Vortex VSTi - Multi Timbral Groove Machine Beta

[musikmachine]

Don't think the lp will work too well with nrpns, can't get the parameters to the right values; sequence length goes to about 14 then jumps back to the beginning. Tried different combinations but all it affects is the number of steps the sequence jumps with each button press...

Sounds like you are using NRPNS, they are used for the mixer, you want RPNS, they are the same but different.

Tried uninstalling the last beta and installed the new one but the pdf still installs to the vst plugin folder.

Ok, it's on the list again.

Just been trying this out with Geist, assigning all the channels to the same kit and setting up each sequence with octave steps to trigger different hits on each pass, really cool. This is an excellent plugin for generative use and like Como mentioned remixing.

I thought it would be good to have some non octave, ie other value modes for the octave row too! On generative, I was just playing with the alternative scale mode which changes the relationship nicely when a new sequence is added as it uses a single counter to flip between the up/down states

Oh yeah, slight bug with paint mode; can't erase the notes, when i hold to delete the note just flashes on and off. I have to click in each step to remove it. everything else seems to be solid.

I'll check it out, but I have fixed a bug today where painting the same note that was initially clicked didn't work so I guess it's part of that.

Don't think I'll make a the release tonight I'm exhausted and half way through tracking down a CC bug which I think I'll have to finish in the morning.

Solid wow! That is great to hear, I know how hard you are to please!

It was nrpns. I haven't quite figured out the values in the automap editors boxes yet, all i get is the msb and lsb 0-20 and i think that's as far as it goes, i can't define the range etc afaik but there aint much info on the LPs midi implementation. Anyway i came across this video yesterday http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2011/ ... eton-live/

That's the type of control that would be great imo and it would go beyond controlling one instrument although maybe it's a different app altogether? The LP is great for multipage/layer control. Imagine being able to control Vortex with one.

Well you can with CCs but all the boxes are red. That's the problem, the LP works best with bidirectional control, even with automap it's tough to remember all the controls.

What kinda triggers? I think the drum sequencing in multimbral mode is pretty powerful, i need to play around with it some more. I had an idea, i noticed you can set the octave of the pitch retrigger, what about the same for the sequencers and or triggers for smaller keyboards or pc laptop keyboards, you could have the multi/sequencers on the top two rows, pitch on the middle and triggers on the bottom for laptop jamming on the road.

One things for sure, i need to brush up on my theory.

[Astralp]

I'll get an LP at some point and explore the possibilities But the NRPNs are used for the mixer, it's RPNs for the sequencer related stuff. So you can't just save patches on the LP once they are programmed?

What kinda triggers? I think the drum sequencing in multimbral mode is pretty powerful, i need to play around with it some more. I had an idea, i noticed you can set the octave of the pitch retrigger, what about the same for the sequencers and or triggers for smaller keyboards or pc laptop keyboards, you could have the multi/sequencers on the top two rows, pitch on the middle and triggers on the bottom for laptop jamming on the road.

It worries me about how complicated it becomes, for instance at the moment all presets will work for the C3/C4 octaves, I can imagine it leading to frustration if this changed on a preset by preset level, and really it should be a global setting... The other aspect is that there will be another octave of triggers below the existing one, plus they will all be mappable like the pitch so that you can decide where they all are. I'll keep it in mind but for the moment I'm leaving it as it is at least until the triggers are done in v1.1.

[Astralp]

I've fixed m7th in the next one, thanks. If you notice others let me know, the display will always be the same as the actual scale they're bound together using super glue

Andy ... a lot of the scales don't seem right. I think I clicked Minor 7th and got only the C, D, E and F scale activated with the red indicators.

I didn't have a chance to record the midi and see whether the indicator lights are off, but the output is correct ... or whether the indicators accurately reflect the output, which seems wrong for the selected scale.

Como

[Astralp]

iDRAGGED MY SELF A WAY FROM WORK FOR A BIT JUST TO CHECK OUT THE AUDITION. Oops! I'm all in caps from setting the Caps Lock to do so.

