Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

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aciddose
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Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Just posting here to point out that I have a native Linux vst version of Xhip Synthesizer as an alpha version available here http://xhip.net/synth/

(The effects are also available here http://xhip.net/effects/ )

This has seen minimal interest since it was first released on 30 Jun 2017. I was hesitant to make any announcements due to it being unfinished and missing a few features as well as suffering from a few remaining issues.

The latest update (1 Oct) has made it far more practical to use and so I'd like to hear about any issues that I am as of yet unaware of. For example crashes during launch, not showing up in a specific host or any generally buggy behaviors.

Due to the lack of interest and that I use Windows as a primary OS I haven't been able to find much motivation to focus on the native Linux version.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to solve the remaining issues (listed on the alpha page) as well as provide a port of Xhip Effects eventually. Compiling the effects should just be a matter of sitting down for a couple days to build the projects as they do not use any features that are incomplete. Solving the GUI engine issues with the xlib interface however is another kettle of fish due to my very limited knowledge regarding esoteric features of xlib. Obviously using a toolkit is not possible without a complete rewrite of the GUI from scratch; this would never happen at all.
Last edited by aciddose on Sat Nov 04, 2017 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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davephillips
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by davephillips »

aciddose wrote:Just posting here to point out that I have a native Linux vst version of Xhip Synthesizer as an alpha version...
I spent some time with it this morning, running it in Bitwig 2.1.1. It works well there, the synth's easy to program, and it sounds good.

So far as I've gone with it, it's all working as it should. Thanks for the new info panels, and yes indeed it will be sweet to have a file browser for presents/banks.

Best,

dp
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by ssj71 »

I don't have much time for testing these days :(
But I want to say thanks for making this cool project and offering some linux support!
_ssj71

music: https://soundcloud.com/ssj71
My plugins are Infamous! http://ssj71.github.io/infamousPlugins
I just want to get back to making music!
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by sysrqer »

Didn't know anything about this. Looks really good but I can't see any linux version on the site unless I'm blind 8)
edit: nevermind, I am blind
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by asbak »

Thanks a lot for your hard work, judging by the GUI it looks very promising. (Tidy looking GUI's are often overlooked so it's refreshing to note the attention to detail that's already there.)

Testing results:
- I tried it on my Mint 18 / Ubuntu 16.04 system using Carla as the host and couldn't get the Xhip GUI to load.
- I couldn't get Muse Sequencer to detect it as a VST synth.
- In Ardour I could get it to load the GUI.

PS, don't feel too despondent about the lack of interest from the Windows world. The market for subtractive synths in Windows-land is already very saturated so standing out will be challenging. The situation is different in Linux where there are not nearly as many potential competitors and where every additional sonic tool in the arsenal is going to be most welcome.

For the benefit of other members reading this thread, this is what Xhip looks like.

Image

Audio demos here taken from the link at http://xhip.net/synth/

https://soundcloud.com/xhip/
https://soundcloud.com/xhip/gm2-drum-demo
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by rghvdberg »

These tracks are made only with xhip
https://archive.org/details/OSC85XHip
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by briandc »

COOOOOLLL!!!

Darn it, I don't have 64-bit ... :(

(But I do remember testing the windows vst and liking it. :) )

brian
Have your PC your way: use linux!
My sound synthesis biome: http://www.linuxsynths.com
aciddose
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Regarding no 32-bit version: I'll try to compile a 32-bit version of the alpha once I've had a look at these potential issues with Carla and Muse Sequencer.

One thing to note regarding hosts that don't load it correctly: Xhip uses its own code (100% rolled from scratch) for almost everything including the VST interface. Therefore it does not implement the "AudioEffectX" class from the VST-SDK sources or even attempt to approximate it. It does use its own c++ wrapper around the aeffect struct which works in a similar manner but for any host that relies upon the c++ ABI and stupidly attempts to access the pointers in the aeffect structure this will obviously not work.

For Ardour I actually helped them fix a bug where they were mistakenly using the "user" pointer in the aeffect struct. There are two "reserved" pointers to be used by the host but unfortunately the spec is 100% without any documentation regarding these issues.

The rules are basically (unofficially):
  1. The host may do whatever it likes with the two reserved pointers occurring immediately after the aeffect.flags variable. The plug-in must set these to nullptr upon initialization before it returns from the entry point function (MAIN, VSTPluginMain) and the plug-in must not read or modify these values or attempt to dereference them after having returned control to the host.
  2. The "object" pointer occurring immediately after the aeffect."offline qualities" variable may be accessed by the host, however the specification does not define what it points to. It may point to AudioEffect, it may point to AudioEffectX and it may be nullptr. The ABI is not defined by the spec for obvious reasons and for those same reasons it's just downright idiotic for a host to read this pointer value at all. The host should expect this pointer to be arbitrary or null and never touch it. If the VST-SDK is not used the plug-in must set this pointer to nullptr.
  3. In the case the VST-SDK is not used the next pointer in aeffect immediately following the "object" pointer, "user" may be used by the plug-in. The host must assume this pointer is arbitrary and must not read or modify its value or dereference the pointer.
I'm not sure why it would be so hard to add that documentation to the SDK, but whatever. :shrug:

In any case I wouldn't be surprised to find other hosts that assume these point to VST-SDK objects when Xhip sets them to nullptr and uses the "user" pointer instead. I also wouldn't be surprised if some hosts read/modify the "user" pointer like Ardour previously did.

I'll have to investigate though, I'll post back once I've been able to identify the issue with the mentioned hosts.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by sysrqer »

Just tried this out in renoise, no problems for me at all. It's great fun and I managed to get tons of cool and unusual sounds out of it. The gui seemed a little small on my screen, making the knobs a bit fiddly but that's only a small gripe. Thanks for making a linux version, this is a very welcome addition.
aciddose
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Regarding GUI size, the GUI can be re-sized by right clicking on the logo. The "init state" can then be saved via shift-click+left-click on the menu popup and save-init-state. The GUI will then load at that size in the future.

The binary by default includes knobs at 66x66 and I'll provide the blender .blend project files for the knobs/switches under CC-BY/WTFPL soon along with additional GUI configuration and resource scanning/import that I've been working on recently.

The background really needs to be re-rendered at arbitrary resolutions but for now it is based upon a single bitmap instead. The code already contains portions needed to generate widget labels and only needs to render group labels + group borders/backgrounds. In addition to that though the main portion of the work needs to go to engine enhancements to pre-render background content and cache it into a bitmap so only a single bitmap blit occurs to update the background during redraw.

Lots of work to be invested there yet so it's all just a matter of time and motivation.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by antiesen »

- Deleted - (was answered at the same time)
Last edited by antiesen on Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by glowrak guy »

Thanks for the continued efforts, despite not seeing a lot of linux downloads at first.
Works fine in linux Reaper, and it's great to have both a polished synth engine,
and an excellent gui. I love the blinking lights, inspires me to keep mine on,
or at least try getting them to flicker more often :wink:
Cheers
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sysrqer
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by sysrqer »

aciddose wrote:Regarding GUI size, the GUI can be re-sized by right clicking on the logo. The "init state" can then be saved via shift-click+left-click on the menu popup and save-init-state. The GUI will then load at that size in the future.
Thanks, that works perfectly!
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by asbak »

Thanks again for the ongoing dev efforts. Xhip looks and sounds great so this is a very cool softsynth addition.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by Baggypants »

plonked this in today. works fine on Ardour 5.11.0 on Fedora 26 with the exception that the interface seems to flicker a bit over the knobs. I needed a simple supersaw plugin and here it is.
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