Old Free VSTi Gems From The Past

[osiris]

Mine was a mess. Random serial numbers that I didn't know what they went to. Random preset banks. Things I don't know if it's an FX or a synth. Then there are .exe files I don't even dare launch because I don't know what they are.

[Nahkranoth]

well i came across this thread looking for the Flintlock Juno
it was at p89 then.
but i've seen a few things going through all that that i haven't seen for a long time.

So you did witness the rise of pinkjimiphoton I hope he's fine.
If I'm not mistaken you've made some pretty good Synthedit synths that were constantly in beta

can't face digging into it all just yet. it needs to be condensed down. how do i proceed?
zip up the original download folders for safekeeping? or just tip them all into one folder?

I'd sort them by developer if it's even possible, and zip'em good!

bob bobwood has lots more than me

I think eidenk was having tons of early Synthedit stuff collected, but now it could be lost. Wonderful ugly little noisemakers were aplenty then.

Oh, I remember osiris got that little CPU killer called Cymbiant, what a powerful sound it was back then! Do you guys have it somewhere?

[Nahkranoth]

Mine was a mess. Random serial numbers that I didn't know what they went to. Random preset banks. Things I don't know if it's an FX or a synth. Then there are .exe files I don't even dare launch because I don't know what they are.

It seems you have a lot of unknown stuff to investigate, one of my favourite pastimes

[mztk]

I'd sort them by developer if it's even possible, and zip'em good!

haha yes, by developer, i started doing that fairly early on.
but then you think "what about categories? all drum machines etc.?"
so that's part of the bloat, and 'in progress'.

the most complete is the completely random dated download folders:
"VST (date/mth/yr)" because i could just grab stuff and chuck it in, and there were times when you couldn't keep up with testing all of it.

you know i still keep Orion installed, still think it's one of the best programs that emerged from that period. when it did, its competitor was something by a company called ... Arturia? with a "virtual studio" called Storm. - i think that's Arturia, right? and Orion was better because you could use VST plugins with it. it was like an open-ended Rebirth - and seemed to have better ergonomics than Reason (v1.0 at that point), which appeared a bit later, with the dangly cables - that looked cool but didn't add anything.

anyway, that was an easy way to test stuff: keep a 'VST' directory on C: drive, subdivided into: 'VSTi' and 'VST fx', and unzip and chuck stuff in there, have it loaded a few seconds later, with sequencer and mixer, ready to go. so then i eventually also had monthly 'tested' folders within that, as selections.

it's interesting watching what's going on now. did you see Cherry Audio make a 'DCO-106' ? oi! i had that name
my things stayed as 'beta' as a way of 'making no claim of fitness for purpose' ! i'd be working on something, learning how to make something happen, and already have an idea for another project. it's hard to keep up with that on your own, and involved a real daily routine, for several years. i never got to the stage where i could take time out to learn how to code, and with Synthedit, eventually the computer can't cope with the project file redraw, with lots of modules and connections. this didn't necessarily translate to poor performance as a plugin, if you kept an eye on what causes CPU usage - it was graphics card memory struggling (i think; that's what i concluded).
anyway, i really enjoyed using Synthedit, it was a revelation, and a discipline.
i just had to pack it in in 2015, realising how much time it was eating up, and that i was repeating routines a lot. ... what was it? oh yes i discovered a 30eu Roland D-110 and thought 'how can this thing be such a POS to program? so i started using Ctrlr, and that's when i had to learn a bit of 'coding'/Lua scripting - so that was a new rabbit hole to go down ...

so if anyone's thinking of making plugins .. well, it was all about checking out how a numbskull such as i could go about making some sort of plugin. starting with SE was/is really educational, but at some point you have to start coding - i still don't know how to install Visual Basic and a compiler, or any C++ etc. Ctrlr is quite a good kiddie-school for that: the compiler is in the program, and you're doing everything in 'Lua' which has a big tie-in with JUCE - so if you want to do something, you can go to the JUCE github and look up available functions.

and you know what? as intensely as you learn that stuff, once you stop for 6 months, you've forgotten it all ... and it's very humbling because there are people out there conversant with stuff that goes way over your head, you'd never imagine doing that in a million years until you're shown a way. ... and, after a while, you start flowing with it better, and can start problem solving and getting creative. love it really, but have to stay away from it !!

[Collusion]

This old thing? https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/arturia-storm-v3

[mztk]

This old thing? https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/arturia-storm-v3

yes that's it. except it was the v1 at the time. Synapse Audio was called Sonic Syndicate at the time, and Orion was the only thing that could run VSTis with reasonable-enough latency on a SoundblasterLive, - compared to Cubase, which needed a better soundcard, and serious buffer tweaking (something i still never bothered to master; i was looking for a hardware sim, coming from a hardware-oriented background). this was before EMU brought out their cheap/decent 2in/2out card, forget what it was called. and before ASIO4ALL. Orion could do it with DirectX drivers.
so i just started using Orion, and never really bothered with other DAWs except for a quick look. it gave me decent MIDI sequencing, a pretty fair sampler, and all these instruments. i didn't want to sit in front of long arrangements, and could bang out an idea quickly, save it, and pick it up again later. (not saying any of that left any worthwhile audio behind though ! )

[osiris]

I thought I found Cymbiant, but it was just a zipped folder of the GUI elements I used for the skin. I've found every other one I made but not Cymbiant but I can't believe I don't have it backed up somewhere.

