This is my try at a no-sample drummachine. It's a rather complex machine, so i'll try to explain it as clear as i can, but still probably very unclear

To just make sound, you should (normally) do this :

• select a preset (bottom left)
• press the run button (top left)

Some more functions:

• there are four instruments (2 bassdrums, 1 snare, 1 hihat/cymbal thing), you can control their levels in the mix section
• each instrument follows one of the tables at the right (not the fifth one)
• to access each instrument's controls click the [pd controls] object. I won't explain each control, just try them. However, each instrument has a pink radio-strip, this selects which table the instrument currently uses. The brown radio skips notes.
• to ad grit, use the woodfire section (beware of your ears, although it will diminish the output level). This is my go at a constant-output-level thing (is this some form of compression?).
• there's a (vst) reverb section for which i normally use the free PSP pianoverb (its controls are mapped in the verb section parameters). The input to the plugin can follow the fifth table, by using the [folw] toggle. This might be a rather confusing section
• there's an FM section which can follow the snare and/or hihat (blue toggles in the mix section). The five sliders in the main section control the fm amount/depth/filter
• the green slider in the main section is the main level
• the organe [hp] slider is the main highpass-level

Something about the tables. Each table has a set of controls:

• Dark red clears the current pattern
• Dark blue randomizes the entire pattern
• Switch the green toggle on the record notes with the spacebar
• Light red button clears all notes except the recorded ones
• Light blue button randomizes all notes except the recorded ones
• The buttons marked < and > shift the pattern left/right
• The radiostrips selects an other pattern
• Patterns can be loaded/saved by the green/red buttons bellow the radio strip
• The very small green toggles enables/disables the auto-load-pattern function
• The randomization depth is controlled by the yellow slider bellow
• The orange slider / grey radio controls the number of steps played

Enjoy it.

Domien

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/CompDR.StandAlone.pd

It's lovely. Lots of great techno beats just fall out of this.

Sounds: nice unique instrument designs with lots of range

Interface: very good, but as you say confusing (even with explanation) - it's hard to get the compromise between compactness and usability and too many labels makes the interface sprawl, but too few makes it mysterious. A good tip is to use horizontal sliders and place the labels inside the slider area.

Two things I would do:

1. Not have a VST plugin hard wired into the patch
2. Totally separate the sequencer from the sounds (as two separate patches with the possibility of OSC or MIDI in/out)

That said, it's a very nice techno drum machine, thanks for posting this treat.

andy

Hi Domien, nice indeed!

A bit too synthetic for my taste (probably drum machine is one case in which
I'd use samples instead of synthesis - but that's me!)..
Contrary to Obi, I like the gui a lot . It's compact, cryptic, yes, but
once you get used to it you get payd back.

I also really like the graphical style you give to your patches, usually
very refined. It's very "homogeneous" (I can recognise some of the
gui ideas you use to laala ...)

Greetz,

AlbertoZ

Hey guys,

thanx for the inspiring comments.

@Obi : The vst is wired in because actually i tore this patch appart from my usual setup (some remainders might still be in there). When i use that particular reverb with the woodfire section cranked up, it starts to sound like... a crispy fireplace... (remainders off reverb-tails that are maximized). For that same reason the sequencer is buried somewhere deep inside because in my setup all patches listen to the same master clock, and not to their own metro.
About the sliders i'm not always sure how to deal with them. For time related parameters horizontal sliders "feel" logical, but for volumes or filters, the vertical approach feels more natural to me. Might be a remainder of my childhood i need to let go off

@Alberto: I use this patch in combination with a couple of other (sample based) patches. But it started just really as an experiment to see if i could do some kind of drum synth. Thanx a lot that you like my guis. I put indeed quite some work in them with a few important factors in mind : 1) They have to be compact because i want to be able to load quite a few at the same time. 2) I've found out that the use of colours can help a lot to keep things a little clearer (certainly when multiple different patches are loaded). So i started using a colour scheme which i (nearly) always to stick to : volumes sliders/start-stop buttons->greenish, delay/time based stuff->blueish, distortion/recording -> redish, filtering->orangeish, pitch related parameters->purpleish, envelopes/presets->greyish...

I just built in a filtereable 3-tap delay + a keyboard controlled slicer with a twist, and now the presets really come to life...
Will upload it soon.

D.

Hi,
any good reasons to why this opens fine on my PC,
accept for not being able to loacate some VST thing and a compression thing,

but doenst function at all on my Mac,
instead throws up a whole lot of errors about things it cant find?

i guess you don't have pd-extended on your mac.

link 4 download: http://at.or.at/hans/pd/installers-0.39.3-extended-rc5.html

Nah,
I have Pd-extended,
tiz throwing up errors,
the likes of...

tanh~
... couldn't create
compressor~
... couldn't create
tanh~
... couldn't create
arraycopy
... couldn't create
arraycopy $0-1
... couldn't create
arraycopy
... couldn't create
arraycopy $0-2
... couldn't create
arraycopy
... couldn't create
arraycopy $0-3
... couldn't create
arraycopy
... couldn't create
arraycopy $0-4
... couldn't create
abs~
... couldn't create
tanh~
... couldn't create
vst~ 2 2
... couldn't create
tanh~
... couldn't create
tanh~
... couldn't create
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'symbol'
... you might be able to track this down from the Find menu.
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'symbol'
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'symbol'
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'symbol'
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'plug'
error: inlet: expected '' but got 'param'

looks like your pd-extended does not have paths installed properly.

did you read the readme file that came with the install?

Hmm, I'm having the same problem, I read the readMe and all it really tells you to do is click the '.reg' file to update the registry.

Perhaps it's a windows issue, god knows I've been smashing my brains against that awful OS for hours and hours this week... for the last time (finally porting my desktop to Linux).

What i usually do when pd can't load a library is locate it on my disk and copy it to the extra folder (in its root that is). So e.g. a dll that is located in the /unauthorized folder goes one "level" up. Like this i've ended up with a bloated extra folder, but at least everything always works.

Yeh I know several months later,
but thanks it was problems with paths,
something to do with my transferance of it from windows to mac,
got it working in the end,
thankies

Hi Domien,

really beautiful. Thank you.
Hello from Prague. Tom

thank you, i hope you're enjoying it...

this one's been a while, in the meantime i've made another much simpler but also effective drum synth. i'll try to strip all balast out of it and post it one of these days.

Im a newbie here..is it possible to run the patches synced at the same time? Like tweaking them live? on a live performance..thanks

I just found this thread and I am really curious about testing the patch. Unfortunately, I can't get it working cause vst~ is not working (using Linux pd-extended 0.42.5). Is there a way to get it working anyway ? or is there a new version of the original patch somewhere ?
thanks in advance

It should work without [vst~] because you can choose to send the signal through the plugin or not (it's the small green toggle in the reverb section).

Trying..