Doing other things than SynthMaking with SynthMaker

Acrobat · 14 Jan 2008

matti wrote: I've realised SM is great for doing lot's of other stuff too than just audio plugins and programs. I just recently designed my studios inputs and outputs with SM. Drawing those curves from "virtual studio equip" to the other. It made the job a lot easier(compared to drawing all those 30+ audio- and midi- cables on paper.. between 10+ sources) and gave a nice map to refer to when actually putting the cables in place.

I can see SM also working great for mind maps, simple electronics schematics, boolean algebra.. etc.

Anyone else used SM for other things than audio apps? Feel free to list your ideas here 🙂

Sure , I always underline thatt. I did the same to draw synth signal path sketches, then they become real links.....

What you did reminds me also of a very nice and ahead of the times software, it was in the first days of Apple computer system and in ran on System 6, the name of the software was Intuition. It featured cables and hubs and with that you can sketch ideas and connect them to resamble even something like a a neural network, type text into the hubs and so on..

Nowadays that's doable with the iWork suite, the wonderful Keynote application has a similar set of tools but Intuition was great for that and you can sketch very fast, i.e. during a brainstorming-style conference or a personal brainstorm before building a project. (On windows I guess PowerPoint has the ability to substitute Intuition in some way...).

🙂

aliasant · 14 Jan 2008

Thanx for the tip

Im planning my studio setup. Just bought alot of new stuff that I need to connect.

aliasant · 14 Jan 2008

What you did reminds me also of a very nice and ahead of the times software, it was in the first days of Apple computer system and in ran on System 6, the name of the software was Intuition. It featured cables and hubs and with that you can sketch ideas and connect them to resamble even something like a a neural network, type text into the hubs and so on..

Aaah. This post just makes me miss my mac. I think I have to reboot into OSX.

Right. About that. Maybe we should have a petition about making SM for Mac? I know it is beeing mentioned then and then but I dont think anything is really hapening. Maybe they are too busy with 2.0 but it cant hurt to remind them of us Macusers =).. (very off topic Im sorry )

TomC · 14 Jan 2008

aliasant wrote: Right. About that. Maybe we should have a petition about making SM for Mac? I know it is beeing mentioned then and then but I dont think anything is really hapening. Maybe they are too busy with 2.0 but it cant hurt to remind them of us Macusers =).. (very off topic Im sorry )

Hey, we're in the 'Off topic' sub-forum, so this is by definition extremely on topic 😈

I'd like to see a Mac-version, too, but I know HOW much work that'll be so I'm not very positive about this.

Tom

aliasant · 14 Jan 2008

maybe it would be easier to make a "wrap" for the vst so it can be used on macs?

Modern macs use intel cpus and motherboards and many pc apps can be run using winewrappers in OSX...

I have no idea how that would work but I guess a shell around the vst that translates it to a AU for OS X.

I really hate doing plugs and synth here in SM that I never use. Just today I was mixing something and I wanted to use my own compressor. But I cant. Since I work in Logic, mac. I have tried to do audiowork in Sonar and Cubase but it just isnt the same. Things just dont work nearly as well as on my mac. So Im stuck in mezzanine...

Oh. I didnt realise I was in the Off Topic thread while going off topic =)

Acrobat · 14 Jan 2008

.au !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chackl · 14 Jan 2008

Allready had that idea:

http://www.box.net/shared/5r61nohkw4

It's an generator that generates Random-numbers. It wos so boring at home!!!

matti · 15 Jan 2008

Acrobat wrote: (On windows I guess PowerPoint has the ability to substitute Intuition in some way...).

🙂

Umm, i wasn't really thinking there wouldn't be any sketching programs for windows.. cos there is. A lecturer at our university uses one really cool looking windows app for example. I just used SynthMaker because it's a program i've already very familiar with. I'm already using too many programs to keep up with anyway 😀

GaryG · 15 Jan 2008

matti wrote: Anyone else used SM for other things than audio apps? Feel free to list your ideas here 🙂

I wrote a (buggy) Etch-a-sketch app once using SM...

still up i guess if you search the forum.

Neptune · 17 Jan 2008

Anyone got Tetris for SM? 🙂

Tom7777 · 17 Jan 2008

Anyone got Tetris for SM?

No i made a RPG/adventure game engine though, just one area with collision detection, and charcter that can move in 4 directions, games in SM can get really complex though so i just left it as a beta but im sure you could make a tetris clone in SM. 😉 Best to just use a dedicated games creator app imo but the great thing with SM is it's so low level you can do that type of thing if you want to and all sorts of cool stuff. 😀

Acrobat · 17 Jan 2008

Tom7777 wrote: Anyone got Tetris for SM?

No i made a RPG/adventure game engine though, just one area with collision detection, and charcter that can move in 4 directions, games in SM can get really complex though so i just left it as a beta but im sure you could make a tetris clone in SM. 😉 Best to just use a dedicated games creator app imo but the great thing with SM is it's so low level you can do that type of thing if you want to and all sorts of cool stuff. 😀

@ Tom7777: you could send "collision detection" to nights for his "windows" stuff!

@ matti: I made a graphic tool, if haven't checked already: Acrobatics Disegno

😀

infuzion · 17 Jan 2008

TomC wrote: Maybe we should have a petition about making SM for Mac? I know it is beeing mentioned then and then but I dont think anything is really hapening.

I'd like to see a Mac-version, too, but I know HOW much work that'll be so I'm not very positive about this.

Requested over 2 years ago, along with Linux. FAQ

I'd still like to see atleast non-GUI Intel-OSX export ability ASAP, so my friends can use the patches. About half of my friends use OSX for audio. I wonder what % of Ableton Live users use OSX? Don't care about an OSX SM editor.

Edit: seems a more Live people use OSX vs Windoze.

stefan · 18 Jan 2008

I personally don't think it would be a significant amount of less work to make a non-GUI export. It might even be more work than porting the entire application as it stands today.

aliasant · 18 Jan 2008

So Stefan. What do you think about the possibilites to make SM able to save to AudioUnits for mac as well as VST and .exe for PC

Wouldnt that be much less work then porting the entire app?

stefan · 18 Jan 2008

aliasant wrote: So Stefan. What do you think about the possibilites to make SM able to save to AudioUnits for mac as well as VST and .exe for PC

Wouldnt that be much less work then porting the entire app?

It would be slightly more work than being able to export VSTs for Mac. Being able to export Mac VST's is most likely just as much work as porting the entire app, and if you want to skip porting the app and just be able to export GUI-less plugins, I think that might be even more work than porting the entire app 🙂

So, being able to export AU's for Mac but not porting the actual application might very well be the worst-case scenario when it comes to how much work it would be 😉

aliasant · 18 Jan 2008

"Mac but not porting the actual application might very well be the worst-case scenario when it comes to how much work it would be"

Wow. How little did I know =) I thougt that would be easy.