[LAU] Synthfest Uk 2018

[Will Godfrey]

I've posted about this various places, but seem to have forgotten here :(
However, it's all good 'cos I keep remembering bits I'd forgotten about :)

Some time ago I was again delighted to get an invite to set up a free stand
for Yoshimi at Synthfest UK (now in it's 3rd year). This took place in
Sheffield Saturday, 6th October.

The event went very well. Better I think that last year. It was certainly
bigger, and I think the visitors more clued up about what to expect. Our stand
was well placed and also got more attention that last year. I'm sure the
posters helped - you really couldn't miss them :)

The posters were designed by one of Yoshimi's Little Band of Helpers, and a
musician friend who was also attending the event has contacts with a digital
printing company. They produced them at no cost - along with some flyers.

As well as the main laptop on speakers, I had a netbook set up with a two
octave mini-keyboard and a pair of phones. The people who tried it were really
impressed with the performance on such a small setup.

There was also some discussion about running Yoshimi on a Raspberry Pi - all
housed in a small box with a minimal touch screen - Interesting idea.

People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is good,
although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi to the Mac. My
attitude has always been that I'm fine with that and will help where I can, but
know nothing about the architecture so wouldn't be able to do any of the work
myself - especially as I'm still up to my eyeballs with work already :(

I was surprised that nobody at all mooted the idea of a port to Windows.

Another of YLBoH produced a pretty sophisticated backing track, playing on
parts 18-28 while parts 1-16 were on Solo-TwoWay. It certainly got people's
attention, as did the fact the whole lot was pulled in with just a Rosegarden
file and a Yoshimi State file, so ideal for gigging.

There were no blind people there this year, but one guy, who remembered the
command line feature from last year, really liked the new extensions into the
synth engines.

The greatest, most pleasant surprise was the (fairly elderly) wife of a friend
who was quite interested in the actual sound banks, and impressed with the
reproduction quality. She is actually a folk musician and has always used real
instruments, but seemed quite comfortable using the keyboard to play some of
the piano-like sounds.

Below are links to some photos I quickly took just as the event was about to
open. I'll leave them on my website for a week or two.

www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_01.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_02.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_03.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_04.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_05.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_06.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_07.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_08.jpg
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_09.jpg

[Jeanette C.]

Oct 15 2018, Will Godfrey has written:
...

Post by Will Godfrey
Some time ago I was again delighted to get an invite to set up a free stand
for Yoshimi at Synthfest UK (now in it's 3rd year). This took place in
Sheffield Saturday, 6th October.

...
Hey Will,
this is great and you appear to have had a great time there. Just the
other day, I was talking to a friend, saying that it would be nice to go
next year. If I'd only known...

This is all really nice to hear. Did you get some coverage by one of the
magazines present?

Best wishes,

jeanny
--
* Website: http://juliencoder.de - for summer is a state of sound
* SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeanette_c
* Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rfGrTwz8W7jhC1Jnv7g
* GitHub: https://github.com/jeanette-c
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanette_c_s

With you I get so high
Lost in the crystal sky
You are this melody
That's where you take me <3
(Britney Spears)

[Will Godfrey]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2018 20:56:35 +0200 (CEST)

Post by Jeanette C.
...

Post by Will Godfrey
Some time ago I was again delighted to get an invite to set up a free stand
for Yoshimi at Synthfest UK (now in it's 3rd year). This took place in
Sheffield Saturday, 6th October.

...
Hey Will,
this is great and you appear to have had a great time there. Just the
other day, I was talking to a friend, saying that it would be nice to go
next year. If I'd only known...
This is all really nice to hear. Did you get some coverage by one of the
magazines present?
Best wishes,
jeanny

I think only the big commercial entities got any real coverage - us 'little
people' were just happy to talk to the visitors (and each other).

[Ralf Mardorf]

Post by Will Godfrey
People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is good,
although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi to the
Mac.

Hi,

consider that you could earn some money, if you would provided Yoshimi
for iOS with IAA (Inter-App Audio) support [1]. I would purchase it to
replace the Arturia iProphet.

Regarding some desired vector sounds neither my partial broken
Yamaha TG33, nor Yoshimi could compare to the iProphet, but the
Yamaha TG33, as well as Yoshimi are reliable. They allow to store
sounds and even if sounds should get lost for whatever reason, it's
possible to get them back by loading the sounds from a backup.

The iProphet suffers from two issues that makes it way to risky to use.

1. Sounds could get lost for no reason.
2. It's not possible to load sounds that were stored by a backup.

Somebody experienced this issue in 2015 and I run into it last month,
too, https://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=93339.msg151386#new.

