Tribute Wavetable Synthesizer by Speo Music now in the shop!

This forum is for discussing Rack Extensions. Devs are all welcome to show off their goods.

User avatar
Speo
RE Developer
Posts: 124
Joined: 10 Feb 2015
Location: Austria
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Hey everyone! Feel free to leave any comments or feedback for me here, I always enjoy the discussion when releasing a Rack Extension.

Big thanks to Joey for helping with testing!

User avatar
TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

12 Dec 2020

Tribute Song challenge?

User avatar
Speo
RE Developer
Posts: 124
Joined: 10 Feb 2015
Location: Austria
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

TritoneAddiction wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Tribute Song challenge?
Confirmed.

User avatar
Kalm
Posts: 554
Joined: 03 Jun 2016
Location: Austin
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

I just love when developers invest in their GUI.
Courtesy of The Brew | Watch My Tutorials | Mac Mini Intel i7 Quad-Core | 16 GB RAM | Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB | Reason 11 Suite | Studio One 5 Professional | Presonus Quantum | Komplete Kontrol 49 MK2 | Event Opals | Follow me on Instagram

User avatar
Speo
RE Developer
Posts: 124
Joined: 10 Feb 2015
Location: Austria
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Kalm wrote:
12 Dec 2020
I just love when developers invest in their GUI.
I really appreciate this! I put a lot of hours into Blender this year and I do think building the UI in 3d was worth it.

Baylo
Posts: 149
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

12 Dec 2020

Very cool sound and visuals. Enjoyed the videos and looking forward to trying this out.

User avatar
joeyluck
Moderator
Posts: 11029
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

12 Dec 2020

While on the topic of UI... Aside from Tribute looking and sounding awesome, I want to point out some of the fantastic approaches to the workflow, much of what I haven't seen before and I think are brilliant and hopefully trendsetters :)

The Mod Matrix
- It's customizable: you add rows/slots as you need them (up to 25). No dead space when you remove a row.
- It's scrollable: either via the scroll bar or with alt/option-drag (or shift-alt-drag for more precision).
- It can be reordered!!! If you're OCD like me, I've always wanted to be able to rearrange mod matrixes. Sometimes I'll rework a mod matrix so things are grouped together (makes for easier editing later too). With Tribute you can reorder simply by using Ctrl/Cmd-Alt-drag on a row!

The Macros
- Adding targets is easy: just click "add target" under each macro, choose a target, and a slot will automatically be added in the mod matrix. The focus will also shift to the mod matrix so you can adjust settings.
- It also provides a quick way to see if you have a target assigned and how many targets assigned to each from the macros page. You can clear all targets from there as well.
- The macros can also be labeled.

That's just a few things regarding the UI. I am a huge fan of the five big wavetable modulation knobs. They are very fun to turn, not only because of how they look, but also how they affect the sound. You can also click and drag on the wavetable display to adjust position and wave and alt-drag for outer and inner.

User avatar
Loque
Moderator
Posts: 11170
Joined: 28 Dec 2015

12 Dec 2020

Very nice video. I like the wood+metal look.

And i like 25 mod matrix slots!!! Did you read that, RS? 25!
Reason12, Win10

User avatar
Speo
RE Developer
Posts: 124
Joined: 10 Feb 2015
Location: Austria
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Thanks guys! It should be noted that many of these workflow features wouldn't be there if it weren't for joeyluck's invaluable feedback.

User avatar
geronimo
Posts: 627
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: France

12 Dec 2020

To see more clearly; it's nice !



User avatar
Loque
Moderator
Posts: 11170
Joined: 28 Dec 2015

12 Dec 2020

geronimo wrote:
12 Dec 2020
To see more clearly; it's nice !


Excellent video :thumbs_up:

Great, to choose from such a big number of filters and they sound pretty good.

