One Synth Challenge #183: AudiblePlanets by Greg Recco / gregrecco67

[violator_alba]

Sorry to be a dunce, how do I actually download and get this into my DAW? edit never mind, I found the VST file

OK Mac OSX won't allow me to run it

In the OSX terminal, type sudo xattr -cr then a space and drag the file in the Terminal window (to fill in its path)

[doctorbob]

Different issue with Reaper than the Bitwig 5.2 as described by ]Peter h[ ...

I have the VSTi on multiple tracks. If I open one and then close it and open another then all is OK, and I can switch between the synths for each track for tweaks.

But, if I open one, then another - that's OK , both show ... but try a third, then white screen then a full crash.

dB

[] Peter:H []

Different issue with Reaper than the Bitwig 5.2 as described by ]Peter h[ ...

I have the VSTi on multiple tracks. If I open one and then close it and open another then all is OK, and I can switch between the synths for each track for tweaks.

But, if I open one, then another - that's OK , both show ... but try a third, then white screen then a full crash.

dB

Actually I have fun wih the synth if only the whitescreen of death wouldn't spoil it.
Sorry to say dB, but I'm in a weird way happy, that the problem seems to be caused by the plugin rather than on Bitwig ...So thanks for reporting. I was already a little bit scared that Bitwigs GPU-rendering refactoring has fu**ed up things. Now I can relax ...

[MadMcMan]

Attention:
I have problems with Bitwig 5.2 Beta 1 and Audbile Planets.
The project that I have saved yesterday seems in an absurde way corrupt: I can open it, it plays, but whenever I open an instance of the Synth only a white rectangle pops up! The Synth Gui won't show up.
When I start a new project and add one instance it opens as expected.

So please - Don't use Bitwig 5.2 Beta.

When doing a save + reload cycle in Bitwig 5.1.8 it opens without any problem after loading the project. Nice one. I didn't see ANY new functionality on the 5.2 Beta 1 list which would be close to break state saving ... but they managed to get it done.

---
Holy BS Batmann ... I probably found a "way" to repair things.
1. Load the corrupt project
2. Deactivate ALL tracks
3. Save it as a new version
4. Close and reload Bitwig
5. Load the Project with all the deactivated tracks
6. Add a new track with Audibel Planet
7. Open the synth UI, it will show the Synth UI (hurray)
8. Activate all other channels again...one by one. Open the instances ... it worked.

MadMcMan had the same problem in 5.2. It's possibly because of the new hardware acclerated GUI in Bitwig - might be worth a bug report.

Thanks for the info. I'm suspecting the very long loading times of the plugin as the root cause. It really takes more than any other plugin to load. And loading a few Planets in a row seems to cause some "race condition" like effect. Why I think this. Because laoding an project with all tracks deactivated and reactivating one after the other helps to repair it. And I really waited until each plugin was fully loaded.

its the same in the non beta version of bitwig

[borgcopyeditor]

Dev here. Thanks for your interest in the plugin! I learned about this being the challenge this month as I was squashing an embarrassing bug I introduced a few days ago: Murphy's Law, I guess. I've pushed a new version here

That should at least allow you to select different waveshaper function types and different compressor types on the Effects page. I'm sorry to hear about UI issues in Bitwig. I've been testing with Logic, Live, and Reaper. In the DAWs I'm familiar with, it's always possible to run the plugin without the GUI window running once you've set it up how you'd like. This might be a good idea if you're running multiple instances at once.

Best of luck.

EDIT: Also, feel free to report any issues here and if I can fix them quickly, I'll try to do so!

[YYeet]

Since there's a sampler in the synth, how much are we allowed to use for the sampler?

[HiEnergy]

Since there's a sampler in the synth, how much are we allowed to use for the sampler?

I'd say the sampler is off-limits. The synth can create noise and various other waveforms, so steer clear of the sampler. But I am not a lawyer.

[] Peter:H []

I'm sorry to hear about UI issues in Bitwig. I've been testing with Logic, Live, and Reaper. In the DAWs I'm familiar with, it's always possible to run the plugin without the GUI window running once you've set it up how you'd like. This might be a good idea if you're running multiple instances at once.

