rfc: wild wave fu - extreme dynamic nonlinear waveshaper

[bang]

hello all!

submitted for your consideration, wild wave fu, my recent "get back in the saddle" Js effort. i wanted a smaller project to explore the new Js features. so i dusted off an extreme hack of SStillwell's badbusmojo i had done a while back, did a big refactor, and used that to implement dynamic morphing between two waveshapers. screenshot below. it could obviously use a better, compact gui. but the functionality is pretty much what i need right now. the ability to crossfade to a stronger waveshape as overall volume drops is a big win for me. and the moving, dynamic, transient aware waveshaping seems quite a bit more lively than static waveshaping.

will be interested if this works well for others. feedback welcome.

stash download page here.

of possible interest to the Js hackers are .jsfx-inc files which implement the waveshaping, a sliders backbuffer class, a nifty inverse curve class, and a refactor of Liteon's applefilter72db fx.

*big* thanks and praise to SStillwell for the inspiring concept and code. thanks also to LOSER and Liteon for concepts and code.

enjoy! /dan

ps- basic quick reference at the top of the source file. but i hope most things are fairly obvious from the shaper graph.
pps- included in the zip is wwfu-etc.RPL, a few presets to get you started.

[IXix]

Oooh, sexy

[bang]

Originally Posted by IXix

Oooh, sexy

it has *curves*. and it *wiggles*. :^)

[Anton9]

Welcome back Dan,

Well you went and did it again!!! this thing is awesome fun just running ReaSynth through it and assigning modulation to the "A/B transience/morph" I'm getting some really interesting sounds, can't wait to use it with other synths. I've got a feeling the dub-step guys would really dig this.

Thank you

[bang]

hello all!

small update to v0.11alpha here:

- fixed a bug that kept the morphed shape from updating when wwfu was bypassed
- added some logic to avoid "morph noise" with extreme a/b curves and large parameter differences
- added a peak input indicator that gives a rough idea how much of the active shaper is affecting input.

the peak indicator is quite revealing. the included wwfu-etc.RPL presets are only partly updated to reflect this.

glad you are enjoying it Anton. are you modulating a/b trans/morph with the a/b morph mode enabled? that would make the modulation affect the a/b morph directly. in the normal mode, you would only modulate the strength of the transient bias. using a/b morph mode makes the most sense, and is not something i would have thought of. so thanks! what was your source for the modulation Anton?

i wonder how fast Reaper's parameter modulation is, particularly when linking from another parameter? that could enable some interesting cross modulations between Js fx. i suppose is is fast enough to track real time audio levels when using an audio control signals at least. that should make parameter modulation of the a/b morph a useful alternative to the built in envelope follower. what was your source for the modulation Anton? lfo modulation of a/b morph could be great fun also.

note that there is a mouse shortcut that toggles the a/b morph mode. fwiw, here's the list of shortcuts from the quickref:

shortcuts: leftclick in the graph to toggle A/B edit. rightclick to swap A/B. shift-leftclick to toggle A/B morph mode where A/B mixing is controlled by the A/B transience slider. alt/option-leftclick to toggle +/- link mode. shift-rightclick to copy the current shaper parameters, or the current blend in A/B morph mode. shift-alt/option-right click to paste the copied params.

enjoy! /dan

[Anton9]

Originally Posted by bang

glad you are enjoying it Anton. are you modulating a/b trans/morph with the a/b morph mode enabled?

No.., Here is a couple of experiments after messing around for about 15min.
Make sure you listen to them with v0.10.., I just tried the 0.11 update and the sound is'nt quite the same.
https://stash.reaper.fm/16228/wildwavefu_001.RPP
https://stash.reaper.fm/16229/wildwavefu_002.RPP

Just enable looping and hit play.., wildwavefu_002.RPP has the "Extra Sine mix" parameter of ReaSynth linked to the same modulation of the "A/B transience/morp" which I think ended up sounding pretty cool.

Originally Posted by bang

i wonder how fast Reaper's parameter modulation is, particularly when linking from another parameter? that could enable some interesting cross modulations between Js fx.

