The DC'12 plugins / apps wishlist topic

[jobromedia]

Since many requests where posted in my topic in my own forum regarding wishes for the Development Challenge 2012 I've converted this topic to cover those aspects. So people, post away! What do you want to see developed this time around? Here's the requests I started with:

Here's a simple wish list from me as a developer regarding what formats and such stuff should be allowed to compete in:

Plugin formats:
* VST / AU / LADSPA / LV2 as usual.
* Kontakt instruments
* Reaktor instruments
* Reaktor effects
* Maize instruments
* Native plugin formats

Applications
* Standard OS native formats (EXE etc)
* Mobile apps (android / ios)

Other stuff
* Collaborations & teamwork

Now a bit more indepth description:

Kontakt instruments:

I own Kontakt, and I really like to work with that sampler. Creating new and intuitive instruments has become more of what I do nowadays. Only requirements should be that the sampler instruments should have the samples provided as WAV / SFZ for instance, so others can enjoy the instruments as well.

Reaktor:

I don't need to say this, but Reaktor opens up a much broader market for my instruments since they allows both PC and MAC users to use the instruments. And don't give me that you can't use Reaktor instruments if you don't own Kontakt or Reaktor. What about NI's players then?

Maize instruments:

This is pretty simply a really good alternative for creating sampled instruments. I wouldn't mind to see people coming up with their own sampler instruments.

Native plugin formats:

Why not? SynthMaker can inside FL SynthMaker export to FL plugins. As long as the plugin can be exported to VST as well then there's really no big fuss about it.

Mobile apps:

Since 2009 mobile music has really sprung forward. My Ipad2 runs djay, beatmaker, iMaschine, Orphion and iKaossilator just to mention a few. This has to be allowed.

Collaborations and teamworks:
As a sight impaired person with just 10% sight on one eye I'd really appreciate if this could be allowed so I can get a really good GUI designer to help me out.

[vurt]

would sample packs be allowed too?
just samples, no specific sampler, just loops or one shots no key mapping
basic and easy to use for everyone?
i have been thinking about doing some stuff, just interesting sounds, for use anywhere anyhow by anybody!

[jobromedia]

I'm not the one who calls the shots here, but to me it sounds pretty good.

[jobromedia]

Please anyone sticky this one?

[stanlea]

Something like this would be cool :

http://rd.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/ ... 12242-2_39

[enroe]

My thoughts on possible new plugins:

There are myriads of plugins in the world.
Thousands of equalizers and compressors ... so if
someone wants to attract the attention of musicians,
producers and the kvr-community he should create
something special: A plugin which doesn't exist now.
Or if it does exist it should allow a better sound-
quality or a lower cpu-consumption.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

concretely I would suggest:

EQs.
-------
If anyone chooses to develop a new equalizer I'd like
to encourage him to NOT stick to the old GUIs derived
from hardware. These only have sliders or knobs - and thus
the usage is not intuitive.

Modern EQ of the 21st century have a frequency-graphic
and edits can be done directly in this grafic window. Most
ergonomic would be the option of show the fft-frequency
in this window, preferably at a low CPU-consumption.
There are some eq-plugins, which do this already. But they
are only a handfull, and there still is room for improvement.

Compressors.
--------------------
That is a difficult field. There are many good compressors,
but each seems to have it's own character. There may be
room for something new.

Saturators.
---------------
Here for me it's the same picture as for compressors: There
are many good saturation plugins. But still - maybe someone
got THE idea?

Pitch-shifter or vocoder
---------------------------------
Here much room, because most if not all pitch-shifter
canNOT do a good quality pitch-shifting for more than a
half tone. Here's a great challange, but it is difficult.

The prospects of a quality pitch-shifter would be huge:
Imagine the creation of chorus-vocal-lines or of choir-
voices.

Audio-to-midi
-------------------
This is also a big field, because it is very difficult to
transform a vocal-line or a guitar-riff into a midi-file.
You can do this with gsnap, kerovee, autotune or melodyne.
But it still lacks convenience - it is still a lot of work. You
have to choose the word-length, to suppress the s-sounds etc.

