Looking for plugin type taxonomic categorization opinions

[runagate]

Hola. For those that remember me from back in the day no, I'm not dead. Close there for a while bur it hasn't stopped me from wanting to improve our computer-aided music-making field.

I've been writing the specification documentation for some software my programmer friend, Armz, and I are making (and actually is already in progress this time!) part of which involves making a canonical categorization scheme for audioware plugins in a branching, taxonomic hierarchy.

If anyone wants to fully investigate my rationale for digging deeply into this subject (which, years ago now, inspired me to take a sabbatical from making music with VSts and try to imagine the future of digital audio in a grand, megalomaniacal project) and read in depth about the subject, you can access my FX Categorization Essay Word document on my SkyDrive here (and note that, if you don't use MS Office, its just as easily accessible if you open it in their "web app," and please feel free to add comments by selecting text, right-clicking it, and "Add Comment")here:

Plugin FX Categorization Essay, Synthesis Categorization Essay, Unclassifiable VST FX Essay

Note that it was written long ago, hasn't been edited, and hasn't been updated in the interim.

Now, what I'm here to ask ya'll about is your opinion about audioware plugin categorization.

I'm working from the assumption that, obviously, many plugins could easily be tucked into many more than one category, but that in cases where one has only the space or the time to choose one to label a plugin with, we will use something called the Taxa Branch Identifier, TBI for short.

For instance, the current top tier of taxa are:

Instruments
Effects
Processors
MIDI
Utilities

Now anyone who has ever read anything I've written knows I like to digress in endless circumlocutions, but there's no easy way around it when it comes to categorizing the wild zoo of plugins out there (ask Linnaeus). For instance, the term "Instruments" will have to suffice, since "sound generators" is just too clunky. Also, "Audio Effects" are a sub-category of "Audio Processors" but here is defined essentially as "special effects, not equalizers, compressors, and things more considered "engineering tools," though obviously there's no hard demarcation between them.
The "MIDI plugins" category includes things that generate MIDI output (such as sequencers or a "MIDI LFO") and things that filter MIDI messages, such as a "velocity curve" imposing plugin, a MIDI Channel re-router (say, one that takes incoming messages on MIDI Channel 1 and changes them to MIDI Channel 9), etc. "Utilities" is the remainder of plugins that don't fit the prior categories, such as Audio Visualization plugins, Notepad-type VSTs, etc.

If you think there's a better smallish set of top tier categories, give your opinion here.

Now, being taxonomic, each plugin would be categorized into branches, for instance:

Effects > Cross-Modulation FX > Frequency Modulation (FM)
Instruments > Synthesizers > Scanning Synthesis
Instruments > Samplers > ROMpler > Drum ROMpler
Utility > Audio Visualization > Spectrogram
MIDI > MIDI Generators > MIDI Sequencer
MIDI > MIDI Filters > MIDI Polarity Inverter

Here's the provisional list I'm working from (I've a much longer list, but this is enough for now) and I'll stop by to explain why some things get stuck into some categories and not others for general educational purposes.

(edit to insert most recent taxonomy update - I left in the original list, but made it tiny, so subsequent responses still make sense later)

