KVR Audio

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:25 pm

I knew you weren't gonna let that one slide! All in good time my pretty, all in good time.
While we're on the subject - how does your machine handle the patch cables? My 5-8 yr-old Thinkpad takes several seconds for a connection to 'take'. Maybe because not dual-core?

DrewDale · Post by **DrewDale** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:46 pm

kevin brown wrote: While we're on the subject - how does your machine handle the patch cables? My 5-8 yr-old Thinkpad takes several seconds for a connection to 'take'. Maybe because not dual-core?

Only a few seconds I would say. Fairly quick.

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 8:59 pm

Rolend Block-8 cable-patched, horizontal layout.

Rolend Block-8_cables_horiz_copy.jpg

Again, all the Block-8s are in the same folder.

AnX · Post by **AnX** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 9:15 pm

Are these synths 'emulations' (soundwise) or just visual/feature copies?

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 9:42 pm

AnX wrote:Are these synths 'emulations' (soundwise) or just visual/feature copies?

if you monitor music with high end gear, they are just visual/feature copies.
if you monitor music with a tablet/i-pad with crappy earbuds, they are exact emulations.

they sound good with skillful sound design imo,

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 10:06 pm

There is a Read Me in the original Bundle folder that made it clear these were not claiming to sound like the synths they are emulations of. They just have mostly the same functions and overall concept of the hardware. In many cases they have added and/or enhanced features, functionality, etc., many are 'mashups' of two or more related hardware models that combine features that never existed in the vintage hardware. One can't expect freeware made with Synthmaker to offer sophisticated analog modeling, etc. Especially in the case of the Buchla approximations, they offer a way to experiment with the structure of different synthesizer design concepts.

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:05 am

This isn't a new one or a massive re-vamp, but since it's probably the most complex and flexible little monster I've ever built, I thought I'd let everyone know that I finally got 'round to param-naming Atticus, my spin on u-he's Bazille, but hopefully a little easier on the CPU. It doesn't have all of Bazille's features and the oscs and mixer/filters are rather different, but it's still a beast!

-Four analog/digital hybrid oscillators.
-Two filters with internal mixers.
-Two VCAs.
-Two LFOs.
-sLFO.
-Four EGs.
-Two 'Multiplex's.
-CV Adder/Lag
-Reverb/Phorus
-Delay/Chorus (Chorus sucks, though)

Atticus_copy.jpg

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martin_l · Post by **martin_l** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:04 am

Hi Kevin,

I have been playing around with some of your creations over the last days, and I am quite impressed. They are some nice-sounding synths which offer some new features, hard to find elsewhere. Well done!!

There are only two things I noted: on some of the synths (e.g. the Buchla inspired ones) I do get crackling or even dropouts when moving sliders related to the filter. Is that a normal thing on SynthMaker synths?

The other question is whether it is possible to sync the sLFO's to the host? I can't find any option for that.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Martin

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 4:40 pm

Not a normal thing, no.

Be sure you are only using the synths in the folder in the link at the bottom of each of my posts, not the original "Synthmaker Bundle". Issues with buggy de-zippers and implementation of the internal Preset Manager may cause the issue. The only 'Buchla' with an actual filter is Dodeca 258c, is that the one that's doing it? If you are using the version from the link mentioned above, I'll check if any of the de-zippers got missed.

DrewDale · Post by **DrewDale** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:32 pm

kevin brown wrote:Rolend Block-8 cable-patched, horizontal layout.

Rolend Block-8_cables_horiz_copy.jpg
Again, all the Block-8s are in the same folder.

Thanks Kevin, great work man

martin_l · Post by **martin_l** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:56 pm

kevin brown wrote:Not a normal thing, no.

Be sure you are only using the synths in the folder in the link at the bottom of each of my posts, not the original "Synthmaker Bundle". Issues with buggy de-zippers and implementation of the internal Preset Manager may cause the issue. The only 'Buchla' with an actual filter is Dodeca 258c, is that the one that's doing it? If you are using the version from the link mentioned above, I'll check if any of the de-zippers got missed.

Thanks Kevin. I was talking about the SystemOne E and the combined low-pass/VCA. However, I did download the latest version and could not reproduce the problem. It might, indeed, still have been an old version.

What about the host-sync'ed sLFO's? Is there any way to achieve synchronisation?

Cheers,
Martin

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 6:05 am

Glad to hear that.

I have to reveal my ignorance about Host-Syncing - I don't really know what that means; I don't do sequencer-type music myself, so I never educated myself about it.

When trying to find out if there were Synthmaker/Flowstone sequencer builds that I could adapt to my synths that were closer replications of the way vintage analog sequencers worked, Spogg at DSPR sent me some more recently made step LFOs/trance gates, but they were completely bewildering to me and I couldn't make any correlation between their controls and those on the analog sequencers of old. One or two did seem to have something suggesting host sync, so it may be possible, but will have to be addressed by someone else. sorry I can't be more helpful.

kevin brown · Post by **kevin brown** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 7:38 pm

Thanks to Spogg over at DSPR, the following have had their XY pads/Joysticks replaced with ones whose positions will be saved in presets and should also be automatable. I don't have a way to test the automation, so let me know what you find.

- Synthegrated 12A
- Synthegrated 15A
- The Putnie_os
- The Putnie_2s
- The Dodeca 258c
- SystemOne D
- SystemOne E

cymazic · Post by **cymazic** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 11:12 pm

dont want to derail the thread but does anyone have any advice on downloading from dropbox? When I click the "download" on kevins page , the usual box appears (Firefox browser on Win XP btw) to "save as" , so I click "ok" as usual...At this point it just does no more. No choice as to where the file should be saved , no activity in the firefox Downloads display .
Im guessing , some sort of user error on my part . Somehow I downloaded the original "synthmaker bundle" and, as far as I recall , that was hosted on Dropbox?
Ive been having a lot of fun with the old Synthmaker Bundle version of the Rolend System-100 and would really like the new "bundle" with the automation fixes etc.
Thanks for the superb freebies Kevin. A lot of dedication , creativity and generosity on your part .

EDIT.. Solved it by replacing the dl=0 in the URL to "dl=1"
Thanks anyway . Hope this might help anyone with similar Dropbox issues.

jbuonacc · Post by **jbuonacc** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 5:38 am

well, they sure look pretty nice.

can't believe nobody has mentioned it, but these things don't cope well with high resonance settings unless you back way down on oscillator (and/or main) volume and completely crap out when using the "feedback" parameter (pretty much at all) with high resonance on synths that feature it.

i've only tried a few so far (Atticus, Rolend SH-12, Synthegrated 12A), but can't really see much point in exploring them further.

hate to be a downer (the configurations are pretty cool and, again, they look nice), but at best they just sound pretty ho-hum/generic and they're all a bit flaky, error-prone, and certainly "un-calibrated". it's possible to squeeze a few decent sounds out of them, but i'm not sure they're even worth bothering with. there's just so many other great free/cheap synths out there, which don't give me the uncomfortable "you know this thing is going to break any second now" feeling that these do.

i do applaud your efforts though. the designs are very interesting, and you've got to be the most prolific freeware developer that ever was.

K Brown Synth Bundle