Audio-slicer
-----------------
This is a nice field of creativity. Every slicer is different,
and new slicing-algos could bring new types of music.

Guitar amp simulations
-----------------------------------
The invention of amp-simulations also is most interesting.
Because many people think that there are some good
ones - also beside the commercial ones (guitarrig, amplitube, ...).
But also musicians think that there is still not one software-amp
that can substitute his hardware-real-valve-amp. This is a
challenge: The real real simulation!

And just like hardware-guitar amps: New guitar simulations
with special sounds and special dynamic response-behaviour
could be very inspiring.

Yeah, but in spite of my suggestions: If you have
a good plugin-idea, then just realize it, no matter what it is.

[JJBiener]

Just my two cents here...it is difficult to come up with an entirely new concept for a plugin. Every once in a while, a new one does come along, but it is rare. If someone is planning on creating a new version of an existing concept, remember the user interface is half the battle. Even if the underlying technology is less than revolutionary, a new interface concept that encourages that technology to be used in a new way would be a strong competitor, in my opinion.

A good example of this is AAS Chromaphone. I bought it when it first came out and it quickly became one of my favorite and most used instruments. It wasn't the first instrument to use physical models for percussion, but the way it is laid out leads me to think about synthesis in new ways. I never have trouble coming up with new sounds every time I reach for it.

I am looking forward to what all the creative minds here come up with.

[wehkah]

The KVR DC is very cool. I also own the NI Komplete stuff with Kontakt/Reaktor etc. But i like more to see some new & good tools. VSTS/AU etc.

Here are my points, maybe good ideas for the devs

What i miss already is a tool like Pinguin audio meter, as plugin, configurable window settings, high resolution. FFT, K-Meters, Spectrum, RMS, Loudness, ISP, Stereoscope, Pitchdetection etc.. Multichannel support to have overlays in the displays would be a great option. I dreamed of a swissknife analyzer for mixing and mastering.

Something like Melodyne would be nice.

No need for for 10 more 3OSC/FM synths or simple EQs/Compressors.

The plugins should support 32/64bit DAWs.

A free sample/patch converter like Translator are doesnt exist. It Should be support all filestypes like Akai, Kontakt, EXS, Reaktor Maps and so forth.

Cheers
T

[No_Use]

Good chance to bump my request here, nobody chimed in

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=355788

I'd still find a VST that measures project working time incredibly useful but I can understand that it's probably too unspectacular for the dev challenge ?

[soundnaut]

Something like this would be cool :

http://rd.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/ ... 12242-2_39

Yea that sounds cool.

[Jace-BeOS]

I challenge someone to make an acoustic environment modeler that also models human hearing. Supporting Macs.

[jobromedia]

What I would like to see: Some really fancy modular synths.

[ghettosynth]

What I would like to see: Some really fancy modular synths.

What does "really fancy" mean to you?

[metamorphosis]

My thoughts. Overall I think previous year's format worked, and worked well. I see absolutely no need to complicate anything or add additional formats. It disperses the energy and focus of the competition, remembering that not many enter. You could end up with one competitor in each category. And that will happen if you expand it.


* VST / AU / LADSPA / LV2 as usual.

Vst is the only one that majority will have access to, and that will influence polling. If you want a popular plugin, make it at least PC VST, and one of the others IF YOU WISH.


* Kontakt instruments

No. I see no point in making this an elitist game that only the more privileged can compete or poll in. Nor do I think kontakt scripting or sampling constitutes programming or is in the same field of difficulty, having done both.


* Reaktor instruments

See above.

* Reaktor effects

See above.

* Maize instruments

See above.


* Native plugin formats

See above.


Applications
* Standard OS native formats (EXE etc)

Yes, but win32 at least for polling.

* Mobile apps (android / ios)

No, again, polling. And frankly I think anyone spending time on developing music apps for these is wasting both their time and phone users time. I've never seen a seriously useful music app for a phone yet. THat may change, but that is the state of play AFAIK.

Those're my thoughts, feel free to disagree.

[jobromedia]

http://www.maizesoft.com/cms/?page_id=48

* VST and Audio Unit player plug-in generation (32 and 64bit).