Code: Select all

1)	INSTRUMENTS
a.	Synthesizers
i.	Additive Synthesis
ii.	Frequency Modulation Synthesis
iii.	Granular Synthesis
iv.	Hybrid Synthesis (synths that use multiple synthesis methods)
v.	Physical Modelling Synthesis
vi.	Ring Modulation Synthesis
vii.	Spectral Synthesis
viii.	Virtual Analog Synthesis (OSCs & VCOs & usually VCAs thus "Subtractive Synthesis")
1.	VA Subtractive
2.	VA non-Subtractive? (i.e. doesn't use resonant filters)
ix.	Wavedraw Oscillator Synthesis
x.	Wavetable Synthesis
1.	Scanned Synthesis
2.	Image Oscillator Synthesis
b.	Samplers
i.	Sampler
ii.	ROMpler
iii.	Looper (of pre-recorded audio, as opposed to live audio input capture)
2)	EFFECTS
a.	Amplitude Modulation (AM)
i.	Amplitude Envelope
1.	Swell Effect
ii.	Rhythmic Gater
iii.	Tremolo
b.	Auditomod (audio-analysis as a modulation source)
i.	Drum Sample Replacer
ii.	Audio-Driven Drum Synthesizer (e.g. Groove Analogizer by NUSofting)
iii.	Audio-Driven Synth (e.g. Grumblebum by Tweakbench; sometimes I think of these as "resynthesis fx")
1.	Pitch-Tracking Oscillator(s)
c.	Buffer Delay Effects
i.	Buffer Stutterer
1.	Timestretch
2.	Repearter/Freezer
ii.	Granulization
1.	Granulization Delay
2.	Grain Cloud
iii.	Looper
1.	Loaded Loop Slicer/Sequencer
2.	Live Audio Input Slicer/Re-Sequencer
iv.	Varispeed
1.	Tapestop Effect
2.	Backwards Playback Effect
3.	Varispeed Audio Scrubbing
d.	Chorus Fx
i.	Chorus
ii.	Choir/Ensemble Effect
iii.	Voice Doubler
e.	Comb & Resonator FX
i.	Comb Filter Bank
ii.	Resonator Effect
f.	Convolution
i.	Convolution Reverb
ii.	Impulse Response Hardware Emulation
g.	Cross-Modulation
i.	Frequency Modulation (FM)
ii.	Phase Distortion (PD)
iii.	Phase Vocoder
iv.	Ring Modulation (RM)
v.	Spectral Morphing (2-audio input cross-convolution generally)
vi.	FFT Vocoder
vii.	Time Domain Vocoder
h.	Delay FX (likely separate these all into their own categories?)
i.	Distortion
i.	Clipper
ii.	Waveshaper
1.	Odd or Even Order Harmonic Distortion via low-order Chebyshev Polynomials (e.g. Soundhack +chebyshev VSTfx)
j.	Filter FX (resonant filters and modulated filter effects)
i.	Filter Bank
ii.	Enveloper Filter
iii.	Sequenced Filter
iv.	Low Pass Filter
v.	Band Pass Filter
vi.	Peaking Filter (Band Pass Plus)
vii.	Bend Reject Filter
viii.	Notch Filter
k.	Flanger FX
l.	Formant FX
i.	Formant Filter
1.	Vowelizer
ii.	Formant Shifter
m.	Frequency Shifters
i.	Pitch Shifter FX
1.	Harmonizer
2.	Pitch Correction (auto-tuner)
3.	Flutter Correction (possibly should be in Processor Taxa?)
4.	Octaver
ii.	Vibrato
n.	Hardware Simulators
i.	AmpSim
ii.	SpeakerSim
1.	Leslie Speaker Effect
iii.	MicSim
iv.	TubeSim
v.	TapeSim
o.	Lo-Fi Effects
i.	Bitcrusher (almost all Bitcrusher FX include Sample Decimation)
ii.	Sample Decimation
iii.	Vinylizer
p.	Multi-Fx Unit
q.	Panning Effects
i.	Autopan
ii.	Rotary Effect
iii.	Doppler Effect
r.	Phaser FX
s.	Physical Modeling FX (not sure if these belong together or sorted based on end result?)
i.	PM Plate Reverb
ii.	PM Analog Circuit Model Emulation of Gear?
iii.	PM String Resonator
t.	Reverb FX
i.	Instrumental Resonation Emulation (e.g. acoustic guitar soundboard simulation)
u.	Resynthesis FX
i.	Subharmonic Enhancement (adds bass synth to original signal)
ii.	Resynthesizer (various types, e.g. Additive, simple audio-tracking synth trigger, see Bojo Software's WaveChanger 3 VSTfx, DFX Geometer VSTfx or Lost Technology VSTfx)
v.	Spatial Effects
i.	Binaural 3D
3)	PROCESSORS
a.	AGC (Automatic Gain Compensation)
b.	Bass Enhancement
c.	Channel Strip (multi-processor equivalent to multi-fx)
i.	N-Track Mixer
d.	Dithering
e.	Dynamics Processors
i.	Compander
ii.	Compressor
iii.	Expander
iv.	Limiter
v.	Maximizer
vi.	Transient Shaper
vii.	Dynamic EQ
f.	Equalizers (EQ)
i.	Graphic EQ
ii.	Parametric EQ
g.	Exciter
h.	Filter Processors
i.	Filter Bank
ii.	Multi-Filter (multiple filter types)
iii.	Low Pass
iv.	High Pass
v.	Band Reject
vi.	Band Pass
vii.	Peak Filter
viii.	Notch Filter
i.	Latency Compensation Delay
j.	Noise Removal
i.	De-Clicker
ii.	De-Esser
iii.	De-Noiser
iv.	De-Clipper
v.	De-Crackler
vi.	De-Hisser
k.	Normalization
l.	Phase Correction
i.	Vocal Remover
m.	Routing Audio