I would kindly ask to check out why the plugin starts so slow. Other even more powerful synths start in a fraction of the time. May be you are doing some caching computation over and over again and use the wrong thread for it (processing vs UI thread). My gut feeling is, that when you can pinpoint what's causing the slow startup time, then you are close to whats causing the UI to fail. It feels like a bit of a race condition. May be typical Juce "patterns" of plugin startup might help. IIRC there's some API that helps to do a task in the "correct" thread...
And no, this is not Bitwig-specific behaviour. I have tried to load the plugin in VSTHost (and oldie but goldie https://www.hermannseib.com/vsthost.htm) . Even in this very light host it blocks the UI and shows the spinnig wheel of endless wait. Took about 1 minut to load there, where other synths just load in 5-10 seconds.

[doctorbob]

Can other Reaper users see if they can open more than 2 instances of the synth at the SAME time , ie not closing any down before opening the next.

For me I get a complete Reaper crash when I try to open the third instance, starting with a blank white plugin window ...

If you load the plugin with the "Run as"/dedicated process you can open multiple instances and it does not crash (tried 4!).

dB

[borgcopyeditor]

I'm sorry to hear about UI issues in Bitwig. I've been testing with Logic, Live, and Reaper. In the DAWs I'm familiar with, it's always possible to run the plugin without the GUI window running once you've set it up how you'd like. This might be a good idea if you're running multiple instances at once.

I would kindly ask to check out why the plugin starts so slow. Other even more powerful synths start in a fraction of the time. May be you are doing some caching computation over and over again and use the wrong thread for it (processing vs UI thread). My gut feeling is, that when you can pinpoint what's causing the slow startup time, then you are close to whats causing the UI to fail. It feels like a bit of a race condition. May be typical Juce "patterns" of plugin startup might help. IIRC there's some API that helps to do a task in the "correct" thread...
And no, this is not Bitwig-specific behaviour. I have tried to load the plugin in VSTHost (and oldie but goldie https://www.hermannseib.com/vsthost.htm) . Even in this very light host it blocks the UI and shows the spinnig wheel of endless wait. Took about 1 minut to load there, where other synths just load in 5-10 seconds.

I haven't yet been able to replicate this extreme slowness. New instances load in 2-3 seconds on my 6-year old desktop (Reaper and Live). Can you confirm that you're using the latest release version (1.0.21)? Also, which plugin format and OS? I don't have access to Bitwig 5.2, but on a trial version of 5.1.8, I'm able to load 20 instances before it stops on MacOS, but it's crashing after loading a couple on Windows. I will investigate further.

[borgcopyeditor]

UPDATE: I am able to reproduce the crash by opening more than two instances of the plugin UI at once in Reaper and Bitwig (on Windows). The crash appears to be occurring in the JUCE code, though that doesn't mean it's not my fault. I'll dig in further to see if I can sort it out, but for now, I'd recommend not running more than one instance of the plugin UI window at once.

[doctorbob]

UPDATE: I am able to reproduce the crash by opening more than two instances of the plugin UI at once in Reaper and Bitwig. The crash appears to be occurring in the JUCE code, though that doesn't mean it's not my fault. I'll dig in further to see if I can sort it out, but for now, I'd recommend not running more than one instance of the plugin UI window at once.

Great. The fact that it's OK when you ask Reaper to run each instance in a separate process points to some issue where there is shared code I suspect.

Good hunting ...

dB

[Eauson]

For those with slower/older machines & want to save resources, I've found that long releases on ADSR & the inclusion of the noise Osc can make patches a bit hungry
If you need noise I've found putting the Oscillators on free can create something acceptable, between 20 & 60

[] Peter:H []

Okay, close to release, Test V2 here: https://soundcloud.com/p-e-t-e-r-h/osc- ... mpaign=666
For the impatient listener ... my favourite part starts at 3:09.

I have managed to get pretty decent sounds out of it, even nice percussions among them a not so bad crash cymbal. And I think I made them grooves not too bad.

I think it's pretty much it. All I think I have to do is review some individual levels, though they are already 90% good in my ears.

Sound Design Tipp: Each FX lanes has a filter, so when you setup both lanes to work in sequence you can get 3 filters for your sound.

[liqih]

Hi all, I've build a VST2 64-bit of AudiblePlanets from the repository. I have a VST2 license from Steinberg (since 2018) . By the AudiblePlanets license it looks like I'm allowed to distribute this VST2 build, true of false?
And, is anybody interested to have a VST2 build for Windows 64-bit?