KVR Audio

mfa · Post by **mfa** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 3:17 pm

Thank you all for the feedback! I couldn't have anticipated such a positive reaction. I'll try to gather all of the matters you've brought up and post them to the website.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 3:59 pm

I just had a go-round of the presets. I like the way they sound. I like the GUI. The onboard effects are nice. I can almost get a supersaw with your detune effect. I don't know about polyphony. I'm getting a 20% CPU hit on some presets. I'm sure perhaps you can optimize this.
This reminds me a little of Massive, in that it can cut right through a mix. Good job!

saintjohnbaxter · Post by **saintjohnbaxter** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:09 pm

Thank you for this little beauty. Very well done, great fun to play with

mfa · Post by **mfa** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:06 pm

ENV1 wrote:I guess whats most fascinating about this synth is how it is capable of making the most pleasing 'dirt'. Its secret weapon is definitely the 'Drive' knob! More than once i was reminded of that old huge discrete modular i used to spend many an hour in front of as a child (no, not a moog, self-made but it seemed like a building with patch-cables anyhow) and to be honest this is the first time that i had this feeling from playing with a softsynth.

You know, i spent days trying to optimize the drive effect so that it wouldn't use so much CPU. I couldn't. Every alternative way i tried just lost the edge. I'm glad you like it!

Uploaded one patch here.

http://www.kvraudio.com/banks.php?s=lis ... order=date

You can play very short stabs or hold a key for some modulation action.

Oh and...hold on to your limiter!

If its too loud/krass for you turn down the master volume to -6...

Very nice! It's interesting how it behaves in the stereo field when held for a very long time.

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:28 pm

Great synth--sounds wonderful. Two important requests:

1. Midi Assignment for all controls

2. Mod Wheel control for LFO, etc. (or am I missing it?)

Again--well done so far!

ruud07 · Post by **ruud07** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:38 pm

Great synth, definitely a keeper! Many thanks for sharing this plugin

Crackbaby · Post by **Crackbaby** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:50 pm

solovox wrote:Great synth--sounds wonderful. Two important requests:

1. Midi Assignment for all controls

2. Mod Wheel control for LFO, etc. (or am I missing it?)

Again--well done so far!

Rightclick on controls for midi assign would be really cool ..

dave dove · Post by **dave dove** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:15 pm

preset randomizer...
just been messing with cantabile light's randomizer and morphing tool
most fun

dave

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:01 am

mfa wrote: You know, i spent days trying to optimize the drive effect so that it wouldn't use so much CPU. I couldn't. Every alternative way i tried just lost the edge. I'm glad you like it!

Well, whatever you ultimately did, you sure ended up doing it right! The Drive module gives Kairatune character and bite and a 'certain something' which is very hard to put in words. I have heard a lot of synths with drive/overdrive stages and whatnot and it was always pretty much the same; at some point its just unbearable. But Kaira is different, it has a nice way of driving the signal deep into dirtiest territory while still sounding absolutely clean. (I know, clean dirt, that doesnt make much sense linguistically but it sure sounds good!) So if i were you i wouldnt change a thing anymore about how the Drive module works. None whatsoever...

mfa wrote: Very nice! It's interesting how it behaves in the stereo field when held for a very long time.

I thought so too. Lots of nice stuff going on in the sustain. Definitely takes a while till it gets 'old'...

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:40 am

mfa wrote:
ENV1 wrote:I guess whats most fascinating about this synth is how it is capable of making the most pleasing 'dirt'. Its secret weapon is definitely the 'Drive' knob!
You know, i spent days trying to optimize the drive effect so that it wouldn't use so much CPU. I couldn't. Every alternative way i tried just lost the edge. I'm glad you like it!

Good call on the drive. You'll make the people holding on to old CPUs mad, but I say "screw them." The drive sounds fantastic and sound shouldn't really be compromised. Runs on my off the shelf Dell just fine.

Also, good call on keeping it a Monosynth. At a time when even Minimoog simulations are polyphonic, I'd much rather see a monosynth with all the focus on sound quality and not having to worry that polyphony is going to spike your cpu.

I know it's like giving a gift horse a dental exam, but I really did miss the ability to assign CCs to parameters. Even just basic aftertouch and modwheel would be appreciated.

