DIY Synth builders here?

[peAk]

Does building synths in software count?

Absolutely! I am a audio software junkie. Don't code it but love using it.

[RobA]

Does building synths in software count?

Yes, it counts. What do you use to build them? (Environment, language, etc.) I've done several AU based effects and a couple of synth based things with FM and soft-sync like stuff, but it's been a long time now. I really need to get back into doing it.

On the hardware side, I've wanted to get into doing some hardware based modular stuff for a some time now. But, I haven't really figured out where to start yet.

[alanp]

My biggest worry, looking at synth boards, is how seemingly nothing is boardmounted, except for Oakely stuff.

I love the front panels on the Catgirl Synth

[Willybomb]

You need to check this thread out at Overclockers.com.au.  Stygian Shane is making some huge thing on vero ...

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=980132&highlight=vero

It's fecking nuts!

[peAk]

You need to check this thread out at Overclockers.com.au.  Stygian Shane is making some huge thing on vero ...

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=980132&highlight=vero

It's fecking nuts!

Wow......super impressive!

[kothoma]

Does building synths in software count?

Yes, it counts. What do you use to build them? (Environment, language, etc.) I've done several AU based effects and a couple of synth based things with FM and soft-sync like stuff, but it's been a long time now. I really need to get back into doing it.
[...]

Here too, it's been a long time since I actually finished something. I have lots of bits and pieces of number crunching, standalone or VST, written mainly in C / C++, even Java, D, and a few lines of x86-assembler, running on Windows and Linux. I need to get more into GUIs and including OSX in true cross-platform code.

The last years I spent more on conzeptualizing things in my mind than actually realizing anything. And as it goes with concepts: they grow and grow. I always wanted a modular system that could be a studio DAW, a live setup, an algorithmic composition framework, a sound desing lab, a modular synth that incorporates any known and unknown synthesis technique... Something like Sync Modular/Reaktor/puredata/Max, Bidule, Cubase/Logic, Ableton Live (did I forget something?) rolled into one.

Only dreaming? I think Bitwig and its (underlying) modular design is perhaps already very much like what I have in mind. At least it seems more convincing than the Max4Live approach. But it still is too monolithic for my taste. I see the potential of Non DAW but feel that's too little integration.

Edit.
I really like FM synthesis. I somewhere have an almost working DX7 clone, but abandoned that as Hexter matured. I also like to twiddle with FM8 and Operator in Live. And of course I have my own ideas for an additive-subtractive-FM monster.

How did you implement oscillator sync?

[RobA]

[...]
Here too, it's been a long time since I actually finished something. I have lots of bits and pieces of number crunching, standalone or VST, written mainly in C / C++, even Java, D, and a few lines of x86-assembler, running on Windows and Linux. I need to get more into GUIs and including OSX in true cross-platform code.

Using the GUI tools for OS X certainly makes that part easier, but then that is really not cross-platform.

The really slick thing about OS X is the AU architecture. It really is designed to be a (DAW free) way of plugging together synths, effects, MIDI, and audio I/O. But, as far as I know, no one uses it that way. I'd love to see the concepts taken over to Linux where that environment would be more conducive to the idea growing, at least in spirit.

The last years I spent more on conzeptualizing things in my mind than actually realizing anything. And as it goes with concepts: they grow and grow. I always wanted a modular system that could be a studio DAW, a live setup, an algorithmic composition framework, a sound desing lab, a modular synth that incorporates any known and unknown synthesis technique... Something like Sync Modular/Reaktor/puredata/Max, Bidule, Cubase/Logic, Ableton Live (did I forget something?) rolled into one.

Only dreaming? I think Bitwig and its (underlying) modular design is perhaps already very much like what I have in mind. At least it seems more convincing than the Max4Live approach. But it still is too monolithic for my taste. I see the potential of Non DAW but feel that's too little integration.

I hadn't seen Non DAW before. It looks really interesting. I'm going to have to find some time to play with it.

Edit.
I really like FM synthesis. I somewhere have an almost working DX7 clone, but abandoned that as Hexter matured. I also like to twiddle with FM8 and Operator in Live. And of course I have my own ideas for an additive-subtractive-FM monster.

