PD Space Guitar Synthesizer BETA 1.1.0 is online

Started by PD FX, December 17, 2020, 06:17:15 AM

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PD FX

Hi there!
PD Space Guitar Synthesizer for ipad directly translates your sound into square or saw tooth waves, without tracking.
Basically it multiplies anything you throw at it into a synth sound. The process itself is ofcourse not *that* simple..
It is polyphonic by nature, and can morph between your "normal" guitar harmonics and the added harmonics.

PD Space Guitar Synthesizer BETA 10 ( 1.1.0. ) for iPad
1) make sure you've installed "testflight" on your ipad (free download  from the appstore)
2) then click on the following link
https://testflight.apple.com/join/gHe6ZWUc


General:
-7 example patches are included, saving is disabled. App will however remember last settings when opened.
Please mind your ears though: the  builtin amp will allways limit the signal, but if you disable the amp, sound might get louder.
I hope the app is inspiring for you, and I am open to suggestions: my main goal was to
1 - keep the thing manageable in terms of numbers of parameters and such
2 - keep the playfeel like a normal guitar as much as possible.
3 - keep CPU reasonably low.
4 - and ofcourse, most important: expand the guitar soundhorizon into deep space!
**This BETA is provided as is, no warranty is given**


PD FX


Vaultnaemsae

I just gave it a whirl on macOS. Quite fun!

One thing. It doesn't seem to accept mono input. All assignable 'ins' are stereo pairs and it only accepts audio from the first input in each pair...i.e. from the Left channel.
Vaultnaemsae's SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/vaultnaemsae

PD FX

#3
tnx for the feedback!
The stereo pair behaviour is a bit of a mystery, you can also select just channel 2, checking on macos here.

whippinpost91850

Nicely done... Will try it this weekend, another Paul

PD FX

Just managed to get the ipad version uploaded into the appstore backoffice. That means that the ios beta testflight will be starting within 48 hours.

Vaultnaemsae

Quote from: Guitarpolson on December 17, 2020, 07:10:31 AM
tnx for the feedback!
The stereo pair behaviour is a bit of a mystery, you can also select just channel 2, checking on macos here.

You're right. When I loaded it last night all I could see were stereo pairs.
But now I'm seeing individual mono inputs.
Maybe somebody slipped something into my cup of tea...  :o
Vaultnaemsae's SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/vaultnaemsae

PD FX

Quote from: Vaultnaemsae on December 17, 2020, 03:11:14 PM
You're right. When I loaded it last night all I could see were stereo pairs.
But now I'm seeing individual mono inputs.
Maybe somebody slipped something into my cup of tea...  :o
ok.. hallucinations may occur as side effects using Space Guitar, but those are mild, temporary and should not lead to extended disabilities
;)

jassy

#8
Wanted to try so much but not luck.

When I try any "audio device type" I always get the same "error when trying to open audio device".
There is not asio audio driver support?  asio is not listed as an audio device type.
Im using a Fireface800 audio card. Maybe it does not support windows audio or directsound driver type, not sure about it, I use asio drivers or WDM all the time.
Hope you have a solution for me or better yet, support asio in order to get the lowest audio buffer which I thing is very needed for this purpose.
If not possible to run in windows please let my know when is available to try in IOS.

PD FX

Quote from: jassy on December 17, 2020, 04:53:47 PM
Wanted to try so much but not luck.

When I try any "audio device type" I always get the same "error when trying to open audio device".
There is not asio audio driver support?  asio is not listed as an audio device type.
Im using a Fireface800 audio card. Maybe it does not support windows audio or directsound driver type, not sure about it, I use asio drivers or WDM all the time.
Hope you have a solution for me or better yet, support asio in order to get the lowest audio buffer which I thing is very needed for this purpose.
If not possible to run in windows please let my know when is available to try in IOS.

HI Jassy, thanks for the feedback!
See original post for link to version 1.1 with ASIO support.

jassy

Asio support works perfect at 64 samples, very low cpu hit.
This thing is wonderful, dont know the tech but the feeling is very similar to the Sy1000 dinamic synth, although maybe less sophisticated synth section in some areas, but tracking is astounding, ultrafast and not a single glitch, really amazing.
Its only stand alone so I hope you can make it vst and auv3 in order to integrate with other tools and effects and specially in everyone workflow, thats very important I think.

