GR-8

This is a nice entry to the DC'21. It looks like a simple beginner's synth, and it is or can be, but it is more. A bit heavy on the CPU, perhaps, but nothing that makes it unusable here. Some decent FX section, which is unexpected from that kind of 'simple' synth but makes the difference, and the FX themselves have many modes, so there's a palette of achievable sounds under one hood.

At the time of writing, v1.0.0 has a small bug with the Distortion fx, the "Satur" mode makes it go silent, at least on my system (Win7/64, REAPER/64). Anywho, give it a try.

Hi eb23, .

Thank you very much for reporting the bug. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reproduce it on my Intel CPU machine. The Saturation mode works in the latest Reaper both on Win10 and macOS. Do you have Intel or AMD CPU? However, there were few minor problems that I fixed in the Saturation module. I would be grateful if you could try this version and tell me if the saturation works on your machine: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yzts8wkoefz7mz/GR-8%20Setup.exe?dl=0

Thank you.

Hello, I'm a different person with the same problem. Win7, both FL and Studio One 4.

This new version didn't fix the issue. On top of that, it tells me that MSVCP140D.dll is missing twice in a row on startup (despite VC++ 2015 being installed on my system), but then goes on working regardless, the only issue being the aforementioned saturation issue.

Also the envelope overlaps are somewhat clicky? When you stop pressing one note and quickly press another you can hear digital clicks.

Otherwise it's indeed a GR-8 synth;).

Also, my CPU is Intel Core i5-4460. Figured it might be needed.

Many thanks, Catatron! Can you please try this version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yzts8wkoefz7mz/GR-8%20Setup.exe?dl=0

Thanks.

Sorry for the delay in my reply, wasn't home all day. :) Anyhow, I tried the v1.0.1 2021-07-04 from the DC'21 page, and it's fixed on my machine (i7-4790K). Cheers! Very nice plugin.

Great, thank you.

Hello, .

I apologize for posting here but I cannot find an email link on your website.

I saw the great reviews and so I installed GR-8, but I'm unable to try it.

I run the installer but it does not ask WHERE I want to install the .dll's, it just installs them (somewhere?).

However, after installation completes and after scanning all my VST directories GR-8 does not show up.

Also, there is no icon anywhere in order to launch the standalone, yet there is an uninstall for it in the control panel app uninstall page...

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Pianatuna.

HP ProBook 640 G2 i5 2.3.

16 GB RAM 256 GB HD NVMe PCIe.

Hi Pianatuna, sorry about that, I've added the custom installation folder option in the latest update, v1.0.2. Thanks for your interest in the plugin. Cheers.

Some presets dosent work. But in general sounds good.

Confirmation that my system is not the only one with that problem. If a preset doesn't produce any sound, you can disable the Distorion fx or change it from Satur to another mode, You still get a useable sound, if not the designed one. Oh, well... :D.

Indeed the distortion section is faulty at least the saturation part, the presets without sound all have the mix set to 100% and the type set to (Signal In) saturation.

Windows 10 20H2 FLStudio/REAPER.

Waiting for version 1.01;).

Hi Yeager, .

Thank you for the bug report. Can you please check above my reply to eb23 regarding the same bug?

Thank you.

Hi Phuture, .

tested the version you posted on the fourth of july, and the problem is still there.

Thanks for trying, I'm on an Intel CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz.

Thank you.

Thanks for testing! Working v1.0.1 is available for download. Cheers.

Downloaded the "new" 101 and all is well .

Thank you Mr. Tone;).

The second new version works for me.

And the sound got cleaner too, or is it just me?

Anyways, thank you very much for a really great (heh) synth and for a quick fix! I'll go add it to my top 5 now.

Awesome, thank you.

Sounds good! Nice interface also. I was surprised it was made with SynthEdit but maybe there were custom modules added?

Thanks, Examigan! Yes, there are some modified standard modules and a few originals. Cheers.

There's a surprisingly number of good SynthEdit/SynthMaker plugins. This along with OP-X and Viper has forced me to change my mindset. Going back to the synths I used to reject, I actually like some of them now: DCO-6, Krakli's plugins, Elektrostudio's plugins.

