Corona 6.0 released

[D N A]

Always wanted to have Discovery but for some reason it seemed a little bit ... overcrowded to me. Corona seems to be "one screen GUI" designed synth - I love such concept. Most synths I love have such design (Gladiator, Toxic Biohazard, V-Station, well Sylenth technically has two tabs but it still has very clean design / workflow etc.)

But I agree with others stating that gui is little bit "too shiny" White labels on "pretty light grey" background dont work too good, also the knobs - hmm I don't know - I look at them and all I see is one big "white mass" I dont have problems with eyes but for some reason it's hard to read "knobs positioning" from the screen (probably because of that "glass effect" on knobs).

but the synth concept is very nice

[Igro]

i really like this synth. where is manual?

[V'ger]

My Vipre antivirus seeing the trojan in there.

Just going to the support forum on the DiscoDSP site I will get a malware warning, the only site in my many years of surfing I have ever got one. It's a png there.

I've warned the author about this long time ago but it's still there.

Too many 'false positives' for my comfort. One of the reasons I've stayed away from Discovery and now this although they both look very tempting.

[george]

Sounds good...
How many presets so far to begin with ?

300+

i really like this synth. where is manual?

http://www.discodsp.com/pdf/corona.pdf

Regarding malware, trojans, etc. I don't know what are you talking about. 100% clean here.

[Shifrin]

As others have commented the GUI is somewhat bright! Not a fan of a big chunk of the presets too - so many of them are drowned in delay (with the same settings over many presets - which strikes me as a little lazy lol)..

However, those oscillator combination operators are very interesting, some fantastic timbres to be had with tweaking! Also, the manual indicates that Corona has WAV capabilities for the oscillators. After some guess work and general mucking around it turns out the 'classic' and 'factory' .dwb files - which are in a discoDsp folder in 'My Documents' - are actually .zip files containing wav's. Be warned though if making your own banks, seems Corona barfs on anything other than 16bit wav files. Some more information regarding this would be appreciated

Shif.

[george]

Also, the manual indicates that Corona has WAV capabilities for the oscillators. After some guess work and general mucking around it turns out the 'classic' and 'factory' .dwb files - which are in a discoDsp folder in 'My Documents' - are actually .zip files containing wav's. Be warned though if making your own banks, seems Corona barfs on anything other than 16bit wav files. Some more information regarding this would be appreciated

Only Factory.dwb and Classics.dwb are supported at the moment. Custom waves will be on a future update.

[metalifuxx]

Funny, I am sippin on a Corona (beer) and just came across this thread. :cheers:

[Igro]

Honestly, this thing sounds really strong. Kudos. Only wish is that oscillator could be bit more brighter. But the quality of the synth is amazing. The bass this thing can make is top notch. Seems like a will pass with DUNE. Corona has a stronger sound.

[george]

As others have commented the GUI is somewhat bright! Not a fan of a big chunk of the presets too - so many of them are drowned in delay (with the same settings over many presets - which strikes me as a little lazy lol)..

By the way give bank 003. Tinga Silk a try. Dry and smooth stuff there.

[Igro]

but cpu usage is high.

[erickUO]

Sounds great, the oscillator wav loading is just what i need
I Like the GUI, simple and not confusing. But it took almost a whole screen.
Agreed about the GUI being too bright. Might buy this

[filter303]

I played with the Corona demo for a few hours and I think that it sounds very good. Im listening from a very small speakers but from what I hear the filters sound pretty good. Especially the "band smash" filter. Very mean sounding filter for sure. The randomizer is brilliant as well. Works really well for changing the tone but not messing with the modulation. Very intelligent feature.

I must also confess that DiscoDSP really hit my weak spot with the included excellent singleshot waveforms from analog synthesizers. I don't understand why George wrote that custom waveforms are not supported yet?
I followed Shifrin's instructions and I was able to make my own waveforms available by comprassing the folder and renaming the .zip as .dwb.

I have some critisism however. I really hope I am not insulting george with my opinions/observations. Some people might get upset for this but here it goes:

1. The cpu usage on this thing is really weird.
It's using 25% of the cpu when I am not playing it. But when I start playing notes the cpu usage actually drops to something like 6-9%. I haven't never seen this kind of behaviour.

2. This thing seems to be really buggy. I am getting some strange problems from time to time when sweeping the filter. It sounds like it's retriggered or something. I am also getting a lot of notes stuck playing.

3. It's too bad that there is no volume knob for oscillator 1. It would be very useful if you find a good sound for some other oscillator and you don't want to use anything else except for that one sound source. You have to find the same sound for oscillator 1 if you want to do that. It's pretty annoying.

4. I was also a bit dissapointed to find out that oscillator phase or sync is not working wav files but only with the va oscillators.

5. One more bug that I find: If you select a noise waveform for oscillator 2 and play a note the sound does not sustain.

6. That drift control is way too subtle. I can't even hear it do anything.

7. I think it's also a bit strange to put the limiter release and gr meter to different places? This synth needs some rethinking with the gui IMO. All this could have been put out better somehow. Now it can take a long time to understand how it works.

