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Kenoubi

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Kenoubi
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  • Some unusual workflow tips

    1. Create presets named "01 Color", "02 Color", etc. It doesn't really matter what they sound like, but it's probably best to zero the master volume in case you accidentally hit audition on one of them or something. Put them all into a song and change the colors so they're all different. Save this and use it as a template to start with instead of a blank song.
      Why? Deluge won't let you use color 12 until you have clips using colors 1-11. But I like to be able to color code my clips in whatever way I choose. Also, this opens up using some of the other tips below...
    2. Now that you have all these otherwise useless instruments in your song, use them as dividers in song view. I like to put all the clips for an instrument next to each other in song view; I can tell those apart by color, whereas I can't tell one instrument from another. I don't forget which order my instruments are in though, because I do it consistently (drums, sub, bass, pads, arps / leads, fx). Section dividers between instruments mean I can pretty easily tell what's what.
    3. In arranger view, I didn't need the dividers because there's only one row per instrument, and since I keep my instruments in the same order as I do in song view (with the kind of music I'm making, the arranger view for all my songs ends up looking like an airship from Super Mario Bros 3 :smile:), I don't have a problem telling them apart. BUT... I just realized I can create a clip instance the length of the entire song as a visual divider, and then use the other color "instruments" below/above there as tags on bits of my song! Like, a red clip can mean "something sounds bad here", green can mean "need to add an element", etc. Or you could use them as visual "cue points" for where to start playing with <-> + Play.
    4. I haven't even tried to use this yet, but it's possible to draw or to write small amounts of text using the Deluge's pads. This might be just a gimmick, but you could at least use it to get the preview when loading a song to show whatever you want. If you really wanted to go crazy you could draw something with the color "instruments" in arranger view, scroll that part into view, turn on Cross-Screen, and have a drawing that scrolls while you play the song.

    Anyone have other weird / probably unintended but useful ways to use any of the features?

  • More precise / accurate parameter control

    I love my Deluge, but one thing that I think is completely unnecessarily limiting its potential is the control you have over parameters. Most of them are on a somewhat arbitrary scale of 0-50 or -50 to 50. This makes it hard to do things that should be easy, even if not directly supported by the Deluge. For example, setting delay to a perfect triplet, or setting a filter cutoff to exactly 1.5x the note frequency.

    I know Deluge is capable of doing this right, because it already does so for certain parameters! Also, using the golden knobs (very carefully) or external MIDI control allows finer adjustments than the 0-50 integer scale used by most parameters, so I know the Deluge software and file format can handle it. Here's how I think things should work:

    For time-based parameters, you should have the option of setting the time in seconds and milliseconds (like the sample loop point editor already does!), using sync, and possibly seconds and samples. Sync should support dotted and triplet times in addition to the current 2^n beats. This applies to these parameters:

    • Vibrato
    • Envelope Attack / Decay / Release
    • Sidechain Attack / Release on the sidechain)
    • Arp Rate
    • Mod Fx Rate
    • LFO 1 / 2 Rate
    • Delay Rate (OK, it sounds a little weird calling it that, but if you read the labels crosswise and vertically that's what it appears to be
    • possibly Portamento and Mod Fx Offset (not sure what units those are in)

    For relative frequency parameters, you should have the choice of semitones and cents (like Transpose already does!), ratio (12.00 transpose would correspond to 2.000 ratio since 12 semitones are an octave which is a frequency ratio of 2. Should have at least three decimal places) and possibly some small-whole-number ratios so it's easy to do, e.g., 5/4. This applies to:

    • Sample Speed
    • Oscillator Transpose
    • Unison Detune
    • LPF / HPF frequency (I think these are relative to the note? Correct me if I'm wrong).

    For absolute frequency parameters, we should be able to use a note name (C4) or a frequency (Hz). Applies to Bass and Treble Frequency.

    For "fraction" parameters we should have a value from 0 to 1 (or 0 to 100 if you insist). This desperately needs at least 4 significant figures (E.g. 0.0001 or 0.01% needs to be possible and different from 0 / 0%). A dB option (only negative values allowed) would be great too. This applies to:

    • Osc / FM Mod Retrigger Phase (but leaving this in degrees is also fine)
    • Osc / FM Mod Feedback (I think, not totally sure how this works internally)
    • Osc PW
    • FM PW (if/when this feature is added)
    • Sustain (except it would actually be really awesome if you put this into the "ratio" category below, as that would allow a 2-phase attack, and it's probably no harder to implement!)
    • Sidechain Vol Duck
    • Arp Gate
    • Mod Fx Feedback (maybe? You'd know better than I what units are appropriate here)
    • Mod Fx Offset (maybe?)
    • Reverb Damping, Reverb Width (maybe?)
    • Reverb Amount, Delay Amount (ratios above 1 are probably too dangerous to allow here)

    There are some fractions that can go negative (same as above except range -1 to 1):

    • Master Pan
    • Reverb Pan

    Then we come to the ratio parameters. These should allow a ratio (1.0 = unchanged, 0.0001 = divided by 10,000, 1000 = multiplied by 1,000 -- and yes, it should have at least this much range) or a positive or negative dB. These are:

    • Noise
    • Osc / FM Mod / Master Level
    • Bass / Treble Adjust
    • I feel like there shoudl be more, but I can't think of what they are...