The envelope thing is a bit unusual, but i get what can be done with it.
Reason12, Win10


User avatar
bxbrkrz
Posts: 3810
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

12 Dec 2020

I like your video, on top of the cool looking UI, and concept of the synth. :thumbs_up:

Edit: That's a lot of sound moving power with only 3 knobs, and a very good price for what you can get sonically.
757365206C6F67696320746F207365656B20616E73776572732075736520726561736F6E20746F2066696E6420776973646F6D20676574206F7574206F6620796F757220636F6D666F7274207A6F6E65206F7220796F757220696E737069726174696F6E2077696C6C206372797374616C6C697A6520666F7265766572

User avatar
TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

12 Dec 2020

Speo wrote:
12 Dec 2020
TritoneAddiction wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Tribute Song challenge?
Confirmed.
Yay. Will definitely give it a spin.

User avatar
plesio
Posts: 64
Joined: 19 Sep 2019

12 Dec 2020

I put some 60 sec of Tribute together.

6 Tribute synths with slightly modified presets or init patches. Few Fx...nothing else.

:reason: R11 Suite & R+, what else. I just love it. https://soundcloud.com/user-543016572
Ultimate mixing noob with medical certified lowpass at 9,6 kHz :(
Music is that certain noise you can remember three minutes later...and vice versa.

User avatar
wildfusion
Posts: 18
Joined: 19 Apr 2015
Location: Poland
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Blody Hell SPEO You alive !!!
I was sure that You just quit from Reason Life forever .
Really happy to see You back again . Device looks great we see what can we make learn this beast.
Best regards

User avatar
Speo
RE Developer
Posts: 124
Joined: 10 Feb 2015
Location: Austria
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Thanks guys, really appreciate the kudos!
wildfusion wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Blody Hell SPEO You alive !!!
I was sure that You just quit from Reason Life forever .
Really happy to see You back again . Device looks great we see what can we make learn this beast.
Best regards
Thanks dude. I say it everytime I come back but this time I really mean it: I'll try to be more active! Definitely making more REs and I'll be posting more on the tutorial channel as well, although that'll be mostly Tribute stuff for a while.
plesio wrote:
12 Dec 2020
I put some 60 sec of Tribute together.

6 Tribute synths with slightly modified presets or init patches. Few Fx...nothing else.
Hey, that's really cool! It's the first longer piece of music using Tribute I've heard that wasn't made by myself and it's awesome to hear the synth in a whole different context.

dusan.cani
Posts: 472
Joined: 16 Oct 2018
Location: Slovakia

12 Dec 2020

Hello Speo...

Thanks for contributing with your new synth.

I love the sound, it sounds superb. Oscillator + filter sound quality and character is really good ! I like the innovative filter curves (they sound like spectral filters). And the synth very nicely shines within the context of other instruments.

But there are some drawbacks for me unfortunately. I don't want to be negative or rude in any way. I want just to be honest: The UI design is horrible and a I have some difficulties with UI workflow also.

The overall aesthetic design feels very cheap an ugly for me. The blurry backround with horrible color combination (wood brown + azure blue) is really distracting for me. The overal design feels like amateur render, sorry. UI aesthetic design should invite the user to touch the knobs, faders, buttons...

Design of the knobs are confusing. The medium size knobs have fading border around them which makes it feel like it's indicator for current value. But it's not. This border should be removed, or drawn at full length around the knob or make it dynamic to reflect the current knob value. The big size knobs for wavetable modulation have no position marker at all. So when I look at those knobs I have no clue in which position they are set. Instead there is weird dynamic graphics inside the knobs. I don't want to know the knob position/value only by tooltip.

Regarding the UI workflow. Please, no nested context menu for filter selection ! This is a huge workflow killer ! Digging through context menu items and searching through sublevel items is very tiresome. I would put all filters directly on the first context menu with group separation marker. And buttons up/down beside the filter name on the display to be able to select filter types also that way.

Operating the left and right displays (env and filter) is confusing and uncomfortable. There is no distinction between the control label and button/knob at the bottom - for example keytracking, mix, etc. So I am confused where to click to set the value. Also operating the envelope rate (tempo) is uncomfortable because there is no visual feedback, I see just the number.

It's somehow complicated to set the LFO. I was messing with "mods" but I didn't figured out how to get simple LFO. There are a couple of unfamiliar controls which I didn't understand how they work (The bottom area of "mods" display is very confusing).

But as I said earlier. The sound of this synth is beatiful, inspiring and very usable. I like it a lot. Please do something about the design :puf_bigsmile:

User avatar
joeyluck
Moderator
Posts: 11029
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

12 Dec 2020

dusan.cani wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Hello Speo...