i.	Audio AUX Bus (see MixBox VST by Tobybear)
ii.	Modular Routing Matrix
iii.	Stereo Splitter (to two mono channels)
iv.	Multiband Splitter
v.	Multiband Joiner (e.g. 3-Band Joiner VST by LOSER/Michael Gruhn)
vi.	Cross-Fader(s)
vii.	Crossover Multiband-Splitting to separate channels
viii.	Audio Summing Bus
ix.	Stereo Merger (two mono inputs into one stereo channel, useful for example for vocoder plugins that expect their two inputs on either side of a stereo pair; see Merger VST by Expert Sleepers)
x.	Transient-detecting Output Switcher (switches output channel each time a transient is detected in the input audio; see SwitcherPack by RedShift Media)
n.	Saturation
o.	Stereo Field Processing
i.	Stereoizer (from a mono input)
ii.	Monoizer
iii.	Stereo Width Processor
iv.	Mid-Side Processors
1.	M/S Encoder
2.	M/S Decoder
4)	MIDI
a.	MIDI Generators
i.	Audio Analysis as MIDI Note Message Source
1.	Audio Gate for Piezo Drum Pads (e.g. Drum Direction by FrettedSynth)
2.	Pitch-Tracking Note Generator
ii.	MIDI Note Generator
1.	Piano Roll
2.	Step Sequencer
3.	Tracker
4.	Matrix Sequencer
5.	Algorithmic MIDI Note Generator
6.	Stochastic MIDI Note Generator
iii.	MIDI Modulation Source
1.	MIDI LFO
2.	MIDI Step Sequencer
iv.	MIDI Program Change Messages
v.	MIDI SysEx (system exlusive) Messages
vi.	MIDI Arpeggiator
vii.	MIDI Auto-Chorder
viii.	MIDI Algorithmic Note Generator
ix.	MIDI Clock output (e.g. Clocker VST by Expert Sleepers)
x.	MIDI Stochastic Note Generator
xi.	MIDI GUI Interface
1.	GUI Instrument Control Surface
a.	Piano Keyboard
b.	Strum Pad
c.	Drum Pads
2.	MIDI XY Pad
a.	MIDI XYZ Pad
b.	MIDI XYZ Pad with Physics Emulation (ricochet, inertia, orbital)
3.	GUI DAW Control Surface
a.	GUI Mixer
b.	Mackie Control Universal GUI
xii.	Control Surface for specific External Hardware (synth, MIDI controller, etc.)
xiii.	MIDI Morphing (interpolate between two MIDI parameter settings then outputs them, see Middi Morphy VST by d3ck)
b.	MIDI Filters
i.	Audio-Analysis as MIDI Modulation Source
1.	Amplitude to MIDI
2.	Enveloper Detector to MIDI
3.	Frequency to MIDI
a.	Pitch to MIDI
4.	Zero-Crossing to MIDI
5.	Beat Counter to MIDI Tempo
ii.	MIDI Note Filters
1.	Force to Range (e.g. octave transposition, or a particular scale/mode)
2.	MIDI Note Velocity Control Curve
3.	MIDI Arpeggiator
4.	MIDI Note Velocity-Controlled MIDI Channel Switcher (see J's VST plugins)
5.	MIDI Chord Note-Channel-Switcher (see J's MIDI Tools VSTs)
6.	MIDI Note Delay
7.	MIDI Note Recorder/Playback/Looper
8.	MIDI Note Scale/Mode Quantizing
9.	Polyphony Limiter
10.	MIDI Sostenuto (Sustain Pedal Simulator)
iii.	Channel Rerouters
iv.	MIDI to QWERTY (see midi2qwerty VST by piz)
v.	CC# Filters
1.	MIDI CC Stepper (un-smooths incoming data)
2.	MIDI CC Control Curve Remapper/Editor (see NicFit's Control Curve VST)
3.	MIDI CC Smoother
4.	MIDI CC Re-Router (see MIDI patch bay VST by Daniel Smith Music)
5.	MIDI CC Jitter/Humanization/Randomizer
6.	MIDI CC Morpher
7.	MIDI CC Value Limiter
8.	MIDI CC Value Inverter
9.	MIDI Aftertouch to CC
10.	MIDI Monitor visualization?
5)	UTILITIES ("Other")
a.	Audio Analyzer/Visualization
i.	Spectrogram
ii.	Phase Correlation Meter
iii.	Peak Meter
iv.	Stereoscope
v.	Tempo Detector/Beat Counter
vi.	Waveform Visualizer
vii.	Loudness Analyzer
viii.	Oscilloscope
ix.	VU Meter
x.	Spectrum Analyzer
xi.	Sonogram
xii.	Bit Depth Meter
1.	Inter-Sample Distortion Meter
xiii.	Tuner (usually a Guitar Tuner)
b.	Audio Recorder
i.	N-Track Recorder
ii.	Wav File Recorder
iii.	Pre-Roll Recorder
c.	Controller Integration External HID (to MIDI or automation)
i.	ASCII to MIDI
1.	QWERTY keyboard to MIDI
ii.	Mouse to MIDI
1.	3D Mouse to MIDI
iii.	Touch Tablet to MIDI
iv.	Wiimote to MIDI
v.	Joystick/Gamepad to MIDI
d.	Information Feedback Utilities
i.	Clock (Bars/Bears/Ticks, Hours/Minutes/Seconds/Frames)
ii.	Time Counter (opposite of a Stop Watch)
iii.	Sheet Music Display
iv.	Notepad
v.	Metronome (whether outputs audio ticks or MIDI)
e.	External DSP Integration (e.g. MatPlug by IHA, which connects the VST-interface with Matlab)
f.	VST Host as VST (e.g. Usine as VST, FL Studio as VST, Acon Digital Media's EffectChainer VST)