Using just the slider it can only be set to 8.0Hz.., but you can get faster rates by entering a number in the input box.

Originally Posted by bang

what was your source for the modulation Anton? lfo modulation of a/b morph could be great fun also.

lfo..., my next experiment will be with "Audio contol signal"
I also can't wait to try other VSTi's with it.

[bang]

hello all!

new release here - v0.12alpha:

- kinder, gentler mod Z/lag: prevents gritty distortion even at very minimal mod Z amounts
- optimize a/b morph mode
- change default for output limiting to enabled
- add wet mix parameter for per patch mix amounts and to avoid antialias filter phase wierdness when oversampling.

enjoy! /dan

ps- this release also updates wwhack.jsfx-inc. be sure to do a full merge into the Effects/bangzero folder.

[bang]

Originally Posted by Anton9

No.., Here is a couple of experiments after messing around for about 15min.

thanks for the examples Anton. that helps a lot. you are putting the "extreme" qualities of wwfu to the test! :^)

Make sure you listen to them with v0.10.., I just tried the 0.11 update and the sound is'nt quite the same.

you are hearing the "morph noise" i "fixed" in v0.11. the extreme a/b curve in your preset creates parameter jumps that are big enough to add a gritty noise of their own, beyond the actual waveshaping. to get something similar in the later releases lower the "response time" parameter. this generally controls the how quickly dynamics morph the waveshape. at the lowest response times you should get the gritty noise back. not exactly the same, but similar to v0.10.

enjoy! /dan

ps- do try the same modulation with a/b morph mode enabled. more extreme! :^)
pps- also fun is to add a resonant filter after ReaSynth+wwfu modulated together with wwfu.

[Anton9]

Dan,

Thanks for the tip on lowering the "response time" parameter, and adding a resonant filter is another nice touch.., I got some interesting results using a sweeping lowpass resonant filter.

[bang]

hello all!

new release here - v0.13beta. release notes below. major functional changes are: leftclick-drag in the graph to change A and B input/output gain together. this makes tweeking presets for different input levels much easier. watch the peak level indicators while dragging to set good input gain. more transient transience: new "++eXtreme(tm)" logic. :^) this change was enabled by the new, scrolling graph that shows a history of the main and transient envelope followers. this makes setting A/B thresholds and transience levels easier.

internally, i did a major refactor of the graphing code using a neat pane class which maps logical coordinates to a rectangular section of the Js gfx display. this is a big win for code clarity! goodbye gfx_x/gfx_y! :^) see bangzero_gfx.jsfx-inc for the pane class.

seems like it's time to put this on the back burner for a while, so i'm calling this one beta. most of my own ideas for new features will need a more compact gui, which is a ways off. and i'm a bit surprised this hasn't generated more interest so far. but no worries. i'm having great fun, and it works well for me.

enjoy! /dan

v0.13beta release notes:
- general code cleanup & small optimizations
- click & drag in graph to change A & B in/outgain together
- rename wwhack.jsfx-inc to whack.jsfx-inc: w(ave)hack
- refactor graphing code; add bangzero_gfx.jsfx-inc w/ pane/hue classes
- improve a/b morph slew limit logic
- tweek a/b curve slider response
- realtime response/transience graph
- more transient transience: new transient detection logic
- bipolar/positive transience parameter

enjoy! /dan

ps- this release renames wwhack.jsfx-inc to whack.jsfx-inc, and adds a new bangzero_gfx.jsfx-inc. be sure to do a full merge into the Effects/bangzero folder. and you can delete the obsolete wwhack.jsfx-inc.
pps- new screenshot above.

[IXix]

TBH Dan I've been so busy with other stuff that I haven't even tried it yet but I know that when I do I'll be happy.

[bang]

hello again!

minorish new release here - v0.14beta

rethinking transience, i added a peak transience graph which seems to represent what's going on better. this led to tweaks to the transience logic. transience is tricky stuff. :^) along the way i tweaked the gui and added a dark envelope option in the edit a/b menu (with a surprise!)

