Creating Multi Layer ARP MIDI VSTi in SM

infuzion · 26 Apr 2011

Welcome to SM Wallaedes! SM's audio runs sample by sample, but other data, like MIDI, runs by triggers, so there may be a tiny delay, which may or may not be as accurate for some uses.

nix · 27 Apr 2011

I can give you 22050hz via midi if you are interested, using MAX/msp. It should be sample accurate. I recommend using it for about 4096 hz though. Let me know if you would like an 4096hz .exe. All the green math in SM works on triggers, or'ticks'. Internally they provide around 100 ticks per sec('tick100'primitive). All midi events are dependant on a tick to trigger them. Hence my desire to trigger faster, now with the MAX device. Cheers man

dutchound · 31 May 2011

Hiya,

I am very interested to read your post because i have done masses of research on multi layered ARP ensembles similar to catanya etc, Actually i was quite keen to make something like that in synthmaker... But you will be dismayed to find that all the MIDI processing in SM at present is extremely ill concieved for fast programing, it is either too CPU heavy or too unsynchronised, you cant access or produce polyphonic signals that interact with each other, in other words each voice is on a line and you cant do any maths to compare the lines between themselves, you cant send data to different voices, etcetc.

All in all, I cant even make a simple ARP in SM in a way that would justify the time spent, liek 2 hours in reaktor would be 2 weeks in SM. Also you have a choice between blue, green, yellow, quad mono, stream, etc data which is entirely combersome and not good for anyhign avant gard. (are there even any drum seqs on here ?). i DO like SM but only because it lets me publish work and it works for Audio related synth things. I think it needs to be entirely rewritten so that data is data and audio is audio and both are interchangeable.

However i can recommend the stupidly copyright restricted program ""REAKTOR" for Midi work, you can generate, compare, process, send, receive, decode, hold, map, graph, etc all the midi data incoming and outgoing in mono or across poly lines, effortlessly as simple numbers 0-127. you can compare 100 voices and send to 10 channels with minimum processor useage. in Reaktor you can make catanya no probs. very very easy.

you cant make a vsit in reaktor but you can use your program in reaktor vsti version.

sorry to say this about SM but being objective is a good thing, it does rock in other ways.

infuzion · 1 Jun 2011

dutchound wrote: I am very interested to read your post because i have done masses of research on multi layered ARP ensembles similar to catanya etc, Actually i was quite keen to make something like that in synthmaker... But you will be dismayed to find that all the MIDI processing in SM at present is extremely ill concieved for fast programing, it is either too CPU heavy or too unsynchronised, you cant access or produce polyphonic signals that interact with each other, in other words each voice is on a line and you cant do any maths to compare the lines between themselves, you cant send data to different voices, etcetc.

You can have audio streams to interact, but you have to know how to do it (difficulty depends on what you need). Arps in Poly is entirely possible, as long as you use it for an synth or effect inside the same VST. MIDI timing is lacking in SM for sure. Also, with all the time needed to learn SM's personality is better spent learning C++, or even Reactor or Max/MSP due to their cross-platform capabilities.

dutchound · 19 Dec 2011

Really? yes it would be cool to compare and mix polyphonic, do you mean by using mono streams or by decoding the midi data?

Ok i attempted to make this now so i can tell you exactly... you can order and analyse incoming chords into different lines in SM by understanding the midi inputs green modules. however, you cant really arrange your patterns etc in arrays and in green lines because SM green is so unstable still. You can't either send it accurately to midi output. well you can play 1 2 notes per second with 99 percent accuracy on SM, but if you try to play fast arpeggios, like 3 notes a seconds, the pattern will be completely garbled because the midi output of synthmaker is the same as a green line, if you have any amount of green stuff happening inside the synth, any logic etc, the midi output soon gets overwhelmed. you can still try to make a midi vsti, as there are masses of cool tools for interface in SM, if you have a very light synth that uses almost no green lines at all, the midi can be quite accurate, but not enough to sell on kvr! it's too inaccurate for that, sometimes every other line of the same sequence is different.