (was broken by some preset handling stuff)

Less critical fix (introduced in last version) the display now properly says "Osc2 Pulse-Width" when tweaking Osc2 pulse-width; there was typo and it said Osc1 for both PW knobs.

There might be other small fixes.

Anyway, in the version "pb1f" we have the newly introduced display show a selection of related parameters crammed with a small font below the information about the knob that's being tweaked. I'm looking to make it look prettier, but at least there's some more information now.

Oh and .... knob positions can now be copied/pasted (within Valo anyway) in case anybody has any use for that (say wanna match certain envelope times exactly, or whatever).

Info display for LFOs still only displays percentages for amount, and some other similar info might be lacking somewhere... would love to find if anyone finds any..

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Anyway, think I'm going to go sleep, and when I wake up, I might think of actually adding some new features, like ... mm... the still-missing MIDI learn thingie.

[mystran]

Since my pretty little thread isn't on the first page anymore, I guess it's time for a new update...

Today the daily updated only gives:

- minor feature additions to the display (nobody ever commented if it's any good?)
- the ability to use multi-saw waveforms in oscillator2 (multi-saw won't sync though)
- 3 new (quickly made) presets making use of the dual-multi-saw ability
- 1 new colorscheme 'cos I got bored looking at the same old ones..

I'll update some screenshots shortly, and try to provide some non-trancy sound examples as well (I tried do some jazzy stuff but it turned out too awful).