(1) "INSTRUMENTS"
(A) SYNTHESIZERS
Synthesizers - Additive Synthesis
Synthesizers - Frequency Modulation Synthesis
Synthesizers - Granular Synthesis
Synthesizers - Hybrid Synthesis (the TBI for anything that utilizes more that one of these other types of synthesis seems the best fit)
Synthesizers - Image Oscillator Synthesis
Synthesizers - Physical Modeling Synthesis
Synthesizers - Ring Modulation Synthesis
Synthesizers - Scanned Synthesis
Synthesizers - Spectral Synthesis
Synthesizers - Virtual Analog Synthesis (usually "Subtractive Synthesis", which really just meant synths with OSCs and VCOs that use VCAs, the "subtractive" part just means "uses filters to shape the sound", though not all VA Synths include filters)
Synthesizers - Wavedraw Oscillator Synthesis
Synthesizers - Wavetable Synthesis (Scanned and Image Oscillator may really be subcategories of this one?)
(B) SAMPLE SYNTHESIS
Samplers
Samplers - Drum Sampler
ROMplers
ROMplers - Drum ROMpler
(both included in only these couple examples to stimulate feedback)
Loopers

(2) "EFFECTS"
(A) AMPLITUDE MODULATION FX
Amplitude Modulation - Tremolo
Amplitude Modulation - Amplitude Envelope
Amplitude Modulation - Amplitude Envelope - Swell Effect
Amplitude Modulation - Rhythmic Gater (as opposed to the Gate Processor type)
(B) BUFFER DELAY FX
Buffer Delay FX - Varispeed
Buffer Delay FX - Varispeed - Tapestop FX
Buffer Delay FX - Varispeed - Wow'n'Flutter FX
Buffer Delay FX - Varispeed - Audio Reversing FX
Buffer Delay FX - Granulization Delay
Buffer Delay FX - Grnulization - Grain Cloud
Buffer Delay FX - Buffer Stutterer
Buffer Delay FX - Looper
Buffer Delay FX - Looper - Loaded Loop Slicer/Sequencer
Buffer Delay FX - Looper - Live Audio Input Slicer/Re-Sequencer
(C) CONVOLUTION FX
Convolution FX - Convolution Reverb
Convolution FX - Impulse Response Emulation (usually take IRs of vintage hardware and uses them in an emulation, usually a Processor, though)
(D) CROSS-MODULATION FX
Cross-Modulation FX - Frequency Modulation
Cross-Modulation FX - Phase Distortion
Cross-Modulation FX - Phase Vocoder
Cross-Modulation FX - Ring Modulation
Cross-Modulation FX - Spectral Morphing
(E) DELAY FX
Delay FX - Resonator FX (usually allpass filter banks)
Delay FX - Chorus FX
Delay FX - Chorus FX - Choir/Ensemble FX
Delay FX - Comb Filter Bank
Delay FX - Echo FX (usually what we call "Delay effects," for clarity; and there's many subcategories)
Delay FX - Flanger (sub-Hass microdelay that comb filters sounds)
Delay FX - Phaser (ditto)
Delay FX - Reverb FX
(F) DISTORTION FX
Distortion FX - Clipper
Distortion FX - Waveshaper
(G) FILTER FX
Filter FX - Filter Bank
Filter FX - Envelope Filter
(H) FREQUENCY SHIFTER FX
Frequency Shifter FX - Pitch Shifter FX
Frequency Shifter FX - Pitch Shifter FX - Harmonizer
Frequency Shifter FX - Pitch Shifter FX - Pitch Correction (auto-tuner)
Frequency Shifter FX - Vibrato FX
(I) HARDWARE EMULATION FX (other than Convolution-type)
Hardware Emulation FX - AmpSim
Hardware Emulation FX - SpeakerSim
Hardware Emulation FX - SpeakerSim - Leslie FX
Hardware Emulation FX - MicSim
Hardware Emulation FX - TubeSim
(J) LO-FI FX
Lo-Fi FX - Bitcrusher FX
Lo-Fi FX - Sample Decimator FX
Lo-Fi FX - Vinylizer
(K) MULTI-FX
(L) PANNER FX
Panner FX - Autopan FX
Panner FX - Rotary FX
Panner FX - Doppler FX (could equally be Freq Shift & AM effects, and they're usually based on Buffer Delay DSP...)
(M) SPATIAL FX
Spatial FX - Binaural 3D HRTF FX

(3) "PROCESSORS"
(A) BASS ENHANCEMENT
Bass Enhancement - Sub-Harmonic Replacement Processor
(B) DITHERING
(C) DYNAMICS PROCESSORS
Dynamics Processors - Compander
Dynamics Processors - Compressor
Dynamics Processors - Expander
Dynamics Processors - Limiter
Dynamics Processors - Maximizer
Dynamics Processors - Transient Shaper
Dynamics Processors - Dynamic Equalizer
(D) EXCITERS
(E) NOISE REMOVAL
Noise Removal - De-Clicker
Noise Removal - De-Esser
Noise Removal - De-Noiser
Noise Removal - De-Clipper
Noise Removal - De-Crackler
Noise Removal - De-Hisser
(F) PHASE CORRECTION
(G) SATURATION
(H) STEREO FIELD PROCESSING
Stereo Field Processing - Stereoizer (from a mono input)
Stereo Field Processing - Stereo-to-Mono
Stereo Field Processing - Stereo Width Processor

(4) "MIDI"
(A) MIDI GENERATORS
(B) MIDI FILTERS

(5) "UTILITIES"
(A) Audio Visualization
Audio Visualization - Spectrogram
Audio Visualization - Loudness Analyzer
Audio Visualization - Inter-Sample Distortion Meter

I feel that's long enough for now. Please feel free to add anything, split hairs, and in particular, if you're an audioware plugin developer, list what you think best fits your plugins so I can create the best, canonical categorization taxonomy.

Also, if you're interested in the software my partner and I are working on, and what it'll do that'll benefit developers (it's obvious how it'll help users, once we get it out into the world), and especially if you'd like to lend a hand, drop me a PM.

(edited to add correct link to Categorization Essays, which now works)

[runagate]

"Buffer Delay FX"

There's two main types of "Delay Effects." The first is what we traditionally call "delays": those that create echoes.

The other kind is based on the modulation of delay time, the phase of the resulting delayed copies of the input audio (which is what echoes are, too) as well as using "microdelay" delay times, that is the ones that rely on the psychoacoustic "Haas Effect." Wikipedia says this about the Haas Effect:

• The Haas effect is a psychoacoustic effect, described in 1949 by Helmut Haas in his Ph.D. thesis. It is often equated with the underlying precedence effect (or law of the first wavefront).
  
  In 1951 Haas examined how the perception of speech is affected in the presence of a single, coherent sound reflection. To create anechoic conditions, the experiment was carried out on the rooftop of a freestanding building. Another test was carried out in a room with a reverberation time of 1.6 ms. The test signal (recorded speech) was emitted from two similar loudspeakers at locations 45° to the left and to the right in 3 m distance to the listener.
  
  Haas found that humans localize sound sources in the direction of the first arriving sound despite the presence of a single reflection from a different direction. A single auditory event is perceived. A reflection arriving later than 1 ms after the direct sound increases the perceived level and spaciousness (more precisely the perceived width of the sound source). A single reflection arriving within 5 to 30 ms can be up to 10 dB louder than the direct sound without being perceived as a secondary auditory event (echo). This time span varies with the reflection level. If the direct sound is coming from the same direction the listener is facing, the reflection's direction has no significant effect on the results. A reflection with attenuated higher frequencies expands the time span that echo suppression is active.[clarification needed] Increased room reverberation time also expands the time span of echo suppression.

As a rule of thumb, the microdelays used in Chorus effects create a "thickening" of the sound, but no distinct echoes. The result of flangers and phasers is caused by "comb filtering." Longer delays are perceived as echoes.