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Tried it, like it. One thing though, it looks nothing like the screenshots you posted. I can see a ton of JS sliders and dropdowns and righyt down at the bottom there's a teeny-weeny bit of gfx with some teeny-weeny coloured lines. I guess the sliders should be invisible. Perhaps some mac/pc thing? Can't test now 'cos I have some important wine drinking to do.

[bang]

Originally Posted by IXix

Tried it, like it. One thing though, it looks nothing like the screenshots you posted. I can see a ton of JS sliders and dropdowns and righyt down at the bottom there's a teeny-weeny bit of gfx with some teeny-weeny coloured lines. I guess the sliders should be invisible. Perhaps some mac/pc thing? Can't test now 'cos I have some important wine drinking to do.

probly just your screen is too short. :^) the graph resizes to whatever space is left beneath the Js controls. and there are too many of those for small screens.

but... help is on the way! i wanted even more controls. :^P so did a new custom gui. trying to get that ready for 'release' asap. so don't give up hope! and cross your fingers. :^)

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Originally Posted by bang

probly just your screen is too short.

Step outside. Yeah, I have a mere 15" laptop. Working in REAPER can be frustrating.

Originally Posted by bang

but... help is on the way! i wanted even more controls. :^P so did a new custom gui. trying to get that ready for 'release' asap. so don't give up hope! and cross your fingers. :^)

Myus dfimngwtraas arw crtoaasswesd nbuyt iits hwhgtarfd rto rttpe lkike thisa.

[bang]

hello all!

majorish new release here - v0.20beta

still pursuing transience, this release adds a transience only modulation mode if A & B thresholds are equal, and A/B transience is not zero. to fit in a few more transience controls i went ahead and did a compact custom gui, including an antialiased font. enjoy the monofur goodness! smaller changes include a sidechain input to the envelope/transience logic, a dedicated A/B morph control, and a freeze frame that overlays the transience envelope with the input waveform. new screenshot at the top. be sure to merge the new bangzero_files subfolder into the bangzero folder for the aa font.

enjoy! /dan

ps- i should mention the sliders. main issues w/ custom sliders vs the Js ones is no mousewheel and no text entry for values. my workarounds are rightclick-drag anywhere in a slider to do get mousewheelish behavior, and alt/option-click-drag for extreme values where sensible. and custom sliders can do things like shift-click-drag to change both A & B values together and ctl/cmd-click-drag to change + & - values together.

[IXix]

Oooh, I love it. Thanks Dan.

One thing, if I click and drag a slider but drift out of the slider 'track' area, the slider jumps back to where it was, so I have to be very careful about how I move the mouse. It'd be better if the slider tracked the mouse until mouse-up happens.

[bang]

Originally Posted by IXix

One thing, if I click and drag a slider but drift out of the slider 'track' area, the slider jumps back to where it was, so I have to be very careful about how I move the mouse. It'd be better if the slider tracked the mouse until mouse-up happens.

i like the snap back behavior for auditioning changes with an option to revert to the start value. but it does need extra slop. and... done for the next release. enjoy! /dan

[bang]

hello all!

new! improved! release here - v0.23beta. now with *squish* and *crunch*! :^)

hmmm. some significant improvements in this one. mostly the aforementioned squish and crunch: pre- & post-waveshaper saturating limiters for ++eXtremeness. they both alter the whole waveshaper in surprisingly orthogonal ways. try em. you'll like em.

also new are extra slop for the sliders. thanks IXix for noting that! in the tweaky bits dept: transience now has continuously variable "power", which helps separating "real" transients from noise. and there's a new transient envelope limiter, which may help tame too-powerful transients. and there are a bunch of internal optimizations/fixes/refinements.

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Soooooo nice. Thanks Dan!

[bang]

hello again!

mea culpa release here - v0.24beta.

quick fix release. i realized i had incorrectly put squish before the waveshaper input gain, which caused inaccurate and misleading graphs. oh horror! apologies to squish! :^) i also fixed problem in the shaper copy/paste logic. fwiw, this fix changes the way mod X drive range morphs. hope nobody cares about that. :^) also a few other minor bugfixes/optimizations.

enjoy! /dan

[bang]

hello all!

bread and butter release here - v0.25beta.

this release fixes automation, which was broke bad. preset changes should be less glitchy now. also a bunch of internal refactors which will make optimizing the @gfx code possible someday...

