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Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:56 pm
by iurie
Hi! Here (https://gitlab.com/iurie/geonkick) I have developed a free software/ GPL percussion synthesizer that can synthesize kick drums,
snares, hit-hats, shakers, claps, steaks. It is only a standalone application, no LV2 plugin for now.
It works only with jack sever. Kick graph can by seen in real time when modifying the synthesizer
parameters or envelopes, and can export to WAV, FLAC, Ogg, save/open as preset. I hope someone will find it useful,
at least to start to learn how to synthesize percussion. There are some examples preset that can be opened and play
with under the directory examples.

In the version 2.0 I am going to add more functionality and redesign the GUI in order to enable LV2 functionality. Also there is a need to improve the DSP side in order to make it more efficient and more suitable for plugins requirements.

Now I have plans to work on a sampler or orchestra virtual instrument (this time as a plugin), hope to start the development soon.

Best,

Iurie

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:35 pm
by windowsrefund
Thank you so much for your work! Listening to "A Moment of Childhood". Beautiful... I'd love to know more about your tool selection and workflow.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 5:29 pm
by iurie
windowsrefund wrote:Thank you so much for your work! Listening to "A Moment of Childhood". Beautiful... I'd love to know more about your tool selection and workflow.
Hello, thank for you encouragement, also those form PM! I am using only free software on GNU/Linux. Here you can find (and are the only) tools I am using to compose: http://geontime.com/resources/

The workflow varies, it depends of what I want to do. Mostly using Ardour to compose, but sometimes MuseScore to create the basic ideas.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:28 pm
by sysrqer
This looks fantastic, thank you. I know you can make percussion with tools like zynaddsubfx but I feel like drum synths is an area that linux is very sparse and behind the times. I've wanted a simple but powerful interface for drum synthesis for a while now.

It would be really handy to have as a plugin (vst would be my preference) so I look forward to that. It will be interesting to see which direction this takes, you could take what you have now and treat it as a channel and add 7 more as tabs to create a drum machine, and then I suppose sequencer would make sense.

It would be cool to see unfa make a video review, I'd like to hear what he thinks.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 8:31 pm
by iurie
sysrqer wrote: you could take what you have now and treat it as a channel and add 7 more as tabs to create a drum machine, and then I suppose sequencer would make sense.
Hi, thank you for your feedback. Yes, I am going to add more layers by grouping what I have now. Adding layers(channels) would be easy, DSP supports it. My goal with this is to make it as a plugin, not a sequencer. You can enable LV2 plugin build now, but I don't recommend, Qt for LV2 is not good, most of the time will not work and may crash, that's why I want to change GUI toolkit and redesign.
One problem I face I don't know what else to add for better snare synthesis... I feel that there is a need for looped noise and envelopes also for filters, the filter or EQ cutoff to change in time, and probably some feedback with other blocks. Anyway, any ideas I am collecting here in this list for the next version :) - https://gitlab.com/iurie/geonkick/issues

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 9:19 pm
by Michael Willis
Nice! I'm curious, could you give us more details about your ambitions with "a sampler or orchestra virtual instrument"? I might be able to collaborate, depending on what you are trying to do.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:28 am
by iurie
Michael Willis wrote:Nice! I'm curious, could you give us more details about your ambitions with "a sampler or orchestra virtual instrument"? I might be able to collaborate, depending on what you are trying to do.
Hi Michael,

I even don't know what answer to give you right now. The idea about this plugin arose from my need to compose with orchestra instruments, not necessary with orchestra layout. I want something visual, light, easy to use, to have enough features, and to give the possibility effectively to compose and experiment. With current tools for me is hard to achieve this. Yes, and the GUI to look more "modern". I am balancing between a more general sampler or a focused plugin for orchestra only. I am more for the second option now.. better to do one thing and good. The instrument should be defined in a file (human readable like JSON) and apart from all parameters, metadata and and everything else, to contain also the various sizes of icons of the instruments itself.
Probably I'll write down the general concept and ideas in an README somewhere and publish it. But now still thinking on what will work and be useful.

P.S: I am going to install your Ardour orchestra template to see how it looks. :)

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:20 am
by Lyberta
iurie wrote:
Michael Willis wrote:Nice! I'm curious, could you give us more details about your ambitions with "a sampler or orchestra virtual instrument"? I might be able to collaborate, depending on what you are trying to do.
Hi Michael,

I even don't know what answer to give you right now. The idea about this plugin arose from my need to compose with orchestra instruments, not necessary with orchestra layout. I want something visual, light, easy to use, to have enough features, and to give the possibility effectively to compose and experiment. With current tools for me is hard to achieve this. Yes, and the GUI to look more "modern". I am balancing between a more general sampler or a focused plugin for orchestra only. I am more for the second option now.. better to do one thing and good. The instrument should be defined in a file (human readable like JSON) and apart from all parameters, metadata and and everything else, to contain also the various sizes of icons of the instruments itself.
Probably I'll write down the general concept and ideas in an README somewhere and publish it. But now still thinking on what will work and be useful.

P.S: I am going to install your Ardour orchestra template to see how it looks. :)
There is no good free SFZ sampler right now but there is good SFZ orchestral samples collection - VSCO (this one you actually use yourself). I've started working on my own SFZ sampler but it's a lot of work and I put it on hold for now. So, if you wanna make your own SFZ sampler - that would be cool.

EDIT: Oh, I've just read: http://geontime.com/2018/11/03/update-o ... orchestra/

That.. feels wrong. I don't care about GUI, I care about sound. All I need to be to able to load SFZ and send MIDI events to it and get good sound. The GUI would only have a button to load SFZ.. and maybe volume control... maybe. No need for anything else.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 11:20 am
by iurie
Lyberta wrote:
iurie wrote:That.. feels wrong. I don't care about GUI, I care about sound. All I need to be to able to load SFZ and send MIDI events to it and get good sound. The GUI would only have a button to load SFZ.. and maybe volume control... maybe. No need for anything else.
LinuxSampler does all this. I am not looking to develop an SFZ player, my goals are different.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:28 pm
by CrocoDuck
This looks like great stuff! Added to the must try list.

Keep up the good work!

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 9:13 pm
by Michael Willis
iurie wrote:P.S: I am going to install your Ardour orchestra template to see how it looks. :)
I have learned a lot since I made that template. I'm in the midst of updating it to be much more simple, without lots of complicated busses and signal routing like it has now.

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:42 pm
by stanlea
Geonkick is nice, and of course can be enhanced. Is there a way to trigger sound by midi ?

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:50 am
by iurie
stanlea wrote:Geonkick is nice, and of course can be enhanced. Is there a way to trigger sound by midi ?
Thank you for pointing out, I'll add this in the README documentation. The sound can be triggered by MIDI since it uses Jack server, i.e. it has one MIDI input and two audio outputs.

Yes, it will be enhanced, the next version [1] development is planned to be started on 1 March, until than support (bug fixing) only for the current version will be provided, and gathering what the next version should include, planning.

[1] - https://gitlab.com/iurie/geonkick/milestones/2

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:28 am
by gimmeapill
Very Nice!

Re: Percussion Synthesizer

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 3:36 pm
by tripomatic
Looks Very good! Gonna try it out one of coming days .
Vst plugin would always be welcome :-).