Fathom Synth Development Thread

[Q9000]

I had a response to a mail like 6 months ago, so he is still "alive".

[sbmongoose]

3.3 will be the last version for a couple months since I am now starting on the NVIDIA GPU processing and that will take a while. This will be the holy grail of audio processing and I think Fathom will be the only synth to have it. But it will take some heavy duty software work to get it working. The concept is solid because I have it working great on my Video Card in my test version of Fathom. But I need to come up with an algorithm for randomly fluctuating the individual partials on the Video Card and that will take some work. This will enable real Analog emulation and might even push Fathom into the Dune 3 territory for audio quality. But we’ll see.

When 3.3 released Everett said the next update would be a while. I don't think there's anything too much to worry about.

[solidtrax]

Thanks for digging that up @sbmongoose

[zzz00m]

I recall Everett mentioning that Dune was the best sounding soft synth he ever heard.

He's probably out climbing that mountain now. The results may be worth the wait!

[RPH]

Hmm, gives me some time to save up for a new GPU.

[biscuitdough]

Hmm, gives me some time to save up for a new GPU.

You're just in time, they've recently doubled in price!

[WasteLand]

Hmm, gives me some time to save up for a new GPU.

You're just in time, they've recently doubled in price!

again! this will not end soon, the chip shortage plays a big part now, in prices also. the chip shortage has many factors, i read now. so. saving for when the prices are good again, or buy a second hand one, my 6 year old nvidia card performs still excellent. but even second hand prices will go up, me thinks.

o well, just a side note.

[sbmongoose]

I work for a UK PC enthusiast PC gaming retailer. Our product purchaser for GPU's is thinking that things will gradually start improving from late July and moving forwards. Nvidia's LHR cards will reduce the appeal from crypto-currency miners. This hopefully will reduce the appeal/increase the risk for scalpers. It's not going to be an overnight change, but hopefully things will gradually calm down. There will still be issues with production of GPU's and CPU's as there are only so many fabs capable of manufacturing at 8nm, and it's not just Nvidia, AMD and Intel wanting to manufacture semicondictors using them. But if miners, bots and scalpers scale down in demand hopfully it will ease for end users such as all of us here, gamers and other creative fields.

[RPH]

You're just in time, they've recently doubled in price!

I keep a close watch, prices here (Netherlands) are coming down already.
No worries, can wait and my current GPU isn't that bad (custom GTX980).

[] Peter:H []

I work for a UK PC enthusiast PC gaming retailer. Our product purchaser for GPU's is thinking that things will gradually start improving from late July and moving forwards. Nvidia's LHR cards will reduce the appeal from crypto-currency miners. This hopefully will reduce the appeal/increase the risk for scalpers. It's not going to be an overnight change, but hopefully things will gradually calm down. There will still be issues with production of GPU's and CPU's as there are only so many fabs capable of manufacturing at 8nm, and it's not just Nvidia, AMD and Intel wanting to manufacture semicondictors using them. But if miners, bots and scalpers scale down in demand hopfully it will ease for end users such as all of us here, gamers and other creative fields.

I'm a bit sceptical about the value of GPU. I would rather see that the Cross-Oscillator FM be reworked. Could be I have not figured it out fully ... but I was not able to get the results that I intuitively expected out of Oscillator-to-Oscillator FM.

And I have a gut feeling the the Metamorphic Oscillator - as crazy capable as it is - is as well a bit of a contradiction to a modular synth, isn't it? I would be crazy as hell to have some of the modules that are now built in fixed to be able to use as single modules ... which would for instance allow to sort them in a different order ... Wouldn't it be crazy to add the distortion in a filters internal feedback loop?
But that's only my 2 cents and complaining on a pretty pretty high level. Fathom really rocks!

[WasteLand]

I work for a UK PC enthusiast PC gaming retailer. Our product purchaser for GPU's is thinking that things will gradually start improving from late July and moving forwards. Nvidia's LHR cards will reduce the appeal from crypto-currency miners. This hopefully will reduce the appeal/increase the risk for scalpers. It's not going to be an overnight change, but hopefully things will gradually calm down. There will still be issues with production of GPU's and CPU's as there are only so many fabs capable of manufacturing at 8nm, and it's not just Nvidia, AMD and Intel wanting to manufacture semicondictors using them. But if miners, bots and scalpers scale down in demand hopfully it will ease for end users such as all of us here, gamers and other creative fields.

I'm a bit sceptical about the value of GPU. I would rather see that the Cross-Oscillator FM be reworked. Could be I have not figured it out fully ... but I was not able to get the results that I intuitively expected out of Oscillator-to-Oscillator FM.