How did you implement oscillator sync?

FM is great. I love the versatility that comes from such a simple concept. Similarly, I find digital waveguide synthesis to be really incredible in what can be done with such a really simple idea. (I also find it amazing that a patent was ever granted for either of them ).

For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.

[kothoma]

The really slick thing about OS X is the AU architecture. It really is designed to be a (DAW free) way of plugging together synths, effects, MIDI, and audio I/O. But, as far as I know, no one uses it that way. I'd love to see the concepts taken over to Linux where that environment would be more conducive to the idea growing, at least in spirit.

I wasn't aware of this. But this sounds similar to Jack. Or is there more to it?

For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.

How did you address band limiting? Oversampling and decimating?

[RobA]

[...]

I wasn't aware of this. But this sounds similar to Jack. Or is there more to it?

I haven't played with Jack in any way other than as an end user of software that needed it, but my impression is that they are similar but on opposite ends of the usage spectrum. Where Jack allows programs to hook together in a modular way, the AU spec allows any program to make use of any AU on the system and plug them together in all sorts of ways. There would be some overlap in the way AU's can form a graph with I/O and mixer nodes, but the intention is more to allow any application to be able to use any AU to do audio work. There are a bunch of AU's included with OS X. There are AU's for any audio I/O device and there are mixer AU's for routing between these and any software audio source. There are reverb, compressor, EQ, etc. AU's built-in as well. There are even various noise and sound generator AU's.

As an example, I was learning about consonance and dissonance curves and got interested in how it would work with mixing higher order harmonics from multiple notes played on different instruments and what that would say about 3, 4, ... note chords in non-12TET systems. I originally wrote a set of Python scripts to do the curve computations and then I'd transfer those to a synth with micro-tonal tuning capability and see what it sounded like. But, that got cumbersome, so I wrote a really simple program that could compute the curves and then used an AU graph to play back the sounds by mapping the chords to an input MIDI note. The way the AU stuff works, it was nearly trivial to do. This wasn't something that was anywhere close to performance worthy, but it really impressed on me how powerful the idea was for putting together tools to do pretty much any kind of performance.

I don't know though, maybe the reason it hasn't taken off is that a finer grained approach, like Pd or Reaktor, is really better for building performance tools. But, it does make a great resource for writing applications in.

For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.

How did you address band limiting? Oversampling and decimating?

Good question, it almost certainly involved oversampling. I used oversampling heavily at the time and other effects in the AU would have been non-linear distortion effects, so oversampling would have been applied at the input of the AU and more up/down sampling would have been applied in specific places. But, it was far from finished when I quite working on it, so I'm sure there was a bit of work left to do to get rid of any artifacts running around.

Oscillator sync is an effect I really like though, so I'd really love to get a hardware version of it into an effect.

[kothoma]

OK , I see I need to look more into this AU concept. And Macs.

(BTW I'd like to see a synth like FM8 with the matrix expanded to have the options of (hard) sync, AM, and PWM in addition to phase/frequency mod for the operators/oscillators. And any number of oscillators, few or many, based on arbitrary waveforms, mabybe even wavetable scan and samples.)

[peAk]

speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.

[kothoma]

speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.

Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...

[raulduke]

Coincidentally I just got these back from OSH park today:


Experimenting with using PCB material as front panels for eurorack stuff.

1st experiment looks promising (2xAttenuator and 2x4 Passive Mult').

If they work out I'm gonna move onto more serious stuff (an active mixer is next in the pipeline).

[peAk]

speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.

Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...

What is the price suppose to be? I am a registered user of Cubase and that's already pricey enough so don't know if I would/could afford to jump on another DAW but it does look interesting.

[kothoma]

speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.

Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...

What is the price suppose to be? I am a registered user of Cubase and that's already pricey enough so don't know if I would/could afford to jump on another DAW but it does look interesting.

https://www.bitwig.com/en/news/Bitwig-Studio-Announcement-Details.html

Box: USD 399.99 MAP, 329 EUR including VAT
Download: USD 399 / 299 EUR