Fathom Synth Development Thread

[glokraw]

Still havent got round to trying Fathom yet...

Me neither.

The gui design allows me to make sense of modularity,
(of which I know precious little) by it's clarity. Sort of
a drag & drop pedal board, like IK's Amplitube, the old
Energy XT, and some linux patchbay guis. That I can relate to.

U-he Bazille, in contrast, presents an array
of nicely drawn modules, and expects me to know which cable
would be well suited for insertion or removal. Or at least to
experiment/get educated. ( I admit to buying instruments
only for their great sounds) If Bazille had an alternative
Fathom-style connection gui, I'd experiment with it
much more often. But the clock ticks no slower just because
one wants to get smarter

Keeping the connections and parameters separate, allows me to focus
on one or the other, instead of one on top the other.
I'm sure that CM users will love making/modifying
sounds for Fathom

[jbraner]

a little bit over my head still

I'm sure you'll fathom it out, soon enough

Yeah - I'll get there eventually

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathom

OK - got it - thanks!

Now, on to modular synths.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Feature request.

Is i possible to allow the attack and decay on the easy adsr to be modulated.

[FathomSynth]

SM, Yes, I do plan on making all the envelope stages capable of being modulated in duration.
That will be part of the oscillator redesign which I'm currently working on.

Glowkraw, Hi thanks for comments. At some point when I get the time I will be adding more direct cable modular connections in Fathom which will then make it a "fully" modular synth. I'm still struggling through with what exactly could be connected to what.

The only think I can think of that would be useful is to connect an oscillator output to a modulator or other dial.

Another possibility would be to expose patch points from all the effects channels. I still struggle however with how useful this would actually be for making music. It would be "cool" but perhaps not entirely necessary musically. At some point I really need to have a long conversation with someone who is deeply into "true" patch bay style modular synths to help me create a real patching strategy for Fathom.

[zzz00m]

Just tried this. Got some basic sound out of it in a few minutes.

Maybe some connection ideas here with this open source rack? https://vcvrack.com/

It's geeky cool!

This is very helpful!

[AmbieticA]

At some point I really need to have a long conversation with someone who is deeply into "true" patch bay style modular synths to help me create a real patching strategy for Fathom.

[FathomSynth]

https://static.kvraudio.com/files/3302/sorcerer.mp3

[yellowmix]

[tinyurl link]

https://www.mat.ucsb.edu/Dissertations/ ... gFinal.pdf

Oh wow, by Michael Hetrick of Unfiltered Audio. Very nice!

[FathomSynth]

The best fully modular soft synths I've heard of are:

Softube Modular
ModulAir by Full Bucket Music
u-he Bazille
VCV Rack

Don't forget that ModulAir by Full Bucket Music won BPB Magazine's Number One position in their best free VST of 2018.

Their editor absolutely loved this instrument saying "ModulAir is the best freeware modular synthesizer plugin available right now, period."

In terms of how ModulAir compares with VCV Rack in the video above, he says this " VCVRack is a brilliant virtual modular synthesizer in its own right, yes. But being a standalone application, it doesn’t integrate with digital audio workstations as smoothly as ModulAir."

BPB has some of the most in depth reviews I've ever seen, also BPB is what I would call a "real" review sight, meaning that they are not afraid to mention negative aspects of any product, so if ModulAir made the top of their list you can bet that it is a great instrument.

They also mention Fathom Mono in the related software which is nice, but Fathom is not fully modular and ModulAir is, so it is understandable that ModulAir got the top position.

Of course their is also u-he Bazille. Given u-he's track record my guess is that Bazille would be the top one for sound quality and it is fully modular in the sense that you can patch anything to anything. However it's not easy to tell whether it actually has a rack mount architecture which would allow you to add your choice of any unit like you can with ModulAir.

Overall my own impression is that Softube Modular is still the best modular synth. The graphics are a generation beyond any of the others mentioned here as they actually look like photo-realistic rack modules. Also the actual modules themselves are software emulations of the real hardware modules. BPB also did a review of Softube Modular and their conclusion was simply "I'm in love."

[zzz00m]

After spending a bit of time with both VCV Rack and ModulAir, I can say both are worth having around and learning from.

But honestly I prefer the patch cable method used in VCV Rack, vs. the tiny drop down routing menus in ModulAir. I'm a visual person, so it can be very difficult for me to see at a glance what is connected to what via the drop down menus. I wouldn't use that feature as an example to follow with Fathom! Please stick to patch cables!

I also have the freeware Beat mag version of u-he Bazille, called Beatzille. I really like the excellent sounds it makes, very bold and unique, but it has a few limitations/differences. So that I wouldn't call it a modular synth in the same sense of a euro rack synth. The modules are fixed in number and position, but there are plenty of patch cables available! Sockets are color coded. Inputs are grey, and outputs are red.

From the u-he website:

Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the
1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion).

[FathomSynth]

So VCV Rack is the best example of modular patching?

What about Softube Modular? I think they use cables also.

I've seen both GUI's I personally find the cables dangling in front of everything incredibly sloppy.

I would come up with something more elegant such as vertical and horizontal channels around the units for the cables, like Fathom's signal flow view. It would have color coded cables going through dedicated channels and then the cables jump out of the channel into each unit in an orderly way.

Also I would make it so you could hide the cables if you want and when you click on a module and only the cables for that module are displayed.

Also I would have a real recording studio SSL style general patch bay at the very top into which you could route any connection using numbers and then out into each unit, so if you wanted you could organize everything so that only vertical cable graphics are needed, instead of creating a messy snake farm in front of everything. There would also be a single switch to automatically organize all your cables like Fathom does starting with the user's direct connections. This would include making it so you could move the units around in the rack and the cables would follow them and be automatically organized.

Also, the actual cables for all the products listed above look horrible IMHO. I would put in the effort to create actual 3D looking cables with real shadows and RCA connectors.

[zzz00m]

So VCV Rack is the best example of modular patching?

What about Softube Modular? I think they use cables also.

I've seen both GUI's I personally find the cables dangling in front of everything incredibly sloppy.

I would come up with something more elegant such as vertical and horizontal channels around the units for the cables, like Fathom's signal flow view. It would have color coded cables going through dedicated channels and then the cables jump out of the channel into each unit in an orderly way.

Also I would make it so you could hide the cables if you want and when you click on a module and only the cables for that module are displayed.

Also I would have a real recording studio SSL style general patch bay at the very top into which you could route any connection using numbers and then out into each unit, so if you wanted you could organize everything so that only vertical cable graphics are needed, instead of creating a messy snake farm in front of everything. There would also be a single switch to automatically organize all your cables like Fathom does starting with the user's direct connections. This would include making it so you could move the units around in the rack and the cables would follow them and be automatically organized.

Also, the actual cables for all the products listed above look horrible IMHO. I would put in the effort to create actual 3D looking cables with real shadows and RCA connectors.

I agree that cable management should be a top priority. I spent some time in networking, and learned to appreciate the difference in good practices vs. snake farms, LOL!

In any case, drop down menus don't cut it for me. Give me a wire!

[FathomSynth]

Yes, I agree totally, Fathom does not have a single mouse right click context menu, and that will remain so.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

How about Mutools Mux. Quite similar to Fathom as far as building a synth. A bit more peiced out.

For me I like and use both.

I prefer Fathom GUI and general lay out. A bit quicker to sst up. The fx in fathom are superior imho.
Mux has some features that Fathom doesnt.
Sound wise ......I end up with very different things from each. They both sound good to me.

[FathomSynth]

Yes, you're right, I forgot about that one.
I haven't tried it yet but it looks more powerful than anything else.