And I have a gut feeling the the Metamorphic Oscillator - as crazy capable as it is - is as well a bit of a contradiction to a modular synth, isn't it? I would be crazy as hell to have some of the modules that are now built in fixed to be able to use as single modules ... which would for instance allow to sort them in a different order ... Wouldn't it be crazy to add the distortion in a filters internal feedback loop? But that's only my 2 cents.

it is of course the developer's prerogative to explore the possibilities of GPU, although it only seems for Nvidia, so Cuda? no. something different me thinks..
o well my coding days are over..

but you have some good points, i concur! the Metamorphic Oscillator, you say the words; crazy capable. but indeed, why not in single modules, also...

i haven't used Fathom Vector that much, it fell into my lap in way, like Kaivo, Aalto, en Vecto (i had enough plugins to discover and use for months and months, but these came along, second hand for prices i couldn't resist. and Vecto via a sale, only 1... i had already Fathom Pro, the non-AVX version..)

it is synth i really like. yet to be fully discovered, i know the basics, but the specifics of Vector, i must still discover, but in a way, they show themselves. that is nicely done, in my opinion.
you see what it does, and hear it... and partials, i am not a stranger to partials...


also, the last 3 months, o well if i say this, it becomes political, how can be a illness, political?

good points!

[FathomSynth]

I'm still here.

Sorry to be away so long. I used to check this thread every morning but no one posted anything for several months so I got out of the habit. I'll try to check every day again for a while. Rumors of my demise are vastly exaggerated. Fathom is still going strong and yes zzz was right about me disappearing into the coding cave.

In fact Version 3.4 will be coming out in a few days, probably late this week. It will be mostly bug fixes but there are a couple goodies such as Legato LFO mode and realtime keyboard tracking. Real time frequency for keyboard tracking is important since all modulations with the keyboard tracking modulator will now modulate smoothly since they will use the actual note frequency as a function of glide and detune instead of just the starting MIDI note. This means you can create real vocal and analog instrument effects which change smoothly instead of jumping with the MIDI note start. Also massive performance fixes for Fathom FX which is now smart enough to take up no CPU real time in the host unless audio is going through it.

This will be the last minor release for a while until a big version 4.0 release this fall.

The next big release later this year will be the following:

Double floating point processing (this will increase Fathom's basic sound quality into the Sylenth/Omnisphere zone).
GPU Processing.
Alias Free Spectral Modulation, Distortion and Morphing.
Analog Emulation.
A real Graphical Keyboard.
MPE (Hopefully If time permits)

Also, Trance Warehouse Volume 2 will be released along with version 3.4 in a few days.

[Tj Shredder]

Double floating point means 64-bit vs. 128-bit? I doubt it would make any perceivable difference, but would cost a lot CPU…

[WasteLand]

I'm still here.

Sorry to be away so long. I used to check this thread every morning but no one posted anything for several months so I got out of the habit. I'll try to check every day again for a while. Rumors of my demise are vastly exaggerated. Fathom is still going strong and yes zzz was right about me disappearing into the coding cave.

In fact Version 3.4 will be coming out in a few days, probably late this week. It will be mostly bug fixes but there are a couple goodies such as Legato LFO mode and realtime keyboard tracking. Real time frequency for keyboard tracking is important since all modulations with the keyboard tracking modulator will now modulate smoothly since they will use the actual note frequency as a function of glide and detune instead of just the starting MIDI note. This means you can create real vocal and analog instrument effects which change smoothly instead of jumping with the MIDI note start. Also massive performance fixes for Fathom FX which is now smart enough to take up no CPU real time in the host unless audio is going through it.

This will be the last minor release for a while until a big version 4.0 release this fall.

The next big release later this year will be the following:

Double floating point processing (this will increase Fathom's basic sound quality into the Sylenth/Omnisphere zone).
GPU Processing.
Alias Free Spectral Modulation, Distortion and Morphing.
Analog Emulation.
A real Graphical Keyboard.
MPE (Hopefully If time permits)

Also, Trance Warehouse Volume 2 will be released along with version 3.4 in a few days.

great to hear that also a small update will appear.

and the next big release; jummy; 'alias free spectral modulation, distortion and morphing', anything with the words 'additive' and 'spectral', well pavlov's dog... (and grains..).

i hope MPE will also be added, maybe after that big release, but hopefully with that big release, it maybe a niche MPE, but some synths, like Fathom Pro/Vector asked for MPE, or scream!...

Double floating point means 64-bit vs. 128-bit? I doubt it would make any perceivable difference, but would cost a lot CPU…

i am not a developer, only knew assembler/C/Pascal and later Java, in the good old days..
but if i read it correctly double floating point, if implemented right, does not have to cost more CPU. what is the other one? which developers fight about which is the best. i can't recall it now.
it is still 64 bit, i believe. o yes float vs double. double is more precise.

but it all depends on what precisily in C++ (me thinks) is meant with 'Double floating point processing'. less rounding errors, i guess..

but this something that FathomSynth can explain much better, and real understanding.

[glokraw]

Volume 2 of Trance Warehouse ain't gonna need no 'splainin