Works as AU under logic on my MAC, but NOT as VST3 under Cubase on MAC. Cant find it installed at all. Is there a VST3 for MAC?

Sorry Rumdrum, only AudioUnit for Mac – a limitation of the platform I'm using for plugin development.

That is ok. I can wrap AU in through Unify or Patchwork. Thought it was something wrong as the KVR web site indicates VST for MAC.

I cannot get the GR-8 Presets.pkg to install (macOS Mojave 10.14.6) - it gives me the yellow exclamation triangle and "The Installation failed." This is directly after downloading and decompressing the gr-8-au-2021-07-04.zip file.

Synth sounds good but only the first preset is there.

Hi Mibrilane, .

Here's an alternative method for installing the presets:https://www.dropbox.com/s/juhuep3uj8hnnlu/GR-8%20Presets.zip?dl=0.

Hope that works.

Cheers.

I had a play around with this in Logic and I have to say it sounds great, looks very nice, and has a really well thought out design. Really excellent job on this, m8! CPU usage notwithstanding, it's probably the only synth I would use from DC21, but alas I'm a macOS Bitwig user and there's no VST. Bug Jeff to get VST3 macOS export!.

Thanks, Z! Rumdrum mentioned AU wrappers a few posts above: Unify or Patchwork. I still have to test them to see how they work. Doubt I have the power to change Jeff's plans.;).

I have tested GR-8 in Cubase on my MAC Pro 2010, Sierra, using both Unify and Patchwork. Works just fine. Now Unify and/or Patchwork is perhaps not something you buy just for wrapping one piece, but both programs are much more than just wrappers and I had them for other reasons.

Nice look, good sound.
A bit too heavy on the CPU for my taste (and my machine).
What I really dislike are the fixed installation destinations for plugin and presets.

Hi Coupe70, the updated plugin is less CPU intensive and custom install locations are enabled now in v1.0.2 Cheers.

Great looking Virtual Synth... cool interface... dig the tones(albeit when they work)... I've tried it side by side with every other V-synth I have, as well as trying multiple ASIO settings and no matter what I've tried, I get glitch noise and artifacts... for reference, I'm on a brand new computer 16GB RAM, i9 Intel Core... running on Reaper. I think I could really dig this, but not in it's current state. I'm watching for updates. Cheers.

Hi Oublietteone, thanks for checking the plugin. Sorry that it doesn't work on your setup. I've tested the plugin in Reaper, both Windows & macOS, and I haven't experienced any glitches, though I don't use ASIO drivers in Windows. Have you tried using DX drivers instead, just as a test? I'm working on a new update, addressing higher CPU usage. Maybe that will help. I will also test use with ASIO to see if I can replicate the bug you've reported. Thank you.

I have not tried DX drivers... not sure how that would work on my setup - seeing how my audio interface uses ASIO... perhaps I'm missing something. But I gave your plug the top rating for the Dev Challenge so I'm really hoping the next update works for my setup. The top rating was largely do to the GUI, Hey what can I say, I'm a graphics guy. lol.

Thanks, Oublietteone! The v1.0.2 is out, uses much less CPU, maybe it'll work on your setup. Cheers.

GOLD!!! Works great, Glitch Free! Solid Work! Thank you for the effort.

What is your buffer size? Have you tried making it larger?

I'm very keen to try this synth, because I really like your older plugins, Phutura and Philteroid.
Any chance you could provide us with a ZIP for manual installation, containing the plugin, presets, and a short note where to put the preset files on the respective OS?

Cheers.

Hi Jovo, thank you for your interest in the plugin. I've enabled the custom folder installation on PC, and added the manual installation option on Mac. Hope that works for you, otherwise, please let me know. Best regards.

Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps the term 'installation' was a little distracting from the object of my request/suggestion.
I really do mean a literal ZIP file or any other compressed archive that is not an unsigned executable
(for instance, windows 10 doesn't even allow me to execute unsigned files while connected to the internet).

Long story short, providing both, a ZIP and an executable, would cover everyone's liking.

