LAUNCH! VAST Dynamics - Vaporizer2 - Hybrid Wavetable Additive / Subtractive Synthesizer / Sampler / Workstation

[pk-1]

I’ve also been evaluating the wavetable editor recently and I must say that Vaporizer is almost worth its price for this feature alone. If it weren’t for some “trivial” shortcomings, particularly regarding importing/resynthesizing wave files:

• It should be possible to slice up the audio at a given number of samples per cycle (like in Serum’s “Import Audio via fixed frame size”). There’s no point in Vaporizer guessing at the slices if I know the frequency of the input.
• The “WT Editor Number of positions to create from wav file” and “Fit sample into wavetable positions” as well as the “Scale selection to wavetable position(s)” seem to have their own life. Vaporizer always creates the number of cycles it wants rather than what I entered.
• It should be possible to put the currently selected part of the waveform only into the current cycle slot, rather than replacing the whole wavetable.
• The area selection function both in the cycle as well as the waveform editor should have a “snap to zero crossing” option. “Find loop points at zero crossings” always moves to the inside of the selection, even if the selection already is at zero crossings. That can be useful, but most of the time, it’s not.
• The selection functions are extremely sluggish on my system. Drawing a rectangle can’t be that difficult …
• It should be possible, with a modifier key, to slide the selection window (maintaining the selected number of samples) over the waveform.
• The “Undo” function doesn’t work well on wavetable operations, it can undo only the last operation. It should maintain more history, or alternatively, there could be a “Reset” button that puts the cycles back to the state in which they were selected.

If this would improve, it would be an instant buy for me, even if there would be only one oscillator for previewing and nothing else.

[vastdynamics]

I’ve also been evaluating the wavetable editor recently and I must say that Vaporizer is almost worth its price for this feature alone. If it weren’t for some “trivial” shortcomings, particularly regarding importing/resynthesizing wave files:

Great feedback and ideas for improvement. I will look into those for the next update.

[vastdynamics]

VAPORIZER2 UPDATE 3.0.3 - FM & GRANULAR SYNTHESIS AND REAL-TIME WAVETABLE EFFECTS!
VAST Dynamics Vaporizer2 just got one of the biggest updates ever. Version 3.0.3 brings FM synthesis, Granular synthesis and real-time wavetable effects. This could be easily a new major release or even a Vaporizer3 - but we loved the version number 303 so much

• Added real FM synthesis, stackable across four oscillator banks
• Added Granular synthesis
• Added 30 real-time wavetable effects for each oscillator bank
• Now including 410 quality factory presets and 780 wavetables and single cycles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIJ8TK ... ex=11&t=0s
Get it here: VAST Dynamics shop

[simmo75]

Great work!

[Examigan]

Hi bmanic,

thanks for looking at the plugin.

Hmm... you're making an awfully huge compromise with the way you've implemented the alias free wavetables. Yeah, they seem to be alias free but this means you are precomputing everything.. thus making it impossible to modulate any of the actually interesting parameters that manipulate the wavetables.

So yeah, I wouldn't call this holy grail at all.

That's a great point and one of the fundamental design decisions. Implementing real-time wavetable effects is not a big deal actually and I experimented with it a lot. But in the end it is almost always adding non-linearities and thus artifacts to the sound as the result is no longer bandlimited. Maybe I am too much a purist but I don't like the idea that a synth creates random noise in the high frequencies. Therefore I changed the whole idea to designing the right wavetable to use and Vaporizer2 offers a lot here, even to generate a full table. And I would recommend to compare the sound of e.g. real-time hardsync of other wavetable synths with a generated hardsync table in Vaporizer2 - I personally like it much more in Vaporizer2. And: in the end it is about sound and what you can do. I did not come across many things that you cannot do in that way.

In the latest version (3.03) is this issue bmanic spoke about cleared up now?

[vastdynamics]

In the latest version (3.03) is this issue bmanic spoke about cleared up now?

Yes, I was wrong and he was right!

I mentioned in my reply before that wavetable effects would not be possible while keeping the alias-free paradigm. But I found a solution: real-time FFT / iFFT calculation of the bandlimited frequency band wavetables. This usually happens in the engine when creating / changing a wavetable. Now it is processed in real-time when using wavetable effects. I always thought this would be too CPU heavy. But with a new heavily optimized FFT implementation this is OK - it adds to the CPU load though, especially when modulating both wavetable positions and wavetable effects quickly at the same time. It also increased memory since calculations are cached. But it still turns out to be very useful.

[Examigan]

In the latest version (3.03) is this issue bmanic spoke about cleared up now?

Yes, I was wrong and he was right!

