The Synthmaster 3 Thread

[twal]

How far off will Synthmaster 3 be capability wise in comparison to some of the "megasynths"?

I really like the company, I have been thinking about getting a sample/synth big daddy but I am not sure what I want to get. If Synthmaster 3 can do most of what these other big ones can do I might just stick with Synthmaster as I like it already.

This is true. We're almost at the point of "One Synth To Rule Them All" territory. Logic Alchemy, Halion 7, Falcon, MSoundFactory, Pigments, etc. have so much to offer.

Yeah, and just like the idea of having at least one megasynth. Most of my synths I have had I sold because just not enough presets or good banks out there, and/or I just don't enjoy or understand how to make sounds in the specific synth, nor have the arsenal of the aforementioned synths. I want to pick one and get good at it, but want the good sampler engine in it and the goodies so to speak.

[zzz00m]

SynthMaster 3 will be a rather nice complement to the Phase Plant & Pigments 4 synths in my collection. The 16 synth layers combined with wavetable & multisample editors, plus granular synthesis has my attention! These additions in SynthMaster 3 may put it ahead of Phase Plant and Pigments for me in some regards.

Don't get me wrong about Phase Plant! Its modular approach makes up for any lack of multisampling and granular synthesis it may have, IMO. Being able to add as many generator, filter, modulator, and effects components, and route them anywhere provides for nearly limitless combinations of what it does offer. Plus Phase Plant is already a massive wavetable synth, with a built-in wavetable editor!

Pigments 4 will be hard to beat, but SynthMaster 3 with 16 layers and all of its synthesis abilities, plus a wavetable editor and enhanced multisampling may offer a few unique advantages.

Pigments 4 offers 2 layers with a choice of analog (3-osc + noise, with hard sync & unison), wavetable (with FM, phase distortion, phase modulation, & wavefolding), a harmonic engine (additive with up to 512 partials), and a sample playback engine with plenty of advanced sample mangling options, which includes granular. It can load up to 6 samples in one sample engine, plus offers a sample map with the option for key map (6 octaves), round robin, key/velocity (3 octaves x two velocity layers). In addition to the 2 main layers, there is also a utility engine layer with 2 noise oscs, plus an analog osc that can be used for sub osc. Pretty comprehensive for a soft synth!

I am looking forward to SynthMaster 3. It will be a great addition! But hopefully not too soon as I still need a bit more time to further absorb these other two synths before another major distraction ...

[Boy Wonder]

"Pigments 4 offers 2 layers with a choice of analog (3-osc + noise, with hard sync & unison), wavetable (with FM, phase distortion, phase modulation, & wavefolding), a harmonic engine (additive with up to 512 partials), and a sample playback engine with plenty of advanced sample mangling options, which includes granular. It can load up to 6 samples in one sample engine, plus offers a sample map with the option for key map (6 octaves), round robin, key/velocity (3 octaves x two velocity layers). In addition to the 2 main layers, there is also a utility engine layer with 2 noise oscs, plus an analog osc that can be used for sub osc. Pretty comprehensive for a soft synth!"

And, of course, there's the mighty arp and sequencer. Now, if they stretched the steps out to 32, added ratcheting, a gate sequencer, and distortion-per-step effects like Thorn, that'd be the hotness right there. Even better, if they could add an envelope follower like Predator 3 or Twin 3, and have individual effects-per-step ala Infiltrator or Looperator, that would really be a monster. Prolly need a gaming computer to run that, though.

A boy can dream.

[zzz00m]

"Pigments 4 offers 2 layers with a choice of analog (3-osc + noise, with hard sync & unison), wavetable (with FM, phase distortion, phase modulation, & wavefolding), a harmonic engine (additive with up to 512 partials), and a sample playback engine with plenty of advanced sample mangling options, which includes granular. It can load up to 6 samples in one sample engine, plus offers a sample map with the option for key map (6 octaves), round robin, key/velocity (3 octaves x two velocity layers). In addition to the 2 main layers, there is also a utility engine layer with 2 noise oscs, plus an analog osc that can be used for sub osc. Pretty comprehensive for a soft synth!"

And, of course, there's the mighty arp and sequencer. Now, if they stretched the steps out to 32, added ratcheting, a gate sequencer, and distortion-per-step effects like Thorn, that'd be the hotness right there. Even better, if they could add an envelope follower like Predator 3 or Twin 3, and have individual effects-per-step ala Infiltrator or Looperator, that would really be a monster. Prolly need a gaming computer to run that, though.

A boy can dream.

SM2 already has 32 steps. Too bad that Phase Plant doesn't have an arp/sequencer yet...

So yeah, Pigments is limited to 16 steps but that's better than nothing!

