some delay on further updates

There will be some delay on the forthcoming plug-in updates due to some unexpected technical problems. This affects the announced maintenance release for BootEQ mkII and the epicVerb 1.5 update. An updated version of FerricTDS containing the awaited input level switch will be postponed as well. I don’t now yet how long this delay will be.

NastyXTC – Vaporware?

Some folks are asking me from time to time if and when the NastyXTC thingy will ever see the public light. Atm, the short answer still is: I really dunno.
While the original NastyXTC design was mainly a transient EQ sort of thing, I extended it concept wise to become a rather complete “transient workbench” solution in a small but flexible modular effects system. Despite of the amount of work necessary to accomplish this, there are still some essential and fundamental technical concepts not yet really explored by me.

the beauty of opto-electrical compression

Opposed to VCA, Variable-Mu or FET based approaches, opto-electrical compression takes advantage of using a light-sensitive resistor and a small light emitter (a LED or electroluminescent panel) to obtain a gain reduction voltage in the sidechain path. This technique is well-known to add some smoother gain riding characteristics to the signal because of the specific attack and release response which comes from the inertia and inherent memory effect of the photoresistor element.

applying saturation through the sidechain

This short article gives a brief introduction on applying waveshaping algorithms not directly in the audio path but via a transformed equation through the sidechain and a VCA instead.

Typical saturation curves

SSE1 compatible systems – some testers needed

I do need some more testers with SSE1 compatible systems (e.g. old AMD Athlon series) – if you can perform some tests for me with a prepared Density mkII version please drop me a short comment here with your email.

what I’m currently working on – Vol. 3

2nd and 3rd order harmonics

Density mkII – bugfixes, which and when?

Just a short update on whats going on with some already reported issues concerning Density mkII (released around two weeks ago):

• There will be a SSE1 compatible version
• The CPU spiking “denormal” issues and heavy CPU loads are already fixed
• A fix for the loading issues in Wavelab is currently under investigation and test
• Some crash reports will be further investigated

The current plan is to release a 2.0.1 bugfix release to end of September containing whats fixed and stable then.

Patrick speaks: the Density mkII UI (making of)

making of

Dear VoS community!

Someday ago, Bootsy asked me to raise my voice here and to talk a little bit about my design works and he suggested that the Density mkII artwork might be a good idea to do so.

Density mkII – reworking the audio engine

While working on the Density overall re-design I was working extensively on the audio engine as well but just for one single reason: The one thing I was missing in the original design was to have some more “responsive” gain riding possibilities but without the usual tradeoff of introducing more distortion or compromising the transparency. And (unsurprisingly) that turned out to be not that easy.

Developers friend: the oscilloscope

in the lab – audio listening tests

AKG K 702 and the Benchmark DAC 1 (behind)

Most people have no idea where probably most “development time” is actually spent: it’s in the audio listening tests and not the coding.