Bugs?:
Although I can see some cabinet wavs, nothing loads. Tried almost all.
Reverb: the same, "in the silo" keeps loaded but i think it does not work (nothing happens when I move the Level pot) Also I cant load other wavs.

Suggestions:
Some adsr for the amplitude and filter would enhance the versatility a lot. Maybe even a compressor to achieve more sustain (I play box guitars which tend to have less sustain).
I see you have a great background doing guitar synth researcha and exaphonic processing, so a version with exaphonic process would be amazing.

Questions:
I can't get this morphing effect and touch sensitivity you show here, what parameters should I control?  ->



PD FX

#11


thanks Jassy.. that is really good feedback!
Glad to hear it performs well, you're the first feedbacker on windows. ;)
-The labels "cabinet" and "reverb" can be hilited (they turn yello then), that powers up the IR function: maybe that is what your are missing?
EDIT: cabinet/reverb is broken on windows. i'll fix that ofcourse. A file path issue.
-In amp section "gain" can be turned up: the amp works as a clean limiter as long as you keep overdrive on 0. You'll get lots of sustain: I'm also a touch guitar player, I took care of that.

The dynamic filter is chosen with "off lowpass hipass bandpass" selector.
The "soft cutoff" is the default filter tone, the "hard cutoff" is the target when playing louder. "sense" controls how fast you can get to that hard cutoff.
If a cutoff is at 0, the sound will be focused on the fundamental of your guitarsound. E.g: A cutoff setting of "12" will concentrate on the freuencies an octave above the fundamental.
The fundamental is relative to the pitchshift.  The "tone" knob next to the octave knob is a steady filter, that way youc use the dynamic high pass without gogin deaf from the trebly sound..

I'll make a tutorial vid on how the filters work the coming days.

ADSR: been there, tried it multiple ways, but it does not give a nice feel with the DSP technique used here. The "slow gear" effect is perfectly doable, but it kind of isnt needed: when you learn to work the filters, you'll notice that it gives lot of swelling as well..
For the future I plan on adding more of a traditional ADSR synth in that respect, but that needs other techniques in place to work the way I think it should work. In the meantime, this setup has a consistency with clear limits. Better having clear limits than stuff that does not work.
The tone character set now is limited to square and saw: I will add wavetable synthese in the future.
Square and saw are the basic forms that guitarsynthesis starts with: that is also a reason I started with just that.









PD FX

Quote from: jassy on December 18, 2020, 09:14:42 AM

Bugs?:
Although I can see some cabinet wavs, nothing loads. Tried almost all.
Reverb: the same, "in the silo" keeps loaded but i think it does not work (nothing happens when I move the Level pot) Also I cant load other wavs.

Windows Version Beta 1.2 is up and has working cabinet & reverb. See original post.
note: The reverb is a CPU hog, it is an off the shelf function which i didnt spend much time on yet.

PD FX

Ipad beta version is now online too! See original posting for instructions.

jassy

Thank you for your answers I will try your suggestions in the new windows version and the IOS one also! Will report later.

jassy

Wanted to link those 2 videos, very musical and show the fantastic potential of this guitar synth, maybe others does not have seen it:


Hope you can add those presets to the beta to try it.

jassy

Tried the IOS version, it has AUv3 and it works beautiful in AUM, its wonderful to insert it with other effects and synths, heaven.
Also the windows version solved the problem loading presets in cabinet and reverb.
Now that I start to understand the filters and the dynamic control this thing is sounding much better. This guitar synth is very promising.
For now I think I will continue to work with the ios version until a plugin vst is released for windows, because I am much more comfortable using it as a plugin inside my habitual daw or host. Anyway I can test anything if you need.
A question, there is any midi control option or its planned?
The improvements in the oscillator department (add wavetable etc) and ADSR you mentioned sounds very promising. A simple attack parameter like the one you show in one of your videos would be enough in the meantime.


PD FX

#17
tnx jassy!
Remote control is a bit confusing: a standalone needs to react to input midi CC ofcourse. But AU plugs are mostly automated via host automation.
In AUM and audiobus, the midi is not forwarded to loaded effects. One has to bind AU params to incoming midi CC's.. A bit tedious, on the other hand a bigger scope for the host.

If Space Guitar is mostly used as a plugin, I wont take the effort to do much about midi cc input, since AUM and AB will not feed midi to this effect. users have to use parameter automation from the host.

