SynthMaster 3 Official Thread: SynthMaster 3/Player v3.4.9 Rev 17271 update

[Teksonik]

Please revert back to the old browser. This new one is terrible. It looks like an amateuristic mess, breaks all continuity with your other products, and doesn't work as one would expect when using modern keyboard/controllers.
I don't understand why you made such a drastic change anyway. The old browser was intuitive and worked exactly as expected. This new one ain't.

Please don't revert back to the old browser unless it's as an option. The new one is much better.

Unless there is a beta I'm not aware of the latest changes to the browser have not been released yet so passing judgement on the changes based on a screenshot is not ideal.

Please explain to the class what makes it "an amateuristic mess" compared to the old version.

[audiojunkie]

I personally have no preference over one way or the other. But everyone here needs to understand that you all are burning out this poor team over a menu. A menu! If they get discouraged and close up shop, I hope everyone remembers this! A menu!

You should have posted that before the browser was changed. Would have saved them a lot of work...

I didn’t have an opinion on the preset browser one way or the other, so I stayed out of it. But now, things are getting ridiculous, and the development team is needing to be able to move on with other sources of income (ie, iOS versions, presets, further stability, etc, etc,etc.). I want this company to succeed.

BTW, I am not aiming my comments at any person in particular (No offense was intended towards anyone either). I hope everyone will forgive my interjections about all of this. I was just feeling bad for the developers.

[ThomasHelzle]

Well, there were voices against it before and only a handful of people were for these changes here on the thread.
I of course do not know if this was actually an often requested feature in direct mails.
And not everybody hangs out on KVR all the time - this wasn't discussed much but was implemented right away very quickly.
You may only find out after you update the synth.

Almost all changes before were for the good of the product, this is the first IIRC where there is a clear split between people who think that the browser was perfect before and those who like the changes.

Small team or not, when something is changed drastically that only some users see as an improvement, it's not as if this can't be discussed. KV331 isn't helped if bad decisions are accepted for the wrong reasons.
I personally would say that changing the browser was the last problem SM3 had.
So "priorities" cuts both ways - why change it at all if things are dire.

Anyway, may make sense to discuss drastic changes of this kind a bit longer or even take a survey.

Like I said before, the browser won't kill me but it's definitely something I do not enjoy using.

[Brando]

My biggest issue with the old browser was the fact that the presets were from multiple users who seemingly selected categories so broadly as to make them pretty much useless for sorting purposes. No way to accurately select a "pad" or a "lead" without getting a whack of arps, bass sounds, percussion sounds etc. Also a bug (multi selection of categories) that Bulent acknowledged in this thread and fixed. I like to make my own sounds, but often start with something and tweak as a quicker way of getting what I am after. Nice to see how some of the amazing sounds are created, and I learn a lot in the process. The changes being proposed for the browser itself look great to me and I am looking forward to trying them out in real use. I use Synth 3 in almost every project. Nothing but respect for Bulent. Just my 2 cents.

[Teksonik]

Like I said before, the browser won't kill me but it's definitely something I do not enjoy using.

I felt the same way with the old browser. I did not enjoy using it because it forced us to constantly view search boxes like "Styles" (Bluegrass? Country? Baroque?) and "Instrument Types" which are search criteria I'll never use and that screen space was wasted at the expense of showing what is really important to me and that's the presets themselves.

The new browser (the last official release not the one shown above since we can't check it out yet) allows us to choose which search criteria we wish to use and allows us to see over three times more presets at a single glance without scrolling.

Let me show you what I think is one of the best browsers in existence:

Blue Browser 1.png

135 presets and 34 banks in one view without the need to be constantly scrolling. Even with the Search Category open it still shows 80 presets:

Blue Browser 2.png

I need a way to quickly find presets in a large list and A/B them without having to constantly scroll back and forth back and forth.

Let's be honest, there is no browser that is 100% perfect for 100% of the user base. Of course discussions of such things are perfectly logical and useful but just saying the new browser "sucks" isn't helping anyone. As for priorities, since KV331 is developing a Player version of SM3 the browser will be the most important thing in that version since its main purpose is to find presets not to make them so working on the browser for the full SM3 make sense.

[Teksonik]

My biggest issue with the old browser was the fact that the presets were from multiple users who seemingly selected categories so broadly as to make them pretty much useless for sorting purposes. No way to accurately select a "pad" or a "lead" without getting a whack of arps, bass sounds, percussion sounds etc.

Thank you. I've said this several times already. This is no the fault of KV331 but of the sound designers who put too many attributes and styles in their patch tagging and that makes accurate search nearly impossible.

As Bulent mentioned it's going to be hard to go back and edit all those many patches to more accurately reflect what they are (an Arp patch should not show up when searching for a Mono Lead and so on).

I think the tagging issue is probably one of the biggest weaknesses in the current SM3 browser.