[Nahkranoth]

I thought I found Cymbiant, but it was just a zipped folder of the GUI elements I used for the skin. I've found every other one I made but not Cymbiant but I can't believe I don't have it backed up somewhere.

I mean not the second version with gui by totolitoto, but the first one, with ugly knobs which looked similar to plastic manhole covers. Maybe that one is available?

haha yes, by developer, i started doing that fairly early on.
but then you think "what about categories? all drum machines etc.?"
so that's part of the bloat, and 'in progress'.

I'd make another folder filled with links to original folders just to categorize. Haven't got to it myself, but this thought seems reasonable.

you know i still keep Orion installed, still think it's one of the best programs that emerged from that period. when it did, its competitor was something by a company called ... Arturia? with a "virtual studio" called Storm. - i think that's Arturia, right? and Orion was better because you could use VST plugins with it. it was like an open-ended Rebirth - and seemed to have better ergonomics than Reason (v1.0 at that point), which appeared a bit later, with the dangly cables - that looked cool but didn't add anything.

anyway, that was an easy way to test stuff: keep a 'VST' directory on C: drive, subdivided into: 'VSTi' and 'VST fx', and unzip and chuck stuff in there, have it loaded a few seconds later, with sequencer and mixer, ready to go. so then i eventually also had monthly 'tested' folders within that, as selections.

I still use OpenMPT for composing, VSTHost for testing stuff. Didn't befriend any of the pianoroll-wielding DAWs. But I tried Orion once, it was fast as a lightning, just not my cup of tea. Looked like Reason, just with you know, more reason, without all the cable-dragging.

it's interesting watching what's going on now. did you see Cherry Audio make a 'DCO-106' ? oi! i had that name

Was it gray(ish) in appearance? I should have it somewhere, unfortunately can't check as my main PC is miles away.

anyway, i really enjoyed using Synthedit, it was a revelation, and a discipline.
i just had to pack it in in 2015, realising how much time it was eating up, and that i was repeating routines a lot.

I always thought of your creations as "a poor man's GTG", in a good way tho. I mean, with some more time and involvement (unfortunately time is always a culprit) you could be another Synthedit star, as Mik. Still adore those little character synths.

As I'd like to be able to create VST plugins, I never even started, because every path has been already taken by others, and it seems i can't think of an idea of a synth that's worth my time. Anyway, if the development and evolution of virtual instruments will stop right now, we still have all the tools we need to make different kinds of music for years to come

[osiris]

I mean not the second version with gui by totolitoto, but the first one, with ugly knobs which looked similar to plastic manhole covers.

If I remember correctly it's the same synth with a different skin. I had so many plans for that. I was going to put a step sequencer and better arp, then Jeff recoded SE and almost all my SE modules wouldn't work. The filters were made by Antillas(?), a talented guy from Greece and I much preferred his filters to SE stock filters.

[mztk]

then Jeff recoded SE and almost all my SE modules wouldn't work.

ah when he went to v1.1 and all the connections were reversed
i stuck with v1.017, which was pretty much perfect. never could get used to subsequent versions.

[RunBeerRun]

Se 1.0 rules! It was the only stable version that couldn't really crash.

Thanks for the person that uploaded NX synth, it needs a waveshaper in it but its not bad although high cpu, too much poly!

[mztk]

I always thought of your creations as "a poor man's GTG"

that's a great compliment. one of them did look a bit like a GTG. he was going for a SH-5/7 look, and i made some side cheeks inspired by System101/102. but the modulation routings were too ambitious, i didn't really know how to balance it all out if multiple sources ended up sending to the same target parameter. each one was a learning process.

check out Dr Mix attempting to code a VST synth with ChatGPT



hey RBR!

[mztk]

just had a great chat with ChatGPT, asking it to show me the shell of a VSTi in C++.
then it coded me a sinewave oscillator module with the Synthedit SDK - and explained how it worked.
(way over my head)

[osiris]

I thought about it and I think there was 3 versions of Cymbiant. I asked ChatGPT to code an Access Virus VST for me and it said it would take too much time, so I asked it to code me a basic 1 osc, 1 filter, 1 LFO polysynth. It didn't want to, but I coaxed it into doing it. It can only do C++ and there was only bare bones in the script. I ran it through a compiler and got a tone of errors. But it was a good example of what it takes to even code a basic synth. I have a whole new respect for the software guys.

[mztk]

It can only do C++ and there was only bare bones in the script. I ran it through a compiler and got a tone of errors.

ask it if it knows JUCE. much more readable.
(i only asked to get a quick peek at what something basic would look like.)