Synthmaker bundle

[k brown]

This also isn't a new one or a re-vamp, but because it's story is interesting, I'm gonna post about it.

A few years ago there was a hoax perpetrated by someone going under the fake company name of 'Seekers'. They promoted the pending release of an impressively-featured synth called the SMS-2000. The thing never materialized.

SMS-2000 hoax-ware copy.jpg (438.71 KiB) Viewed 19558 times

Great thing about software like Synthmaker - we can make it 'real' as a vst.

ZMZ-2000

ZMZ 2000_copy.jpg (42.51 KiB) Viewed 19558 times

[k brown]

Decided to do a second version of ZMZ 2000 that looks more like the 'original' (in same folder as the first version). On the first version I used bakelite-style knobs because at the time, I hadn't yet figured out how to do the more Moog-style. I also did the egs with sliders due to personal preference. I also implemented the Formant Filter as a three-band Polymoog-style.
So, v2.0 with Moog-y knobs, knoby Egs and a Formant filter based on the Moog Fixed Filter Bank (the frequencies shown in the photos of SMS 2000 made no sense in a formant filter. I think Wendy Carlos had a hand in selecting the bands for the Moog filter).

ZMZ 2000 v2.0

ZMZ 2000 v2.0-copy.jpg (126.22 KiB) Viewed 19503 times

It seems I may have mis-spoken regarding Seekers as being a 'fake' company - not sure; nothing's very sure surrounding this synth. Did one ever exist - even in prototype? Was it an elaborate hoax - possibly perpetrated by Ken Elhardt? Whatever the case, whoever designed the specification and panel design knew what they were doing - it's brillliant! In hardware it would have cost a fortune - with SM we got it free!

[k brown]

I've put together a little website for the plugins:

http://kbrownsynthplugins.weebly.com/

[Spogg]

I've put together a little website for the plugins:

http://kbrownsynthplugins.weebly.com/

Oh wow!

That's a great looking site and you've done all the work I had planned (and much more too!) for Flowstoners so many thanks for that.
I'll put up a link to your site now.

Brilliant!

Cheers

Spogg

EDIT: The link is now on http://www.flowstoners.com under Flowmates. If you want me to change the text or anything at all let me know.

[k brown]

Love it, Spogg - thanks a lot.

There's just a few more left to do - working on M right now (my spin on the Waldorf Q -tons of mod inputs to name!).

[k brown]

Most of the param-naming is done now, so I turned my attention to some issues folks on other forums have raised.

Though jbuonacc over at KVR certainly could have gone about it in a less nasty and more specifically helpful way, in going back over his remarks and listening to the examples he posted it seems the big issue is how these act at too-high filter resonance settings and/or with feedback applied (I kept thinking to myself - well just turn the damn resonance down!) - I suppose it's a reasonable expectation that a synth shouldn't choke like that under any conditions. It never struck me as a big issue because I personally don't care for the sound of high filter resonance - that quacking duck sound; so since I don't use the synths that way (and I built these initially only for my own use) I never labored over how to prevent that behaviour.

The feedback issue I was more aware of, but I just thought the thickening of the sound one can achieve with it was worth having to 'baby' it to keep the filter from choking. But I guess for general public consumption, people expect a more 'bullet-proof' behaviour; fair enough.

I think my big initial mistake was not being more clear that these were not polished, fine-tuned products of an expert synth-coder, but just some stuff I knocked together in my spare time over the years and I just thought others might get some use out of them. My fervent hope when initially posting them at DSPR, was that one of the Flowstone gurus over there might find one or more of them interesting enough to take it further with their additional expertise and 'finish it up' for all to benefit from. Aside from some initial cleanup by Spogg (thanks), so far that has not happened. The whole reason the .osm Synthmaker schematics are included in the folders is so someone might say "hmm, this one's interesting; needs some fixing - let's see what I can do", then share the result with everyone.

The other thing jbuonacc was experiencing was internal clipping, and I'm guilty as charged there - I didn't pay enough attention to gain structure. As a long time audio engineer, It's just second nature when I hear something clip, I turn down the thing in front of it. Again for general public, that should be less necessary.

So - I've gone back into a bunch of them and hopefully addressed some of these issues. My applogies to anyone whose made a bunch of presets for any of them - the changes may make them unusable in some of the new versions (most should be OK).

So far I've done:

80-vox
Atticus
Cassini
Chorg 770DV
cutOats
CyRinx
eXpando
Joker
Kroma Duette
Luge
M
minimodular
mOdyCat
Multipoly
Mx-Jr
Nebula
OatsFM
OB-2
Rolend Block-8
Rolend Cronus
Rolend JP-680
Rolend PG-238
Rolend SH-12
Rolend SH-57
Rolend SH-75
Rolend 101M
Syntha-kon
Synthegrated 12A
Synthegrated 15A
System One D
System One E
tableBlend
The Dodeca 258c
The Putnie

[Spogg]

One of my future wishes is to choose my favourite looking synth and see what I could do with it in terms of optimisation and "tuning". Then create some presets.

I was wondering about having a generalised button to bring up a preset manager into view. This button could be a small one called KBP for example, and be small enough to be unobtrusive in the scheme and be used in all your synths. The alternative is to use the standard fxp and fxb format, but that fixes the presets to the structure and naming and this then precludes further changes. What do you think? If you think it's an acceptable idea could you design such a latching button that could be used universally?

Cheers

Spogg

[k brown]

Great.

i think I follow you on the PresetManager - I'll try it on OB-2.

[k brown]

Like so?

OB-2.osm.zip

(531.05 KiB) Downloaded 928 times

[k brown]

Or, maybe a 'universal' bar could be added to the bottom of each synth -

Nebula.osm.zip

(491.6 KiB) Downloaded 975 times