But what I'm categorizing as Buffer FX here are different. Not due to the underlying DSP so much as the ends to which they're used. All digital delays record a short segment of incoming audio, the "buffer," and, after a delay, output the audio. Buffer FX differ aesthetically. There's two types I'm suggesting categories for here.

The first is "Varispeed" Buffer FX. These take the buffered audio and change the playback speed, and thus the pitch, much in the way that would occur speeding up or slowing down an audio tape recording. Thus TapeStop effects (where the audio slows until it stops) fall into this category. Confusingly, the types of DSP and buffer interpolation math used in some regular echo effects essentially sound like this kind of effect when the User manually assigns some modulation source to the plugin's delay time parameter, something I've used quite a lot in songs.

The second kind of Buffer FX are Stutterers, like the legendary Buffer Override VST or arcDev's Blittr. They don't necessarily change the buffered audio's playback but instead slice them into segments, often repeating the same segment repeatedly, often in a rhythmic way. Another sub-category of these, though I don't think this is the traditional way to categorize them, is the granulization delays, including "grain cloud" effects.

Do you agree/disagree? Certainly I claim no deep insight into these mathematical processes. In fact, I've always wondered about the two "flavors" of interpolation, which sound very different to me, used in many delay plugins which create such distinct results when their delay time parameters are automated, but have never been able to convey examples clearly enough to any developers so they can explain wtf is going on.

[JJBiener]

Here is a proposed addition for MIDI plugins:

(4) "MIDI"
(A) MIDI PROCESSORS
MIDI Processors - Sequencers
MIDI Processors - Sequencers - Recording
MIDI Processors - Sequencers - Playback
MIDI Processors - Sequencers - Drum Machine/Beatbox
MIDI Processors - Arpeggiators
MIDI Processors - Generators
MIDI Processors - Generators - Algorithmic
MIDI Processors - Generators - Stochastic

(B) MIDI FILTERS

[Quietinthedark]

My initial reaction is filled with bias.

One I am biased due to how I tend to think of effects when I go to use them. Two I am biased by the prevailing admittedly less logical taxonomies.

Those biases lead to something I can't answer though, which is what the purpose of this list.

If the list were for people to find plugins easily, I think I would inform some hierarchy decisions by the these criteria.

For example, reverb is often discussed separately from delay. Your inclusion of it under delay is of course logical, but I assume reverb is classed separately by many sites/literature for the same reason I do it in my plugins folder. I use them at different points in the chain..generally. Or the title of that category could be 'reverb and delay'.

Now, I think that many sites put convolution reverb under reverb, but I in fact think of it the same way you have here.

I also think some synthesizer categories could be merged. Here, I make be illinformed. All the image related synths I have used, I have thought of as being a type of subtractive, additive etc. synth.

I also don't understand the functional purpose of multiple modulation categories.

I tend to think of all tubes, tapes, and other non-emulating saturation in one category, but your organization would work just as well for me (or better acknowledging that my folder of that category is quite large)

Otherwise, it all is consistent with my thinking.




IMHO

Quiet

[runagate]

Thanks for contributing, JJBiener. Please, anyone, add anything you can think of.

Quiet, I completely agree with everything you just said. I am a musician, first and foremost, and resisted even thinking about such things until I grew frustrated. I guess I should say here that the point is to make things easy to find, and to disrupt workflow as little as possible. We musicians tend to think of things in terms of the end result they produce. These tools are our palette. In fact, having wondered why it is that over the years those that made the tools I use always expressed wonder at how in hell I managed to design sounds with their creations that they never anticipated nor imagined, I realized that they tend to think in reductionist terms, figuring out how to make complicated structures out of all the little components required to work in harmony to become the plugin they've dreamed up (by necessity, and I assure you writing software specifications in the interim has re-taught me just how onerous such rigorous logical consistency can be!) whereas we musicians think in higher-order terms, attempting to find ways to make what we imagine happen with the tools available. We have to resist stopping to think about the whys of every little thing or get bogged down and lost inspiration, or sidetrack our workflow - it's very important while, say, playing a guitar, that one not ponder how the fret's string ratios effect what pitch is heard, or the odd fact that pitch is a human perception that cannot always be directly tied to the fundamental frequency of a noise, or how exactly our hands seem to memorize what to play while our conscious minds are engaged in thinking ahead, otherwise it all quickly breaks down.

Aside from the categorization, which I'm trying to find the best fit for which I already know there's no best answer, but probably at least better answers than others, there'll also be an extensive list of canonical "Traits," for lack of better term. All of which someone can use to quickly search and sort through plugins anyways. For instance, if someone wants "saturation," all of them will be labeled as such, no matter where in the taxonomy they appear. The TBI is essentially the label stuck to plugins that one would see at first glance, the best quick summary when there's no room to show more or time to look further. Imagine if, when installing plugins, you actually knew what they did aside from perhaps remembering something about the description from the plugin's name.

For instance, when getting the last KVR Developer Challenge's plugin entries, I quickly had a folder full of installers, zip and rar archives, and had to sit there with the Dev Challenge webpage open and try to decide where to put each one in my own VST plugin directory's folder structure - but at least then all the disparate plugins had some sort of description all in one place. That's certainly not the case when, say, reinstalling one's operating system and being confronted with (if you remember to have saved them at all), in my case, about 1000 VST installers and such. And once, when I used them daily, I honestly did know what they did, wrote about all of them, used all of them, designed presets and corresponded with their developers in many cases. Some of us are like that. I'm interested in helping the field as a whole, and what I'm talking about here is really only a tiny corner of that, but something I feel KVRians can easily help with; the community is much wiser than I am.

