Traveller - a monophonic with twist

Cabbage recipes
1

Let me introduce my first released VST plugin:

traveller
traveller413×360 18.6 KB

It was inspired by Korg Synthe-Bass and it’s overall simplicity.

It features:

  • one oscillator with six different waveforms (two of these are actually PWM-modulated square and one is noise)
  • twisted monophony
  • traveller slider (filter cuttoff)
  • slow/instant slider (attack time)
  • bump/singing slider (release time)
  • hold switch (sustain on/off)
  • bite switch (resonance on/off)
  • quack switch (filter follows envelope on/off)
  • and most importantly - volume knob :slight_smile:

The twist (in monophony) is that while you cannot hold two or more notes, you can hear previous note release while next one kicks in. This is actually implementation defect, but I left it as is because it adds character to the synth.

There are no presets as I believe limitations stimulates creativity but there is demo video to inspire you - https://youtu.be/bsX3pl3u2hc

Good to know

  • it will not start without csound64.dll in plugin folder
  • it’s portable - but I will have to ask my friend to produce Mac version as I have no Apple computer
  • it’s open source - just open traveller.csd and examine or change code
  • it has no velocity sensitivity, but tone depends on how long you hold the key (for tones with long attack)
  • you can use pitch bend wheel

Finally:

Download links

When the technique is primitive, everything is beautiful, and when the technique is perfected, almost everything is ugly.
– Jean Renoir

2

I look forward to trying this out! I can create macOS binaries for you if you like, but only when I return from holidays in a few weeks time. :+1:

3

Just added this to KVR audio. Hope it will bring some users.

Also I have some ideas and cool name for it’s successor - digital NOMAD - it will be a polyphonic synth with two oscillators, presets and much more. Keep eye on repository if you are interested, it will appear there soon.

4

Sweet. I didn’t notice the video. I’m putting a beer in the fridge now; I’ll sit back and enjoy this later on when the kids are asleep :beer: :wink:

5

Btw, an more succinct way of selecting the waveforms can be achieved by using an array:

imodes[] fillarray 12, 10, 0, 2, 2, -1
imode = imodes[chnget:i("mode")]

This saves a lot of if statements. But I see you also have an lfomode too, so maybe you will still need at least two if statements.

[edit] have you considered sprucing up the GUI a little?

6

I am happy with it’s current look, but feel free to modify it or just provide some hints what to improve. I am open to suggestions.

7

I’m the last person you want giving advice on GUI design :laughing:

8

I always wondered what a digital frog sounds like. Now I know!

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9

Hi!
Is ponophonic means that there only one channel? I can hear only left :slight_smile:

10

You found a bug. I have prepared fix, but I need to test it on another computer, because this one has some issue with drivers/headphone jack/whatever (you can’t test stereo on computer which is effectively mono).

11

Both channels are working ok (at least on my gear)
I tried it & liked Traveller very much !
I managed to have a sound close to Sirotkin in this tune : https://youtu.be/8mlxM56hrjI?t=45

nice work :slight_smile:

12

yep, fixed now

13

don’t know why but GUI is invisible apart from the piano keys, I see no errors in the output. got the file from here

14

You probably running it with wrong version of Csound frontend. This one works only with Cabbage.

15

I am using Cabbage 2.3.14, the latest I could find, the CSOUND installed in my system is version 6.13

The problem was that somehow I got the wrong copy paste. Now everything works as expected.

PS: I am also a big fan of Mike Oldfield especially the albume “Songs o Distant Earth”

16

I see a stray “bounds(0, 0, 0, 0)” on the cabbage xml line… line 7 on the git version. Could that possibly be creating parsing/UI issues? With some minor tweaking I got it working on a pretty old version of cabbagelite on OSX, but I didn’t figure out exactly why it wasn’t working in the first place. I can do it again and send you notes if you like.

I’m digging the retro feel, and ease of dialing in unique sounds. Thanks for sharing!

1 Like