ASM Hydrasynth TouchOSC Bidirectional Editor by synth_nyc

via synth_nyc

"It took me 6 weeks to develop the editor because I had to reverse engineer 3729 Program SYSEX bytes with no specifications; and implement 701 NRPN commands with partial specifications. It is the most complex MIDI implementation I’ve ever seen.

GENERIC FEATURES:

- Display parameter Name and Value

- Double click a slider or button to reset it to a default value

- MIDI data rate efficient: only sends a MIDI message if the parameter value is incremented or decremented by 1

SPECIFIC FEATURES (FW v2.2.0):

- Page1: Oscillators, Mutants, Mixer

- Page2: Filters, Amplifier, Envelop 1-2, Voices, Vibrato

- Page3: Envelop 3-5

- Page4: LFO 1-2, ARP, Glide, Ribbon

- Page5: LFO 3-5

- Page6: Modulation Matrix

- Page7: PreFX, Delay, Reverb

- Page8: PostFX, Name

- All 701 Program parameters implemented in the editor. Program parameters are bidirectional using NRPN and SYSEX

- Show / Hide specific synth blocks based on parameter values for a better UX

- MIDI Channel selection slider

- Bank (change) + Program (change) selection slider + buttons

- Program Init button using SYSEX

WORKFLOW 1 EDITING FROM PATCH (starting at 00:06 in the video above):

- Select a Bank & Program

- Go to the synth System Menu / MIDI / Send Patch..

- Press the soft button (on the synth) to load it to the editor

- Start editing (the loaded patch) on the editor (the Patch is edited in the synth buffer)

- Go to the synth System Menu / MIDI / Send Patch..

- Press the soft button (on the synth) to record it in your DAW / SYSEX librarian; or save it manually in the synth

WORKFLOW 2 EDITING FROM SCRATCH (starting at 02:30 in the video above):

- Select a Bank & Program

- Press Program Init to save an Init Patch to the synth

- Start editing (the init patch) on the editor (the Patch is edited in the synth buffer)

- Go to the synth System Menu / MIDI / Send Patch..

- Press the soft button (on the synth) to record it in your DAW / SYSEX librarian; or save it manually in the synth

MOTIVATION:

- Consistent User Experience (no skeuomorphism): Color coding of synth blocks (VCO1 in blue, VCO2 in green, VCF in orange, etc..) which makes it extremely efficient and consistent across synths (rather than using different synth UI or dedicated editors).

- No 'Shift' Button: All parameters are laid out in one page if possible, on the editors.

- Parameter Name and Value: To precisely compare parameter values across synth blocks.

- Better Workflow: If possible, identical synth features are laid out one below each other or in the same order (if one next to another) e.g. VCO 1 and 2 Waves or ADSR VCF and VCA envelops enabling a faster editing / comparing workflow.

- WYSIWYH: What You See Is What You Hear. It’s utmost important that when a value is incremented / decremented by 1 (or next / previous value on a list) on the editor, the editor display changes the parameter value accordingly, so is the edited synth UI (if available and / or in the SYSEX patch if the synth has no UI) and the synth sound changes by this 1 increment / decrement. This is far from trivial, there are often many rounding issues probably due to various / different low level CPU calculations, that needs to be compensated in the editor code.

- Centralized Control: For home studios centralized around one Master Keyboard and all synths being desktop / rack.

- Physical Accessibility: All synths are editable at anytime right in front on the computer screen without having to reach up / down / left / right, etc...

- DAW Recording: It's very easy to integrate TouchOSC in a DAW if you want to record live synth parameter adjustments (and then play them back at will of course); compared to recording various synth parameters from their knobs / UI / dedicated editors.

- TouchOSC: OS agnostic; it runs on MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS and offers LUA 5.1 support with specific scripting extensions (https://hexler.net/touchosc/manual/script)

EDITOR QUESTIONS?

- NB: The editor is a TouchOSC template (.tosc file), it requires a TouchOSC license (https://hexler.net/touchosc)

- If ASM or anyone has some questions, please contact me via my website:

https://synthnyc.com

- Not for sale / no licensing at this point"