New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Moderators: raboof, MattKingUSA, khz
New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Hey everyone! I've been working on a new, free, cross-platform, polyphonic synthesizer "Helm" and it's finally ready for beta
It currently works as a standalone or as a LV2 plugin in GNU/Linux (there are also builds for Mac and Windows as standalone/VST/AU/AAX)
http://tytel.org/helm
The main goals of Helm are ease of use and software freedom. A lot of development has been focused on creating nice graphical widgets so you can see what's going on. It's licensed under GPLv3 so it's free to use/distribute/change and all that.
-- Here's a feature overview --
GLOBAL
32 voice polyphony
Arpeggiator
Cross-platform patch loading/saving
Oscilloscope
Portamento/Legato
OSCILLATORS
2 main oscillators with 11 anti-aliased waveforms, cross modulation, unison/harmonize
A sub oscillator with 'shuffle' wave shaping and a noise oscillator
Oscillator feedback for changing timbre
MODULATION
Routable modulation and real time visual feedback so you can see what controls are modulated and by how much
Aftertouch/Velocity/Note/Pitch Wheel/Mod Wheel modulation sources
2 mono and 1 poly LFO with live visual feedback
2 Envelopes
Step Sequencer with smoothing
FILTER
Filter with low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, high-shelf, low-shelf, band-shelf and all-pass settings
Formant Filter with x/y pad control
EFFECTS
Stutter
Delay
Reverb
Helm has just entered beta so there are bugs. If you run into any or think of some feature improvement, send it to me at matthewtytel@gmail.com and I'll fix the bugs and consider adding in the feature.
If you REALLY want to help out though, send patches you create or audio files of songs you make using Helm
Hope you all like it!
It currently works as a standalone or as a LV2 plugin in GNU/Linux (there are also builds for Mac and Windows as standalone/VST/AU/AAX)
http://tytel.org/helm
The main goals of Helm are ease of use and software freedom. A lot of development has been focused on creating nice graphical widgets so you can see what's going on. It's licensed under GPLv3 so it's free to use/distribute/change and all that.
-- Here's a feature overview --
GLOBAL
32 voice polyphony
Arpeggiator
Cross-platform patch loading/saving
Oscilloscope
Portamento/Legato
OSCILLATORS
2 main oscillators with 11 anti-aliased waveforms, cross modulation, unison/harmonize
A sub oscillator with 'shuffle' wave shaping and a noise oscillator
Oscillator feedback for changing timbre
MODULATION
Routable modulation and real time visual feedback so you can see what controls are modulated and by how much
Aftertouch/Velocity/Note/Pitch Wheel/Mod Wheel modulation sources
2 mono and 1 poly LFO with live visual feedback
2 Envelopes
Step Sequencer with smoothing
FILTER
Filter with low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, high-shelf, low-shelf, band-shelf and all-pass settings
Formant Filter with x/y pad control
EFFECTS
Stutter
Delay
Reverb
Helm has just entered beta so there are bugs. If you run into any or think of some feature improvement, send it to me at matthewtytel@gmail.com and I'll fix the bugs and consider adding in the feature.
If you REALLY want to help out though, send patches you create or audio files of songs you make using Helm
Hope you all like it!
- sysrqer
- Established Member
- Posts: 2520
- Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:47 pm
- Has thanked: 319 times
- Been thanked: 148 times
- Contact:
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
I'm so impressed with this. Massive-style modulation, formant, step sequencer, and the whole general UI makes it amazing. Modulation modulation modulation!
Oh and the feedback, you can make such fat and dirty sounds with that.
Thank so much.
Oh and the feedback, you can make such fat and dirty sounds with that.
Thank so much.
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 1067
- Joined: Mon May 12, 2014 7:11 am
- Has thanked: 15 times
- Been thanked: 36 times
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
@falktx can you fix this dependency problem please ? I so wanna try this out
Code: Select all
sudo dpkg -i helm_0.3.4-1_amd64.deb
(Reading database ... 215547 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack helm_0.3.4-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking helm (0.3.4-1) over (0.3.4-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of helm:
helm depends on libstdc++6 (>= 4.9); however:
Version of libstdc++6:amd64 on system is 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.
dpkg: error processing package helm (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
helm
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 12:26 pm
- Has thanked: 2 times
- Been thanked: 16 times
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
I had to compile it from source because I had this error too
After trying it in the standalone mode, I used Carla to host the LV2 version for performance reasons (lots of Xruns in the standalone flavour).
It has a really good feeling with a nice and clean UI and a good set of features, sounds is great too!
I will test it more later but for the now it looks very promising. Good job!
After trying it in the standalone mode, I used Carla to host the LV2 version for performance reasons (lots of Xruns in the standalone flavour).
