One Synth Challenge #101: Spiral Generator (Taron Wins!)

[Architeuthis]

I'm using Robin Schmidt's framework, he has to add the necessary features. The framework is still under development.

[doctorbob]

Env to lfo is a must)

Indeedy! Essential when you want to add tremolo or vibrato to the decay envelope part of an instrument. Of course, it would be even nicer to be able to control the point at which that decay + lfo mod kicks in. Quite tricky to get right - good wind instrument players know all about this.

Ideally you sort of want something which triggers on "release", and then follows an envelope curve for the modulation - again, ideally the same bit of curve in the ADSR envelope used to modulate the volume. You don't always want the vib/trem on the first part of the note.

In the past I have used delay plugins so I can match up with the start of the decay part of the ADSR, and then start the trem/vib plugin. [Of course, for OSC, only tremolo, not vibrato as this is forbidden!]

dB

[Taron]

Env to lfo is a must)

Indeedy! Essential when you want to add tremolo or vibrato to the decay envelope part of an instrument. Of course, it would be even nicer to be able to control the point at which that decay + lfo mod kicks in. Quite tricky to get right - good wind instrument players know all about this.

Ideally you sort of want something which triggers on "release", and then follows an envelope curve for the modulation - again, ideally the same bit of curve in the ADSR envelope used to modulate the volume. You don't always want the vib/trem on the first part of the note.

In the past I have used delay plugins so I can match up with the start of the decay part of the ADSR, and then start the trem/vib plugin. [Of course, for OSC, only tremolo, not vibrato as this is forbidden!]

dB

The envs are sophisticated enough, that a targeting of lfo amplitude alone would already allow for any kind of delay or even release to begin vibration. But what makes it even more important, is that noise can only come from lfos. Only a link between env and lfo would allow for proper control of that, and that's a fundamental kind of control for all sorts of percussion, besides flute like instruments as well.

[Taron]

I'm using Robin Schmidt's framework, he has to add the necessary features. The framework is still under development.

Sounds convenient!
I assume, this is mostly about cross platform solutions for the GUI. Awww, I wished I was that far already.
Well, good for you!

[] Peter:H []

I'm using Robin Schmidt's framework, he has to add the necessary features. The framework is still under development.

Sounds convenient!
I assume, this is mostly about cross platform solutions for the GUI. Awww, I wished I was that far already.
Well, good for you!

Robin Schmidt is the guy behind RS-MET, isn't he? And by taking a look to his products it becomes instantly clear why SG looks like it looks...http://www.rs-met.com/products.html
RS-MET did this really cool and steep filters in the past.
Why the GUI does not use QT5 or is like that of HELM...HELM is btw OpenSource, i.e. you can get the source code and study it...that's a miracle...and the answer to this miracle is lost somewhere inbetween the spirals of time and space

[Taron]

Nah, I don't quite work that way, I mean, studying code that advances too far beyond my state of knowledge and/or understanding at that time. I like to stay on top of things and rather bite the bullet of making my own experiences gradually. This way I can have the most possible flexibility and independence and can fly not by memory or reference, but by my own methods and processes. I find that much easier.
However, the more I know, the more I'd get comfortable with having a look at something at a similar level, assuming I might know what's happening then. That way I can look for key components that make sense to me and which I may be able to consider inside my own flow.
Nice reminder, though! Thanks!

[] Peter:H []

I think QT5 would be a good option for a multi-platform GUI FW http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qt5-intro.html#de ... de-simpler

[Taron]

Meh, this is the kind of stuff that screams "overhead" and I'm way too passionate a coder to submit to something of that kind. Call me old-fashioned, it's totally fine. It's probably good for people, who are less interested in everything, that's for sure. I'm sure it's awesome, too. Just not my cup'o'tea.

[Armagibbon]

Meh, this is the kind of stuff that screams "overhead" and I'm way too passionate a coder to submit to something of that kind. Call me old-fashioned, it's totally fine. It's probably good for people, who are less interested in everything, that's for sure. I'm sure it's awesome, too. Just not my cup'o'tea.