Thanks for contributing with your new synth.

I love the sound, it sounds superb. Oscillator + filter sound quality and character is really good ! I like the innovative filter curves (they sound like spectral filters). And the synth very nicely shines within the context of other instruments.
Agreed! :thumbs_up: :D
dusan.cani wrote:
12 Dec 2020
But there are some drawbacks for me unfortunately. I don't want to be negative or rude in any way. I want just to be honest: The UI design is horrible and a I have some difficulties with UI workflow also.

The overall aesthetic design feels very cheap an ugly for me. The blurry backround with horrible color combination (wood brown + azure blue) is really distracting for me. The overal design feels like amateur render, sorry. UI aesthetic design should invite the user to touch the knobs, faders, buttons...
I guess I have a completely opposite opinion of the UI :) I think Tribute looks incredibly cool and unique. I appreciate the originality. In fact, I've never seen knobs more inviting to play with it!
dusan.cani wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Design of the knobs are confusing. The medium size knobs have fading border around them which makes it feel like it's indicator for current value. But it's not. This border should be removed, or drawn at full length around the knob or make it dynamic to reflect the current knob value.
This is one of the styles used on synths and plugins around knobs—showing lowest to highest value.

Image

I wouldn't mind seeing the borders represent the position of the knob, but with the strong line on those knobs themselves, it's easy for me to see the setting of the knob.
dusan.cani wrote:
12 Dec 2020
The big size knobs for wavetable modulation have no position marker at all. So when I look at those knobs I have no clue in which position they are set. Instead there is weird dynamic graphics inside the knobs. I don't want to know the knob position/value only by tooltip.
These do have markers though. The position of these are very clear to me. There is a clear point and 'notch' in the knob in which the point extends.

Tribute-knobs.jpg
Tribute-knobs.jpg (39.5 KiB) Viewed 4027 times
dusan.cani wrote:
12 Dec 2020
Regarding the UI workflow. Please, no nested context menu for filter selection ! This is a huge workflow killer ! Digging through context menu items and searching through sublevel items is very tiresome. I would put all filters directly on the first context menu with group separation marker. And buttons up/down beside the filter name on the display to be able to select filter types also that way.
I don't understand this request. This would be messy. They are organized by category and it helps workflow... We went years without REs having submenus and we celebrated when they were finally integrated because it's madness without them. There's over 50 filter types! You want to browse and click through those in one giant list?

User avatar
tdirtyonthebeat
Posts: 7
Joined: 27 Mar 2019
Location: Texas
Contact:

12 Dec 2020

Looks and sounds awesome!!!! Can’t wait to try it out!!!!

User avatar
Micha1973
Posts: 468
Joined: 24 Mar 2017
Location: Germany
Contact:

13 Dec 2020

Great RE - i check it out and will buy
Music Is My Life
&
Reason 12 sounds better :essentials:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsW3Wr ... gA05XklBng

User avatar
Loque
Moderator
Posts: 11170
Joined: 28 Dec 2015

13 Dec 2020

Micha1973 wrote:
13 Dec 2020
Great RE - i check it out and will buy
Better try to win the challenge 😏👍
Reason12, Win10

User avatar
Loque
Moderator
Posts: 11170
Joined: 28 Dec 2015

13 Dec 2020

joeyluck wrote:
12 Dec 2020
...
Exactly my thoughts, Joey, except that the wood could look a bit more detailed to look a bit more pricey. Jist a bit more classy like the nice wood on a Moog synth.
Reason12, Win10

User avatar
arnigretar
Posts: 453
Joined: 15 May 2020
Location: Iceland
Contact:

13 Dec 2020

Congrats on the new synth Speo. Always exciting seeing new stuff made for the rack!
https://futuregrapher.bandcamp.com/

Reason 12, Ableton Live 10 Suite, Roland Cloud, Arturia V9, Korg Legacy 3, Soundtoys 5, Waves Mercury, Sonic Charge Bundle, N.I.: Massive, Reaktor 6, FM8. + a lot of Hardware. Windows 7/10.

Post Reply
  • Information