Busta by Zoned

[harryupbabble]

This is a fun standalone program. I guess it's not meant to be used as a VST plugin.

I wish I could copy Busta's help content into my text editor because I wanted to use my text editor's earch function to find the word "recorder". Also, I could increase my text editor's font size.

Does Busta have a built-in sound recorder?

[Starship Krupa]

I'm loving this thing so far. The sounds I am getting just with the samples it comes with are fantastic. It's an improviser's dream. I'm voting for this unless something else really knocks me out of my chair. I think I'm going to dream about it tonight.

Just a few issues:

1. Where's the VST? All I get with the download is the standalone executable. I want the plug-in. Oh I do.

2. The standalone executable is fab, and I even like setting it up and leaving it running in the background, but it has no easy way of turning off its capture of keyboard input. Even as I'm typing this, BUSTA is plucking and blurping and droning and changing its thing in response. Which is actually kinda awesome, if I had some way to toggle it. I don't always want an improv synth capturing my typing. When I do, it is BUSTA, but I'm not always up for it.

3. Can we get some MIDI control? Maybe that's something the developer wants to leave for the VST, but hey, MIDI.

4. When I try to switch the audio output over to ASIO, the program throws an error code and crashes.

If you haven't done so, download this and run it and then leave it running while you use your computer. It's like having a friendly alien A.I. watching you type.

Maybe it actually is. I already think of her as female.

[Zoned]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind words for BUSTA!
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No, there's no on-board recording I'm afraid, harryupbabble, but you can record via your computer's 'Stereo Mix' channel into almost anything that accepts an audio feed. As regards the font size, yes, I guess it's a downside of 'integrating' the manual that I had to pick a sort of average size, I almost certainly had it bigger myself when I was doing it in WordPad... I wonder if you know about Windows screen magnifier? I use it all the time, just press the Windows key on your keyboard with the plus or minus key, very useful!
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Starship Krupa, I think you might have missed that the boxed controls, including the QWERTY button, exist separately (but simultaneously) for the source wave and the filter array. So, while QWERTY might be off for the filter, if you toggle the "show..." switch, there it is still enabled for the source wave!
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Kind regards, Zoned

[Russell Grand]

1. Where's the VST? All I get with the download is the standalone executable. I want the plug-in. Oh I do.

+1
Definitely wanting a VST version here too. What say you, Zoned?

[Zoned]

Well, truth is, with the deadline passed (& no new features allowed) I'm trying to keep my upbeat / promotional hat on for a while, rather than wander into any future development minefields (of which there are many!). Please forgive.

[RunBeerRun]

Pretty cool, the standard quality you see in the past DC challenges. Rhythmic standalone, presets, .....

[Russell Grand]

Well, truth is, with the deadline passed (& no new features allowed) I'm trying to keep my upbeat / promotional hat on for a while, rather than wander into any future development minefields (of which there are many!). Please forgive.

I completely understand. Maybe one day in the future. I like what I'm hearing and the GUI is cool to boot!

[Chris-S]

Sounds cool and unique, although I've no idea what the program is doing.

[Russell Grand]

Sounds cool and unique, although I've no idea what the program is doing.

Neither do I.

[harryupbabble]

Sounds cool and unique, although I've no idea what the program is doing.

My guess is that the program takes a loop of music (this could be a loop containing multiple instruments like guitar, synth, drum, bass, etc.) and let's you change the pitch of the loop. It's like a sampler but rather than just use single notes, it uses multi-instruments.
It also lets you variate the overall sound of the loop by way of filter effects, etc.

[Zoned]

Yes, it can mess with a person's head a bit! Basically, we can't help hearing a spectrum of integer multiples (F, 2f, 3f... 27f, 28f, 29f... etc) as a coherent, meaningful, pitched sound. We're just hard-wired that way. A set of filters locked to this rule can, to a significant extent, fake a shift in pitch in a static sound, quite a lot like when a train pulls off next to your train, and you think it's you that's moving. Sometimes it IS your train that's moving of course, that's because the train driver has turned the resonance all the way up to 11 and time has gone into peak reverse phase flux.
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Ok, so forget that last bit, but I think the first bit is fairly accurate.
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Btw, I finally fixed the single massive bug in the vst version (32bit). It's in a 14MB .zip together with the original .exe. It has no new features of course... In fact, load & save from the GUI are actually omitted in favour of the host so it's slightly feature-reduced, but the host naturally brings all sorts of combinative functionality. Unfortunately, when I uploaded it I deleted my original DC entry (which gave me legitimate competition status) so I'm expecting to be expunged with novichok at any moment! Tee-hee. Just a second, there's someone at the door...

[Starship Krupa]

I don't care what the feature set is or was when the door was closed, you're getting MY vote because BUSTA is just the coolest sound generating thing I've encountered in quite some time.

The fact that I don't understand it makes it more endearing. I have to meet it at least halfway.

Once everything settles down, though, please let us interface with her BUSTAness via the MIDI protocol. I want to be able to put one of those headpiece things on and let my thoughts generate MIDI notes that trigger BUSTA to do whatever it is she does.

To interact with such a beautiful piece of code via a text keyboard seems so....crude, so....primitive.

Thank you, Zoned, for bringing it to life.

[rcrath]

https://youtu.be/f6Pn5DCz7WU