xoxos

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:55 am

http://www.breathcube.com/vst/horizondemo.zip

horizon is a stereo unison synth (up to 64 oscillators per voice of polyphony) combined with a simple pattern sequencer that transposes in key.

cpu can be high, sequencer can be fun, sound can be good, i like the pads (which benefit from polyphony).

this demo (sorry for crudeness, the gui is in part unreadable) is temporary.. the demo's 2 voices of poly doesn't represent the product, which behaves differently in regards to cpu with 6 voices. as you may imagine, 64 phase distortion oscs in stereo can use a lot of cpu.

i'm off to bed now, maybe i'l have a better idea for the demo. i wanted to do ~"peta awareness" demos and stuff, but i'm not sure it's such a good idea.

Shabdahbriah · Post by **Shabdahbriah** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:43 am

Even with only two voices, the "pads" are cool! The sequencer is very interesting as well. Alot of variety in the sounds, and parameters.

NICE

Gucky · Post by **Gucky** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:04 am

Hi Xoxos,
compliments for your synth.
I like it very much!

I would wish only two changes:
16 steps for the sequencer and for the sequencer sliders a display that
shows the value of the slider ( c3, g3...).

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:18 pm

cheers

i tend to cut down on parameters that have an aural and visual feedback to reduce the cpu load of the synth, which is why there aren't note readouts

16 steps, maybe someday. there's a LOT of ways the sequencer could be advanced. for this first release i wanted to keep it's functionality limited to simple phrases, otherwise the sequencer will begin to take pages and pages of functions. some kind of 'aabbaacc' structural sequencer would be really useful too.. there are lots of things i could do with the seq, i wanted people to get the hang of this quickly

i'm glad to hear it's working!

Gucky · Post by **Gucky** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:57 pm

Hi Xoxos,
maybe that you have better eyes and ears than I.
I find it little bit difficult to see the note value on the position of the sliders.
I would prefer a note value display.

Another solution could be the graphic of a mini keyboard on the the left side
of the sliders. A good exmaple for it is the silverbox synth of spectralhead audio.

RunBeerRun · Post by **RunBeerRun** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:02 pm

I like the gui. I think the user should learn how to use it, not the other way around.

novaflash · Post by **novaflash** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:21 pm

sound : wow, excellent, i'm a bit jealous

GUI : it's a bit hard to see all...
presets : yeah, complete and large demonstrated capabilities

Optomadic · Post by **Optomadic** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:44 pm

Nice one xoxos. 64 oscils

Holy carp!

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:23 pm

gucky, sequencer > note doesn't correlate like you'd expect.

there are 12 notes in an octave, but usually only seven scale degrees. you'll notice that sometimes MIDI notes that are next to each other output the same sequence, or only one note is different.

that's because the output note is a function of the sequencer, the MIDI pitch (eg. portamento as well, which can be an interesting effect, try playing the 'seq connector' patch legato for an example) and also the bias control.

the bias control adds some flexibility in how the played note is applied to the scale, it does mean that you'll have to listen to the pitch of the note in the sequence when setting it

novaflash -

sound -

thank you, i spent a few weeks on the oscs (and about that much time again figuring out how to share the waveform arrays between voices) the stereo signal path is expensive but i think works here.

how can i improve the gui? is the text not bright enough?

presets - i've got some more from cinningbao to go through (in a few days) but there's a bunch of things i didn't try, eg. modulate lfo with an envelope and assign lfo to sequence pitch for a fast gliss that widens or speeds up in pitch modulation. the seq isn't supposed to be complex, there are ways to 'bend' it some.

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:33 pm

Optomadic wrote:Nice one xoxos. 64 oscils Holy carp!

if you've got the cpu for it.. the ceiling is only a number on a for-next loop and a graphic..

when i first started investigating unison, a few people said that much past ~8 voices is all mush.. imo it's sorta true, there's more buzzy character in the low #s, i found interesting smooth textures starting around 12-16 voices that might have various synthesis applications as a nonstatic osc, such as vibrating string emus.

novaflash · Post by **novaflash** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:20 am

@xoxos "how can i improve the gui? is the text not bright enough? "

the problem is the contrast i think. You use small font + low contrast colors.

There is a small rectangle in the background label,
maybe you should try to darker more or remove it ?
tips : to test "colors" variations use a screenshot and play
only with contrast then pick up the grey tone chosen.

but nice work, i play with this demo version since
2 hours and i accumulate presets

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:14 am

the font seems big to me.. it's bigger than other peoples

i'll see if i can find a brighter shade for the font, i don't know what rectangle you mean. the boxes around the oscillators et c. are decoration.. i can't see them, or the b/g deco on anyone else's dark b/g synths on my monitor because i keep the brightness low

can't you see the colours? :O

the scheme is subtle.

shoot me back presets if you want - 1/4 of the bank is empty. i know other people will use this differently than i do.

Shabdahbriah · Post by **Shabdahbriah** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:09 am

novaflash wrote:@xoxos "how can i improve the gui? is the text not bright enough? "

the problem is the contrast i think. You use small font + low contrast colors...

Though I have less difficulty reading your (posted) screen-grap above, than the actual demo-mode GUI, it is very "dimly" contrasted for my tastes also.

novaflash wrote:...use a screenshot and play only with contrast then pick up the grey tone chosen.

Ergo: (but just the "faces", not the "frames")

I assumed the "demo version 2 voice poly" was intentional, as it never went away, but it really does make it rather "glaring". Not to mention my having a general aversion to "wild-wild-west-saloon" (sign) typefonts.

I'm getting some very interesting sounds from this, and looking forward to its developement. THANK YOU for the opportunity to play with it.

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 3:32 pm

i thought it looked like a monty python font

i can see the bias readout is in a different font too, thanks for the screen.

on the gui i'll wait a few days to approach it fresh.

pandashake · Post by **pandashake** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:41 pm

xoxos wrote:i thought it looked like a monty python font i can see the bias readout is in a different font too, thanks for the screen.

on the gui i'll wait a few days to approach it fresh.

More synths need that font!

xoxos

KVR Audio

horizon demo