The weird thing about most algorithmic delays is that they usually use delayed buffered audio copies run through AllPass filters (which change the phase of the audio, if I'm not mistaken, so they're kind of like flangers/phasers) or they involve Feedback Delay Networks... neither of which I any longer feel qualified to describe but likely are described well (by quoting others) in that essay I never finished I linked above.

Part of the thesis behind that essay, and I seem to remember I wasn't trying to defend a particular position but pick apart why effect (and, written elsewhere, synths) categorization is so mindbending, is that, in effect, the way we think about them involves several, rarely conscious, criteria:

1) The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that underlies a plugin's effects, which really just comes down to the maths employed

2) The modulation that's included in the signal flow. For instance, there's no real DSP difference, necessarily, between a Step Sequenced Resonant Filter and a Wah wah effect, except the modulation type. So I spend some time picking apart the types of modulation, automation, etc. (in my four years of writing more than 2 dozen notebooks full of specs in handwritten notebooks and tons of digital documents I think I fully dealt with that, but it'd be hard to summarize here!)

3) The intended end result, regardless of how it's achieved - for instance, how you and I would think of something simply as a "saturation" processor, regardless of whether it came from a Waveshaper (using Chebychev polynomials; don't ask me what that math is, I just recall that used with Waveshaping Resynthesis it sounds like even-ordered harmonic saturation), a Tube simulation, a Tape emulation, etc.

4) Kind of the same as (3), the traditional and culturally conditioned uses from the past we associate certain sounds with. Tubas remind one of polka, marching bands, early New Orleans jazz; dub delays remind us of dub; supersaws of trance; solid state distortion with 80's power metal; VA synth brass with Vangelis; so no matter what else is involved in the sound design of some effect or synthesis flavors, we're predisposed to associate them with a particular context.

As to "Traits," of which I've already got quite a list and will likely eventually come back here asking for opinions here, we already have a de facto standard when it comes to one category.

We have 32-bit VST and 64-bit VSTs, but also make a differentiation between "prior to VST SDK v3" and "VST v3" plugins, as almost no DAWs yet handle VST v3 plugins yet (Cubase, obviously, and FL recently added support in a beta)... .let alone the most recent VST SDK v3.5.2 plugins, which genuinely adds some useful features... about 12 years after they should have already been included, but it's progress we rarely see around here. So typically one has to differentiate between 32bit/<v3, 32bit/>v3, 64bit/<v3 and 64bit/>v3 VSTs. Notably, whether a DAW is 64-bit for use with, say, larger hard disks, larger (>4GB?) audio files, and use of larger amounts of RAM is a totally separate thing from whether it can handle 64-bit plugins.

I was stunned, years ago, by the far-sighted design of the LV2 plugin standard (sequel to Linux's LADSPA plugin standard) but, being that it'll never be adopted by a critical mass of users, it's almost self-torture to check it out.

[runagate]

Effects - Filter FX - Formant Filter
Effects - Filter FX - Formant Filter - Vowelizer

There's a terminological confusion surrounding the word "formant," which appears to come from the field of phonetics, but nowadays some people use to mean the harmonic overtone contour of any noise. To quote Wikipedia,

Formants are defined by Gunnar Fant as 'the spectral peaks of the sound spectrum |P(f)|' of the voice. In speech science and phonetics, formant is also used to mean an acoustic resonance of the human vocal tract. It is often measured as an amplitude peak in the frequency spectrum of the sound, using a spectrogram (in the figure) or a spectrum analyzer, though in vowels spoken with a high fundamental frequency, as in a female or child voice, the frequency of the resonance may lie between the widely-spread harmonics and hence no peak is visible. In acoustics, it refers to a peak in the sound envelope and/or to a resonance in sound sources, notably musical instruments, as well as that of sound chambers. Thus it is possible to talk about the formant frequencies of a room, as exploited, for example, by Alvin Lucier in his piece I Am Sitting in a Room.

Now, I can't really decide where to put effects such as xoxo's Formant Shifter VST. To us, it doesn't really matter whether something is a filter or a spectral effect that happens to shift formants... my best guess at the moment is that it would get stuck under Spectral FX, not that where they end up is especially important.

[runagate]

MIDI - MIDI Output - GUI Controls (such as insertpizhere's Drum Pads for touchscreens or an X-Y Pad plugin which outputs MIDI CC# data.

UTILITIES - HID Controller
HID stands for "human interface device," and this category of plugin includes such things as VSTs that allow hardware joysticks, 3D mice, multi-touch tablets, etc. to be integrated as controllers for VSTs, presumably outputting MIDI but seem best shelved under "Utilities."

What about Vector Synthesis, which seems to me a subset of VA Synths?
These seem different to me from a couple of my favorite synths, dlM's Metamorph and Jellyfish, which have morphing oscillators and several types of cross-modulation of oscillators, respectively. Sometimes categorization is a Procrustean bed, which is why there's going to be a few other ways of dealing with plugin characteristics. So the more unique or feature-rich plugins will be filed under rather broad categories more often than not, at least for the "TBI"; of course, all branches which represent a plugin will be used, this whole discussion is about the most general but also best-fitting taxa.

