Phuturetone GR-8

[Phuturetone]

Looks beautiful. On the negative side, I didn't like the sound of the reverb when I tried it out.

Thanks, Aloysius!

My initial idea was to make a reverb plugin for this contest. Now I'm glad I've changed my mind.

[Phuturetone]

This is killer and has the potential to be one of the best freeware synths. I like the simplicity of it and the nice FX.

However, it crashes when Reason does its plugin scan. I'm using the Polac VST3 loader as a bridge for VST3 plugins. But it works fine using it inside Kushview Element or Metaplugin.

Thanks, v1o!

Reason is my favorite DAW. I use it to test my plugins regularly. VST2.4 version of GR--8 is working in Reason, the problem is that I don't have a license to distribute VST2.4 plugins.

Can you somehow get a crash report, so we can see what is causing the bridge to crash?

Thanks,
Sasha

[BONES]

SynthEdit app works on Windows only, but it can export VST for PC and AudioUnit for Mac. Not sure for how long the export for Mac was there, but that feature got me back to SynthEdit last year, after a long pause.

Is this SE!?! f**k me! It sounds great and SE explains the relatively high CPU use. Really nice work. Is it all standard modules? Is anyone still doing 3rd party modules like Dave Haupt and Chris Kerry and those guys used to do?

One little thing that has been annoying me is that you can't use the scroll wheel to scroll in the Preset browser. OK, two things, because when you change categories, the browser doesn't go back to the top of the page. e.g. If you scroll to the bottom of the Leads page, then change to a different category, that category will also be scrolled to the bottom of the page, so you miss the presets at the top of the page.

[Phuturetone]

Hi Bones,

A goal was to use SE standard modules as much as possible, but it has several modified ones and a few originals. Yes, there are a few of us actively working on new SE modules: Andrew, Davidson, Elena, Roy, Me...

As for the higher CPU, I'll need to investigate why and where it's happening. Another goal was quality audio and some parts of the synth are oversampled, so higher CPU consumption is expected.

Agree, the Preset Browser needs more love definitely. Currently, there is no support for mouse scroll in the SDK, but the later annoyance that you've described should be fixable.

Thanks,
Sasha

[BONES]

Hey Sasha, great work with this, mate. It is really, really nice.

The issues I mentioned aren't any kind of problem, it just feels like an instrument with that level of quality shouldn't have little niggly issues like that, so I figured you'd want to know. It doesn't actually bother me at all. CPU use isn't massive, it's definitely manageable, but it is a lot higher than something like Invader, which is otherwise fairly similar in layout, features and sound quality (except for the effects). Maybe you could add an "ECO" button if the oversampling can be turned on and off on the GUI?

[Russell Grand]

Version 1.0.1 of GR-8 is available for PC and Mac:

• Fixed silent Saturation mode on Distortion. All the presets using it were silent too.

• Fixed Pitch Bender returning to zero when controlled via MIDI.

• Updated About screen.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/gr-8-b ... /downloads

Thank you all for reporting and help with testing. You've been wonderful!

Quick update. Nice!

[GaryG]

Talking about the preset browser: One little 'issue' I had was it seemed to be be randomly jumping to different presets when I clicked the synth/fx button or some other actions. I think it's to do with Reapers virtual keyboard, I've had issues with other plugs using it (stuck notes in Invader2 etc) so don't think it is a problem for GR-8 per se. Maybe if you're holding a note and click certain buttons the browser gets focus and jumps to the first preset with that letter..?

[Andywanders]

Hmm...

Just installed this and when Reaper scanned it I got a missing dll error [MSVCP140D.dll].

This is part of Microsoft Visual C 2015 if I'm not mistaken, and I have this on my system so I'm stumped.

Win 7 x64

Any ideas..?

[Phuturetone]

Hmm...

Just installed this and when Reaper scanned it I got a missing dll error [MSVCP140D.dll].

This is part of Microsoft Visual C 2015 if I'm not mistaken, and I have this on my system so I'm stumped.

Win 7 x64

Any ideas..?

Hi Andy,

Did you install the latest version 1.0.1? I've updated it a few days ago and that DLL error should be fixed. Otherwise, please let me know.

Thanks,
Sasha

[Phuturetone]

Hey Sasha, great work with this, mate. It is really, really nice.

The issues I mentioned aren't any kind of problem, it just feels like an instrument with that level of quality shouldn't have little niggly issues like that, so I figured you'd want to know. It doesn't actually bother me at all. CPU use isn't massive, it's definitely manageable, but it is a lot higher than something like Invader, which is otherwise fairly similar in layout, features and sound quality (except for the effects). Maybe you could add an "ECO" button if the oversampling can be turned on and off on the GUI?

Thanks again, Bones! Yes, I'm definitely interested in what people dislike about the plugin, no matter how big or small. I'm writing it all down as a guide for improvements. A lot of that stuff I notice myself while developing, but forgot about because I'm focused on another task.

I will have to check Invader and compare. I've just recently found about e-phonic and am loving the look of the plugins.

Thanks for the suggestions, cheers!

[Phuturetone]

Talking about the preset browser: One little 'issue' I had was it seemed to be randomly jumping to different presets when I clicked the synth/fx button or some other actions. I think it's to do with Reapers virtual keyboard, I've had issues with other plugs using it (stuck notes in Invader2, etc) so don't think it is a problem for GR-8 per se. Maybe if you're holding a note and click certain buttons the browser gets focus and jumps to the first preset with that letter..?

Thanks, Gary. The software SDK that I'm using allows only the use of CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT keys, so that sounds like a Reaper's thing. Think you should let the developers know about it. Cheers!

[Andywanders]

Hi Andy,

Did you install the latest version 1.0.1? I've updated it a few days ago and that DLL error should be fixed. Otherwise, please let me know.

Thanks,
Sasha

Thank you Sasha.

The new version version is fine - no dll error.

I don't have time now but I will give it a workout tomorrow. Initial reaction - it looks beautiful.

Cheers and good luck with the contest.

[Erisian]

For my purposes, this is a really beautiful machine. The presets are great and it is working well in Cantabile Lite on Win7.

[linus_369]

Definetly one of my favourites so far - clean and straightforward interface, its sound is more than convincing, and several presets really inviting to dive into this thing!

Yes, this is mainly an "only" classic subtractive synth. But as I am quite new to synthesis:
Everywhere you find big cool featureized synths "with a twist" here and there ... Would say there is still some place for a good sounding, well layouted, technically up-to-date, intuitive classic thing. Not overwhelming but simply useable for the classical sound design.

Just two things that would make it even better from my point of view:
less hungry for CPU power: Three instances plus a better drum plugin, and Ableton reports already 30 to 40% CPU usage on my music laptop ...
and one personal thing: resizable! Maybe simply with something like "small", "medium", "large". As I am often using plugins mapped to one of my controller, I really like UI's nearly filling the small screen of my laptop for better readability and focused work.

[BONES]

One of the presets I was looking at last night, that I really like, is Fat Bass, which is a very modern sounding bass patch that is all about the effects. I think that's a large part of the difference between what we think of as "classic" synth sounds and modern synth sounds - the amount of post processing involved. GR-8 has a really good effects section that broadens the palette considerably.

I can't see how CPU is a problem if you can get those sorts of numbers out of it. One instance for me shows more than 40% but I still manage to fit it into songs without any issues.