    That almost wraps it up. There are some oddball cases:

    • Saturation, Bitcrush, Decimation: I have no idea what units are useful for these.
    • LPF / HPF resonance: Q is maybe the most comprehensible, but I'm not sure whether it applies with the type of filter you're using.
    • Anything that has discrete values or is otherwise weird (e.g. the waveform viewer with the start / stop markers) is probably fine as is.

    Mod depths (all) should be in the units of the parameter they're modifying, and should have the same actual range as "ratios" above. Mod sources should in most cases be normalized to a range from 0 to 1 (e.g. envelopes) or -1 to 1 (e.g. LFOs), but there may be cases where other units are far more useful (e.g. if "note" is represents as semitones above / below middle C, it would be a lot easier to use it to modulate frequencies in a predictable way.

    I hope this is seriously considered. I think despite the length of this post. these changes would be relatively easy to make (the only tricky part being to choose a UI to change units; maybe pushing down on the left-right knob while editing a quantity?) and significantly benefit many users.

  • More precise / accurate parameter control

    EDIT: Sorry, realized after posting I should have put this in "Deluge Software Suggestions" instead. Please see http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/2299/more-precise-accurate-parameter-control

  • 3.2 Firmware Tease (Wavetable)

    Thank you for spending some time on the synth engine. The Deluge has been an amazing sequencer since I got it (around 2.0 or 2.1 days), but the synth engine (although still much better than it could be, due mainly to patching) is where I most often want to do things but can't figure out how. Any "SOON" features that you can change into "now available" are greatly appreciated; wavetables should increase flexibility a lot.

    By the way... while you're working on the synth engine, would you please consider at least optionally showing the synth parameters (such as envelope attack and decay or filter cutoff) in "real" units like milliseconds and hertz instead of the arbitrary 0-50 scale? I think this should be a tiny amount of code, but it would be a huge help towards reproducing a sound on the Deluge that you know how to make in a software synth or vice versa, in addition to just giving you a clearer idea what you're actually doing.

    Thanks! Looking forward to 3.2!

  • Can Synthstrom hire sound designers to design more modern synth presets?

    I don't know if the problem is that they aren't "modern" enough, but I haven't found the synth presets that useful. It's easy enough to make my own patches, though. I'd hate to see Synthstrom invest in this over fixing other issues like the handling of parameter changes, especially when it's something that could relatively easily be done by users instead (even you!)

  • Workflow: What do you put in your templates?

    @Icoustik said:
    I think there should be a list of mappable parameters, but I can't remember where unfortunately. Parameters that can be automated can be mapped, is a clue.

    I tested this one by one, see the Parameters tab in my spreadsheet.

  • limited midi implementation? Rip the bandaid off if it can’t happen.

    My tentative conclusion (see the Parameters tab in my Deluge Synth Parameter Testing spreadsheet; note that I originally got the parameter list from this spreadsheet), at least assuming the parameters that can be learned to the gold knobs are the same as the ones that can be learned via MIDI, is that the parameters can be learned are exactly the same as the ones that can be automated. This excludes all non-numeric (on/off or multiple choice, such as waveform) parameters, as well as certain "special" numeric parameters such as # of unison voices. The list of the latter actually doesn't seem too arbitrary, as they're things that it sort of makes sense the Deluge would need to "reboot" the patch to change, although Unison Detune feels a bit out of place.

    I also added a mention of this to my Synth Parameter Testing thread.

  • Can you check what a parameter knob does?

    @amiga909 said:

    @velvetDorito said:
    This is pretty frustrating honestly. There is no way to see what the custom knobs are attached to, nor does there seems to be a way to change them. Has anyone found a way around this?

    You can change the param of every gold knob, you can learn with another param.
    Yeah currently the only way to know what a knob does is opening sound edit mode and check if the value changes when you turn the knob.
    I see this functionality as part of http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/899/step-automation-view-automation-drawing-track-long-envelope-drawing, could use some more ideas imho, like how parameter view/edit works in general and how it should solve the problem it is troublesome to know which params are learned to a golden knob / midi CC.

    It would be cool if turning the knob (or perhaps shift-turning the knob if that's too annoying) would flash the parameter(s) it's affecting, like the parameter currently being edited and its modulation sources flashes when you're in the sound editor.

  • Open Source

    I have low hopes, but this would be by a very wide margin the best thing Synthstrom could do for their community, and I think it's fair to remind them of that once in a while, in case whatever their reasons for not doing it cease to apply.