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Thanks Dan!

[sinkmusic]

Wow, how did this plugin went below my radar !?
Amazing, Xenakis-alike GUI for your musical & mathematical pleasure : thank you so much, Bang !

[steki]

for the first tests IT SOUNDS GREAT! thank you! =)

[bang]

Originally Posted by sinkmusic

Wow, how did this plugin went below my radar !? Amazing, Xenakis-alike GUI for your musical & mathematical pleasure : thank you so much, Bang !

glad you're here sinkmusic. thanks for the new to me xref to Xenakis. and thanks to all for the kind words.

the gui is largely an effort to visualize "what's really going on here?" this all started back with trying to understand SStillwell's badbusmojo. while listening is the ultimate criteria, visual aids can help focus things when using algorithmic tools. so the central multifunction graph is an effort to clearly visualize the action of the fx: the morphing waveshapers and the envelope followers. interesting to me that a deconstructive/analytic tool can resemble a constructive/compositional tool like the Xenakis scores. both can have a certain beauty beyond their intended purpose i think. the rest of the wwfu gui was largely an effort to look good with the graph. hence the light, open sliders and font. (i confess, the aa font is quite pleasing for me. although my nerd side is also fond of the "vintage" pixelated Js font.)

and just in case it's not apparent (& it's not very), may i point out the optional transience envelope display shown when "env/wave timescale" is enabled on the tweaks page:



the scrolling envelope/transience graph in the main display can only summarize what's going on with the envelope followers. to get a better picture the waveform graph represents every single sample of the transience envelope. so much fun! then, to see how the transience envelope relates to the input wave data, there's the freeze frame option:



this shows (+/- mirrored) wave data in grey, the main envelope follower in brown, the transience follower in cyan, and the computed transience envelope in purple. it is a snapshot triggered when the purple transience level on the main graph goes past a horizontal position on the graph specified by the freeze thresh control.

i'm still digesting what all this means in sonic terms. but it's quite useful to see what effect the transience parameters have at a low level. and big fun to have a better picture of what's actually happening.

enjoy! /dan

ps- bypass wwfu to freeze the freeze frame for longer.
pps- the screenshots above are with true bipolar (+/-) transience polarity and a transience offset to shift the envelope up. by default, the bottom of the window is zero and negative transience is clipped.
ppps- for fun, the screenshots were from a bit of Xenakis i was listening to on the utoob.

[bang]

hello all!

happy dance release here - v0.26beta.

oh boy! oh boy! anti-aliased color text! (must resist rainbow colored text... must resist. :^)

now, an interesting bit here is that the math seems to work just right. the trick is to blit black text from the aa source image as usual, and then blit red/green/blue aa text using gfx_a*= gfx_r/g/b *in additive blend mode* (gfx_mode==1). so i've got to wonder if Justin had this application in mind for additive blend mode all along??? i mean, what else is it good for? :^)

nothing else new in this release. just had to share. :^)

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Originally Posted by bang

oh boy! oh boy! anti-aliased color text! (must resist rainbow colored text... must resist. :^)

You are such a nerd!

Looks great. Not sure I quite understand how it works but I can't question the results.

[IXix]

Originally Posted by TonE

IXix, yesterday I tried your midi_looper the first time, lots of fun. Thanks for it. I have to check again if velocity fading out really works, as described, I could not hear it much, maybe due to the used vsti's?

It's very old and I'm not certain it works exactly right. You might want to have a look at LoopFreek, which is newer and better (and yes, okay, ever so slightly unfinished ) LoopFreek grew out of MIDI_Looper and I know I had to fix some problems but I can't remember whether I implemented the fixes in the original MIDI_Looper as well.

One of the main things that puts me of fiddling with LoopFreek it is that all the GUI code is so fiddly. Lately I've been thinking about remaking it when my little GUI library finished (ie. sometime in 2050).

