Deimos - free synthesizer (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

[Saffran]

Possible bug.
I'm not a pro on synth settings so i wonder if i missed something?
The oscillator 2 seems to not work. There's no blue number or red phase wave. No impact on the sound.

Perhaps you forgot to turn oscillator 2 on? It's not super obvious (without a manual or so) but there's buttons to toggle the oscillators and noise on and off in the mixer section, just below their volume knobs.
Any module on the synth will only get red indicators shown if it is being used somewhere.

Don't i feel silly. Thanks.

[ZonderP]

When I wondered what 'Slop' should mean (I'm not native English speaking) ...

When talking about electronics, especially for music, "slop" is short for "sloppiness." You might also call it inaccuracy, wiggle room, or drift tolerance, but "slop" is pretty standard jargon here. A slop knob on a synthesizer commonly controls how "analog" it sounds, by allowing (for example) multiple oscillators and filters to be slightly detuned from each other.
....

Thanks for this detailed explanation!
Much appreciated.
Will try to check the 'slop' behavior, when I find time.

[Tom Trnk]

When I wondered what 'Slop' should mean (I'm not native English speaking) ...

When talking about electronics, especially for music, "slop" is short for "sloppiness." You might also call it inaccuracy, wiggle room, or drift tolerance, but "slop" is pretty standard jargon here. A slop knob on a synthesizer commonly controls how "analog" it sounds, by allowing (for example) multiple oscillators and filters to be slightly detuned from each other.

I unfortunately can't double check right now whether that's what the slop control in Luna is doing.

Yes, that's more or less what it does for some parameters .. a combination of voice variation and amount of drift.

It can be subtle unless you create very specific types of sounds or play them in certain ways. Turning the slop controls up generally makes things a bit more unstable and more "organic", but turning them lower can give some consistency when you need it.

The slop control on the oscillators could be turned all the way to zero if you'd like to have very stable phase relationships between them, to get more consistent sounds when using phase modulation for example.
For the "rough" filter mode, turning emphasis/resonance up to self-oscillation and key tracking all the way up allows you to play notes with it, turning slop a bit lower makes it tune more accurately.

[ZonderP]

Thanks @Tom for confirming @Super Piano Hater 64's explanation.

[docbot]

is this done with synthedit? just asking because the knobs have a similiar look

[Tom Trnk]

is this done with synthedit? just asking because the knobs have a similiar look

No synthedit here!
It's built using the iPlug2 framework, with custom C++ sound engine and custom graphics .. the knobs might have had some inspiration from some classic physical gear, so I'm not really surprised one can find similarities elsewhere

[Saffran]

I don't know why it's so fun to make presets with this synth, but it is
A bundle of 28 plus a init backup.

Luna presets.zip

[Tom Trnk]

I don't know why it's so fun to make presets with this synth, but it is
A bundle of 28 plus a init backup.
Luna presets.zip

Nice, I'm glad you enjoy!

I'm currently working on some improvements/fixes and getting some of my own presets ready to be included in the next update. Aiming to upload that some time this weekend.

[Tom Trnk]

The new update is now available, and the synth has been renamed to Deimos now!

Oscillators are now processed using less CPU by default. An "HQ" switch enables high quality mode for situations where it matters.
A "Mix Offset" oscillator mode was added.

The sequence auxiliary can now also be run independently of the LFO, with or without tempo sync, and can now also retrigger Env1 or Env2 on each step.
A few other changes/additions to auxiliary modes, including a "Sample and Hold" mode.

And there's now a bank of 30 builtin factory presets included as well!

----------

I will eventually also add the presets that were submitted so far. Of course still happy to include more if anyone feels like sharing some

I'm curious how stable the synth runs on everyones machines. Any oustanding technical issues, or other feedback?
If it runs well for everyone, even just a thumbs up or so would be appreciated a lot so I can get a better picture

[Nug Wrangler]

Thanks

[GaryG]

Thanks, this has a really nice sound at it's core. I played with the Mellow Brassy pad (less filter, quicker attack etc) and got maybe the nearest I've managed to the laurie anderson 'big science' brass sound. So, yeah, that's a positive in my book

[Cuauhtli]

Windows 10 using Reaper on a laptop. There was a bit of crackling when messing with the osc area (where you adjust the waveshape and so on) while playing notes. Didn't notice it later so it may just be my laptop (something updating in the background or antivirus software). Other than that, it ran fine. Didn't do anything more complex than assign envelope 1 to the filter and a couple of LFOs to a couple of osc controls.

Gotta love the +/- 48 bend range.

[lepharaon]

(edited on November 16)
Hello!

I'm happy to announce that my free synthesizer "Deimos" (formerly known as "Luna") now has a beta version available.

It is designed to be compact, quick and easy to use, with a focus on sound quality and its own character. I imagine anyone familiar with VA synths should feel right at home with it.
It intends to go a bit beyond typical VA synth capabilities though, offering more waveforms, some phase distortion/modulation capabilities, and flexible modulation.



You can download it here: https://tom-trnk.itch.io/deimos
It's currently available as VST3 and CLAP for Windows.
I'm hoping to get at least a Linux version running in the near future, since I am also partially migrating.

Please note that it's beta software still, so it may contain bugs or not work properly on your system. It also comes without manual at this point, and may lack features some would really like (MPE support for example - planned but not done yet)

I'd be delighted to hear whatever feedback or questions you have, feel free to share it here, on the itch page, or even DM me directly. I'm happy to help with any issues!

For transparency: I'm also working on a bigger and much more capable synth built on the same tech, which I hope to release commercially in the future. If you enjoy this free one, it may be of interest to you too .. in any case, whatever support I can get will be highly appreciated!

Enjoy!
Tom

Wow, great job, I'll check it out now.

[Spitfire31]

I'm currently working on some improvements/fixes …

Such as the AU version?
/JHS

[Tom Trnk]

There was a bit of crackling when messing with the osc area (where you adjust the waveshape and so on) while playing notes.

Ah yes, that is known!
Waveform adjustment wasn't really intended to work in real time, so the code for it isn't very efficient and there's no smoothing when changing it, so I see how this can happen. Not sure I can/will do something about it though.

I'm currently working on some improvements/fixes …

Such as the AU version?
/JHS

I might have some time to look into that next weekend!