New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

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tytel
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New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by tytel »

Hey everyone! I've been working on a new, free, cross-platform, polyphonic synthesizer "Helm" and it's finally ready for beta :D
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

Image

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 :D

Hope you all like it!
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sysrqer
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by sysrqer »

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.
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by rghvdberg »

@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
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by barbouze »

I had to compile it from source because I had this error too :wink:
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! :D
StudioDave
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by StudioDave »

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
tytel
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by tytel »

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!
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.
I so want you try this out too.
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 :)
tytel
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by tytel »

rghvdberg wrote:@falktx can you fix this dependency problem please ? I so wanna try this out
Fixed this! New build up on the webpage: http://tytel.org/helm
Let me know if you run into any more issues.
glowrak guy
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by glowrak guy »

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!
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Qualitymix
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by Qualitymix »

Any idea if this will build in avlinux? (Debian wheezy)
glowrak guy
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by glowrak guy »

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
StudioDave
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by StudioDave »

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
StudioDave
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by StudioDave »

StudioDave wrote:The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9...
Never mind, sorted out now.

dp
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by sysrqer »

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
I case anyone else experiences the same problem the presets need to be in /usr/share/helm/patches.
tytel
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by tytel »

StudioDave wrote:
StudioDave wrote:The VST shows no presets in Bitwig 1.1.9...
Never mind, sorted out now.

dp
Yea I had to move where patches are stored.
System patches are in "/usr/share/helm/patches"
and user patches are in "~/.helm/User Patches"
tytel
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Re: New Free Synth - Helm - Now in Beta

Post by tytel »

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!
Yea this was requested a few times. Maybe I'll make the Helm logo double as a panic button.
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.
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