8. I wonder why other envelopes have the options for lin/exp etc except the modulation envelope. Wouldn't it be nice to have it option for this envelope also?

9. Too slow lfo rates for my taste. How about giving the lfo's a slow/fast switch to give the user a possibility for some more extreme sound shaping.

10. The chorus is way too simple. Give us other options than on/off. Speed + depth would be nice Or at least a few different presets.

11. All the tempo synced features are put out in a strange way. I am not sure if I am the only one who thinks that it could be improved.

12. Why there are no labels for unison mode knob and slider?

13. The unison mode sounds like it's detuning more if you use it in 2 voices than if you had 3 or 4 voice unison. I found out that I needed to adjust the detune knob quite a lot if I changed the setting from 3 or 4 voices to 2 voices

14. Why not give us more unison sounds. I don't think 4 is enough for some sounds.

15. The filter drive affects the resonance too much. If you use much drive it starts to sound like it's reducing the resonance. It does not sound cool IMO. I think this feature needs a bit of finetuning.

16. There is modulation button 1-4 and 5-8. Why not give a lfo and envelope for each of these. It's a digital synth afterall.. The more modulation options the better.

17. Could be brighter. Someone said that the sound could be brighter.. well.. I pretty much agree with him on this one.

18. No pwm???

I should probably have been your betatester

If some of these things are not true, please enlighten me. If I did something wrong or missed a feature I am willing to admit it as long as someone guides me. I am always ready to learn.

I have a bit mixed feelings if I should buy this thing or not. Corona could have been a must have for me but now it's just a "maybe". I am just thinking about the free atlantis vsti and what it can do for the single cycle waveforms. There is pwm, sync, morphing... Too bad it's even more buggy than corona

[Nimrod7]

Can't get the demo either. Grabs Discovery Pro demo.

I am using safari, if that matters.

George, maybe you could provide a direct link.

[ao_ks]

Wow ... I need to check thsi synth out ... congrats on the new release

[Vstsoundbanks]

2. I am getting some strange problems from time to time when sweeping the filter. It sounds like it's retriggered or something. I am also getting a lot of notes stuck playing.

Is it possible that the FILTER's LFO DEPTH is on just a bit? Depending on the chosen waveform and MODE that can cause the filter to retrigger.

I don't know about the stuck notes, I didn't get that behaviour. But sometimes when going too quickly through presets there is a short weird transition sound.

3. It's too bad that there is no volume knob for oscillator 1. It would be very useful if you find a good sound for some other oscillator and you don't want to use anything else except for that one sound source. You have to find the same sound for oscillator 1 if you want to do that. It's pretty annoying.

True.

5. One more bug that I find: If you select a noise waveform for oscillator 2 and play a note the sound does not sustain.

With the NOISE Oscillator the FINE knob controls the decay time. The SEMI knob controls the brightness. One of those little things you just have to figure out reading the manual. However the labels do change when you select the Noise waveform.

6. That drift control is way too subtle. I can't even hear it do anything.

It is pretty subtle in almost all cases; it all depends on how the oscillators and combine modes work together.
Unlike the LEAKAGE control which can really leak!

8. I wonder why other envelopes have the options for lin/exp etc except the modulation envelope. Wouldn't it be nice to have it option for this envelope also?

Yes!
And I really do like the envelope curves you can select on this synth! They are very very useful.

10. The chorus is way too simple. Give us other options than on/off. Speed + depth would be nice Or at least a few different presets.

I've never been a big fan of chorus. Using unison usually sounds better to me. But as more options to fiddle with I'll go with yes. This one seems to affect the stereo spread a bit too much.

11. All the tempo synced features are put out in a strange way. I am not sure if I am the only one who thinks that it could be improved.

Well, you do get used to it pretty fast in my opinion, and once you're used to it you don't really think about it anymore, you just select what you need. But what do you have in mind?

12. Why there are no labels for unison mode knob and slider?

I think to keep the top row even? Just guessing. George will know. But once you move the knob and slider it's pretty easy to realize that the knob detunes, and the slider adjusts the stereo spread of the sound.

13. The unison mode sounds like it's detuning more if you use it in 2 voices than if you had 3 or 4 voice unison. I found out that I needed to adjust the detune knob quite a lot if I changed the setting from 3 or 4 voices to 2 voices

That may be true but it might also be our perception of the sound. With the same settings 2 voices will sound further apart than 3 or 4.

14. Why not give us more unison sounds. I don't think 4 is enough for some sounds.

I'll agree, the more I can control the detuning of saw waves the better but it probably has something to do with the maximum Polyphony amount and overall CPU usage.

4 unison voices do seem to do the job. I would like to be able to control the volumes though for the different octaves if the OCTAVE button is on. The top and bottom octaves can be a bit overpowering the basic sound you have going on.

16. There is modulation button 1-4 and 5-8. Why not give a lfo and envelope for each of these. It's a digital synth afterall.. The more modulation options the better.

Wouldn't that be the same as to just select the modulation LFO or Modulation Envelope as a source?
But a second Modulation LFO and Envelope will be useful if you are already using one for something.