artyFM development and discussion

I don’t normally do public alpha test releases, but for this one you seemed pretty interested and I’d like the feedback. So…

Here is a very early alpha (v0.2) of ‘artyFM’ - the Renoise FM synthesis tool.

Currently implemented features:

  • Basic GUI with midi mappable controls
  • Four operators
  • Helpful envelope diagram

Planned features not in this release

  • Operator routing selection
  • Make it faster
  • Better envelope diagram
  • Storing / Loading control ‘presets’
  • Some controls probably make more sense to be logarithmic

Access it from Tools -> artyFM or the Process submenu of the Sample Editor context menu.

Rendered samples will overwrite anything currently in the selected sample slot.

I’ve tried to make it as robust as possible with some quick testing, however I’m sure you’ll find a way to crash the tool. Let me know in this thread so I can fix it for upcoming versions.

All comments, feedback, crash reports, suggestions etc welcomed!

Thanks and enjoy!

Give us native multiple envelope instrument control already! This tool would be way more powerful if it directly wrote to some sort of xnri instead of just a sample…
But that’s ofcourse something you can’t do at the moment (if you want multiple oscillators to have different env’s in one instrument)…

Cool stuff anyways dude. :)

maybe preset library and randomize button? please? Nice work, I look forward when there are many renoise synths to choose from, you are pioneer yes!

so far i seem to get only sine-ish sounds

+1

Yes, it would be nice to have native envelope control.

However, I think that modifying the Renoise instruments so that each sample could modulate the playback frequency of another would require a complete redesign of the instrument implementation. I wouldn’t have thought that would be a main focus of upcoming works.

Maybe a work around would be a ViewBuilder envelope control?

Saving/loading presets is a planed future feature.

Randomize buttons sounds like an interesting idea though! I’ll add it to the todo list.

As a general point, if you are only getting sine sounding sounds please modify the frequency multipliers for the different operators. This should dramatically modify the timbre of the produced sound.

As a quick tip, if the attack level is below the sustain level then the operator will ramp up at this point (i.e long attack, zero attack level, small decay will result in a delay before the envelope operator makes any difference. Quick a cool unintended feature!

Finally had some time to check out this alpha, and while it is in a very basic state right now it is nice to see such a project underway.

Some things to take into consideration:

  1. To have number-boxes beside or underneath the dials for manual input and clarification purposes.

  2. To have a ‘auto-update’ toggle like the custom waveform generator tool, which when it is enabled, automatically updates the waveform when tweaking the parameters. Dunno if this is manageable with the number-crunching in your tool?

  3. Also, something I’ve been lusting for in Renoise is a way to work with microtonal scales, if your tool ever enters the realm of multi sample generation please look into this! Dblue already did some groundwork which can be found here: Snippet: Load Scala .Scl Tuning File

edit:

maybe strange request, but could the current tool be modified so it also runs on current / other samples? So the adsr volume trajectory is applied on whatever is loaded in the instrument, maybe even have the frequency multiplication work as a kind of ring mod?

this is interesting indeed,really love what you have done here,looking forward to seeing what this will end up as

OT the renoise team should hire you to join the team :yeah:

Here is the latest version of artyFM incorporating most of the discussion up to this point.

This is version 0.9 and it has now progressed to beta status.

Most of the features are now implemented:

  • Four operators each with independant ADSR envelopes

  • Each control / button is midi mappable

  • Improved feedback:

  • Each control tooltip displays its current value on hover

  • When modifying a parameter the artyFM status bar updates to inform the user accordingly

Patch saving and loading (’*.artyfm’ XML files)
Randomize values button
Reset button to quickly get to safe, sane defaults

Outstanding items (todo):

  • Different operator algorithms - The base code already caters for this so patches should be future compatible for when this is implemented.
  • Better envelope diagram - My art skills are pretty rubbish, can another user create something for this tool? Thanks!

Unfortunately, due to the speed, autorendering cannot be implemented (it just slows to a crawl if using an external midi controller).

Enjoy! and hopefully exchange some nice patches :)

NB: Here’s a very simple ‘oboe’ style patch

NBB: @Mods - Can you please split the artyFM discussion from this thread to a seperate thread entitled something along the lines of ‘artyFM development and discussion’

yo dude,

can you create to work realtime?
why need to render to sample?

I guess because the API has no direct access to the audio stream.

My art skills are pretty rubbish too but I gave it a try

but I’m not allowed to use that image extension on this board.

peace

Yes, kazakore is correct in that tools have no access to the Renoise audio stream.

Hey, they are much better than mine, I think these are great!

I assume no objections if I incorporate them into artyFM?

Please do. it’s one way to thank you for your work.

peace