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Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 2:07 pm
by Spogg
Well, I just had to interfere ;)

I’ve tested all 56 synths now and I’m totally gobsmacked by the amount of quality work that’s gone into this amazing stash. Here’s what I’ve done:

All loaded into Flowstone, tested, modified if required and re-saved as FSM files in version 3.08.1
All tested with ASIO out.

Some had significant stream disruption (clicking, repeat notes on key down, release and Pitch/Modwheel operation). These issues had 2 main causes:

One was down to the scope’s waveform display being switched on/off when a MIDI note ON was received. This was operated by detecting 90h (144) in the MIDI stream so was not reliable and also there was overhead in the View display switching. I removed the whole display switching so the scope trace is always visible. This method wasn’t used in many of the synths and there seems to be no sonic or graphic trade-off.

The other disruption was caused by a weird and complex de-zipper module found in some of the Mod and Pitch wheel modules using a windows timer and other green stuff. This was simply fixed by using the stock de-zipper instead. My guess is that since the stock Prim-based de-zipper was used exclusively by Mr Brown in many synths that this was down to the development stages of Synthmaker. Or maybe I missed a reason for using an exotic de-zipping solution but the results seem fine with the stock one.

On a very few occasions some front panel graphics were displaced. I found this too when I was mining the old SM forum so I guess this is a minor version issue and I corrected the positioning.

Any synths that were spogged have been re-exported as VSTs and the originals deleted. Where I made no changes I didn’t re-export. I haven’t tested any of the plugins created or originally included.

Notes:

None of the synths have unique preset parameter names. This can mean that the DAW may not reproduce patches stored for the synths in the song file. However, if the DAW is set to save the whole VST state this may not be an issue. It certainly will be an issue if any of you want to create presets in the Flowstone edit environment. This can be fixed of course, but with 56 synths that’s a lot of work. I may be inspired to do this for one or two personal favourites.

Mr. Brown (I’m clearly a bit sexist since it could quite easily be say Karen Brown) has naturally used stock Prims for oscillators and so on, so the CPU hit will be much higher than with Martin Vicanek’s optimised wonders. In many of the synths there are not so many oscillators and filters running but when playing chords and sustaining the CPU hit can be quite high. If you have a favourite it would be a great idea to replace the relevant modules with current optimised ones. Again, I may be tempted with one or two (but not 56!).

The download below (298 Megs) is the whole set with the same directory structure as before but with the relevant FSMs and VST dlls updated as above. Note that some are exported as VSTs (effects) since additionally they have an audio input for external input processing.

EDIT: Kevin asked me to remove the old links in this thread and explain that he has re-worked so many of these they should now be downloaded from the locations in his signature.
Plug-ins can be downloaded here:
https://ln.sync.com/dl/62c9b9f70/bbjdaw ... 9-q3tygvzs

Website for the plugins : http://kbrownsynthplugins.weebly.com/

There’s a lot to learn from this work, especially in the graphic, control and routing designs so I hope you benefit from Mr Brown’s lovely gift to us all.

Cheers

Spogg

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 4:37 pm
by RJHollins
Will check this out.

Thanks again to 'Mr. Brown' .... and

Thanks to Spogg for everything 8-)

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 7:33 pm
by k brown
WOW!

I can only say, I'm gobsmacked myself at all this - thanks so much for your efforts Spogg! I'm glad to hear that though these were done with quite an old version of SM, they are still essentially fixable/usable - which was my hope.

I had issues also with the 'green' input dezippers, and thought I'd gone back and replaced them with older the stream input ones, but obviously I missed a bunch - don't know where I originally got those, certainly didn't knock them together myself. Not surprised about the scopes issue, though they didn't cause any probs with my ancient PC and running them with vstHost. Thanks again, Spogg for making these more usable to all the Flowstoners.

Does anyone know if Buchla-style wavefolding oscillators is possible with FS? I thought a lot of folks would get a kick out of the Music Easel emulation I attempted; I did the oscillator as just an FM Mod/Carr pair. Same with the other two Buchla emulations.

Cheers to all;

yes, k brown is Mr.!

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:24 pm
by BobF
Hi all,

There are definitely some great synth's here. Thanks again k brown for all your initial work and also Spogg for all your clean up work and making them Flowstone workable.

Later then, BobF.....

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:32 pm
by k brown
Oh - by-the-by, in case it's an easy fix - the "Sequential_DSI" folder got 'hidden' inside the Roland folder.

k brown

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 6:30 am
by k brown
Also, just wanted to send this along; should have included in original bundle - a folder of just the screenshots, to make 'window shopping' easier.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d15vdf8y76z3 ... yml9a?dl=0


k brown

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 7:40 am
by RJHollins
Some nice 'visual' work as well Mr Brown. 8-)

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 10:26 am
by k brown
Thanks for that - mostly what started me on all this was the frustration I had with both freeware and commercial softies that had fiddly controls, hideous GUIs, too many hidden functions/pages/panels/menus or could have looked a lot more like the hardware they were emulating with just a little more effort. Inexplicable things like the fabulous-sounding ME-80 (CS-80 emu) that has that horribly dark GUI, when the Yammy had a gorgeous dove-grey panel. Or the also fabulous-sounding SQ-8L , with it's difficult-to-read, too-slavish imitation of the old liquid crystal display and too many hidden parameters at any given time (it'd be great if someone knows how to replace my FM oscillators in EZQ-FM with wavetables that are close to the SQ-80). I've tried to create synths that one can clearly see what's going on at a glance and are pleasant to look at - in fact in some cases I probably should have spent more time and effort on making them work better and less on looks!

I'll be posting a couple more soon - a 'Putney' version of the Synthy (anyone know how to do a filter that gradually goes from 12dB/oct to 18dB as the cutoff is closed down?), an OB Matrix 6 emu, trying to iron the kinks out of a Buchla Music Box (the old System 100 machine that used the Dodecamodule), one or two others.

Till then -

k brown

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 12:13 pm
by Spogg
Does anyone know if Buchla-style wavefolding oscillators is possible with FS?


I've spent a few hours checking out the Buchla complex oscillators and I think this is possible with Flowstone. In fact I'm gonna see what I can do now that I've seen waveforms and have an idea what I'm aiming for. Never heard of this stuff before but there's a lot of info out there...

Cheers

Spogg

Re: Synthmaker bundle

PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 4:16 pm
by martinvicanek
k brown wrote:anyone know how to do a filter that gradually goes from 12dB/oct to 18dB as the cutoff is closed down?

Do you have more details on the transition from 12 dB to 18 dB? Like at which frequency and how fast it is supposed to happen?