VAZ Modular feature requests

[vstliefhebber]

Make ability to create the assignable "control knobs", (like in NI reaktor)with adjustabe ranges of control values.

You can do that already with the "fixed value" slider and connect them the e.g the cutoff modulation slots of 2 filters, or PWM of 7 osc's etc...
The rename the "fixed value" slider and learn midi.

[mojogigolo]

1.
Ability to link sliders & controls together,(when you build a stereo synth, filter controls of "L" and "R" channels working separately, or make "stereo fiter" module); or ability to learn many VAZ knobs (both "cutoff" sliders) from one midi-controller knob.
2.
Stereo Multisaw/Multisquare Osc, with "stereo spread" knob and, maybe, "retrigger"(fixed starting phase of oscillators) button, two mono multisaw osc's in L & R gives different effect in stereo-field (very smooth & cool, but for some uses - too wide), than "supersaw/hypersaw" in roland/virus or sylenth1.
OR
Make ability to create the assignable "control knobs", (like in NI reaktor)
with adjustabe ranges of control values.
E.g. - I create 7 saw osc's, then one knob, then assing this knob on "detune" value of oscillators, for one osc control multiplier be "1", second - "-1"
thrid - "0.8" or "1.2" etc...
Or i create one knob and assing it to "cutoff" of 2 or more filters, or knob (button), that changes "saw" or "pulse" waveform on all 7 oscs simultaneously...

You shoud ask me "why don't you just use reaktor for that", i answer - VAZ sounding is much better and interesting (more musically), than reaktor's in all aspects (oscs, filters, etc...)

re no 2 - get either a normal or multi oscillator, amp up the voice count (unison mode), send the sound output to the panner, then set the pan position to be modulated by the voice count module - the lower voices will pan left, the higher to the right, etc.

[vadz]

MIDI out feature (from sequencer) strongly wanted!!

[chomub-ini]

Hello Martin!
thanks again for your great software

recently tested 3.20 Beta. It worked stable in standalone mode and able to read old patches correctly

interesting new Oscillators and improvement in Filters

some open issues (or just my wishes that might be shared by other users):roll:

- too narrow range for LFOs; IMHO it could be done better like 0.01...0.5 Hz /range switch/ 0.1...5 Hz/range switch/ 1...50 Hz

- Slew Limiter doesn't process LFOs correctly; may be it's possible to make several ranges for slew limit rate and include short times to process (20 Hz +) audio? Square wave often sound too rude as modulation source; in theory square wave passing slew limit should become rump or saw, but in fact not exactly. Might be also interesting to adjust/modulate slew time within some ms range

- base architecture of the sequencer makes it usefull for 4/4 140 bpm dance music, but there's some of inconvenience playing downtempo and other then 3/4 + 4/4 beats.
with more master clock precision it's solvable using dividers; may be set tempo ranges as well?

- it might be my personal idiosyncrasy, but couldn't find a way to divide signal to positive and negative phase for further separate processing. That would be useful for phaze distortion type of things. I still occasionaly use Casio CZ-1 and CZ-1 extended replica constructed in Clavia G2 editor. Interesting how that would sound in VAZ

[MadGav]

Hi chromub-ini,

LFOs: The range of the simple Tri LFO is roughly 0.02 - 200 Hz, which isn't far off? Is a 50s period too short for what you want?

Slew Limiter: You're right about this, but luckily I think the new Smooth and Slope (Follow mode) modules will do what you want.

Sequencers: Can you be more specific about the difficulty? If you explain the workaround in detail then I'll hopefully get an idea of what could change.

CZ: On this front what do you think of the Cosmo Oscs? To separate positive and negative portions of a waveform I can think of a few approaches, but the simplest would be a MinMax 2-Input module with the oscillator patched to 1 side, then the Max output is the top half, the Min output the bottom half. Assuming this is what you mean by phase?


Martin

[chomub-ini]

LFOs: The range of the simple Tri LFO is roughly 0.02 - 200 Hz, which isn't far off? Is a 50s period too short for what you want?
Martin

it's good range. But sometime I would prefer slower modulation rates and/or more precision while adjusting frequency. Some soft/hard synths extend it as low as 0,001 Hz
Sure, the dividers are there as well; slower LFO rate just gives more room for experimentation

Slew Limiter: You're right about this, but luckily I think the new Smooth and Slope (Follow mode) modules will do what you want.
Martin

thanks, didn't mentioned that during the first run. Also found interesting to process LFO with Smooth/Slope after Slew Lim

Sequencers: Can you be more specific about the difficulty? If you explain the workaround in detail then I'll hopefully get an idea of what could change.
Martin

Seq module is convenient but a bit too square to my tastes. Sure many people would disagree upon such definition. So let me explain more.

- The initial pattern length is based on number 16; that's like most of TB & TR vintage techno boxes and that's convenient for playing 4 x 4/4. Sure if I want longer pattern I can combine two or more basic ones; but playing like that makes more difficult real time pattern tweaking. If I do 4 x 6/6 or 8 x 6/8 why not make it longer like it's possible in Akai MPC machines (and newer Rolands)?

- I would also like some more precision for tempo adjustment. Not really sure if other users would care about it. However, the option of playing 240 BPM is there, and not everyone plays so fast either.