[runagate]

Popped over to Gersic's big plugin database cuz I remembered the Analyzer list is pretty nice over there:


UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Stereoscope
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Phase Meter
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Peak Meter
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Bit Depth Meter
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Tempo Detector/Beat Counter
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - VU Meter
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Waveform Visualizer
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Oscilloscope
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Spectrum Analyzer
UTILITIES - Audio Analyzer - Sonogram

[runagate]

I seem to recall people around here being a bit more opinionated! Still looking for opinions - but glad this hasn't inspired a flame war, at least

[runagate]

BUFFER DELAY FX - Varispeed Fx - Backwards Playback Effect (e.g. Reversinator)
BUFFER DELAY FX - Varispeed Fx - Incoming Audio Scratching/Scrubbing Effect
BUFFER DELAY FX - Buffer Stutter Fx - Timestretch

[JJBiener]

I admit that I understand completely the reasons behind making such a taxonomy. I also understand why many people organize their plugins in DAWs by function. As is often the case, I seem to be an outlier here. I have my plugins sorted by manufacturer. That seemed to make more sense since so many of my plugins have multiple functions. Very few are what be referred to as unitaskers. Suppose I was looking for Alchemy? Would I look under sampler, VA, Granular or something else. With effects it is even more problematic. Most of the ones I use are multifunction. I usually know what it is I want to use, so it is easier for me to look under the manufacturer. But as I said, that's just me.

The taxonomy though is interesting in its own right no matter what use it is put to.

[jancivil]

I have Cubase organize by vendor, that's the simplest view there.

As far as searching otherwise, I would not typically look for reverb under delay. There is no good reason to get into differences of semantics I think but I wouldn't even have considered that.

[Quietinthedark]

Aside from the categorization, which I'm trying to find the best fit for which I already know there's no best answer, but probably at least better answers than others, there'll also be an extensive list of canonical "Traits," for lack of better term. All of which someone can use to quickly search and sort through plugins anyways. For instance, if someone wants "saturation," all of them will be labeled as such, no matter where in the taxonomy they appear. The TBI is essentially the label stuck to plugins that one would see at first glance, the best quick summary when there's no room to show more or time to look further. Imagine if, when installing plugins, you actually knew what they did aside from perhaps remembering something about the description from the plugin's name.

For instance, when getting the last KVR Developer Challenge's plugin entries, I quickly had a folder full of installers, zip and rar archives, and had to sit there with the Dev Challenge webpage open and try to decide where to put each one in my own VST plugin directory's folder structure - but at least then all the disparate plugins had some sort of description all in one place. That's certainly not the case when, say, reinstalling one's operating system and being confronted with (if you remember to have saved them at all), in my case, about 1000 VST installers and such. And once, when I used them daily, I honestly did know what they did, wrote about all of them, used all of them, designed presets and corresponded with their developers in many cases. Some of us are like that. I'm interested in helping the field as a whole, and what I'm talking about here is really only a tiny corner of that, but something I feel KVRians can easily help with; the community is much wiser than I am.

The weird thing about most algorithmic delays is that they usually use delayed buffered audio copies run through AllPass filters (which change the phase of the audio, if I'm not mistaken, so they're kind of like flangers/phasers) or they involve Feedback Delay Networks... neither of which I any longer feel qualified to describe but likely are described well (by quoting others) in that essay I never finished I linked above.

Part of the thesis behind that essay, and I seem to remember I wasn't trying to defend a particular position but pick apart why effect (and, written elsewhere, synths) categorization is so mindbending, is that, in effect, the way we think about them involves several, rarely conscious, criteria:

1) The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that underlies a plugin's effects, which really just comes down to the maths employed

2) The modulation that's included in the signal flow. For instance, there's no real DSP difference, necessarily, between a Step Sequenced Resonant Filter and a Wah wah effect, except the modulation type. So I spend some time picking apart the types of modulation, automation, etc. (in my four years of writing more than 2 dozen notebooks full of specs in handwritten notebooks and tons of digital documents I think I fully dealt with that, but it'd be hard to summarize here!)

3) The intended end result, regardless of how it's achieved - for instance, how you and I would think of something simply as a "saturation" processor, regardless of whether it came from a Waveshaper (using Chebychev polynomials; don't ask me what that math is, I just recall that used with Waveshaping Resynthesis it sounds like even-ordered harmonic saturation), a Tube simulation, a Tape emulation, etc.

4) Kind of the same as (3), the traditional and culturally conditioned uses from the past we associate certain sounds with. Tubas remind one of polka, marching bands, early New Orleans jazz; dub delays remind us of dub; supersaws of trance; solid state distortion with 80's power metal; VA synth brass with Vangelis; so no matter what else is involved in the sound design of some effect or synthesis flavors, we're predisposed to associate them with a particular context.

As to "Traits," of which I've already got quite a list and will likely eventually come back here asking for opinions here, we already have a de facto standard when it comes to one category.
.....

That's they would be essentially cross-referenced by 'traits' sounds very promising.

I have the plugins I use regularly organized into category folders, almost identical to your top and second tier levels (#s)(letters). The workflow issue is when I need something not from my usual arsenal or when I don't know what I am looking for quite yet and am experimenting with options. With the hundreds of plugs I might have for a task, I sometimes forget about some of them.

So here is one reason I like Reaper. It is very easy to 'rename' effects. I put abbreviation suffixes for what you could call traits (tube) (lim) (subtract) (gran) for example, which makes the search function bring those effects up when I type the trait. You can add as many tags as you want, but I don't have any that I've added more than 3. I wouldn't add, for example, (rev) or (del) to a synth that had reverb or delay since it is usually quite incidental and frankly I have never found a plugin or hardware synth that had decent reverb.

But to your list, which I've read a few times now, there isn't much to criticize.

If it leans to the side of scientific over pragmatic, it may be just as well. It would probably be helpful for many people to organize their thinking more like this. For pragmatics, I'm sure any system will continue to have 'favorites' so that people can have a shorter quick list to go to.

[runagate]

I admit that I understand completely the reasons behind making such a taxonomy. I also understand why many people organize their plugins in DAWs by function. As is often the case, I seem to be an outlier here. I have my plugins sorted by manufacturer. That seemed to make more sense since so many of my plugins have multiple functions. Very few are what be referred to as unitaskers. Suppose I was looking for Alchemy? Would I look under sampler, VA, Granular or something else. With effects it is even more problematic. Most of the ones I use are multifunction. I usually know what it is I want to use, so it is easier for me to look under the manufacturer. But as I said, that's just me.

