Dragonfly Hall Reverb

[sysrqer]

That’s an interesting perspective. I wouldn’t say that 64 is too many but I suppose it depends how you present them, they all appear as one long drop down list then it could seem like a lot, but even with that I don’t think it’s that unusual. If it’s possible to group or categorise them like Valhalla or Fabfilter do then 64 isn’t very many at all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a reverb with the approach that you’re going for with the rows/position as presets but I think your idea for the simplified sliders would be great – perhaps there could be a simple interface with these and an advanced view with everything available?

[ssj71]

well, IMHO if they are 64 presets that are really just 16 with one knob in 4 different positions then thats not very good. I'd prefer the presets be fairly unique (and useable) that demonstrate the various capabilities of the plugin. 64 presets of all different natures is fine. Then ideally the controls presented to the user make it easy for them to adapt the preset a little to fit their needs if necessary without needing to comprehend the whole algorithm. OpenAV's artyfx took that approach: many of the plugins have many parameters under the hood, but he picked good defaults and/or mapped several controls to 1 in a way that gives lots of great settings with very few knobs. I think thats a great way to do it.

[Michael Willis]

I was talking mostly about port identifiers.

Done: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragon ... 84c1fa90dd

Also I'm about ready to start working on the user interface, I have an idea in my mind of what I want the user experience to be like.

[Michael Willis]

I'm back to working on this. Right now I'm trying to reduce the number of dials for a simplified interface. So far I have the following:

• Size - how big the room is
  Shape - ratio of room width and depth to specify a narrow or wide space
  Distance - how near or far the sound is from the listener
  Resonance - controls how full or diffused the echoes are

I want one more parameters to allow the user to dial in between a "warm" sound and a "bright" sound, but I'm not sure what to name it. I'm looking for a single word, as all of my other simplified parameters are single words. Some ideas I've had are "response" and "tonality", but neither of these seem to describe specifically what the parameter does. Any suggestions? Or is one of my existing ideas good enough?

[sysrqer]

Colour?
Warmth?
Tone?

[Michael Willis]

Colour?
Warmth?
Tone?

Thanks! I like the simple "Tone", I think that will work.

[ssj71]

tone sounds like a good fit.

re: shape, perhaps it would be more descriptive to call it "room width" or "room depth" depending on which direction it changes the ratio. Shape made me think of something crazy like pentagons or domes. But this is a small thing, no need to change if you think its fine. When naming parameters I always think "does it make sense to say the effect has more [shape/whatever parameter name] when you turn up this knob?" Its not universal but it helps a plugin need fewer labels to understand the parameter, which IMHO makes a bit cleaner UX.

Anyway, I think this is a cool project!

[Michael Willis]

I'm wondering if somebody else could try building this on Linux. I've been developing on a Mac laptop, and I'm at a point that I want to share a new version here, but now it won't build on my Linux machine anymore. I had the Linux build working before, but even when I try going back to that previous revision it doesn't work. The only thing I can think of that changed since then was that I followed the instructions to build and install Zyn-Fusion on my Linux box, which maybe changed the version of one of the command line tools involved.

Here's the project: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb

This is the previous revision that I know had a successful Linux build: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragon ... ad0aafac96

You should simply be able to type:

Code: Select all

make

I'm getting this error:

Code: Select all

DragonflyReverbPlugin.cpp:(.text._ZN7DISTRHO21DragonflyReverbPlugin3runEPPKfPPfj+0xcd): undefined reference to `fv3::earlyref_f::processreplace(float*, float*, float*, float*, long)'
DragonflyReverbPlugin.cpp:(.text._ZN7DISTRHO21DragonflyReverbPlugin3runEPPKfPPfj+0x14a): undefined reference to `fv3::zrev2_f::processreplace(float*, float*, float*, float*, long)'

[davephillips]

I'm wondering if somebody else could try building this on Linux. ...

I'm getting this error:

Code: Select all

DragonflyReverbPlugin.cpp:(.text._ZN7DISTRHO21DragonflyReverbPlugin3runEPPKfPPfj+0xcd): undefined reference to `fv3::earlyref_f::processreplace(float*, float*, float*, float*, long)'
DragonflyReverbPlugin.cpp:(.text._ZN7DISTRHO21DragonflyReverbPlugin3runEPPKfPPfj+0x14a): undefined reference to `fv3::zrev2_f::processreplace(float*, float*, float*, float*, long)'

Yep, same here, reported on your git Issues page. It looks like some object is not being linked in. Alas, that's about the extent of my C++ skills, sorry I can't help further.

Best,

dp

[Michael Willis]

Thanks Dave, it helps to at least know that the build fails for somebody else.

Yep, same here, reported on your git Issues page. It looks like some object is not being linked in. Alas, that's about the extent of my C++ skills, sorry I can't help further.

[Michael Willis]

Ok, I fixed the build, and made a new release:

https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragon ... 0.0.3-beta

I'm calling this a beta release; although there are still some more things that I would like to do, I think it is good enough for "real" use as it is. The release includes Linux and Mac versions, please share if you know any Mac users that might be interested. Also it would be nice if somebody could help with a Windows build, since I don't have the capability to do that.

I was trying to go ultra-minimal with only a small handful of parameters, but I never really liked any of the ways that I tried to do it. I kept finding myself wanting to be able to adjust something that I had hidden. I finally narrowed it down to 12 parameters that I'm happy with: Dry Level, Early Level, Late Level, Size, Predelay, Diffuse, Low Cut, Low Crossover, Low Decay Multiply, High Cut, High Crossover, and High Decay Multiply. Those should be fairly clear to people who have tried out some different reverb plugins, but I should document them for people who are new to reverbs, along with some suggestions about how to adjust them for different effects.

The plugin now has 24 presets, including small rooms, studios, chambers, several halls in different sizes, and the obligatory cathedral. Most of them have fairly subtle Early and Late Levels, as I've been told elsewhere that I tend to overdo it on reverb. I would love it if somebody could give me some feedback on these. Feedback on the rooms and studios would be very helpful, as I spend most of my time using the hall settings. I'm curious how well the smaller settings will work for things like vocals, guitar, drums, piano, etc.

Still no GUI, but aside from adjusting presets I think that's the only thing left. I want to make a nice graph that shows the different decay times across frequency ranges, as that isn't really clear from the parameters, but other than that it will just be sliders and dials.

[davephillips]

Ok, I fixed the build, and made a new release...

Successfully built and loaded into BWS 2.3b2. Also now added to the updated Linux VST page at http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html.

I assume that the presets are not available for the VST plugin ?

Best,

dp

[sysrqer]

Haven't had much time to try this, definitely will do though. Good work!

[Michael Willis]

VST presets are not exported in DPF as it would make state saves overly complicated for a generic wrapper.

Thanks, falkTX, if/when I get around to making a GUI for this, maybe I'll bake the presets into the GUI as a selection list.

[rghvdberg]

If you need help with the GUI, lemme know.