It is absolutely fantastic!

Haha! That's great. Seems to be working correctly.

Code: Select all

BTW I'm not understanding the use of 'No Pitch' and 'Solo Off' underneath the 'Squas2Scale' keyboard on the sequener pages?

No Pitch just switches off all the pitch related setting for the track, it's a trigger button that saves clicking on the 3 pitch button at the bottom and it turns squash off too. Useful for drum channels when you don't want the pitch to change.

Solo Off is another trigger button that switches the solo off on the main mixer page, so when you have something solo'd you don't have to go back to the mixer page to do it.

I see 'Midi Bypass 1,' etc. to mute a channel in the Midi Mixer, but I can't find any parameter to solo a sequencer channel on the MidiMixer page?

That's correct some things can't be automated as the use a chain of characters for storage and so direct automation could never work.

The list of addressable parameters I can see from Automap ends with "Velocity Mod" ... the last letters on that column are not readable ... i. e., off the screen.

But since over 720 parameters are displayed across my two monitors, can't expect much more!

I don't know how other software does it, but Automap 3 reads the parameters in alphabetical order. This results in the main global parameters being all over the place in the list.

Again, I have no idea if this is a major or trivial issue, but for mapping, I wish all the global parameters had a prefix, say, 'GLB,' and similarly for the ones on the Advanced page, 'ADV,' so they could be nested together in the parameter list for easy identification.

Good Idea, I'll do that this afternoon.

[Astralp]

//// BETA 35
* Manual Link on the Start Menu now correctly in the Vortex folder.
* Pitch Colour back to Red.
* Fixed Minor 7th Scale
* Added a prefix to all Params base on GUI location, also fixed a few obscure labels
* SEQ Solo added to the SEQ Page, Solo Off also turns this solo off as well as midi solo. This will solo the active Sequence, only one sequence can be solo'd at a time as with the midi solo. It's not recommended to use Midi Channel Solo at the same time.

[como baila]

Solo Off is another trigger button that switches the solo off on the main mixer page, so when you have something solo'd you don't have to go back to the mixer page to do it.

This is just an 'off' switch, not a toggle, correct?

Then, it doesn't seem to be working. That was what I guessed, but when I tried it, the solo light on the Midi Mixer didn't go off ... but I'm not sure whether the state changed. I'll check again.

Similarly, if the Pitch switch is a momentary switch to disable the pitch settings on the sequencer page, when you depress it, shouldn't the light that shows that Squash2Scale is active also go off? As best I can recall, it didn't.

I'll double check these tonight.

Also, I automated the Manual Tempo and the Manual Tempo switch. On the controller it was telling me that the that the switch was toggling properly with each depress, but the light didn't change. When I clicked on the GUI to change the switch with the mouse, the light changed and it also changed state in the GUI for the controller, as it should. A minor mystery ... if you follow.

I'm wondering if there is something similar with the solo switch on the Midi Mixer page.

I want to reiterate, the auditioning is really fantastic!

Como

[como baila]

Duh! Above is another nearly useless post, because Andy already fixed things before I could complain!

Como

[Astralp]

Haha, no you've found some good ones you are right the pitch off doesn't go off, and the solo. I'm just fixing solo now and then I'll sort the pitch and checkout the manual tempo too

[Astralp]

Ok, I've fixed those 3 although I'd forgotten that Manual Tempo ON needs to be private via automation there is a possibility of choosing a bad value and so it has to be switched on via the GUI unfortunately. The other 2 are better though!

Glad you are liking the Audition, it is a great addition

[Astralp]

//// BETA 36
* Midi Solo Light is repainted correctly after all solo off.
* Manual Tempo ON is no longer automatable, there's a danger of choosing bad values.
* Pitch OFF now switches the Squash Scale off.
* Set All Button Added to the Internal Row on the Mixer Panel
* Randomize Program button added to the mixer for randomizing all Programs across the mixer.
* If pitch Hold is enabled Pitch Trigger C will always be enabled by default so that a trigger is always used.

