Tranzistow v4.8.0 Demo Version with 3500 Patches

HrastProgrammer

Hello all,

I just released the demo version of my Tranzistow synthesizer (v4.8.0, the final release). It can be downloaded here:

http://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/download/TranzistowDemo.zip

In global, Tranzistow (this is not a mistake - it is not "Transistow") is a virtual software synthesizer with 4 or 8 independent multi parts. Although it is (to some extent) inspired by Waldorf Q, Waldorf Microwave II/XT, Alesis Andromeda, Oberheim Xpander, John Bowen Solaris and Yamaha DX series, it has a unique sound and tons of unique features not found on any other synthesizer. Various forms of synthesis are supported including Additive, Virtual Analog/Modeling (VA), Wavetable (with classic, crossfade and full wave interpolation modes), two completely independent FM engines, Ring Modulation, Oscillator Sync, Vectors, Rotors (as in Solaris), various filter models (SVF 12/24dB, 6dB to 24dB Transistor Ladder with fully configurable poles, 24dB Diode LowPass Ladder, ...), Filter Chaining, Comb Filters, WaveShaping, freely drawable Contour Generators, exhaustive FX section including Chorus/Flanger, Phaser, Delay and Reverb units, etc, etc.

You can read more about Tranzistow here:

http://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/download/Tranzistow.pdf

Note: This is not user manual but a brief Tranzistow introduction and description. I simply don't have enough free time to describe all Tranzistow features and parameters because I have to do other job for a living Sad

I developed Tranzistow for myself in the first place. My goal was not to (try to) emulate existing (hardware or software, analog or digital) synthesizers (although I was inspired by some of them) but to create something I can actually use in my own music, to master DSP/Assembler/Vector/SSE/GPU/OpenCL programming, to refresh my mathematics knowledge and, last but not least - to have fun. As a result, the synthesizer is mostly unconventional, some features (which most users take for granted) could be missing or could look rather strange, user interface may not be everybody's cup of tea because it was designed according to my habits/needs, etc.

Demo version is, more or less, a fully functional Tranzistow with the following limitations:

(*) No multimode and no multiprocessing - it is monotimbral, singlethreaded and only Part #1 with 16 voices of polyphony is available. External Control Interface is disabled as well.

(*) It loads the default patch on every start, so you'll have to manually reload all patches every time you open/reload a particular project.

(*) No ability to process external inputs through Tranzistow FX units, so it cannot be used as a standalone FX processor. External inputs can still be processed through the voice engine, though.

(*) Occassional noise and clicks/pops now and then, together with occassional missed notes. This is just a slight annoyance which won't have a big impact on the sound and won't disturb the "demonstration purpose" of the synthesizer, but will prevent its serious usage because you don't want to have clicks/pops and missed notes in your tracks, do you?

The package comes with 3500 of my own patches which can be easily browsed through by clicking on the "Browse" button located on the "Patch/FX" page. Those patches illustrate the way I work and the way I use synthesizers for, so they probably don't appeal to everyone. They also demonstrate a huge range and variety of sounds Tranzistow can make and cover most of Tranzistow functionality, albeit some features are touched very lightly and just in a few patches. Unfortunately, I ran out of time while preparing Tranzistow for production and couldn't allocate more time for patch creation Sad

Here is another bank with ~28000 Yamaha DX7 patches I reworked for Tranzistow QFM engine:

http://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/download/TranzistowQFM.zip

Diodow bank with 100 patches made by Ed Ten Eyck (www.edtaudio.com) can be used with Tranzistow as well:

http://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/download/DiodowEDT.zip

Quite a few of EDT patches are using sample engine (mostly in "LA Style") which I didn't even touch in my own patches.

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

None of the links work?

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:29 am Post subject:

Hmmm, I just tried - they all work here scratch

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

When I click on the links, the connection times out

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:00 am Post subject:

I cannot do anything about that, I am afraid. Server is up/running and links are OK. For a test, I connected from various locations through Tor browser and haven't experienced any problems ...

PHOBoS · Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:26 am Post subject:

The links work for me too Cool

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:25 am Post subject:

It's probably a temporary problem as I never had reports of non-working links ...

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:33 am Post subject:

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:03 am Post subject:

BTW, is it that just links are not working or the whole http://hrastprogrammer.com website is not accessible?

What OS/version and browser/version do you use?

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

Blue Hell · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 5:58 am Post subject:

Dont know if it has anything to do with it .. when I do a manual DNS lookup on the hrastprogrammer.com domain and then plug in the IP address into the brower it complains about CGI not being set up correctly. Going into it trough the domain name works fine here though. Anyway, this could just be a website design decision, but had never seen it work like that.

