A little musical intermission...


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Post Thu May 05, 2016 9:12 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

WOW!! Your first VST?? :o :shock: After little playing I can say I really love your plugin! So versatile and with soo many knobs and functionality behind! I don´t need additional effect processor, many useful functions (phaser, delay, formant!..) are implemented inside! And as bonus - low cpu usage! GREAT! :D

I have to confess that I don´t understand some buttons but the rest is pretty understandable!

Again, THANK YOU for providing me with the link! :beer:
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Post Sun May 08, 2016 8:12 am

Re: A little musical intermission...

Low CPU usage? :? :lol: ...y..ye...yes, totally, low cpu usage! :? 8-)
Well, if you do not use phaser and formant, it actually is pretty light on it, but if you use it all and hold all 16 voices it can get a little hungry, hehe.
OH, yeah, I need a bit more labels or at least mouse-over messages.

Most Mysterious Dials
Oscillator sections:
The two little dials above the oscillator 2 are a phase offset for it and randomizer for that offset.
In the middle strip where noise and saturation are, there are also two dials for various modulation methods (FM/PM = frequency modulation/phase modulation and AM/RM = amplitude modulation/ring modulation).

Filter section:
The little unlabeled dial in the filter set controls filter type from Lowpass over pure resonance to Highpass.

Phaser section:
The little filter dials have one type dial that switches between Bandpass, Notch, Lowpass and Highpass, but is all very experimental. As is the little toggle that activates keytracking. All these are just experimental right now.

LFO section:
the bottom two unlabeled dials are randomizations for speed and for amplitude of the lfo.

The rest should explain itself quite well, I think?!

Nice snare! Scream I don't quite get, but MOODY is a Brilliant patch! :bounce:

And, yes, this is my first VST, but to brag even more, the whole GUI is my custom coding, too, though I used the vstgui 4.0 sdk, I had to invent all gadgets. Most relevant there is my curve envelope gui, which was pretty challenging to me, having to figure out not only the gui aspects, but most of all the vst sdk data management and communications. That was quite...ahm...maddening! :o :lol: ...there's very little help out there and you really have to pull info from countless sources, interpreting their content- more or less- trial'n'error your way to the finish line, haha. :ugeek:

The formant code is mostly from musicdsp.org, while oscillator 2 is inspired by a developer on KVR (but no longer what it was) and oscillator 1 is a wicked construction inspired only in fragments by various codes on musicdsp.org. The phaser is my own recursive design, though also inspired by a musicdsp allpass filter phaser. The main filter is completely of my own design and most likely ridiculously inferior to standard filters, but it tunes perfectly and is superfast. The filter in the phaser section is inspired by moog filter. All the rest is again of my own design, including the polyphony implementation, all the LFO, the delay and so on...
Considering that this is my first go at it, many things are still a bit of stumbling about and really beg to get a whole lot better.
I also still have to add a mono mode with all the bells and whistles of perfect blending. Ironically I've already had that, because I started out mono, but my polyphony solution replaced what I had and I have to find an elegant alternative to work with it again. Same goes for max voice replacement, which is right now crude and will click. However, my mono implementation was and will be again really, really awesome! I've never had that much fun playing mono. I can't wait to have it back again! :D

So, yeah, you can make some of the most unique sounds ever with Cirque and the power of nuances is tough to rival, I think. Except for maybe granular synthesis you can satisfy virtually all kinds of synthesis and more.

I really hate TODO lists, hehe, but for Cirque it goes:
  • Mono mode
  • Polyphony control (mono - max voices)
  • Natural blending for note replacement
  • Midi Controller implementation
  • Reverb
  • post saturation
  • Envelope modulation
  • More optimizations all around

Once this is done, it will be a big milestone for me, for sure!
Here to help! :D
System Info: AMD Radeon RX Vega 10, AMD Ryzen 7 (2.3 Ghz), Windows 11
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Post Mon May 09, 2016 9:50 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Hehe, yes, if I use more voices it is little bit more hungry :-)
Thank you very much for the explanation. Yes, the rest explains itself! :-) I have played with your VST more today and if you don´t mind I summarize my next observations:
- bug - sometimes (mainly if I change some LFO settings during playing) Cirque stops playing - nevertheless it is possible to restart it if I load same (or different) program again
- To be honest, at first glance I wished to have more contrast in your dusky GUI. Now I can say that you chose very good contrast. Even in the night it is superb and my eyes are happy!
- Rotated buttons are really cool and make sense but sometimes it makes me trouble to select the right inner circle and reset the value.. Additionaly I would suggest to add buttons that bypass audio signal through each knob (to hear/compare) how the knob settings influences the result)
- I am not sure with the High Pass filter dial. Can you check it? LP seems to work correctly.

I was pretty sure you would like the Moody program. :-) Thank you :) I am going to send you "my" next programs soon..