Regards,
Ralf

[1]
Jack doesn't work anymore, http://crudebyte.com/jack-ios/ and the
time it should have worked, quasi no app supported jack. Audiobus is
crap, it works well for some use cases, but sometimes it could fail,
run completely out of sync, which might be an issue of apps using
Audiobus and not Audiobus itself, I don't know. IAA does work relatively
well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-App_Audio.

[Will Godfrey]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2018 22:19:47 +0200

Post by Ralf Mardorf

Post by Will Godfrey
People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is good,
although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi to the
Mac.

Hi,
consider that you could earn some money, if you would provided Yoshimi
for iOS with IAA (Inter-App Audio) support [1]. I would purchase it to
replace the Arturia iProphet.

The whole of Yoshimi is GPL V2 (or later) So payment isn't really an option -
not that I'd want to make it commercial anyway. Also there are the issues of
time, experience and hardware availability - pick any one :(

I personally have the most time, but the least experience, and hardware. The
few others that help out when they can, are mostly younger with families to
support so don't have the time (or probably money for hardware).

Sync-ing LFOs to MIDI clock is an interesting idea, but not one I'd ever want
myself. However, I'll mention it on our list to see if any other devs are
interested.

[Paul Davis]

Post by Will Godfrey
The whole of Yoshimi is GPL V2 (or later) So payment isn't really an option -
not that I'd want to make it commercial anyway. Also there are the issues of
time, experience and hardware availability - pick any one :(

Nothing about the GPLv2 or any other version of the GPL prevents anyone
from selling software that uses it as a license.

The only implication of the GPL is that, according to conventional
economics, the "natural price point" is zero, since in theory anybody can
sell it for less than you, and anybody else can sell it for less than them,
and so on, all the way down to zero. And yet ... it doesn't work like that.

The bigger problem with the GPL isn't that it isn't (or wasn't)clear)that
it can ever be compatible with Apple's app store terms.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6109/is-it-possible-to-have-gpl-software-in-the-mac-app-store

But there is absolutely no problem getting paid for GPL (v2 or whatever)
software.

[Ralf Mardorf]

Post by Will Godfrey
Sync-ing LFOs to MIDI clock is an interesting idea, but not one I'd ever want
myself. However, I'll mention it on our list to see if any other devs are
interested.

Hi,

thank you. It's one of the features to get results similar to what was posted done with modular CV/gate synth a while back, but it could be done really playing a MIDI synth, by the musician, instead of trail and error tinkerin with cables, using one module to play another module.

Regards,
Ralf

[Ralf Mardorf]

Post by Ralf Mardorf

Post by Will Godfrey
People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is
good, although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi
to the Mac.

Hi,
consider that you could earn some money, if you would provided Yoshimi
for iOS with IAA (Inter-App Audio) support [1]. I would purchase it to
replace the Arturia iProphet.
Regarding some desired vector sounds neither my partial broken
Yamaha TG33, nor Yoshimi could compare to the iProphet,

One of the advantages of the iProphet over the TG33 and IIRC
over Yoshimi, too, is that LFOs could be perfectly synced by MIDI
clock.

Post by Ralf Mardorf
but the Yamaha TG33, as well as Yoshimi are reliable. They allow to
store sounds and even if sounds should get lost for whatever reason,
it's possible to get them back by loading the sounds from a backup.
The iProphet suffers from two issues that makes it way to risky to use.
1. Sounds could get lost for no reason.
2. It's not possible to load sounds that were stored by a backup.
Somebody experienced this issue in 2015 and I run into it last month,
too, https://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=93339.msg151386#new.
Regards,
Ralf
[1]
Jack doesn't work anymore, http://crudebyte.com/jack-ios/ and the
time it should have worked, quasi no app supported jack. Audiobus is
crap, it works well for some use cases, but sometimes it could fail,
run completely out of sync, which might be an issue of apps using
Audiobus and not Audiobus itself, I don't know. IAA does work
relatively well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-App_Audio.

[Christopher Arndt]

I'm sure the posters helped - you really couldn't miss them :)

I like that slogan: "Fully FOSS - No Fuss"

Shouldn't it be FLOSS, i.e. Free/Libre Open Source Software, though?

Also, I think, "All FLOSS - No Fuss" would have a better rhythm to it.

Chris

[Robin Gareus]

On 10/15/2018 08:38 PM, Will Godfrey wrote:
[..]

Post by Will Godfrey
There was also some discussion about running Yoshimi on a Raspberry Pi - all
housed in a small box with a minimal touch screen - Interesting idea.