CZ: On this front what do you think of the Cosmo Oscs? To separate positive and negative portions of a waveform I can think of a few approaches, but the simplest would be a MinMax 2-Input module with the oscillator patched to 1 side, then the Max output is the top half, the Min output the bottom half. Assuming this is what you mean by phase?
Martin

Cosmo Oscs are great! Use those in most of my patches since v.3.04
However, I mean different thing. Like passing an Osc via non-linear AB class amp instead of an linear A. So after A (+ amplitude) split with B (-amplitude) it's possible to apply 2 distortion units with different envelopes to A and B. Not exactly old good CZ-1 but sounds interesting

[MadGav]

Hi chomub-ini,

One way to get really long LFO cycle times is to use the Tempo LFO module with a high number of beats and a low tempo.

For the sequencers would 32 steps make a big difference?

Martin

[mojogigolo]

32 steps would be ace.
i would still like an option where you can program the sequencer as it plays - whenever you hit a key, it opens the gate, and the note gets set (wherever the play-position is up to).
Id also love it if the glitch tempo went out to 16 beats, rather than stop at 4.
Also - when you host vaz in a vsti host, and make an arp with the vaz sequencer, in effect, the notes you send get arped. if you are using standalone, you can just play your keyboard. If you could somehow hook up a 2nd cv sequencer that would send the notes to be arped, in the same way that the notes from the host get treated? I.e. one sequencer is your arp pattern, the second is the one that sends the notes to be arped.

It would also be good to have some way of retrigering the grains in the gran osc with a pulse (you could get better accuracy when remixing loops, and not have to risk messing up the waveform by pulling the grain size in really tight.

i second the idea of getting a retrig on the multiosc/s.

If its not too weird, the option of setting different clock divisions on each row of the control sequencer?

a feedback oscillator, made more or less from the comb filter, but with proper tuning and modulation slots (all the options of the normal oscillator).

an lfo where you could set the top and bottom range, so you wouldnt have to fiddle with tuning if you (for instance) wanted to sweep between as 16th speed and triplet speed LFO.

I think ive mentioned it, but the ability to tie A/B controllers on the CV seq to incoming velocity, so you could step program your notes, and the sequencer would record how hard you input it.

i'd LOVE some sort of automatic DC click removal - something that would (somehow) make sure waveforms arent chopping each other off at non-zero points, so old notes always finish on zero, and even in mono mode with osc retrig on trigger input, there would never be a click when a new note is triggered.

[Winstontaneous]

32 steps would be ace.
i would still like an option where you can program the sequencer as it plays - whenever you hit a key, it opens the gate, and the note gets set (wherever the play-position is up to).
Id also love it if the glitch tempo went out to 16 beats, rather than stop at 4.

If its not too weird, the option of setting different clock divisions on each row of the control sequencer?

a feedback oscillator, made more or less from the comb filter, but with proper tuning and modulation slots (all the options of the normal oscillator).

an lfo where you could set the top and bottom range, so you wouldnt have to fiddle with tuning if you (for instance) wanted to sweep between as 16th speed and triplet speed LFO.

I think ive mentioned it, but the ability to tie A/B controllers on the CV seq to incoming velocity, so you could step program your notes, and the sequencer would record how hard you input it.

Many good suggestions in this thread. I've wished for a lot of the ones in mojogigolo's post. Thanks for the ongoing improvements & additions, MadGav!

[zerocrossing]

I just (finally) picked this one up myself and it sounds superb! Definitely scratched my modular yearnings. One quick think that hits me is that all the modules look the same. It's nice that you can change their color, but it would be better if you could do this universally, ie all oscs have a color or color family and all filters have a different one. It might even be nice to have some "branding." Just a little style difference (not layout of functionality) in the background and UI elements that would let you quickly identify a module without having to read it's name. While it's nice you've kept things very compact for a small screen, it suffers in terms of readability.

Also, a modern preset system and browser would be really welcome. Look at the way FXpansion did there's. NI has a nice implementation as well. If modules could have their own presets... boy howdy!

[koalaboy]

It might even be nice to have some "branding." Just a little style difference (not layout of functionality) in the background and UI elements that would let you quickly identify a module without having to read it's name.

User-defineable skins on a per-module basis !!!

[Kritical Audio]

Before making anymore new features a MAC version would be nice right?

[Winstontaneous]

Being able to define/load subpatches would be wonderful.

Plus, after using the Nord Modular editor and u-he ACE demos, I'd love to have the option to set pitch scaling on all OSCs (not just sine) by harmonic partial number. I know this can be done using SCALA .TUN files either globally or per synth (or Quantize module) but the results are not always what I expect when sequencing/arpeggiating/modulating.

It doesn't seem like there's currently a way to get CV/Trigger/Control seqs to react to mod sources per synth (or each other)...that would be fantastic. Don't get me wrong, the current "Clock to Trig" "Send to Tempo" and "Send to Gate" options are great.

Also, how about a new color, purple?
Orange, black, and white are obviously out due to their use in text fields. IMO purple would go great with the cosmic sounds VAZ emits!

[mojogigolo]

the colours option is simple, but would be great. theres already a few to choose from, but once you assign each section a colour, you soon run out.
ANY features that let you visually navigate like that would be ace. like if you hovered over a modulation source/ input, it would highlight the position of the source module on the screen, for easier navigation.

[kingtubby]

ANY features that let you visually navigate like that would be ace. like if you hovered over a modulation source/ input, it would highlight the position of the source module on the screen, for easier navigation.

Agreed - I made a similar suggestion on page 4 of this thread.

Mart.