KVR Audio

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:11 am

alright everything is finished except for presets, and I'd like to make a sweet video demo before I officially release as well. Just upgraded my video card to GTX 1060 3gb (previously had a 10 year old nvidia card, MEGA JUMP in performance), it runs PrettyScope at max settings without breaking a sweat.

e-mail me soundemote@gmail.com if you want an early copy of Spiral Generator 2 to make some presets, any takers?

I'll send an email to all past beta participants soon to see if any of you are available as well.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 1:49 pm

Architeuthis wrote:omg really... stop engaging in this pointless argument plz.

sorry sir!

forgot to ask, is this a mono synth?
and is it supposed to click at the attack when 2 keys are pressed at the same time??
i've tried increasing attack time on amp env but it does not help,
it kind of hinders making presets.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 4:13 pm

The attack and reset stuff is fully customizable, you should have no problem getting the exact response you want. You can get super-clicky super-snappy sounds or very smooth sounds that never click.

It should not click when 2 keys are pressed, it should just engage the legato feature and smoothly go from one key to the other. Use "reset never" or "reset legato" to avoid click on the amp env. Edit: Make sure the osc phase reset mode is not set to "always"!

But yes it is a monophonic synth. Maybe version 2.5 could be polyphonic. I'll look into it. It's a bit inefficient (cpu-wise) at the moment, about 1% per voice per oversampling, which would quickly kill my CPU if it was polyphonic.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 5:46 pm

edit: Ok, there's a bug that the env reset mode is not initialized so it might say "reset mode never" but internally it will be "reset mode always". Work-around is to re-select the reset mode. Will fix.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 7:32 pm

OK COOL... WELL... I am still learning...

I have to completely rethink the pitch-based LFO modulation system because I just learned that you need to use *linear* frequency modulation for FM for things to stay in tune, not *exponential*. Also, you need a frequency offset control if you want to add some consistent frequency beating type effects. Would be nice to have tempo-synced frequency beating.

Essentially, we have tempo-synced modulation, all you need for that is to convert frequency to temp. Easy.

Then we have frequency modulation, that's exponential modulation. Would be nice to have a switch for linear. Easy + 1 additional control.

Finally we have pitch modulation. It would be nice to have 4 controls: tempo-based frequency beating, linear or exponential switch, semitone offset, frequency offset. +3 more controls!

I need to think about this. I'll probably end up adding more controls.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:37 pm

linear FM test

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:30 am

Architeuthis wrote:edit: Ok, there's a bug that the env reset mode is not initialized so it might say "reset mode never" but internally it will be "reset mode always". Work-around is to re-select the reset mode. Will fix.

yep, that was it. plz send link to fixed version at your convenience, thanks

also, you might consider making "reset never" the default to avoid the clicks
by default

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:47 am

ok note to self, I'm going to solve the plethora of pitch and tempo frequency tracking needs as follows:

* Pitch modes will have one additional control: beat frequency. This gives you an extra frequency offset to do musical/consistent frequency beating across the keyboard. You can get frequency beating with the pitch offset control, but it will be inconsistent across the keyboard. Sometimes you might want that.

* An additional control will be added to the osc tuning section, a switch between linear FM and exponential FM. There will be Exponential and Linear frequency modulation targets added to the mod target list. Linear FM is for tonal/musical/consistent sound while exponential is good for vibrato, fx, and atonal needs.

LFOs will have a number of "rate modes" available in the Rate Mode dropdown menu
* Hz: your basic LFO modulation for vibrato and atonal modulation
* Tempo: LFO frequency controlled by your host bpm plus your time division setting
* Pitch & Hz: Pitch tracking applied to LFO frequency with beat frequency being a simple frequency offset
* Pitch & Tempo: Pitch tracking applied to LFO frequency with tempo-synced beat frequency

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:16 pm

Architeuthis, do you have anything to do with Robin Schmidt? RS-MET? http://www.rs-met.com/index.html

Your plugin's style [GUI] reminds me so much of great RS-MET plugins that I still use in my XP OS. Speaking of which, Layzer I feel you completely, man.

I also use several of the outboard hardware processors and MIDI synths and samplers, and have no need for tons of plugins. I simplified my computer setup a lot. For me XP is doing just fine. No net on it, just a DAW and plugins. I couldn't care less about the newest Microsoft OS, and majority of the audio software I use is rather old and not being developed any more. That doesn't bother me the least. I don't have to worry about any updates...

I use Debian Linux for everything else and it's being updated all the time. W10 frankly disgusts me... it feels far more cosy and *productive* this way. I've got everything I need and everything has it's place and purpose!

Thank you for the very interesting freebie, Architeuthis! I can't wait to try it.

Cheers!

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:31 pm

I'm using Robin's RS-MET framework and waiting for him to add custom GUI features. I actually don't like the interface at the moment due to the lack of visual aides and other modern conveniences... which is not a limitation of the framework, but due to my limited time and lack of GUI programming experience I'm waiting for Robin to make it straightforward.

Don't let my lack of programming experience fool you. I'm far from finished presenting new (imo better) more immediately useful sound generation techniques. I'm pretty unsatisfied with digital synths available today.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:54 am

DuX wrote:Layzer I feel you completely, man.
I simplified my computer setup a lot. For me XP is doing just fine.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:15 am

the FM features are turning out awesome. Between linear and exponential modulation targets, tempo-based frequency beating or simple frequency offset, you have everything you need to get exactly the FM timbre and tonal movement you want. Here's FM test 2 featuring PrettyScope art. Final art piece here: http://i.imgur.com/OqcwbrH.png

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:25 am

Showing off Spiral Generator v2's FM when taken to quirky extreme.

There's still one more issue with Spiral Generator that I will have to fix before sending out betas. Looks like different oversampling settings will alter this wonderfully quirky behavior. That will be bad when it comes to designing presets or if you ever want to change your oversampling setting.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:36 pm

Ok I fixed the oversampling issue.

There's still one problem though. Do you think it's ok to release Spiral Generator 2 with this problem?: The way to get quirky FM behavior is the use very high LFO amplitude sent to frequency + smoothing on the LFO (and I find sawtooth LFO to be most pleasingly quirky). The problem is that it will sound different depending on your host sample rate because the smoother will have more or less data points to work with.

As a matter of fact, it becomes less quirky / more stable at higher sample rates!

Wow, for the first time ever higher sample rates are actually a BAD thing. Less musical.

The obvious fix is to have an internal sample rate completely independent of the host/DAW sample rate. Just not sure I can implement that at the moment.

Edit: If/when I do implement fixed internal samplerate, it would be sweet to increase the quirkyness by having an undersampling option. Heehee.

Architeuthis · Post by **Architeuthis** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 3:06 am

Sending out betas today. If you missed it, just e-mail me soundemote@gmail.com and I'll give you early access.

Most likely a week long beta, then I will release SG2.

Spiral Generator v2.0 teaser (FREE synth)