Music Production, Synths and Software

Music software and synth UIs are kind of ok now i guess

VCV Rack under Windows 7?

Rack2 needs opengl 3.2 so either:

• Use Rack 1.6 or
• Dropping the DLLs opengl32.dll and libgallium_w32.dll from the mesa-dist-win package into the Rack 2 directory got it to actually start up
• Do not expect performance

vst hosts for Windows

• VSTHost
  • tres buggy
  • no vst bundle support
  • 32, 64-bit and 9x versions
  • simple to intensely complicated patch bay
• opencma / LightHost
  • holy crap have the computer muted before you run it
  • lives in the system tray which is probably a turn on for someone
  • 32 and 64 bit versions in different archives
  • Windows binaries but supposed to be able to compile for Mac/Linux
  • Probably have to know how to build JUCE projects (proJUCEr? no build instructions)
  • Multiple instances with param -multi-instance=uniqInstanceName
• Tone2 / NanoHost
  • cromulent but won’t run vst3
  • can run multiple instances
  • 32 and 64 bit versions\
  • Supports XP-11
• VCV Rack
  • great if you have the HP but automation controls are limited to like 24 inputs
  • no 32 bit vsts == sadness :(
  • make sure to set the midi to cv module to polyphonic if you’re expecting polyphony or just let the plug-in talk to midi directly

Neat-o music software

• Composers’ Desktop Project
  • https://composersdesktop.com/
  • Command line driven sound destruction engine
  • Apparently enjoyed by Aphex Twin enjoyers
  • There are GUI frontends now but I have not looked yet
• Supercollider
  • https://supercollider.github.io/
  • Supercollider Audio synthesis description language
  • { SinOsc.ar(SinOsc.kr([1, 3]).exprange(100, 2e3), 0, 0.2) }.play try it out
• Player Pro
  • https://sourceforge.net/projects/playerpro/
  • Yes, THAT Player Pro for Macintosh, the tracker editor, lives still
  • It’s still mostly for Mac though :(
  • I still have a copy from the 90s somewhere here
• Praat
  • https://praat.org/
  • Phoneme synthesis among a bunch of speech analysis tools
  • I am not describing this with any justice, there’s a lot here
• Out of Phase
  • https://programmatom.github.io/OutOfPhase/index.html
  • Old Macintosh sound design program
  • Continues on as a Windows program
• QasarBeach
  • https://programmatom.github.io/OutOfPhase/index.html
  • Fairlight CMI-ish Music Workstation
  • Needs to be pinned to one of my video cards or it crashes when allocating screen memory
  • Windows and Mac versions are current, Linux is several years old
• VCV Rack
  • https://vcvrack.com/Rack
  • Rack synth simulator with large module ecosystem
  • Many user created modules are similar to, based on or ported from real modules
  • Sometimes by the module’s very own engineers so people can try before they buy the physical one
  • The free version is basically the full vesion but lacks VST support and a handfull of VCV branded plug-ins
  • Your computer isn’t strong enough
  • Can be run on multiple computers simultaneously, however…

Volca FM/panjen reference

• Panjen features (1.09RC2)
  • Global setting 9 : enable/disable velocity on MIDI notes IN
  • Global setting 10: Yamaha compatability/Korg proprietary single patch import/export
  • Global setting 11: Patch change notes on/off
  • You can use DEXED (or anything with a DX7 target) and a MIDI cable to tweak patches on your Volca FM.
  • Automate patch parameters in a sequencer of your choice.
  • New MIDI CCs:
    • CC 1 : (Mod wheel) assignable via CC 91, defaults to Pitch Mod Depth
    • CC 85: Chorus on/off. value -64 off, value +64 on.
    • CC 86: Chorus stereo width, 64 is default
    • CC 87: Chorus speed, 64 is default
    • CC 88: Load patch, value 0-4: patch 1, 5-8: patch 2 etc up to 127
    • CC 89: Load pattern, value 0-8: pattern 1, 9-16: pattern 2 etc up to 127
    • CC 90: Tempo divisor, value 0-31: 1/1, 32-63: 1/2, 64-95: 1/4, 96-127: 1/8 (!)
    • CC 91: Mod wheel mapping: decides what MIDI CC mod wheel should map to. Example: value 42 sent on CC 91 – Mod wheel now controls Modulator Attack
  • LFO fixes:
    • S&H 256x scale error
    • S&H update logic error
    • LFO sign error (saw up/down, square polarity)
    • added filtering to remove digital pop on discontinuous LFO