[ThomasHelzle]

In the end, a configurable browser would be ideal, but probably too much work.
For me, seeing a ton of presets at once is no value at all.

The categorisation issues mentioned are a fully different issue that neither browser design can solve, that would need somebody going through every preset and make better choices (which is very subjective again).

The "Blue" example for me is rather horrible actually, very same-sameish with little to guide the eye.

Brains are very different and one brains bliss is another ones horror.
And that is the basic takeaway for me here:
People ARE different and perception is not something you can do "right" for everybody.
This is also why I think the discussion isn't fully to the point.
Nobody is wrong, just the assumption that one size fits all is false.

A lot of people won't speak up at all, just silently go away if such drastic changes hamper their usage.

Bitwigs browser went from perfect for me in 4.x (rather similar to the old SM3 browser actually, with all categories visible at once) to really hurting my brain and making me angry every time I had to use it in 5.x, so I keep using version 4.

[Brando]

since KV331 is developing a Player version of SM3 the browser will be the most important thing in that version since its main purpose is to find presets not to make them so working on the browser for the full SM3 make sense.

This, exactly. Those who say the old browser should stay the same as it was aren't really helping. Bulent is trying to grow the popularity of SM3 - the browser is critical/vital to the acceptance of a player version.

[Teksonik]

In the end, a configurable browser would be ideal, but probably too much work.
For me, seeing a ton of presets at once is no value at all. The "Blue" example for me is rather horrible actually, very same-sameish with little to guide the eye.

What we're showing with absolute clarity is that different people have different wants and needs.

I find Blue 3's browser one of the most logical, functional, and easiest to use on the market. I see little point in browsers that are all search and very few results.

The point of the discussion is to articulate what it is that you don't like about the browser. Calling it an "amateurish mess" as one user did solves nothing and helps no one.

If someone stops using a synth simply because of the browser then I put to you that there's something wrong with the synth....or the user.

The categorisation issues mentioned are a fully different issue that neither browser design can solve, that would need somebody going through every preset and make better choices (which is very subjective again).

If the attributes are so subjective why include the option? "Airy" is a subjective term but Lead, Arp, and Bass really shouldn't be:

SM3 082925.png

Unfortunately as has been mentioned before the damage is done and unless someone takes the time to more logically tag the factory presets this issue will simply continue to exist making search results far less than accurate.

[kv331]

Guys, just released v3.4.2 update. Please check for updates inside the plugin.

Screenshot 2025-08-29 212646.jpg

Change log:

3.4.2 (Revision 16461)
1. NEW: Added vertical/horizontal display options for presets list (defaults to horizontal for backwards compatibility)
2. FIX: Loading presets crashes SynthMaster 3 when ran inside Komplete Kontrol
3. FIX: Preset previews don't play at the correct speed when DAW project sample rate is not 44100
4. FIX: Some author names show up multiple times on the preset browser screen
5. FIX: SynthMaster 3 standalone always enables builtin QWERTY keyboard

To change the preset list display type, simply click on the cogwheel icon on the preset browser page:

Screenshot 2025-08-29 213546.jpg

[kv331]

We also released 3 new expansion banks by Loopsy: House, Tech House and Rave expansions:

https://soundcloud.com/kv331synthmaster ... expansions

From now on, I will concentrate on finishing SynthMaster 3 Player, that's crucial for our "survival". We are running our summer sale for the past month, and we lost money for the first time in a sale period. That's just insane. Google Ads, Meta ads, none of them work/help.

[Held]

From now on, I will concentrate on finishing SynthMaster 3 Player, that's crucial for our "survival". We are running our summer sale for the past month, and we lost money for the first time in a sale period. That's just insane. Google Ads, Meta ads, none of them work/help.

Modular synths are pretty niche, I guess. So it's difficult to sell them if you rely on volume. So the player should hopefully help.

Maybe you could add simplified UIs and sell instruments inside of SM3. Like for example Reaktor or MSoundFactory

[Held]

1. NEW: Added vertical/horizontal display options for presets list (defaults to horizontal for backwards compatibility)

The scrolling is much better now. I can get used to this. However, the horizontal scrolling seems to be only working in one direction with my mouse wheel. Vertical is fine.

[zvenx]

Thanks for the cleanup of Author/Sound Designer names Bulent.
Much appreciated.
rsp

[robert_p]

(...) the horizontal scrolling seems to be only working in one direction with my mouse wheel. Vertical is fine.

On my Windows system the horizontal scrolling doesn't work in any direction with the mouse wheel if the mouse cursor is located in presets area, however, moving the cursor down to scrollbar and then turning the mouse wheel scrolls the preset list page by page - which is quite useful. I'll stick with the vertical scrolling for now (until the horizontal bug is fixed). For me, the new browser layout is really nice (even though I liked the old one too). The biggest improvement, however is the shopping section. Well done.