ModPlug Central

OpenMPT => Development Corner => Topic started by: Saga Musix on June 29, 2017, 11:53:15

Title: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on June 29, 2017, 11:53:15
OpenMPT has a new built-in plugin: It's called LFO and that's exactly what it is. This is the answer to all those plugins whose LFOs lack certain waveforms, cannot control certain parameters or don't have an LFO to begin with. The LFO plugin sends its automation data through the plugin chain that you should already be familiar with, i.e. you simply select the target of the LFO plugin through the "output to" dropdown in the General Tab or in the plugin GUI.

(https://sagagames.de/ithumb/show/lfo_plugin.png)

You can control plugin parameters as well as MIDI CCs on any channel. The phase of the plugin can be set manually by automating parameter 7 8, if required. This way, you can reset the phase whenever you like, but not only to the beggining of the phase but to any position you like.

The plugin is not finalized yet, so parameter ranges and other things might still change before the release of OpenMPT 1.27. I have hardly used the plugin myself yet so I'm looking for ideas what can be improved to make it more useful or easier to use.
Grab a recent test build from https://builds.openmpt.org/builds/ and start testing. Report your findings here!
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: LPChip on June 29, 2017, 15:50:14
Can it respond to notes played in the pattern area and sync it, so the LFO resets upon receiving a note? Or is this just one LFO that constantly plays in the background making it possible to automatically do stuff regardless of what is actually happening in the song?

If the above is possible it could be used to create synthersizer effects, such as changing filter settings on each note start with the saw.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on June 29, 2017, 19:35:16
Just read the first post again:
QuoteThe phase of the plugin can be set manually by automating parameter 7, if required. This way, you can reset the phase whenever you like, but not only to the beggining of the phase but to any position you like.
I decided not to implement it twice because using PC events offers more possibilities, such as resetting the phase to halfway instead of just the beginning of the phase. If too many people want to be able to reset the phase through regular pattern notes, I can reconsider this though.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: LPChip on June 29, 2017, 20:01:08
I see... Programming a parameter change for every note is definitely going to prevent me from using it to add a function to a VSTi that doesn't support it, because it would be as much work to program the actual change, but nevertheless I can still see some things where this is very useful.

Is it possible to use one LFO to control another LFO?

By using a fast sine and a slow sine, you could create very cool and unique effects that otherwise would not be possible, and that is just one of the many examples I can think of. using noise as a randomizer for the speed of an LFO can be fun too.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on June 29, 2017, 20:02:51
Quote from: LPChip on June 29, 2017, 20:01:08
Is it possible to use one LFO to control another LFO?
You could simply try it. ;) But yes, you can set any plugin as the output plugin of the LFO, including another instance of the LFO plugin. The only requirement, as with all plugin chains in OpenMPT, is that the plugins must be in ascending order, i.e. an LFO in FX02 cannot automate FX01.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on June 29, 2017, 20:50:35
Starting from r8373, the LFO phase is now also reset when a MIDI note is received. To actually make this useful, r8374 also passes all the MIDI data received by the plugin to the output plugin, so now you can assign the LFO plugin to a mod instrument, route its output to a VSTi and everything should work as expected.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: LPChip on June 30, 2017, 08:02:14
Oh, very interesting!!

Thanks!

I'm currently not in the luxury to play with new things, but I will definitely start playing with this once my current project is finished.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 04, 2017, 20:23:07
wonderfull news, Saga Musix, this is very cool for me!!!!

would be great to include macros sliders that could control different plugins different parametrs with one slider. (like in ableton macros knobs https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ableton-live-racks-creating-one-knob-macro-controls--audio-5681 (https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ableton-live-racks-creating-one-knob-macro-controls--audio-5681)) And with ability to record automations of macros it will get ultra powerfull. the LFO tool and macros will get modplug on a next level almost modular patching! very cool!  8)

thank you
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 04, 2017, 20:26:27
Do you mean that you want to control several plugins with a single LFO?
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 04, 2017, 21:54:09
control several plugins with one automation(a macro knob)
each assigned plugin parametre has its minimum and maximum. <--- here it gets very usefull !
so when you record automation for this macro knob it actually manipulates different vst's and its parametrs!
this technology is super nice in ableton. looks like this:
(https://scontent-frt3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/19758130_1467237383319987_1411777630_n.png?oh=a9a105acc9dccb703af21c0acabb6037&oe=595D8EEE)

as far as it's just a knob that controls other knobs would also be cool if we could put a fancy new LFO on it  ::) ::)
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 04, 2017, 21:56:15
OpenMPT can currently only output data from a plugin to one other plugin. As long as this limitation exists, the LFO Plugin will have the same limitation as any other plugin. However, once this limitation is gone, I think this would be doable by chaining one "master LFO" with several slave LFOs to control the other plugins.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 04, 2017, 22:32:09
interesting. thanks for everything!!!  :-X
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 07, 2017, 15:27:05
LFO plugin works very fine. no errors noticed as i used 5-6 on a track.

so i had this dream about an "envelope follower" internal plugin. You can put it on a chanell -> it will listen to a sound from this chanell - > and control plugin parameters as well as MIDI CCs (based on envelop ADR values) :) the andvantages of this thing are super massive.
this how it looks made in max for live
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 07, 2017, 15:29:33
Quote from: ndelay33 on July 07, 2017, 15:27:05
LFO plugin works very fine. no errors noticed as i used 5-6 on a track.
Great to hear. Do you think the controls are appropriate, particularly the frequency control? Did you use tempo-synced mode?
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 07, 2017, 15:43:30
what i love about the freq control is that it can be veeery slow! almost not moving!
havent used temp sync, my bad, i will try.  :o


and another idea i had a few years ago, maybe its the right time to share  ::) 8)

in the instruments tab, we have envelopes for filter, pitch, vol, pan. how about making additional envelope for a plugin ? so we can make an instruments that basicly would be a plugin controllers. and everytime the note is pressed on this instrument, the automation goes the way you have drawn it.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 07, 2017, 16:07:05
xaimus once modified the filter envelope for parameter automation, but it was a big hack. I'm not sure if this mechanism really should be bound to instruments, or if we should have some sort of automation envelope that can be separated from instruments.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: ndelay33 on July 07, 2017, 18:06:16
would be great if envelope internal plugin would bang from
a sound louder than given "x" volume level  (so you put it on a chanell)
or
a note/midi input (so you creat instrument with it)


crazy times. all this news you are doing right now got me super excited :D Big up, Saga Musix!
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 07, 2017, 18:14:37
Please note that there are no immediate plans for that; these are just ideas. If you are interested in this feature, you should post it on the issue tracker so that we can keep track of it better. It will just get lost in this thread otherwise.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on July 29, 2017, 23:15:43
The semantics of the plugin have been changed a bit (or rather fixed, to be precise): Previously, the offset value was also multiplied by the amplitude, generating a completely wrong offset. Now the offset and amplitude values behave as expected.
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: Saga Musix on September 03, 2017, 15:09:43
Another small update:
- Note-offs also reset the LFO phase in previous versions. This is fixed in r8855.
- There is now a new checkbox to turn the LFO into one-shot mode. It only triggers the LFO waveform once and then waits for a new note (or automation of parameter 8).
Title: Re: Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin
Post by: LPChip on September 03, 2017, 16:55:31
Cool!