Thanks Jovo, I had many requests for installation to the custom location, so I thought your request was the same. I think you should be able to pass that warning window by clicking on a link in its bottom-left corner. In case that doesn't work, I've added a manual installation option. Please download the latest files for Windows. Cheers.

That's it. Quick an easy to just copy/paste the folders. Thanks a lot for the quick response.

Please please please leave the oversampling and diffusion in! Make them toggleable maybe, some sort of performer mode with fancier stuff turned off. The heightened CPU usage is fine, really. But what's imperative is sound quality, even if it comes with high CPU usage. Especially for us bedroom producers who can't afford proper hardware or even a high-end premium VA like Diva (which is also CPU-heavy).

I mean, you can always negate the CPU usage by rendering a synth into a wav, but you can't take an aliased signal and un-alias it, And the most important part of analog sound is lack of any aliasing.

Also diffused delay sonds cool. So please please please leave the fancy CPU-heavy stuff in.

Hey Catatron, .

If you set the sample rate to 88.2kHz, it will be the same as the plugin is oversampled 2 times, except it will take less CPU because the oversampled signal needs to be downsampled to the original rate. A special type of filter is used for that task and it is very demanding of the CPU. While upsampling a .wav file will not improve the sound quality of that sample, playing a virtual analog plugin at double sample rate will double the computational precision – aliasing will be pushed an octave higher, out of our hearing range.

GR-8 has antialiased oscillators that sound very good at 44.1 kHz, you could maybe hear real quiet aliasing with some extreme, unusual settings at about 8kHz. If you render the project at 88.2 kHz, that aliasing will be at about 16kHz, where you can't hear it at all.

Currently, the delay diffusion and reverb are probably the most CPU-intensive parts in GR-8, because I used the standard SynthEdit delay module to create them. In my coding journey, I still haven't come to the point of coding my own delay. Once I do that, I will be able to optimize them for lower CPU consumption. Then, I will probably add an option for delay diffusion back.

Cheers.

Love this plugin, I've been reaching for it often! My only request would be a VST version for MacOS so I don't have to use a wrapper but I realize that's not entirely in your control. BTW for anyone who wants to use this as a VST in MacOS, you can use Kushview Element instead of Patchwork or Unify for this if you don't need the other features of those, it's only $2.

Thank you for your comment and the Element tip. VST on Mac is actually none in my control with the current development platform, it doesn't exist as an option and there's no plan for it. I think that the creator of SynthEdit is currently working on support for Apple silicon. Sometime in the future, I will probably start working in JUCE, which supports many major platforms. But, I don't see that happening soon. Cheers.

Why VST3 only? (for PC) - vote to 5th (first and second for Full Bucket Music, sorry).

It's a free plugin, btw VST 2.4 will be appreciated. Most people avoid VST3i.

VST3 have ton of MIDI limitations (no MIDI CC assignments, no Program Change), are more hungry about CPU, and still buggy.

Thanks for the vote, Docam28.

Steinberg stopped issuing licences for VST2.4 in 2018. I've got back to VST development this year, so I could only obtain a license to distribute VST3.

Sorry, I don't make the rules, nor am responsible for the downsides of the VST3 format.

Cheers.

Many developers, even commercial (e.g. Native Instruments or KORG) continues to provide their plugins as VST 2.4 (not VST3).

Yes, because they got their licenses to distribute VST2.4 before 2018. I didn't get one because I wasn't developing VST plugins at that time. I can't go back in time to obtain one. Understand?

Docam 28 Please understand that VST 2 is dead. You need to turn to VST 3 even if you do not like it. Many developers still issue their pluggs for VST 2 but the time is limited. Some developers still issue pluggs to work on older OS too, but that will eventually also progress into something newer. In this business you either need to keep up with the development or decide to stay on a determined level and be happy with that and then don't care about all new releases. All previous music is made on old systems so you will still be able to make good music even if you decide to stay on a level that in some months will become obsolete when it comes to adding new pluggs.

Hi, I really like GR-8, but I have an issue.

In description of features, it says unison mode has 8 voices, but no matter I tried, it's monophonic.

It would be much nice if GR-8 has Polyphonic unison.

I don't know if it's only my problem, beacuase it looks like nobody mention it before.

