FYI!! Melda SoundFactory ON SALE til JUNE 30

[Chandlerhimself]

Are we finally able to modulate a parameter from 2 sources like 2 lfos?

It appears you can have up to 4 modulators on one source. And there are 8 LFOs.

Yeah.. but can you figure out how to assign Modwheel, in reverse (negative), to the envelope amount. Or velocity for that matter.

I beleive there are actually 2 ways to do this(possibility more) and they are both fairly easy. If you’re interested I can try to male a preset to show you.

[ATS]

This synth sounds great, I couldn't help myself and bought it.

[David]

…
Yeah.. but can you figure out how to assign Modwheel, in reverse (negative), to the envelope amount. Or velocity for that matter.

So, you consider the code and screen-shot example I posted (first post on p 15, assuming the pagination is the same in all browsers) for doing exactly this "a massive workaround"? I'd maybe agree if I'd only done it once, referring to steps as I went, but it's only 3 steps, quickly done after a few times, and as easy to call an example of poor design, imo, as it is to call it appropriate to the levels of complexity on offer.

Still I'll be fascinating to see any and all other examples of ways to do this, assuming that there are others, which is a pretty safe bet:)

[David]

Are we finally able to modulate a parameter from 2 sources like 2 lfos?

It appears you can have up to 4 modulators on one source. And there are 8 LFOs.

Yeah.. but can you figure out how to assign Modwheel, in reverse (negative), to the envelope amount. Or velocity for that matter.

I beleive there are actually 2 ways to do this(possibility more) and they are both fairly easy. If you’re interested I can try to male a preset to show you.

If there's a way to do this without using MPs, I'd love to hear about that…as, I gather, would bmanic. Thanks!

[zerocrossing]

…
I'm gonna go build a library.

In all seriousness, most synths I figure out in about 5 minutes. Even Falcon and HALion 6 didn't take me more than a half hour and that's only because of how much stuff they crammed into them.

But this thing? They really gotta label things better. All those icons are meaningless to me. I figured out copy and paste by accident. Too much hidden. Too many sub screens. Too many shortcuts not explained. I could go on and on.

At least they improved the modulation system over MPS. That thing was a royal PITA to work with. At least this one, once you figure out where the controls are, is very easy. So I give them points for that.

I love Melda’s plugins. Mostly because they sound great, and are an amazing value, but also for their interface. You’re right, it is different than anything else, but I find that once you spend some time watching their tutorials (very important, IMO) and working with it, you can “get” the paradigm he’s using to present things. The difference makes me think differently, which I find leads to different results, which are usually great. So, if I want a basic synth type sound... I’m not going to MPowersynth, but when I want something kind of special and out of the ordinary, it’s still one of my go-to instruments. I’m excited to demo this one.

[zerocrossing]

Are we finally able to modulate a parameter from 2 sources like 2 lfos?

It appears you can have up to 4 modulators on one source. And there are 8 LFOs.

Yeah.. but can you figure out how to assign Modwheel, in reverse (negative), to the envelope amount. Or velocity for that matter.

I beleive there are actually 2 ways to do this(possibility more) and they are both fairly easy. If you’re interested I can try to male a preset to show you.

You could do this with MPowersynth if you use the macros.

[David]

FYI:
There's about 2 dozen submissions in the MSF Online Preset Exchange now.

And a thread here, for discussing them and the process itself:
viewtopic.php?f=138&t=525091

Also, I've added some Exchange related edits to an earlier post about Presets in general. Here's the edited section:

In terms of workflow, the main things for me to get were:

• Global Presets are the same as what "normal synths/plugins" think of as presets, patches or snapshots: i.e., the current plugin state captured for recall. Created in either Edit or Device mode using the top-most Preset-button Browser, and also loaded and managed (a backup button is included) from there. These files are only easily accessed and managed with this internal MSF browser; in the system/Finder, they're all packed into a huge, single .xml file (see the thread ref'ed above) that some may know how to do something with, but not me.