I mentioned in my reply before that wavetable effects would not be possible while keeping the alias-free paradigm. But I found a solution: real-time FFT / iFFT calculation of the bandlimited frequency band wavetables. This usually happens in the engine when creating / changing a wavetable. Now it is processed in real-time when using wavetable effects. I always thought this would be too CPU heavy. But with a new heavily optimized FFT implementation this is OK - it adds to the CPU load though, especially when modulating both wavetable positions and wavetable effects quickly at the same time. It also increased memory since calculations are cached. But it still turns out to be very useful.

Nice!

[WasteLand]

yes! great work! this approach makes vast dynamics, well, more dynamic..
i understood the first approach, and still it was a powerfull wavetable synth. understood, why not another approach you believe in.
that you reconsidered your approach, says a lot about a developer.
and for me personally, it makes, i repeat, a better wavetable synth, and already could things with it i liked, very much, even.
making wavetables was/is fun. but sometimes i went to MSoundFactory for real time effects, if needed them. the melda wavetable module is quite powerfull.
that step i don't have to make no more.

i didn't mind, i am used from jumping from program to program.

and from the beginning vast dynamics vaporizer 2 had suprised me.

and with every update it suprises me again!

[vastdynamics]

Yes, that's why DSP is so much fun - you learn something new every day.

[GRUMP]

... my favourite WT Cutter and Modder btw ... Thx!

[vastdynamics]

• The area selection function both in the cycle as well as the waveform editor should have a “snap to zero crossing” option. “Find loop points at zero crossings” always moves to the inside of the selection, even if the selection already is at zero crossings. That can be useful, but most of the time, it’s not.
• It should be possible, with a modifier key, to slide the selection window (maintaining the selected number of samples) over the waveform.

Good point. What I have implemented now is the following: the mousewheel extends / shrinks the selection according to the selected grid mode. When using a grid it extends to the next grid lines. When using no grid it extends to the next zero crossing. When holding Shift at the same time it moves the selection to the left or to the right. Does that make sense?

• The selection functions are extremely sluggish on my system. Drawing a rectangle can’t be that difficult …

This is solved in the next version. Works quick as hell now.

• It should be possible to put the currently selected part of the waveform only into the current cycle slot, rather than replacing the whole wavetable.

This one I don't get. Can you describe it more?

I will also look into the other topics asap.

[mike_o]

This one I don't get. Can you describe it more?

I will also look into the other topics asap.

He means that if there are 20 waves in the wavetable, and you have an audio file in the sample window, you should be able to select a section of the audio file and add it to the existing wavetable and not have to replace it all.

[pk-1]

He means that if there are 20 waves in the wavetable, and you have an audio file in the sample window, you should be able to select a section of the audio file and add it to the existing wavetable and not have to replace it all.

Exactly. Here’s the two main scenarios I have in mind:

• Often, I know the pitch and sample rate of the input, so I know how many samples of the waveform should go into one wavetable cycle. Vaporizer wouldn’t need to guess at the frequency because I know it. As I said, this is Serum’s “fixed frame size” import function.
• Sometimes, I want to select some pieces of the waveform and put them one by one into the existing table, e.g. replace the currently selected cycle with the selection from the waveform (or append a new cycle if none is selected). Similar to “Create wavetable patch from sample selection” but only replacing one cycle, not the whole wavetable. This is also why I would want to be able to move the selection window over the waveform without changing its size (i.e. number of samples), optionally snapping to zero crossings for finding the right spot and fine adjustments. Maybe you want to have a look at the workflow in Sonic Academy's NODE, this is what I mean.

You know what, I’m going to buy it anyway. But I would appreciate if you would give these suggestions some thought, this doesn’t look very difficult to implement.

[vastdynamics]

He means that if there are 20 waves in the wavetable, and you have an audio file in the sample window, you should be able to select a section of the audio file and add it to the existing wavetable and not have to replace it all.

Ah, OK. That's easy. I have added a new context menu item to the sampler section: "Scale selection to selected wavetable position".

[vastdynamics]

I have an issue with the way that the snap to zero works with phase alignment.

It snaps to a zero crossing but it stretches the waveform rather than shifting it.

with snap enabled moving the phase knob should shift the waveform from side to side without stretching it while realigning the phase, and freq should stretch the wave to the next zero crossing.

The way that phase works is just not quite right to me.

I have split the "snap" button now in two buttons: "snap" and "stretch". Snap phase aligns all changes in the editor to the first zero crossing. Stretch in addition to "snap" strectches to the last zero crossing. With snap it is ensured that the cycle starts at zero - with snap&strecth it is ensured that it starts and ends at a zero crossing.