The taxonomy though is interesting in its own right no matter what use it is put to.

What I'm working on won't actually require VSTs to be installed in any particular location. The reason I personally go to the bother is that I have an unfathomable number of VSTs (by no means all of which are installed in this particular iteration of having to reinstall Windows, but partially I'm worried about losing our history) and that one of the DAWs I use, Usine, allows browsing plugins by collapsible folder structure, so having them by category makes it a lot easier to run into VSTs I haven't used in a while. Happily stumbled onto sq-glitchbot once again yesterday

The way this scheme will title VSTs with "headwords" for each entry is this formula: "<VST name><VSTi or VSTfx> by <Vendor name>" as I definitely agree that the plugins' developers name is incredibly important, not least for remembering wtf a VST is, and differentiating the innumerable similarly-named ones.

Then again, your comments made me add extra "by Developer" features to a new subproject, so thanks again. I'm bad at names, but just remembered yours from 2005 despite recalling that you didn't post here all that much unlike, say, Mr. Addled Muppet

Hi jancivil. Long time no see! I'm reorganizing delay fx based on ya'll's opinions, which I really appreciate. Notably, the system will be capable of adapting as things progress, but there's no reason not to get it right the first time, which is why I'm asking.

That's they would be essentially cross-referenced by 'traits' sounds very promising.

I have the plugins I use regularly organized into category folders, almost identical to your top and second tier levels (#s)(letters). The workflow issue is when I need something not from my usual arsenal or when I don't know what I am looking for quite yet and am experimenting with options. With the hundreds of plugs I might have for a task, I sometimes forget about some of them.

So here is one reason I like Reaper. It is very easy to 'rename' effects. I put abbreviation suffixes for what you could call traits (tube) (lim) (subtract) (gran) for example, which makes the search function bring those effects up when I type the trait. You can add as many tags as you want, but I don't have any that I've added more than 3. I wouldn't add, for example, (rev) or (del) to a synth that had reverb or delay since it is usually quite incidental and frankly I have never found a plugin or hardware synth that had decent reverb.

But to your list, which I've read a few times now, there isn't much to criticize.

If it leans to the side of scientific over pragmatic, it may be just as well. It would probably be helpful for many people to organize their thinking more like this. For pragmatics, I'm sure any system will continue to have 'favorites' so that people can have a shorter quick list to go to.

Interesting info, Quiet. I had no idea Reaper could do that. My Reaper license is for what I imagine is a very old version by now. That's an amazing feature and I've been utterly mystified as to why, for instance, FL Studio, with the best piano roll of them all workflow-wise, makes sorting VSTs a nightmare - likely cuz they're tarnce-makers and don't like the idea of using many plugins

How about this for reorganizing delay/modulation fx (modulation fx is hilariously imprecise, since anything can be modulated):

Delay FX - various kinds of echo fx (ping-pong, dub, multi-tap, etc.)
Chorus FX
Chorus FX - Ensemble/Choir (a subtype of choruses)
Flangers
Phasers
Reverbs

but I genuinely don't know what to do with Resonators (so far as I know this refers to Allpass Filter delay networks, and I have and use a lot of them) and Comb Filters. For that matter I've never been able to figure out if Comb Filter Banks are all of a type, DSP-wise, but I know I use combs and resonators for pretty much the same thing. Certainly they don't sound like flangers or reverbs. Perhaps I'll settle on Comb Filter FX - Comb Filter Bank, and Comb Filter FX - Resonator Effect for now. I would supply example VSTs but it's been a brain-mashing morning of technical details working on specifications already.

As to favorites, I planned a provision for that. Is there a DAW that allows such a thing?

As to a "scientific" orientation, it's been a long time coming. I asked about a billion questions here before deciding I'd better just read everything I could, then when I got into my big project I read all of Wikipedia having anything to do with DSP, 600 research papers (gf at the time was in university and I had access to papers), etc. You'll be interested to know that anything that gets coined as a Taxa category name or Trait will also have a definition and article explaining wtf it means, in case that's useful - and also readily available, hopefully once again aiding workflow.

But I thank you for your helpful suggestions.

[SODDI]

It's probably not welcome, but here I go adding my 2 cents. But I thought about it first.

Taxonomically speaking, synths should probably be divided into three or four subfamilies, based on their actual synthesis "engines". Of course, all plug-in synths are purely digital, strictly speaking. In addition, I dropped the dedicated drum types as their engines don't really differ from
(A) SYNTHESIZERS
1. Digital Synthesizers
a.) Frequency Modulation Synthesis
b.) Phase distortion (Casio style)
etc. -
2. Sampling Synthesizers
a.) True Samplers
b.) Sample Playback synthesizers (ROMplers, Kontakt)
c.) Granular Synthesis (because most granulators use samples)
d.) Loopers
3. Physical Modelling
a.)Physical Modelling (usually of acoustic instruments)
b.)Virtual Analog Synthesis
1.) Subtractive Synthesis
2.) Additive Synthesis
3.) Ring Modulation Synthesis
c. Spectral Modeling Synthesis
4. Wavetable Synthesis (or does this belong in Samplers as the wavetables are recorded PCM waves? Or even digital synths - historically the DX7 and Roland D-50, which used PCM "partials", preceded the Korg Wavestation. Dunno - tough call. )
1.) Scanned Synthesis
2.) Image Oscillator Synthesis
3.) Wavedraw Oscillator Synthesis

If you want, we can talk about the division of the FX plug-ins into "Time Domain" and other.