• Saved Devices are the same (current state of the plugin), except they include to ability to save and load presets for JUST THAT DEVICE, which only capture and recall changes made to the EZ-Screen controls for that device, if you've made any of those, in another Preset Browser, only visible in Device (aka Instrument Mode, i.e., not Edit Mode) Mode, when a device is loaded. The button for this browser is right below below the Global Preset button. If you haven't made any EZ-Screen controls, the only other advantage to saving as a Device is that you'll be able to see, manage, and share these file types (xxx.minstrument) in your system file manager/Finder. Once you save some Device presets, these will also be visible in the system/Finder, file type xxx.presets, right next to the .minstrument file they reference.
  EDIT: One other advantage with Devices is that you can add your name and even clickable links to your website and/or email, which may be of interest if you share your work via the Online Exchange system, or in any other way.

Loading and storing either GPresets or Devices when you haven't made an Ez Screen and don't have any Instrument Presets are basically just two ways of doing the same thing, using two different browsing systems. GPresets being the primary, intended, expected choice, apparently.

Online Sharing of either happens in the GPresets Browser and appears to capture whatever's loaded at the time, either a GPreset with no Device if none exists, or a GPreset AND it's associated Instrument and EDIT: Instrument Presets if these exist—apparently, device presets DON'T come through in the Exchange process, which is a shame. BUT these files can be posted as zipped attachments.
(AFAICTell, there's no decision yet on whether Devices will eventually just be called Instruments, or both, as now, or what…)

[David]

Update, FYI, I just now created threads, as described in this quoted post, over at the Melda forum, here; viewforum.php?f=138

Didn't create a new one for the Online Exchange topic, as there's already one there on this.

Can we move this to the Melda thread so that Vojtech would be able to see these and respond/take note/take action? I don't think he meanders here.

How does that work? I started the thread, so maybe it's something I can do…? Or maybe this one would be wisely abandoned in favor of a new one (or several), in the Melda area, for new MSF users, like maybe:

MSF Public beta/new owners Discussion, QA…

MSF Public beta/new owners, Feature Requests, GUI wishlists…

MSF Preset/Device Sharing and Discussion…

Comments? Ideas?

Obviously anyone can start a new thread there; I'm thinking of some broadly focused user areas that would become resources, in addition to specific single question posts…maybe overkill? I dunno, seems like something I'd want to have.

Those seem good to me, to keep things cleaner.
I would add one for bug report though.

Especially until we're out of beta, suggestions and bug-report should probably be central topics.

I'm not into devices but sure a thread about those could be important in order to present the final version with a good amount of instruments.

Thanks, I guess I'll give this post a day or so to see if anyone else comments, then just do it, including a Bug reports one.

Re: Devices, it's my opinion that there's another really interesting aspect to these, not much acknowledged yet, except recently in dmbaer's post just above, and that is the building of, and the thinking about, devices for full version users, to take full advantage of MSF's powers, not just thinking of them as "easy" tools full-version experts offer to Player and LE version users who can't make these for themselves. In other words, what might any or all of us make with MPs that don't need to follow the Official Requirements and goals Vojtech has for the Factory Instrument collection, but as a way of really rocking with MSF, and all it can do, to share with ALL users… Hope that's clear. It's basically what excites me the most about MSF, actually:)

[DarkStar]

It is still in beta. And so I modulate accordingly. For instance I cannot find the at the moment the Sequence 1 editor, having assigned Sequence 1 as a modulator for a filter cutoff. Neither can I find how to access the Modulator Editor shown on page 91 of the user manual.

This said, once I find the Sequence 1 editor I will know exactly how to work with it since I've used it previously in some audio plugins.

As I've said: I modulate: this is still beta. And I've asked in the Melda forum.

It is not editable:

Sequence
Sequence source produces an exact same pseudorandom sequence of values for every note. This is especially useful for modular unison processing, where you want each unison voice to be different, so you can simply attach this modulation source to all of the parameters, that should differentiate the voices.

Unlike using Note true random source, where the resulting sound will be different every time you press a key, using note sequence the results will be the same, but each parameter (therefore also unison voice) will be different.

