I'm not a developer, but I have an idea for a plug-in I wanted to run by you guys. The idea is based on an technique which always give me interesting results, but it's extremely time-consuming and requires permanent processing on audio segments. I like to call the idea The FX Cycler.
Imagine having four plug-ins within a plug-in that can host them - let's say a phaser, a reverb, a tremolo and a bitcrusher - then cycling these effects in sample-accurate, rhythmic patterns. Kind of like a wavesequence, only it's plug-ins or effects as opposed to audio or synthesis. I've found this technique works well on pretty much everything. It's just a matter of choosing the right effects to cycle. It can sound very hi-tech and sophisticated, really bringing things to life. Subtle or hardcore. The FX Cycler would undoubtedly be an inspiring tool with very high instant gratification value.
I don't see why this couldn't be a very simple plug-in to use either. I'm picturing empty "blocks" alà Wavelab to insert your plug-ins of choice, a pattern selection menu, and a simple pattern-programming editor. Simply on and off, and maybe duration. Throw in the abillity to trigger silence (we're in gate-land now) and you can get some really bustin' FX sequences.
As long as it's a plug-in that's primarily programmed to turn something on and off in a particular order, I would assume it would need very little resources. However, one might want to load up eight plug-ins just to create a FX sequence and put some strain on the system that way, but bouncing or freezing a track wouldn't cause too much headache as long as you can save your plug-in chains.
I'd like to update this by adding a simple example:
http://home.broadpark.no/~oisteine/Off.mp3
http://home.broadpark.no/~oisteine/On.mp3
The FX Cycler (a plug-in idea)
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- KVRist
- 49 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from stockholm, sweden
good idea, but I don't see why you need to freeze tracks to do it - if I were to do this effect I would use one fx send channel for each plug, with DFX Skidder or Scuzzphut on each channel. Quickly done, at least in Cubase SX. It seems kinda CPU consuming thou.
Why the double post?
Why the double post?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 93 posts since 29 Nov, 2003
In this context that sounds a bit more like a work-around than a technique if you know what I'm saying. I imagine the FX Cycler would be simpler and more importantly, more inspiring.Svante wrote:good idea, but I don't see why you need to freeze tracks to do it - if I were to do this effect I would use one fx send channel for each plug, with DFX Skidder or Scuzzphut on each channel. Quickly done, at least in Cubase SX. It seems kinda CPU consuming thou.
Why the double post?
Sorry about the double post. I though two different groups of people, and I would like to reach both.
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35512 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
It would actually be fairly easy to do in Quantum-FX (or Reaktor, or whatever) if you weren't needing to use VST plugins.
Ive already bult a QFX effect that switches between different delay lines, but Ive thought a lot about implementing a generic 'processing block' that could be switched between various bits of filtering and/or modulation, sticking 6 or 8 of them in parallel, and switching between them based on a sequencer pattern.
In fact, if you build a MIDI-note controlled 8:1 (or whatever) switcher in SynthEdit, then you'd be able to do it in a modular host like eXT with effectively any VST plugin you wanted.
Ive already bult a QFX effect that switches between different delay lines, but Ive thought a lot about implementing a generic 'processing block' that could be switched between various bits of filtering and/or modulation, sticking 6 or 8 of them in parallel, and switching between them based on a sequencer pattern.
In fact, if you build a MIDI-note controlled 8:1 (or whatever) switcher in SynthEdit, then you'd be able to do it in a modular host like eXT with effectively any VST plugin you wanted.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
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- KVRian
- 922 posts since 26 Mar, 2003 from Guildford, England
could you do this with synthedit? I seem to recall that it could have vst instances as modules.
Or you could do it with energyxt.
cool idea btw.
Or you could do it with energyxt.
cool idea btw.
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- KVRAF
- 2460 posts since 3 Oct, 2002 from SF CA USA NA Earth
Will you settle for 8 instead of 4? In a modular host such as Audiomulch or Plogue Bidule, the Tiny God plugins Pegger III and Reggep III will let you do exactly this. Pegger takes 8 mono input channels and cycles through them in a tempo-synced sequence. It smoothly crossfades from one to the next (though you can approach a hard cut from one to the next with the timing and shape controls). Each "pulse" (that is, each slice of a channel's signal stream) can optionally be run through an enveloped filter as well. Reggep is exactly like Pegger except it routes one input to 8 outputs instead of 8 ins to 1 out -- it's mostly a matter of convenience which you use (or whether you want the filters before or after the other effects which are presumably attached to the 8 channels).kl3in wrote:Imagine having four plug-ins within a plug-in that can host them - let's say a phaser, a reverb, a tremolo and a bitcrusher - then cycling these effects in sample-accurate, rhythmic patterns.
