SynthMaker

4.0 stars

"Great Product"

October 3, 2008  |   By loddson

Version: SynthMaker 1.1.2

Pros

A very professional and well conceived interface makes building VSTs and executable audio programs relatively easy. A great learning tool to try out different synthesis techniques. A very active user forum can really help new users get their feet.

Cons

The product still lacks somewhat in full, current documentation. There are a number of feature limitations (examples audio-rate FFT/iFFT effects and the lack of a sample-accurate event mechanism) but no word on how long these might be.

Summary

SynthMaker is great program with a handful of limitations.

If you want to be able to patch components together like you might have done with a hardware modular synth to try out ideas and be able to save them as VSTs; this may just be the perfect program for you. And as more 'high-level' modules become available this type of use will be more and more flexible and productive for those with even modest technical skills.

It can also be a killer prototype tool for those wishing to test out concepts before investing in low-level coding. It's also certainly up to the task of building fairly complex synths natively -- provided your end users don't have unrealistic expectations about CPU performance.

The user interface is better than most programs with large development teams and millions of users and is very impressive for a niche product. Its rival, SynthEdit, has a lot of earnest advocates and in some areas it may have an edge; but on user interface SynthMaker is clearly miles ahead. Its implementation of modules lets you organize complexity easily and borrow pieces from stock modules and other users.

As well as having a very good user interface itself, it?s also very good for making custom GUIs for your projects. You can do anything from having some stock knobs and buttons with a grey-grid background to designing all your own controls and interactive graphic elements as complex as you have the patience and ability to craft.

The program seems to attract users who want to be commercial VST developers but don't want to spend the time and effort required to develop them in low-level coding environments. It can make reasonably responsive plugs but it's likely that the overhead from a high-level environment will always disappoint some who want to build monster, do-it-all synthesizers.

The current event mechanism is somewhat limited for sequencing projects and the major change to version 2 has been anticipated for some time without official word from OutSim. There are also some techniques (convolution for example) which it is not capable of in its present form.

The documentation is very good as far as it goes but is falling behind a bit in that there have been a number of changes and additions since the docs became available. But the active user forum can help you resolve most any problem very quickly.

Overall it?s a great program as long as you don?t believe you?ll be able to make a monster synth in a week or two and it will be as fast as those from the commercial development houses.

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5.0 stars

"Unbeatable."

October 1, 2008  |  

Version: SynthMaker 1.1.2

Pros

From simple module pathing to assembler parralell coding - you always hear what you are doing.

Cons

An sample precise event system is currently missing.

Summary

Fun!!!

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5.0 stars

"the finestt program to build your own vst instruments"

September 25, 2008  |   By michaelbenjamin

Version: SynthMaker 1.1.2

Pros

- excellent user interface
- code and change everything while playing the instrument
- nice and helpful user community
- frequent updates
- good support by developers

Cons

- some wanted features, like sample accurate green timing, more efficient voice management and better automatic code optimizing.
but check out the demo if you are interested in how the numbers get to the speakers.

Summary

best audio dsp software investment i have done since 3 years.

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5.0 stars

"The Most Fun In The World!!!!!"

September 25, 2008  |   By b_ara_ki

Version: SynthMaker 1.1.2

Pros

this is an easy way to make your Music+Mix+Sound+Synth+Effect Really yours

Cons

Too Simple... :-)

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1.0 stars

"Expensive, and not the best,"

September 20, 2008  |   By Bradleykid99

Version: SynthMaker 1.1.1

Pros

nonnneeeee

Cons

Price of it

Summary

Just use this

http://www.download.com/FL-Studio/3000-2170_4-10030774.html?tag=mncol;pop&cdlPid=10828311

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5.0 stars

"the best vst creation software i've come across!"

January 14, 2007  |   By tchatfield

Version: SynthMaker 1.0.1

Pros

+ great for newbies(like me)

+ a good way to learn and understand dsp

+ extremely powerful but simple to use

+ creating a synth with high level modules is simple and once you've got a synth that works you can go inside the lower level modules and figure out what's going on, an invaluable learning method.

+ the synthmaker forum is great!, lots of helpful people that are more than willing to answer any question you may have, there's also an examples section with loads of user made high level modules to download and use/modify for your own projects.

+ i found the price of synthmaker to be very reasonable for such powerful software.

+ you can export your projects as a vst plug in for use in any host that supports vst.

+ also you can export as .EXE (stand alone) no other software offers this feature!

+ the ablity to create stunning GUI'S, also you will find lots of knob's and silders on the wiki and forum, that you can use on your projects.

Cons

i can't see any down sides in the software yet, but i do wish there was a few more tutorial's for total newbies. but then again theres a wealth of info on the forum and wiki to help you.

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5.0 stars

"Excellent"

December 8, 2006  |   By loddson

Version: SynthMaker 1.0.1

Pros

Easy to use. Powerful for experts but still approachable as a newbie. Great for learning DSP and synthesis. Very intuitive interface. A great online community of users that will help you out when you get stuck. Previously the documentation was incomplete but that's now been fixed with the first commercial release. If you've tried it before you might want to give it another go as the high-level modules available are greatly improved.

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5.0 stars

"From the novice to the pro Synthmaker is a must-have for audio development."

December 8, 2006  |   By SamuelMagalov

Version: SynthMaker 1.0.1

Pros

For anyone who's interested in developing applications for digital audio Sythnmaker is an essential. The high level modules allow those of all backgrounds to just plug-and-play and for those interested in dsp number-crunching there's the ability to get low-level and tweak individual lines of code. There's also a large library of GUI elements allowing the creation of rich and complex interfaces. Whether you want to create your own plugins, learn about digital audio or prototype new ideas S|M is straightforward to use and provides immediate results.

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5.0 stars

"Perfect Development Tool"

November 16, 2006  |   By tention

Version: SynthMaker 1

Pros

You never produce faster and cleaner Plugins for VST-Hosts or Standalone-Synthesizer. Great to handle, many features and the option to code low-level inside. The perfect tool for beginners and advanced music-software developers and for every musician, that likes to create special sounds.

Cons

Havent found anything yet...

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