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What Improvements Would You Like To See In Free/Libre, Open Source Music Software? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 11 months ago by lofenyy@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Hey guys, forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place, but I have a talent for understanding audio very well. I just finished implementing a sequencer and a synthesizer in C, just for fun. Now that I'm done, I feel pretty good about this project, and I feel like there's no reason not to keep going, but I don't know what to work on next. I love free software, so I'd love to fill in the gaps that may cause a person to prefer to buy a proprietary synthesizer over downloading a free one. Do you have any ideas?

Thanks.

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[–] funkforager@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is the synth going to support the other scales? C is great but you’re gonna want the black keys.

In terms of things that make you stand out: paying attention to the UI/UX of the interface. How do people use it? What do you like about the other interfaces they have?

Another feature is support for drivers. Something Linux and windows have less adoption/support compared with Macs. Obviously it’d be nice if your synth could take in sound from controllers and output to other gear. Or have your sequencer drive a midi clock for other devices.

Another direction is to look at what parts of audio you find interesting. Maybe it’s low latency fax processing, maybe it’s elaborate acoustic modeling or reverb, or control of harmonics. All those are good ways to stand out and specialize. Or tools to help analyze and visualize audio.

Look at some of the existing VST ecosystem and you might get inspired!

[–] lofenyy@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Is the synth going to support the other scales? C is great but you’re gonna want the black keys.

I'm currently fantasizing about making an old-school tracker program that supports VST-like plugins, where you can plug different software devices into one another. It'll be mostly based on the UI of fami-tracker, as that was my favourite. I'd like the tracker to support as many virtual devices as possible. Sadly though, no IRL device support except midi input devices, like USB keyboards.

what parts of audio you find interesting

I like it when the sawtooth wave goes brrr.

The VST ecosystem on Linux isn't thriving, is my understanding. I'm hoping to maybe create my own open format, that'll do exactly the same thing that VST's do, but in a more programming language agnostic manner.

Again, this is all my fantasy right now. I wont feel encouraged to put in the work if no one's interested in it.

[–] ianovic69@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like it when the sawtooth wave goes brrr.

Wait, is this r/synthesizercirclejerk ?

Now I'm starting to really feel at home!

Programming stuff is way over my head so if I missed it I'm sorry, but just in case I thought I'd mention Max4Live.

[–] lofenyy@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for mentioning it, I'll check it out!