Qt and wxwidgets are a damn nasty mess. You have to know what you're getting yourself into when you take on one of those or you'd be better off with juce or rollin your own. Less time working around broken shit and mixed gens of convention. Less screaming and hair pulling too hahaha

[Taron]

THANK YOU! Exactly! This is what I anticipate from those as well. Any SDK is one SDK too many, or API, they're always dreadful, you always have to align your thinking with "what you can find out about" theirs. Alone getting into the vstsdk was wrecking my patience at times until I decided to trace into it, piece by piece, finally finding out things that nobody was talking about or that was impossible to get info for.
I don't even trust juce, to be honest, but I don't have to either, luckily. There's a certain amount of gratification also coming along with figuring out more and more. That's something I really love, too! At the end you're up against the platforms directly anyway. But since it's really three at the most (win/mac/linux) (Well, AU possibly, too, of course), I don't mind so much doing that and then really being in control, rather than believing it was a convenience to battle with just one API and remain at their mercy.

[doctorbob]

When I needed a 3D graphics library to create and manipulate "graphical objects" in real time back in 1999 I hunted around and in the end wrote my own "api". It had to run on unix (Silicon Graphics IRIX), and also Windows. Based on OpenGL at the bottom end. Had lots of higher level functions for defining, creating, destroying, objects, moving them around, collision detection etc. Also had scheduling built in so you could schedule an object to come into existance, move around and disappear for example. It also had the ability to define "scenes" which were collections of objects, and switch between scenes etc.

All the graphics were controlled by a musician on stage all via wireless controllers etc. Strain gauges in his shoes, an accelerometer builting into a ring on his finger, an infrared source on his sax which we could track from the back of the hall! With all this he could then switch scenes using his feet, alter the speed and direction of the graphics by moving a fnger, moving the sax etc.

The sound was also in 3D too, so he could move the sounds around the audience, "throw" notes at them, hit a switch and then open and close a filte on his sound by moving the sax up and down, and at the same time change the hue of some of the graphics elements on screen.

The actions assigned to the controllers were defined by the scene, which also coincided with one of the 25 parts of the musical composition, as were the graphics as defined by Peter Fluck (UK people may know him from "Spitting Image"), for each musical section.

I had a week to design and write the api, and then 3 weeks to create the piece, network up the computers, an SGI Origin 2000 (multiprocessor box, with 8 ADAT channels, and SGI O2 (fully loaded with memory to hold my MIPSMAPS etc).

Ran the concert at Curt Sachs Saal of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung PK, Berlin! December 2001.

Info: http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/57191_en.html

So yes, I understand the issues with choosing where to go with GUI and GUI-builders. In the end these large multipurpose API's have so much baggage, it's hard to be lean and mean!

dB

[toggleaudio]

Architeuthis:

The AU version has been consistently crashing validation in Logic Pro X since the beginning - I wonder if it is the same problem as here:
https://forum.juce.com/t/plugin-not-val ... -0/16449/2

In which case just returning more than 0 from getNumPrograms could fix it. Maybe?

[Architeuthis]

thanks.

[574X]

Frequency shifting is not allowed, which is the argument against most chorus, although ofc you can simply automate or assign a DAW LFO to the pitch bend to achieve vibrato. To make a chorus or multivoice effect, you can also duplicate the synthesizer with a slight offset in modulation and pan each of them. It can be done within seconds.

Fun things to do are play the pitch bend automation by hand, then copy and paste it, or freehand draw random automation to loop. This technique can be made easier and more practical with at least 3 similar synth instances as voices.

Don't you like how you can go to download pages and click on things to download them?
How convenient and smart that is.

Steve Duda is a pretty intelligent dude. He appears to have made the most commercially successful software synthesizer in the world, Serum, and he doesn't make you input information for free downloads.

His truly free Xfer downloads include a couple things which are easy to assume that nearly every professional, modern producer has used: OTT and Dimension Expander.

Vlad G and Bootsy of Variety of Sound use download pages with click-to-download, as well. How incredibly successful they all are, in that their work is incredibly widely used, respected, and appreciated.

FWIW Direct Download Link Wiki
"Subverting a Site Maintainers' Policies
DDL has also taken on a meaning of providing direct links within a site where the original site's maintainers impede a user from accessing a file directly...
However, many users see this as quite unnecessary, because they generally know what they need and don't want to go through the site's mechanics (such as filling out forms over and over) to get said file."

When people are free to build their own environment every step of the way, and have the privilege of talking to and influencing others in the same position, it's liberating for the community to draw from distilled perspectives that penetrate though lies, especially when it comes to physically unavoidable manifestations. Denial and ill will towards others become the only adversaries.
True, these issues needn't always be addressed with words, as you say, because these simply require your own logic and action to solve.
That's how you become like these great leaders.
Helping humanity.

[Architeuthis]

Hmm... 574X, at least you're not complaining (and criticizing) now. Much easier to consider your thoughts without the noise. Alright, I'll bring back the direct download link and see how things go.