[bang]

hello all!

better thread safe than sorry release here - v0.28beta.

this release reorganizes the parameter update logic to further avoid audio glitches, mostly when changing presets.

enjoy! /dan

[IXix]

Thanks Dan!

[EvilDragon]

This thing is quite amazing. However one GUI thing kinda bothers me - it's the sliders. If I click the slider and drag the cursour outside of the slider's horizontal range, if the cursor happens to hover above any other slider, it's going to move THAT slider, and revert the slider you actually clicked on to the value it had before you clicked on it.

Now, I don't know much about JS, but it seems like you'd need to work around this so this doesn't happen. In a discussion with Breeder, he told me that JS only gives you X and Y of mouse cursor, and mouse button clicked/not clicked events.

I wonder if it's possible to work around this issue somehow, by having variables that would write the state of the slider being clicked, then not doing anything if mouse cursor is outside of slider range, or if mouse cursor is found hovering above the slider that isn't currently clicked (variable check), do nothing...

[bang]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

This thing is quite amazing. However one GUI thing kinda bothers me - it's the sliders. If I click the slider and drag the cursour outside of the slider's horizontal range, if the cursor happens to hover above any other slider, it's going to move THAT slider, and revert the slider you actually clicked on to the value it had before you clicked on it.[...]

hmmm. it is supposed to revert the slider you click if you move far enough outside it's area. but it should not change any other slider than the one initially clicked for the duration of a drag. this works for me. what version are you using EvilDragon? sysinfo? /dan

ps- there is one thing that's not working as it should. if you click in a slider and drag into the graph, that triggers the shortcut where dragging in the graph sets a/b in or outgain together. so you can see the in/outgain sliders change while dragging outside another slider and into the graph. i will fix that.

[EvilDragon]

That was v0.27. I just tried v0.28 and it doesn't do that. Are the new atomic JS functions the reason for the fix?

[bang]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

That was v0.27. I just tried v0.28 and it doesn't do that. Are the new atomic JS functions the reason for the fix?

nope. v0.28 precedes that. so odd that it didn't work right in v0.27. hmmmm. wait a sec! there was no release v0.27! ok, what version were you using really? :^) and still, i don't recall doing anything that might have affected drag behavior recently!? curiously yours, /dan

[EvilDragon]

It was a version before 0.28, then Dunno, it was quite a weird behaviour. Nevermind it now since it seems to be ok.


I presume there's no way to make the slider continue changing its value with the mouse cursor outside of its GUI position instead of reverting to the value before you clicked on it?


Also woot, your 500th post was #38 in this thread!

[bang]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

I presume there's no way to make the slider continue changing its value with the mouse cursor outside of its GUI position instead of reverting to the value before you clicked on it?

well, that behavior is intentional. but you're the 2nd person to request this. and Reaper's sliders generally work the way you describe. but there is real utility in the current scheme. i use it to try out new settings and quickly compare against a previous setting while dragging, with the option of leaving the slider untouched if i don't like the change. so i dunno. how bad is it? :^) /dan

[bang]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Also woot, your 500th post was #38 in this thread!

sez the man of 12000+ posts. so maybe just "woot!" :^)

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by bang

but there is real utility in the current scheme. i use it to try out new settings and quickly compare against a previous setting while dragging, with the option of leaving the slider untouched if i don't like the change. so i dunno. how bad is it? :^) /dan

That's a valid reason to leave it as it is. It's just uncommon to regular slider behaviour in just about any other plugin I've encountered... So if you can provide an option for this, fine. If it's too much work, don't bother for just two persons.

[bang]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

That's a valid reason to leave it as it is. It's just uncommon to regular slider behaviour in just about any other plugin I've encountered... So if you can provide an option for this, fine. If it's too much work, don't bother for just two persons.

so, i'll bump the slop up some in the next realease, so the snap back happens less often. i'd rather not add stuff to the gui at this point. and the next release will include a fix for the spurious graph drag behavior. unless something bad crops up i'll wait to release it til Reaper 4.5 goes final, as i am now using one of the new bits from that. hope all this works for folks.

now, about "quite amazing"??? :^)

enjoy! /dan