[como baila]

//// BETA 36
* Midi Solo Light is repainted correctly after all solo off.
* Manual Tempo ON is no longer automatable, there's a danger of choosing bad values.
* Pitch OFF now switches the Squash Scale off.
* Set All Button Added to the Internal Row on the Mixer Panel
* Randomize Program button added to the mixer for randomizing all Programs across the mixer.
* If pitch Hold is enabled Pitch Trigger C will always be enabled by default so that a trigger is always used.

Go to bed and dream about when Vortex is featured on the cover of Computer Music Special #52: 'Music Making Software' and same month featured in Sound On Sound.

Great work, Andy!

[como baila]

* If pitch Hold is enabled Pitch Trigger C will always be enabled by default so that a trigger is always used.

A perfect touch! Earlier today I was thinking about why the Repitch octave didn't have the same 'press on, press off' behavior as the C2-B3 octaves when 'Hold' is engaged. Then I realized that you cannot have two pitch shifts at the same time ... so you wouldn't want any holding when you depressed another key. This little tweak makes it obvious.

Como

[como baila]

Andy,

There seems to still be a lot of problems with the correctness of scales that I know ... and who knows with the exotic ones I don't know?

I am assuming ... dangerous, I know ... that since the 'root' key of the grid is C, that all the scales should reflect what they would be in the key of C.

Correct?

Examples:

1. 'Fifths' looks like a fourth to me.
2. 'Phrygian' should have a b2nd, not a 2nd.
3. 'Dorian' sort of looks like Phrygian.
4. 'Sevenths' shows an interval of a b5th.

I think that's enough examples to suggest you need to recheck them all?

Also, do you think your control parameters are pretty much set now? I don't want to spend a lot of time creating a control map if you think there may be major revisions.

Como

[musikmachine]

I'll get an LP at some point and explore the possibilities But the NRPNs are used for the mixer, it's RPNs for the sequencer related stuff. So you can't just save patches on the LP once they are programmed?

What kinda triggers? I think the drum sequencing in multimbral mode is pretty powerful, i need to play around with it some more. I had an idea, i noticed you can set the octave of the pitch retrigger, what about the same for the sequencers and or triggers for smaller keyboards or pc laptop keyboards, you could have the multi/sequencers on the top two rows, pitch on the middle and triggers on the bottom for laptop jamming on the road.

It worries me about how complicated it becomes, for instance at the moment all presets will work for the C3/C4 octaves, I can imagine it leading to frustration if this changed on a preset by preset level, and really it should be a global setting... The other aspect is that there will be another octave of triggers below the existing one, plus they will all be mappable like the pitch so that you can decide where they all are. I'll keep it in mind but for the moment I'm leaving it as it is at least until the triggers are done in v1.1.

Yeah you can save your settings, but it's been able to set the value for rpn msb0 to 0 to control the note for step 1 that's not possible afaik, stuff like that. i have the a300 pro anyway but i could do with a control surface with plenty of knobs like a bcr2000.

I didn't think about presets remaining consistent but what if it was just the keys the triggers were on? Keep the scale octaves consistent but allow changes of the non destructive controls? Or would that mess with things too much.

In the case of the launchpad or a similar control surface you could have a bit more control of the way things were laid out if using more than one controller. I'm just spittin' some ideas anyway, my lateral thinking sucks right now so i'm prolly not considering some really obvious things.

[Astralp]

///// BETA 37
* Re-implemented all Scales from scratch. If there's a good scale that you think should be in there, make it on the Pitch Trigger Scale as normal and CTRL Click the Load button. This will copy it into the copy buffer so you can then paste it on the forum or in an email to me. I will also need the name. I think there's enough room for another column.
* New feature, Scale Shift, when Re-Pitch and SC Shift are enabled on the sequence and a pitch trigger Scale is used; the scale can be shifted up through inversions either via the list on the Advanced page or using a knob assigned to CC 55.

I'll reply to the posts in a bit