If people like to use the app as standalone, the story is very different: in that case I'll provide cc to parameter bindings.
the idea is to get the latency as low as possible: as a standalone it will run on buffersize 64 on most ipads. But AUM and AB mostly require larger buffersizes, hence more latency...
Then there is patch switching issue : the standalone has instant patch switches on midi PC. this is allready enabled in the beta.

So the beta phase is also to have a survey of what peeps want the most: a extra fast standalone with midi CC & PC functions OR just use the AUv3 in the known hosts.
if the demands are even, I have to make sure both methods work evenly.



jassy

Thanks for your clarifications.
Yes I see that PD SGS expose their parameters to the host so I can control from here. Great.
Has I said I prefer to use it as a plugin. I can run AUM at 64samples or 128 if there is so much load, to me its fast enough.

maan108

Hallo !

Please, can you tell where its possible to find S.O. requirements (S.O. version, minimum CPU ram etc ?)

Thanks !

Maan108

PD FX

ipad: ios 12 and up
macOS: 10.11 and up
windows: don't know really.. I compiled it against the windows 10 sdk, I suspect it runs also in windows 8
should run on any computer with i3 cpu or better
I doesnt harm to just download the beta and try.
You need an audio interface with suitable ASIO driver installed

PD FX

#21
Beta 2 is up for macos and windows, links in original post

-Dynamic detune is now an option, as choice: trem/vib/detune
  The attack to the left will  fade out the effect, attack to the right will fade in the effect.
   Detune only uses "depth" as extra parameter.

-Trem/vib/detune use a new dynamic detector: the dynamic function now properly retriggers, which means it also works when (re=picking single notes within chords

-dynamic filter now has "attack". The "hard cutoff" settings can be delayed by this knob, so you can make a crossfade from the 2 cuttoff settings at the notes start.

-Sustain knob is added, and pushes the signal against a limit to get more sustain. This works on a normal overall manner to preserve the color of the sound. The resonance and number of harmonics are not calculated in the limit, so it is not a real flat amplitude output function! (we have to test to see whether this is good or bad)

Have fun!
--Paul






jassy

#22
Its great to see that you are improving the sound palette with new synth parameters, its very important in order to have a broader sound.
Maybe a dual oscilator version with more wave forms, detuning, etc could improve vastly the range of sounds, not sure if this new "detuning" is around that.
Im already getting very solid and musical synth tones, this thing is very interesting, I hope the synth guitar community here can have a moment and try this contribution, I think it is promising and is really close to the latest guitar synthesizer advances achieved by Roland with their recent SY line and other companies.
I will try this new version in the next days and maybe I will record and post something.
If you update the IOS version please lets us know.


jassy

Had time to try the new Beta 2 version, and wow, this thing is getting more and more interesting.
I think in some aspects it's one of the best guitar synths I've tried and I've tried a lot of them. The tracking is fabulous, zero errors and very expressive and musical. The sound of the oscillators is pure and lacks the dirthiness of others. Maybe the range of sounds is a bit limited but it probably will be expanded.
In the Windows version I have found a nasty bug: when I move the pitch whammy fader all the way up there is a horrible noise at maximum volume that almost breaks my speakers. Otherwise this whammy effect sounds great when it works well, is there a way to control it via midi?
I wish you could make a VST version to be able to integrate it into many hosts and workflows.
About the IOS version: I have tried to review the possibilities of automating by midi parameters but I see that they all indicate a range of 0-> 1, is this correct? for example I want to control raising or lowering an octave, how could I do it? Also say that I see parameters that are not in the plugin like attack, hold, decay, sustain, etc.
Im really excited about it, will you consider to make a exaphonic version? I think I read something about that in your FB page. With the gp10 and Sy1000 and others devices this would be a dream come true.
Congratulations for your good work and happy new year!

pasha811

#24
Had some time with Beta 2. Mac here with 10.14.
I observe that even if my audio card is setup correctly, having said yes to Mic access now puts the system in low volume feedback like an elicopter hoovering on me. In any case I can play. I feed the PD with a clean dry Guitar signal. Tried all 5 position, Strat Alnico V and good tracking and interesting sound options I will try more and report. Good tracking so far.
I am also a Zebra / Zebrify user. What are the differences?

Hope it helps.
Paolo
Listen to my music at :  http://alonetone.com/pasha/