Cheers.

Hi, I'm glad you're enjoying the plugin. You are correct, it is the monophonic unison, playing the same note, slightly detuned, and panned on 8 voices simultaneously. Making that mode was quite challenging, I'm not sure if anyone has done it in SynthEdit before. Agree, I would like it to have the polyphonic unison mode too, but there were some limitations that I couldn't overcome at the time. Maybe I'll have better luck in the future with finding the solution for that mode too. Cheers.

I have download and removed it after 1 minute of try!
If you load a sound, and record something, after pressing stop and then play on Cubase, no sound!
If I switch then to another sound, there is sound.
Also the arp's doesn't sync very wel.

Good luck.

Hi, the problems you've described are resolved some time ago. Please try downloading the latest version and give it a try.

Hi, I already had version 1.0.7.

If I disable in Cubase under preferences MIDI: "Midi Reset On Stop" then it is fine..
My guess is, that this triggers GR-8, so that the sound that is loaded, unloads or whatever...
Loading another sound, and the MIDI is playing again.

And about the syncing of the ARP, it is bad syncing.

Maybe you find this information helpful for a future fix.

Regards.

Yes, you're right the Arp goes off sync every other loop cycle in Cubase. I will have to investigate that further. Looks like each DAW has different trigger/reset behavior.

MIDI Reset on Stop turns all the MIDI controls to zero. Since all the controls on the GR-8 have been assigned a MIDI control, Cubase turns all the controls to zero, pay attention to knob positions. I'll contact the creator of SynthEdit to ask for a solution.

Thanks.

Really enjoying the synth the last 24 hours as it is OSC #151 this month. My only observation so far on Windows 10, Bitwig, is when holding the modulation wheel within the plugin, then pressing a new note, the modulation wheel flicks back to zero, which isn't ideal. Also it would be nice if user presets could be put into a folder hierarchy OR allow a category to be assigned. Editing the .vstpreset seems to place all presets into <Preset pluginId="67526d38" name="Clap 1" category="User">. It seems this can be edited to one of the factory categories, but there's no Drum category or way to create a category.

Hi hockinsk3, .

My apologies for the late response. I just tried the velocity thing in Bitwig and it works fine here. I think that you've accidentally mapped the mod wheel control to a key. I tried to do that and then it behaved the way you've described it. Just right-click on the GR-8's Mod Wheel in the Device Panel and select Clear Controller Assignment. Regarding the categories, sorry about that, it is the limitation of the platform I use for plugin development. However, you can just rename the category="User" to whatever i.e. Drum, and that category will be shown the next time you load the plugin. Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Sasha.

OK, I will try that thanks. Thought I'd already tried to include my own category and it didn't observe it, but will try again.

When I install the plugin with the .pkg it appears as a folder in the .components folder, instead of an actual .component. The resources and everything are in the folder, but is not an actual .component file. Will edit this post with Mac specs later if needed.

By default, all components are shown as components. I've tried opening a component but the Finder didn't have an app associated with that extension. When I tried to open it with Xcode, the Finder changed the way it shows components. Now some are shown as Bundles and some as Folders. I tried to find a way to revert Finder to show them all as before, but I didn't succeed.

Anyhow, all the components shown as folders (Korg plugins, Reason Rack, Virus TI...) are functioning normally, so is the GR-8 too. At least on my machine.

I'm using SynthEdit for the plugin development, and that is how it compiles Audio Unit .components. I can't change that.

I was able to fix this on my machine. Apple support told me to go to User/Library/Preferences and delete these two:

com.apple.LaunchServices
com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV2

Then restart the OS. It may need some time for change to take effect.

It didn't work for me instantly, so I was messing with the Preferences folder for some time. In the end, I've deleted all preference files that start with com.apple. That fixed the thing with how OS displays components, but also deleted all my Finder customizations.

I just downloaded version 1.2.0 but the .pkg file that also contains the Presets installation in this version, only installs the application but not the presets. MacOS Big Sur 11.5.2. The alternative method (manual installation) doesn't work too. Do you have any solution on this?
Thanks.