It has a really good feeling with a nice and clean UI and a good set of features, sounds is great too!
I will test it more later but for the now it looks very promising. Good job!
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:12 pm
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Greetings,
Builds cleanly on Fedora 19 x86_64, with Planet CCRMA additions. Instantiated in Bitwig 1.1.8 without incident, but untested, didn't have much time last night. I'll check out its performance in BW and Ardour4 later today.
If I can find time I'll try my hand at some presets.
Best,
dp
Builds cleanly on Fedora 19 x86_64, with Planet CCRMA additions. Instantiated in Bitwig 1.1.8 without incident, but untested, didn't have much time last night. I'll check out its performance in BW and Ardour4 later today.
If I can find time I'll try my hand at some presets.
Best,
dp
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Thanks for all the kind words everyone!
This is my first time using Ubuntu's Launchpad to build packages, I thought I would run into some trouble. Working on it and I'll let you know when I have a new package up
I so want you try this out too.rghvdberg wrote:@falktx can you fix this dependency problem please ? I so wanna try this out
Code: Select all
helm depends on libstdc++6 (>= 4.9); however: Version of libstdc++6:amd64 on system is 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.
This is my first time using Ubuntu's Launchpad to build packages, I thought I would run into some trouble. Working on it and I'll let you know when I have a new package up
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Fixed this! New build up on the webpage: http://tytel.org/helmrghvdberg wrote:@falktx can you fix this dependency problem please ? I so wanna try this out
Let me know if you run into any more issues.
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 2315
- Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:37 pm
- Been thanked: 251 times
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
FR's
A panic button to aid experiments in sound design that go awry,
and a volume meter right under the volume control slider.
Tested in pclinuxos. Sounds great!
A panic button to aid experiments in sound design that go awry,
and a volume meter right under the volume control slider.
Tested in pclinuxos. Sounds great!
- Qualitymix
- Established Member
- Posts: 274
- Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:45 pm
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 2315
- Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:37 pm
- Been thanked: 251 times
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
The download provides a .deb file, so try installing with sudo dpkg -i helm_0.3.4-1_i386.deb
It's pretty raw. Might want to wait a week or two, before building it.
Loaded up and ran with qtractor, and jalv. Sounds great.
Fun to play with the lfo's
There is some OS detection going on, a mac user and windows user
will get mac and win files to download, linux user gets a deb.
Cheers
It's pretty raw. Might want to wait a week or two, before building it.
Loaded up and ran with qtractor, and jalv. Sounds great.
Fun to play with the lfo's
There is some OS detection going on, a mac user and windows user
will get mac and win files to download, linux user gets a deb.
Cheers
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:12 pm
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Greetings,
The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9, and I don't see a way to load them, only the Save function. I placed the default presets in /usr/local/share/helm/patches, got no joy after a restart of BW. Alas, BW does not currently provide a patch loader, and AFAICT there's no other way to load patches into Helm. Any suggestions, did I miss something ?
Clicking on the left/right arrows in the Init Patch and Init Folder boxes only clears the boxes and sets the folder to "patches" (without the quotes). Clicking in the boxes does nothing.
BPM information doesn't update when the tempo is changed in BW.
Best,
dp
The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9, and I don't see a way to load them, only the Save function. I placed the default presets in /usr/local/share/helm/patches, got no joy after a restart of BW. Alas, BW does not currently provide a patch loader, and AFAICT there's no other way to load patches into Helm. Any suggestions, did I miss something ?
Clicking on the left/right arrows in the Init Patch and Init Folder boxes only clears the boxes and sets the folder to "patches" (without the quotes). Clicking in the boxes does nothing.
BPM information doesn't update when the tempo is changed in BW.
Best,
dp
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:12 pm
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Never mind, sorted out now.StudioDave wrote:The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9...
dp
- sysrqer
- Established Member
- Posts: 2520
- Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:47 pm
- Has thanked: 319 times
- Been thanked: 148 times
- Contact:
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
I case anyone else experiences the same problem the presets need to be in /usr/share/helm/patches.StudioDave wrote:The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9, and I don't see a way to load them, only the Save function. I placed the default presets in /usr/local/share/helm/patches
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Yea I had to move where patches are stored.StudioDave wrote:Never mind, sorted out now.StudioDave wrote:The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9...
dp
System patches are in "/usr/share/helm/patches"
and user patches are in "~/.helm/User Patches"
Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta
Yea this was requested a few times. Maybe I'll make the Helm logo double as a panic button.glowrak guy wrote:FR's
A panic button to aid experiments in sound design that go awry,
and a volume meter right under the volume control slider.
Tested in pclinuxos. Sounds great!
I don't really like panic buttons that say "PANIC". I remember clicking on some a long time ago expecting it to do something cool. Not so.