UI looks good too, though I might back off the glow on the text a bit. It would just be easier to read at a distance. Overall it has a nice look and clear layout. Some VSTs make me want to scroll though their presets, yours made me want to tweak as well.

Very good first synth... if this is a taste of what's to come, I imagine we'll see some amazing instruments from you in the future.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:46 am

Two bugservations:

+ When you turn the Vibra knob to the left, it sorta 'hangs' at 100% and you have to move the mouse down real hard to make it 'snap' over the threshold.

+ The Q params of the EQ seem to be offline. (No effect whatsoever.)

Other: I wouldnt have believed it, but Kaira can actually sound like a 303!

Surprisingly 'Acid' - perhaps later i upload a couple of patch variations to demonstrate...

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:09 am

Me again...

Matti, could you check out this preset please:

http://www.kvraudio.com/banks.php?s=lis ... order=date

Hold C2, (so you get the kickdrum), wait until the decay is through, then try to bring in the Drive.

You will notice that the whole synth sort of 'armageddons out', (to coin a phrase).

The culprit is the HPF Resonance. The more you turn it down, the more drive you can give.

Is this behaviour to be expected?

It almost sounds like somethings not quite right, but then it is a really high reso value too, so...

EDIT: PS: If you use a brickwall limiter on the track/master while playing this patch, please turn the synths main volume to -15 or it might sound real crappy. (Better still, temporarily turn off the limiter.) Please do also set the Master Tune one octave lower. I had accidentally uploaded the wrong copy of the preset...

mfa · Post by **mfa** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:12 pm

zerocrossing wrote:Good call on the drive. You'll make the people holding on to old CPUs mad, but I say "screw them." The drive sounds fantastic and sound shouldn't really be compromised. Runs on my off the shelf Dell just fine.

Also, good call on keeping it a Monosynth. At a time when even Minimoog simulations are polyphonic, I'd much rather see a monosynth with all the focus on sound quality and not having to worry that polyphony is going to spike your cpu.

Thanks! It's good to hear that you see this point too.

I know it's like giving a gift horse a dental exam, but I really did miss the ability to assign CCs to parameters. Even just basic aftertouch and modwheel would be appreciated.

Well, i'm not surprised to learn that people expect and miss this kind of basic functionality. The whole MIDI-implementation is really bare minimum. At least solovox requested MIDI assignment and Crackbaby asked for MIDI learn functionality. Better MIDI support is definitely in the plans.

mfa · Post by **mfa** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:21 pm

ENV1 wrote:Two bugservations:

+ When you turn the Vibra knob to the left, it sorta 'hangs' at 100% and you have to move the mouse down real hard to make it 'snap' over the threshold.

Yes i can confirm this is a bug. Quite irritating one i would say.

Have to fix it ASAP, thanks!

+ The Q params of the EQ seem to be offline. (No effect whatsoever.)

This i'm not able to duplicate. The Q and gain work only in certain EQ-modes. The default modes, low shelf and high shelf, use only gain not Q, whereas LPF uses Q but not gain for example. I know it would be better if the ineffective params would be greyed out or something.

mfa · Post by **mfa** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:08 pm

ENV1 wrote:Me again...

Matti, could you check out this preset please:

http://www.kvraudio.com/banks.php?s=lis ... order=date

Hold C2, (so you get the kickdrum), wait until the decay is through, then try to bring in the Drive.

You will notice that the whole synth sort of 'armageddons out', (to coin a phrase).

The culprit is the HPF Resonance. The more you turn it down, the more drive you can give.

Is this behaviour to be expected?

It almost sounds like somethings not quite right, but then it is a really high reso value too, so...

Very interesting sound! I see where you're getting at. The drive kinda works on the up beat if you turn the HPF reso down, but then we lose the kick. When the HPF reso is up, the kick is way louder giving much more distortion than the up beat. And you're right. It sounds so bad that one instinctively thinks that there's something broken.

But there isn't. It just doesn't work like that.

Too bad it doesn't create the desired effect. It would sound great if the distortion would be balanced resulting in one of those acidish sweeps when increasing drive. I suppose some other synth could actually do this with a completely different type of drive effect. Anyway, it's a very interesting problem, just the kind of stuff that's been a major inspiration for the synth from the beginning.

Kairatune, new synth released