Hi, Apple changed the default user permissions in Big Sur. A solution, for now, is to manually add the read & write permission to the user for this folder: User/Library/Audio/Presets. Then install the presets. Hope that helps, otherwise please let me know. Cheers.

Everything is fixed now.
Thank you for your suggestion.
The synth is great.

Have Plugin issues after a while* (around half an hour one time, lets say around 3 Presets are saved):

• Version 1.2.0.

The Presets are happily saved before the Plugin breaks down.

It breaks down with no warning only when hit the save button in the Explorer Window for saving Presets:

• Bitwig.
• Win 10.
• FL ASIO -Fruity Loops ASIO-.

Hi Capracan, .

Thanks for reporting. I couldn't reproduce the bug, guess it's a tougher one to reproduce. What happens when the plugin breaks down? Does the DAW crash too? Do you maybe have a crash log file?

Thanks,
Sasha.

All Plugins in bitwig a sandboxed, so only the Plugin need to be reloaded.

in the log:

[2021-12-22 09:27:12.751 float-main-app error] Plugin misbehaving GR-8: IComponentHandler:beginEdit() was called with an invalid parameter ID: 9999
[2021-12-22 09:27:12.752 float-main-app error] Plugin misbehaving GR-8: IComponentHandler:performEdit() was called with an invalid parameter ID: 9999
[2021-12-22 09:27:12.752 float-main-app error] Plugin misbehaving GR-8: IComponentHandler:endEdit() was called with an invalid parameter ID: 9999.

Thank you very much for these. I've asked the SynthEdit creator for advice regarding the bug, still waiting. Hopefully, we will be able to solve it. Cheers.

Hi, .

I'm new to VST's and recently I discovered Phuturetone GR8 and made an awesome melody. I created the melody in the digital audio workstation Renoise. However I want the melody to go silent at a certain point in my track. Usely with samples I use the OFF command in the note column to silence the sample so I don't hear it anymore (in the next pattern). However with Phuturetone GR8 as a VST this does not work: the sound slowly fades away. However I want an immediately stop / silence. How can I achieve this in (combination with Renoise).

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I think that your question is more Renoise related. I don't have Renoise installed, so I really don't know what works. On this page: https://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Effect_Commands, I can see there's a Volume column (yellow number). Have you tried setting it to 00 to cut the volume of that track?

A Note OFF signal doesn't work as you've expected because that is when the Release stage of an envelope starts, it slowly fades to silence. That part of a sound is called tail. Timing effects, like delay and reverb have tail too. Because of that, if you want to abruptly stop the sound, I think the easiest way is to mute that track (or turn the volume all the way down).

Hope this helps, cheers.

There are several ways to do this. The main three are: Filter, Volume fader, Gate. There are free versions of all of them so you can insert them into your DAW. You then activate either of them to achieve the desired effect.With the first two you can influence how the sound fades, the Filter will not entirely lower the volume, but you can cut some of the frequency thus making it less hearable. Gate is a more abrupt way to cut sound.

If VST is not possible in your DAW, the only way is to use the volume fader. If you can only do that manually each time you hit Play, then you need to record the playback and use the playback.

Or.... use another synth.

hi there! i have installed the synth but i cant import the presets.i have tried the instructions with no success.
what should i do?

I assume you are trying to instal presets on MacOS. Try this:

1. Go to Users/UserName/Library/Audio.
2. Select "Presets" folder and press cmd+i (Get Info).
3. Under "Sharing & Permissions" change privilege for your account to "Read & Write".
4. Install presets.

Hope this helps.

Your UI work is very beautiful.

Pleasing, which is inspiring.

Makes you like to work with it.

AND, sounds great.

Thanks Robert! I'm glad you find it inspiring. :) Cheers.

Hey @phuturetone I made some suggestions for improvement in my review in dec'21 and wanted to ask if they have been read and can be implemented, or what you think about them.
---
So is it - as expamle - possible to add Folders for Presets in next Update?

So i dont want to have all Presets in one Folder so it should possible to add "User 2", "User 3" or similar that is shown in the Presets Browser as well.

I struggle with organize Presets to separate from the other ones, its minor cumbersome.

thanks in advance.