[DarkStar]

Yeah.. but can you figure out how to assign Modwheel, in reverse (negative), to the envelope amount. Or velocity for that matter.

I'm pretty sure that that can be down with some mixture of Modulation Depths and the transformation curve. Am I right to understand that
-- with ModWheel value of to 0 the full envelope should be applied (i.e. Env depth = 100%)
-- with ModWheel value of to 127 no envelope should be applied (i.e. Env depth = 0%)

[bite_me]

I love Melda’s plugins. Mostly because they sound great, and are an amazing value, but also for their interface. You’re right, it is different than anything else, but I find that once you spend some time watching their tutorials (very important, IMO) and working with it, you can “get” the paradigm he’s using to present things. The difference makes me think differently, which I find leads to different results, which are usually great. So, if I want a basic synth type sound... I’m not going to MPowersynth, but when I want something kind of special and out of the ordinary, it’s still one of my go-to instruments. I’m excited to demo this one.

Jepp. GUI grows on me too Voila, envelopes are near when needed and some mysteries uncovered like - "how the hell do I trigger Lfo´s by Notes..." The Package is huge and the convolution reverb very very useful
One thing I wonder: Has this Synth Beast MSEG´s?

[aMUSEd]

So I made a preset and saved it as a device so it loads from the main menu (I don't like the 2 different preset menus) but when I load it like that it has no controls - where did they go?

[David]

…
One thing I wonder: Has this Synth Beast MSEG´s?

Sure…


Here's how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K3ZWRkHtM4

[David]

So I made a preset and saved it as a device so it loads from the main menu (I don't like the 2 different preset menus) but when I load it like that it has no controls - where did they go?

They're back in Edit mode.

To have any controls in Device mode, you (or somebody) has to build them. If you didn't in this case, that's why:)

Intro to building, 2nd clip in playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... QJczjG3beA

[teilo]

Finally getting a chance to dig into this. I have not used Melda synths in the past. The depth and multitude of options does not bother me. I like that. But some of the design decisions are just bizarre. I'm guessing all of this behavior is inherited from choices that Melda made with their other plugins.

The first thing is velocity. Velocity is normally a modulation source that you must assign or it does nothing. Even just starting out with a single Osc with a saw wave, the global per-voice volume responds to velocity, and the range is such that it's way too soft. Clicking the per-voice Mod map showed no assignments, so I could not figure out how to control this. Turns out it is under Global, Advanced Settings, Velocity Shape. If you ONLY want to control your volume in your generators, you need to turn Range all the way up to 0.00 dB. Then you can then assign the velocity mod to your generator volume controls. In any case, the default global velocity shape is probably the first thing you need to change, to raise the minimum to something more reasonable.

Second: Filter frequency is specified in octaves, and key scaling is either on or off (at least without applying key scale modulation separately). This is called "pitch mode". Set it to normal, and you are getting 100% key tracking. Set pitch control to "constant" and octave is relative to A440. I really hate this. When I use a filter, I want to work in Hz, not octaves. Yes, even with key tracking, because that's just the standard, and everyone else does it this way.

Envelopes: When you set sustain to "Silent" there is a weird GUI thing that makes the envelope look like a sawtooth for the release segment which starts at -6 dB. If you set sustain to -48 dB you can see no release segment (as expected).

Devices: I assume this will eventually change, but currently they are locked to the factory-supplied devices. This means that when you create a preset with extensive controls on the Easy Screen, you cannot save your own sub-presets as you can on a factory-supplied device.

EDIT: Looks like the manual is incorrect regarding devices. I claims that devices are locked to the factory-provided ones, but that you can edit them and save them as normal presets. Not true. You can indeed save new devices, and at that point sub-presets become available.

However, once you do this, and load your new device, the Edit button becomes disabled. I assume there is some functionality that has not yet been implemented for those who will be selling devices - a way to block editing that is currently on by default. There's nothing I see in the GUI to change this. New devices are just not editable once you save them.