Don't do it my way.
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- KVRist
- 159 posts since 18 Jan, 2004 from Portland, OR
Would be cool to have an XY pad where you could morph between the 4 (or however many) effects. That'd be a dream come to true for atmospheres and beats. 
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- KVRian
- 887 posts since 24 Jun, 2002 from Berlin
deranger,
could you use my plugins quadmix and quadpan to do what you want?
oli
http://www.oli.adbe.org
could you use my plugins quadmix and quadpan to do what you want?
oli
http://www.oli.adbe.org
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- KVRAF
- 2973 posts since 10 Sep, 2003 from Karlskoga, Stockholm, Sweden
Kl3in, when i first read what you wrote i didnt get it .. but listening to those audio examples I totally do! Very cool idea! Sounded very very cool
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- KVRAF
- 3528 posts since 18 Apr, 2002 from British Columbia, Canada
Yeah, man, this is a really cool idea. One could do a trick like this in synth edit using a group of 16 step "cv-gate" sequencers, and the have four paged panels, or "slots" as it were, where you could choose from a selection of four different effects per panel... That would work quite well, but sometimes Orion doesn't like the more dynamic modules, ie: step counter, etc, and fruity takes a long time to switch patches when step sequencers are used in vst plugins. Any way, it's a thought.
Much better though would be something capable of loading different vst plugs, like your original idea. Also, I love the sequencer page idea; do you mean sort of like cubase, where you draw in your sound globs and midi stuff? but in this case you would be drawing in "effect segments"?
Anyway, I love the idea!!!
Cheerz.
s:b
Much better though would be something capable of loading different vst plugs, like your original idea. Also, I love the sequencer page idea; do you mean sort of like cubase, where you draw in your sound globs and midi stuff? but in this case you would be drawing in "effect segments"?
Anyway, I love the idea!!!
Cheerz.
s:b
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- Banned
- 12367 posts since 30 Apr, 2002 from i might peeramid
from my little experience, se seems to be quite sufficient for creating multiple input and output plugs to use in modular hosts.. i'm guessing one with an x-y pad or sequencer just to route audio will work.. and easy project too. se and a modular host.. sigh..
unfortunately i'm still sticking w/ my non-modular host (or se) so i tend to make 'momentary' effects, like the random delays that are about. another approach.
unfortunately i'm still sticking w/ my non-modular host (or se) so i tend to make 'momentary' effects, like the random delays that are about. another approach.
you come and go, you come and go. amitabha neither a follower nor a leader be tagore "where roads are made i lose my way" where there is certainty, consideration is absent.
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- KVRAF
- 3528 posts since 18 Apr, 2002 from British Columbia, Canada
SE is a modular host. many of us tend to forget that, I guess, but it really is a music making tool first and a development platform second... or at least it was originally. I just wish there was a better sequencer, because Energy XT tends to kill SE if I use more than two synths. Stepchild is nice, but SE doesn't like it... and then there is that wicked stuff by Dunk that works wonders in EXT but again kills SE.... 
Well, I guess I will just have to make a sequencer if I get some time. I wish I had the skill to make something like Caterpillar (by Trash80) for SynthEdit. SE is so much more friendly than Reaktor ( IMHO ) and I really find myself wanting to use it as a music making environment and host much more often; it's just the lack of stable integration of the above mentioned tools that stops me.
Wow.... That's pretty off topic, Sorry 'bout that...
I didn't mean to hijack your thread.
Well, I guess I will just have to make a sequencer if I get some time. I wish I had the skill to make something like Caterpillar (by Trash80) for SynthEdit. SE is so much more friendly than Reaktor ( IMHO ) and I really find myself wanting to use it as a music making environment and host much more often; it's just the lack of stable integration of the above mentioned tools that stops me.Wow.... That's pretty off topic, Sorry 'bout that...
I didn't mean to hijack your thread.-
- KVRAF
- 12977 posts since 29 Sep, 2003 from Ottawa, Canada
NicFit-- do you mean that eXT can already do it natively, or that it'd be a cinch to host a plugin like Pegger/Reggep or the other 4:1 plugin suggested (in the other thread... or was it mentioned here, too?)?
If it's easily done natively in eXT, do you have a link to a tutorial? (ie. have you already done one? I'm not about to ask you to WRITE one!!
)
Greg
If it's easily done natively in eXT, do you have a link to a tutorial? (ie. have you already done one? I'm not about to ask you to WRITE one!!
)Greg