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:15 am Post subject:

Blue Hell · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:21 am Post subject:

Ah, yes, of course.

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:32 pm Post subject:

It would be great to have a dedicated server with own IP address but this is way too expensive for me.

CoolColJ ... Are you able connect to http://hrastprogrammer.com/index.htm through a proxy?

This one, for example:

https://hide.me/en/proxy

Or:

https://www.proxyaustralia.com/

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:59 pm Post subject:

AlanP · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:18 pm Post subject:

Hrast, I LOVE your music, but there isn't any .exe .com or .bat file to run your synthesizer!

I admit, my mental image of most of your lovely music is of you sitting in front of a Moog that Zimmer would be envious of and twisting the hell out of two dozen 960 sequencers.

How do you run this? All of my previous experience is with my modular where you plug 3.5mm cables into it.

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:26 pm Post subject:

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:46 pm Post subject:

CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

Wow, two A6? Shocked

I have one here, one of the original batch

Still trying to figure out the Tranzistow oscillators, even the init patch doesn't make much sense to me.... hard to figure where to change waveforms and where the actual oscillator is... Sad

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:21 pm Post subject:

Yes, Andromeda and Waldorf Q are my favorite hardware synthesizers Very Happy

There are a few oscillator / sound generator modules in Tranzistow, as described in the following Tranzistow.pdf sections:

[*] Main Oscillators (Osc/Main Page; Osc #1 ... Osc #4 Sections)
[*] Auxiliary Oscillators (Osc/Aux Page; AuxOsc #1 ... AuxOsc #4 Sections)
[*] Sine Oscillators (Osc/Main & Osc/Aux Pages)
[*] SuperSaw Oscillators (Osc/Main & Osc/Aux Pages)
[*] Sample Oscillators (Osc/Main Page; Osc #1 ... Osc #4 Sections)
[*] QFM - Advanced Frequency Modulation (QFM/1 & QFM/2 Pages; OP #1 ... OP #8 Sections)

On the "Osc/Main" page there are "Osc", "AuxOsc" and "Modules" sections where you can turn sound generators and other modules on/off.

"Init" patch has "Saw/Wave" set for "AuxOsc" module + FilterB module turned on, so it produces a simple saw wave(s) by auxiliary oscillator(s) which then go through a 24dB ladder filter(s). If you want pulse/triangle then choose "Saw/Wave+Pulse/Ramp" for "AuxOsc" module, go to "Osc/Aux" page and set "SawLevel", "PulseLevel" and "RampLevel" accordingly (for some "historical" reasons, triangle is incorrectly reffered as "ramp" in TW). Or just leave it at "Saw/Wave" and set "SawSigma2" to -1 for pulse, then set "SawShape" to the max for triangle. As there are 4 oscillators in parallel inside a single oscillator module, you can set all those parameters individually for each oscillator. If you want a sine wave(s) then either set "AuxOsc" module to "Sine/Wave" or set "Morph" parameter down to zero for a particular oscillator.

Main oscillators ("Osc/Main" page and "Osc" parameter) are similar to auxiliary ones. If you choose "Analog Model" or "Digital Model" for the "Waveform" of a particular oscillator then it works more-or-less as described above (although the sound generation algorithm is totally different because those models are based on additive synthesis). You can also set the "Waveform" to various wavetables for wavetable synthesis etc.

As I repeated many times before, Tranzistow doesn't really work in the same way as most other synthesizers out there, so it can look very strange at first. For example, there are various parameter which don't have a large impact on the sound but I left them because they can be very useful in some situations. Furthermore, all parameters are always visible, no matter if the appropriate modules are active or not, etc. Among the other things, that's why I stopped thinking about turning it into a commercial product long time ago. I wanted to have my own implementation or everything and my own way of working which probably doesn't appeal to a lot of people, but I cannot go against myself Wink

Note: The parameters are organized in the way they are organized because ...

(1) It makes editing on the touch screen a breeze.

(2) It makes editing with Behringer BCR2000 controller a breeze (not available in demo version).

(3) I am always thinking about turning it into a hardware synthesizer of some sort - such parameter layout would work perfectly with minimum amount of knobs and small LCD displays (like the one on Waldorf Microwave II, for example).

(4) I like it Very Happy

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CoolColJ · Joined: Feb 11, 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Australia

Thanks

Synth sounds good, but it's definitely not easy to use Smile

HrastProgrammer · Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:29 am Post subject:

klangumsetzer · Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:52 am Post subject:

Wow, this looks great! I will definitely give it a try.
Thanks for sharing HrstProgrammer. Very Happy