Autobot - do you want to automate routing? How about a parameter for every possible connection that you can turn on/off? If I did that, most of the parameters would be routing parameters and it would potentially be quite difficult to use on DAWs that show all parameters by default. Can anyone else chime in on this? I've been considering making this a feature but I've been afraid to mess it all up.
Edit: I'm not going to automate routing, and here's why:
- You can use the VCA (currently called "mults") module as an on-off switch for routing
- VST forces me to save a parameter for every pair of possible connections. With 100 inputs and 100 outputs, we're looking at 10,000 parameters. I'd rather move the routing out of the parameter stack because DAWs like FruityLoops show all parameters, even the ones you mark as hidden. I don't know why they do this, but my guess is because they're having a hard time following this insane VST3 standard as much as me.
Anacreon Synthesizer | Anacreon 2.5 Released
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
Last edited by Erich.Pfister on Wed Sep 29, 2021 1:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
Hey Everybody - here's a checklist to show where I'm at on things:
- Update intermodule communication boilerplate (100% done)
- Update parameter system to be hierarchical (working on this now)
- Ditch VSTGUI and use a cross-platform graphics library / make synth GUI hackable / make it build on linux
- Update intermodule communication boilerplate (100% done)
- Update parameter system to be hierarchical (working on this now)
- Ditch VSTGUI and use a cross-platform graphics library / make synth GUI hackable / make it build on linux
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- KVRAF
- 4870 posts since 19 Apr, 2002 from Utah
Does this mean that the plugin will be skinnable? 
C/R, dongles & other intrusive copy protection equals less-control & more-hassle for consumers. Company gone-can’t authorize. Limit to # of auths. Instability-ie PACE. Forced internet auths. THE HONEST ARE HASSLED, NOT THE PIRATES.
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- KVRAF
- 23102 posts since 7 Jan, 2009 from Croatia
Best move you could have made.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
The user interface will be completely skinnable. Basically, the layout of every control will be set via XML or some other structured document format. The document will allow for text labels, hopefully animated vector graphics, and png film-strip type animations for knobs.
In this same document you will also be able to specify how many oscillators, filters, envelopes, lfos, etc will be present in the synth. I am making a preset format that will work between different configurations. I.E. if you saved a patch with 2 oscillators and 3 filters patched in, it will load fine on someone else's configuration that has 4 oscillators and 6 filters. Just so long as you have at least as many of each as needed.
This is where I want to say that I am NOT making a "Reaktor" type VST out of Anacreon. I am not providing a huge library of modules at this time. I am also not providing an interface for modifying the synth - you will have to have some coding knowledge to pull it off. I do plan to release a few different default configurations.
In this same document you will also be able to specify how many oscillators, filters, envelopes, lfos, etc will be present in the synth. I am making a preset format that will work between different configurations. I.E. if you saved a patch with 2 oscillators and 3 filters patched in, it will load fine on someone else's configuration that has 4 oscillators and 6 filters. Just so long as you have at least as many of each as needed.
This is where I want to say that I am NOT making a "Reaktor" type VST out of Anacreon. I am not providing a huge library of modules at this time. I am also not providing an interface for modifying the synth - you will have to have some coding knowledge to pull it off. I do plan to release a few different default configurations.
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- KVRist
- 202 posts since 14 Jun, 2020 from Adelaide, Australia
Sounds like you're designing not so much a synth as a generic framework for making your own synth! Somewhere half way between a "conventional" modular softsynth and Csound/Cabbage, with the best features of both?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
Definitely more toward conventional modular softsynth. The modules in Csound and Cabbage are very generic. Anacreon has modules with tons of character / "special sauce" that are hand-designed to work well together. The quantity of each module doesn't affect that character. If it weren't for processing power and UI usability, I'd do 100 oscillators, 100 filters, etc. I want people with weaker computers or smaller screens or more basic needs to be able to create minimal versions of the plugin as needed, and I want people with more powerful computers and complex ideas to go nuts with it, but I want it all to feel distinctly "Anacreon"
I've been working on this as a framework since Day 1 of designing this thing - I just kept generalizing most of my programming enough that it would work for other projects in the future. I haven't yet abstracted the GUI or the number of modules, but everything else is already abstracted because it's a modular synth, these are just the last (and most difficult) two things to figure out. A programmer friend of mine once explained that "you design a game engine by making a game."
I plan to add some potentially fun utility / SFX modules at some point as well, or maybe one module that does a different special effects as selected from a dropdown list or something - little tweaks here and there.
I'll be reusing this framework to produce other plugins in the distant future and there might be a version of that framework that ends up open source once I'm satisfied with my earnings, I don't know for sure.
I've been working on this as a framework since Day 1 of designing this thing - I just kept generalizing most of my programming enough that it would work for other projects in the future. I haven't yet abstracted the GUI or the number of modules, but everything else is already abstracted because it's a modular synth, these are just the last (and most difficult) two things to figure out. A programmer friend of mine once explained that "you design a game engine by making a game."
I plan to add some potentially fun utility / SFX modules at some point as well, or maybe one module that does a different special effects as selected from a dropdown list or something - little tweaks here and there.
I'll be reusing this framework to produce other plugins in the distant future and there might be a version of that framework that ends up open source once I'm satisfied with my earnings, I don't know for sure.
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- KVRian
- 512 posts since 22 Aug, 2014
I found Anacreon2.5 $39 in KVR Marketplace and I bought it.
I didn't know that Anacreon was available on KVR Marketplace
Now I can even save my presets! and no demo noise
I didn't know that Anacreon was available on KVR Marketplace
Now I can even save my presets! and no demo noise
VST Mappings for Bitwig
--Bitwig 5/ Live10 Suite/ Maschine/ HP X360 8Core--
--Bitwig 5/ Live10 Suite/ Maschine/ HP X360 8Core--
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- KVRian
- 512 posts since 22 Aug, 2014
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
I understand not liking a GUI and I understand hyperbole - but why is it AIDS? It truly hasn't harmed more than a few retinas.
As a side note, I got my first pair of glasses between starting work on Anacreon and now.
Edit: One of the default UI options will be extremely eye searing, but there also be lower contrast variants in addition to easily customizable colors even if you don't want to mess around with the layout at all.
As a side note, I got my first pair of glasses between starting work on Anacreon and now.
Edit: One of the default UI options will be extremely eye searing, but there also be lower contrast variants in addition to easily customizable colors even if you don't want to mess around with the layout at all.
Last edited by Erich.Pfister on Wed Sep 29, 2021 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 24 Jul, 2020
Strovoknights - thanks for the purchase! I hope you enjoy it, please leave any bug reports or improvement suggestions in this thread.