[Lbdunequest]

I dont know if this was asked, but will synthmaster gonna be a new synth or it will overwrite over 2?

[kv331]

I dont know if this was asked, but will synthmaster gonna be a new synth or it will overwrite over 2?

New synth. But it'll be able to load SM1 / SM2 presets.

[kv331]

final revision focused on stability and minor issues will be well accepted by users,especially SM2.9.16 is mandatory cuz the issue i mention happened when decide to uninstall the update 2.9.15 and to install full version.
Cheers

Hi Velltone,

What are the reproduceable steps to generate this issue? Would you be able to send them to us? (a video would be best) We tried to reproduce with Cakewalk / Cubase but no luck.

Best regards

Bulent

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Sorry ,in the middle of project and don't wanna risk stability of my system with whatever it was,which have no explanation to me,but the problem start with 2.9.15 not playing my presets if remove/delete them from preset folder.
Steps are install 2.9.14 then 2.9.15 then 2.9.16 and open project saved with 2.9.14 ...that's it.
Hope to be false alarm related to cakewalk,my system or else and no other user to experience such an issues
Thanks for respond.
Cheers:)

[Examigan]

I dont know if this was asked, but will synthmaster gonna be a new synth or it will overwrite over 2?

New synth. But it'll be able to load SM1 / SM2 presets.

This is probably mentioned somewhere already, but here goes:
If I load an old SM2 preset, can I then add additional layers in SM3 using granular or whatever else on top of that older preset?

[kv331]

This is probably mentioned somewhere already, but here goes:
If I load an old SM2 preset, can I then add additional layers in SM3 using granular or whatever else on top of that older preset?

Yep! You can layer SM1/SM2 presets and add more, up to 16 layers.

[Examigan]

I can't wait to check it out. That sounds awesome

[bmanic]

A few feature request on the sampling side of Synthmaster 3:

1) Allow for proper cross-fade looping in ALL loop situations. Forward, ping-pong/alternate and reverse. When doing cross fade looping for ping-pong the crossfade region should either be outside the loop points or inside it. Best if the user gets to choose location of the fade in and fade out of the loop

2) Make a robust system for easy drag and drop of any audio file from finder/explorer and right from the DAW and other synths/samplers that support dragging out wave forms (like Maschine/FL Studio vst plugin versions)

3) Give the users and option to embed audio files within a preset. Optionally with FLAC packing and password protect. Sort of like Native Instruments selfcontained monolothic format (or how Logic audio allows ebedding of all audio data into the project file). This would make preset sharing a lot easier.

4) If possible, allow for audio data to be saved with DAW project (in those DAWs that support this). Naturally the sample size can't be too large though so it probably needs some limit like 50mb or such. This would again help with project sharing and collaboration between two or more musicians who could simply share the DAW project and be certain that the other person with Synthmaster 3 would have the project open up properly without having to worry about where the sample content or preset file is located. Quality of life stuff like this would be absolutely killer and so useful! Unfortunately it's a tough nut to crack as not all DAWs can embed large chunks of audio within the project file in a VST plugin.

[Korg Supporter]

I'm going to wait for Zebra 3, which will hopefully be out by Superbooth.

[nachenko]

This one suddenly became much more interesting to me for sound FX design if it offers round robin and granular like Pigments does, plus embedded samples in presets and a bundle exporter, just like Vital.

It would even step over Weaponizer and Phase Plant for me.

[kv331]

This one suddenly became much more interesting to me for sound FX design if it offers round robin and granular like Pigments does.

Actually, our SFZ implementation already supported round robin / random regions. But since we did not have a visual editor, no one noticed those features

Same for the FM implementations in SynthMaster, you can already connect oscillators and modulators to create complex FM routings, but no one (except Nori Ubukata probably) noticed those

Hopefuly we will fix those issues See the following routing for a layer for instance, I counted 13 modules. and yes we have a new module called "Waveshaper" which is a parametric per voice waveshaper/distortion module. Here's a screenshot from our 1024x768 iPad layout: (yes, we WILL release SM3 on iOS as well in 2024)

Complex Routing.jpg

See the "+" buttons, those allow you to add layers, modules, modulation sources dynamically. It took me a long time to create the architecture, but now it is really powerful and SynthMaster 3 turned into a modular environment.

I am planning to place some limits though:

1. 16 Layers per preset max.
2. 32 modulation sources per layer max
3. 16 modules per layer max

(we can increase those limits over time)

and one last note: While comparing our products to other company's products, please don't forget the fact the this software is created by a SINGLE (1) developer on 3 different platforms (Win / Mac / iOS) (My brother helps me with maintenance). We were far behind others, since they had more man power, but hopefuly we're catching up...