Do you know http://zynthian.org/ ? It's almost exactly that: A RPi 3B in
a nice box, with touch-screen, MIDI and audio i/o and a few knobs.

You can get it either as pre-assmbled, as DIY kit, or a schematic and
select bits and pieces.

Post by Will Godfrey
People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is good,
although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi to the Mac.

ZynAddSubFX, zyn-fusion really, runs on Mac and Windows (LV2 and VST).
You could link interested users to your sister-project.

Post by Will Godfrey
The greatest, most pleasant surprise was the (fairly elderly) wife
of a friend who was quite interested in the actual sound banks, and
impressed with the reproduction quality.

Oddly enough that does not surprise me :)
Your preset collection is actually a great asset, also for zyn. The vast
majority of users would likely be happy to only use existing banks or
presets.

Post by Will Godfrey
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_02.jpg

Very nice setup! Kudos for spreading the word and waving the linux-audio
flag at events! I do like your "Fully FOSS - no fuss" tagline.

Cheers!
robin

[Will Godfrey]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2018 21:01:37 +0200

Post by Robin Gareus
[..]

Post by Will Godfrey
There was also some discussion about running Yoshimi on a Raspberry Pi - all
housed in a small box with a minimal touch screen - Interesting idea.

Do you know http://zynthian.org/ ? It's almost exactly that: A RPi 3B in
a nice box, with touch-screen, MIDI and audio i/o and a few knobs.
You can get it either as pre-assmbled, as DIY kit, or a schematic and
select bits and pieces.

That one seems to have escaped my notice. It's a very interesting project.

Post by Robin Gareus

Post by Will Godfrey
People are definitely less 'scared' of Linux these days, which is good,
although again, there was some discussion about porting Yoshimi to the Mac.

ZynAddSubFX, zyn-fusion really, runs on Mac and Windows (LV2 and VST).
You could link interested users to your sister-project.

Yes I know. However, some people prefer Yoshimi :@)
Also, (just my personal opinion) I find a multi part, multi synth engine an
extremely poor fit for a plugin, and a rather awkward and inefficient way of
using both the host and the synth. To make matters worse, some people will use
a new instance per track, so that's the memory for at least 15 wasted parts per
track (potentially 63 for Yoshimi). There's also an (admittedly small) overhead
checking part activity.

I dimly remember someone splitting out the individual engines, but I couldn't
get on with that at all. Trying to build some of the multi-layer voices was a
nightmare!

Post by Robin Gareus

Post by Will Godfrey
The greatest, most pleasant surprise was the (fairly elderly) wife
of a friend who was quite interested in the actual sound banks, and
impressed with the reproduction quality.

Oddly enough that does not surprise me :)
Your preset collection is actually a great asset, also for zyn. The vast
majority of users would likely be happy to only use existing banks or
presets.

Thanks. Oh and there is also a 'companion' bank slowly being populated.
Yes, yes. I know. Pathetic bank names :)

Post by Robin Gareus

Post by Will Godfrey
www.musically.me.uk/Photos/Synthfest2018/Synthfest2018_02.jpg

Very nice setup! Kudos for spreading the word and waving the linux-audio
flag at events! I do like your "Fully FOSS - no fuss" tagline.
Cheers!
robin

Thanks again. That tagline was the idea of one of Yoshimi's Little Band of
Helpers.

Will.

P.S.

I would have responded sooner, but had an important appointment with a dining
room and 10 rolls of wall paper :(

[Lorenzo Sutton]

Hi Will,

Post by Will Godfrey
On Tue, 16 Oct 2018 21:01:37 +0200

[...]

Post by Will Godfrey
Also, (just my personal opinion) I find a multi part, multi synth engine an
extremely poor fit for a plugin, and a rather awkward and inefficient way of
using both the host and the synth.

I do think that the 'multi' version of Yoshimi LV2 is usable if the host
(e.g. like Arodur) supports a MIDI bus (or similar concept) and can see
the use case for it.
One of the key advantages IMHO of using it as a plug-in is that if you
are in a production scenario (i.e. non-live) you can then 'export' the
final piece/result directly as an audio file.

Indeed using the 'jack paradigm' does mitigate this (and potentially
makes the work environment more flexible and modular which is good from
various points of view). I actually wonder how feasible it would be to
have an application-independent to-file jack 'sink' able to generate an
audio file of all connected audio inputs (but including midi) - and yes
sorry I derailed a bit there, but the topic mentions synths so... :)

Lorenzo.