With no doubt you did amazing work, Taron!! :rock:
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Post Mon May 09, 2016 10:51 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Yep, that LFO bug is really weird. It's when you modulate the length and I can't quite tell, yet, how that is happening, but it's on my imagined todo list, haha.
Ah, yes, I was planning on allowing color customization. It's all prepared for it already, too!
As for the rings, well, I may add custom size for the whole interface, but the ring issue is really a matter of getting used to it and a pretty good trade-off, considering the consistency it offers at such a level of complexity.
A bypass for each section could be realistic, yes, but not for each dial, haha, that would be wicked. I get it, though! Good call! :ob
HP works, though, it's my wacky filter and results may be puzzling, hehehe. OR do you mean the final HP dial?

Cool, looking forward to what you'll have next! :bounce:
Here to help! :D
System Info: AMD Radeon RX Vega 10, AMD Ryzen 7 (2.3 Ghz), Windows 11
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Post Tue May 10, 2016 11:28 am

Re: A little musical intermission...

I forgot to thank you for details about your coding. it is really interesting. Musicdsp.org is such a big treasure for dsp coding, isn´t it?
You mentioned Reverb in your TODO list :). What about this implementation: https://github.com/martineastwood/mverb

Yes, it is all matter of getting used to it. BTW your rings are really good idea!

I meant final HP dial but maybe I am wrong and have to check it again..

Happy coding! :)

..If I consider it is your first VST.... WOW!
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Post Tue May 10, 2016 12:35 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Hehehe, thanks, Lemi! I'm pretty excited, too! And I'm talking about the future, you know. There's so much I still need to and want to learn. I love this state as much as having arrived at the necessary understanding, which is still to come.
I'm presently a bit in a hole, though, rather enjoying to make music, have some fun and relax. The next big coding phase will come in a few weeks, I think. I can feel it. :ugeek:
COol, I'll check out that reverb!
I've learned so much from the freeverb, though, and expanded on it some years ago inside of Musagi. I even made a completely module based version of it inside MuLab. But I'm always thrilled to learn more, of course! :D
Here to help! :D
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Post Wed May 11, 2016 1:26 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Yes, break can help to move on from a hole.. Good to hear that you are enjoying to make music! I am still looking forward to your next songs (based on Cirque?)!
BTW I found your old article http://taron333.blogspot.cz/ Very good, I agree! :)
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Post Wed May 11, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Ahaha, thanks, yeah, my good old blog. :geek: ...I should write down some current thoughts, if only to see if I have evolved since then. By now it may only reflect the phase I'm in, which could be entertaining, too.
Well, thanks for reading it, really! :)
Here to help! :D
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Post Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:03 am

Re: A little musical intermission...

Hi there :-)
For those interested by a comprehensive MOOC/tutorial on modular synthesis techniques, all based on NI Reaktor, enrollment is still open here :
https://www.kadenze.com/courses/sound-s ... aktor/info

The MOOC can be followed for free (you just can't do/submit the assignments of course).
Reaktor is not free though, personnally i hesitate between buying it now separately, or waiting a few months for Komplete 11 which would feature it plus much more.

Session 1: Intro to Synthesis
Session 2: Subtractive Synthesis
Session 3: Ring Modulation and FM Synthesis
Session 4: Percussion Synthesis
Session 5: Sequencers
Session 6: Wavetables
Session 7: Granular
Session 8: Physical Modelling
Session 9: Additive Synthesis

Regards,
GBoGBo
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Post Thu Jun 23, 2016 2:46 pm

Re: A little musical intermission...

Eh, I'm a little angry with NI. I bought Komplete Audio 6 and it just can't work with my machine, nor does it have a built-in mic amp as I was hoping and is generally simply useless for me, but... way too late to give it back. Also I couldn't install their Cubase version, which was a pain and ended up being impossible for some bizarre reason. Now it's just catching dust here. :shrug: ...pity.

But, beyond that, Reaktor appears to me almost more complicated than just programming a synth yourself, which includes everything you'd have to learn to do that. So....nice on paper, but the reality of just programming is more beautiful! 8)
By the way, I just recently programmed a little synth with midi and all out of BlitzMax NG, which is completely free! It's fantastic! I posted my code on the Blitzmax website:
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts ... pic=106314

Going through hooking up BliztMax NG seems a bit more complicated at first, but it really isn't. Then you can EASILY program your own synths, practicing to write your own vst, which you'd still have to do in C++ or what ever else offers an SDK. I do C++. It's a bit painful to get into, but after that... much easier than Reaktor, if you asked me, and 100% open to any- and everything you like! 8-)
Here to help! :D
System Info: AMD Radeon RX Vega 10, AMD Ryzen 7 (2.3 Ghz), Windows 11
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