17 ms·

Bespoke Synth 1.0 – open-source software modular synthesizer

745 points by paulshen 5y ago

kennywinker 5y ago
This looks very interesting, checking it out now (download links were broken, but I found releases on github). For people new to this type of software, definitely also check out VCV Rack for a more skeuomorphic take on open source software modular.
marcodiego 5y ago
Love the feature matrix.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  "Five dollars less in your pocket". Brilliant!
Jenz 5y ago
Haha this is the most amazing feature matrix I've ever seen. On a more serious note, modular music is an extremely interesting and growing area and just about every module is surprisingly expensive; I'm curious to how well this translates to virtual racks.
- 41209 5y ago
  Agreed. That alone makes me want to donate. Can it work as a VST plugin ?
  - yellowapple 5y ago
    If there's a plugin version of this I can see it giving ZynAddSubFx a run for its money in my workflow.
    - 41209 5y ago
      It's GPL so you can always create your own. I wouldn't mind feature bounties for a project like this.
- quantified 5y ago
  Pricing plan you can understand!
- armchairhacker 5y ago
  I've never heard about modular music, but I know must VSTs are extremely expensive. And they're expensive to even seriously try. I want to get into music production but a barrier is that Omnisphere and FL Studio are $500 and have a super-limited trial version. As a grad student I'm not going to spend $500 for a piece of software I might be interested in using. I would much rather have it be like software development where almost everything is free. And instead of paying upfront, synths / effects can make money by taking a cut of your revenue (I don't think that's like software development but it means synth producers still make revenue).
  - munificent 5y ago
    Take a look at Reaper, VCV Rack, Surge, Tyrell, Zebralette, Dexed, and Helm.
    - yummypaint 5y ago
      Second for vcv rack. Waveform free has been working well as a DAW for me recently, and it has a linux version.
    - peapicker 5y ago
      Of that list, Dexed is the only one appearing in my tracks regularly. This is because I’m more likely to use Serum, Massive, or Pigments for the other duties. But Dexed, especially after downloading many preset libraries, is freaking amazing in its DX7 early FM synthesis emulation.
    - chrislo 5y ago
      Vital[1] is fantastic, I've been using it a lot. https://vital.audio/ https://vital.audio/
  - jasondoty 5y ago
    If you're not going to make money off it, my opinion is you can use cracked VSTs without any concerns of "is it right". In fact, as with a lot of pirated soft/media the experience is superior. Licensing and DRM of music software is a headache - dongles, software centers and other bloat. Scene groups like R2R even optimize performance and patch out bugs in addition to cracking protections, making their releases superior than that of the original developers. Otherwise have a look at Splice rent-to-own plugin licensing.
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pier25 5y ago
> In a way, Bespoke is like if I smashed Ableton to bits with a baseball bat, and asked you to put it back together. LOL
rcarmo 5y ago
This seems awesome. I’ve been playing with Bitwig’s Grid and VCV Rack, and it looks like something else to explore.
smt923 5y ago
damn, I've been looking for something similar to Max/PPOOLL but more accessible (especially on windows/linux) after reading about Tim Hecker using it and this seems like it could get to that point
- operatorius 5y ago
  > reading about Tim Hecker using it hey could you please share the link where you've read that. Thanks!
  - Minor49er 5y ago
    You can see it being used here at :22. The original title of this video is "Rewire - Studio Visit: Tim Hecker" https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.36240-6/10000000_966703663905085_1089689244937449956_n.mp4?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=985c63&efg=eyJybHIiOjI3MzYsInJsYSI6MTY0NywidmVuY29kZV90YWciOiJvZXBfaGQifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ohc=3RDE0onCgV8AX-aiOg5&rl=2736&vabr=1824&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&edm=AGo2L-IEAAAA&oh=89425d47a02770c8d7fe12d3d81b790d&oe=6146730E https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.36240-6/10000000_...
  - smt923 5y ago
    the other link has a little, it's kinda just something i've seen around in different places when I was super curious about his music and how you'd produce stuff like that, specific ones I can find right now are in random threads[1] and in a red bull music interview he talks about it a tiny bit[2] [1] https://llllllll.co/t/ppooll-max-msp-networking-system/28352 https://llllllll.co/t/ppooll-max-msp-networking-system/28352 [2] https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/tim-hecker-lecture https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/tim-hecker-lect... (ctrl f for "P-P-O-O-L-L")
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  > I've been looking for something similar to Max/PPOOLL That would probably be PureData.
  - smt923 5y ago
112233 5y ago
Is there a modular audio environment like vcv/reaktor/max, where I could plug stuff together by typing text, instrad of mousing pips? I honestly tried to get into pd, but it felt like typing book using the character map.
- kleer001 5y ago
  Second vocal vote for that. It'd make it a more powerful tool and be less of a pain at the same time. Or at the very least some kind of remedial hot key navigation would be great too.
- premek 5y ago
  sonic pi is not exactly like modular but easier than pd
  - lgas 5y ago
    If you like Haskell you might like Tidal Cycles[1] and if you like Clojure you might like Overtone[2]. [1] https://tidalcycles.org/ https://tidalcycles.org/ [2] https://overtone.github.io/ https://overtone.github.io/
- premek 5y ago
  there's also ChucK https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/doc/language/ https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/doc/language/
- yata69420 5y ago
  There's quite a few actually. The term is "live coding". Supercollider sounds like what you're after. You can even use vim :) https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music here's a list of related stuff
  - dewert 5y ago
    Saw a good talk at PyCon a couple of years ago about FoxDot, which is a wrapper around SuperCollider. Bit foggy on the details now, but it seemed like a good place to start.
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thenberlin 5y ago
This is incredibly cool. Looking forward to loading it up. Reminds me a bit of Reaktor's builder environment, but based on that demo video, it seems like a more useable, better thought out version (and you can't beat that price / feature matrix).
Lucasoato 5y ago
I'm a software developer right now but I've worked with DAWs as a producer for more than 5 years. You can't even imagine how frustrating is working with Digital Audio Workstation. One messy plug-in and you can lose hours and hours of work. Preset management is a nightmare, there are so many things that they could do to go forward, but the Sequencer market is stall and hasn't moved in years. Imagine if they applied something similar to a git versioning system to music projects.... I don't even know if the VST interface can be used or if it's licensed somehow from Steinberg. Also consider that there are no good audio drivers for Linux (like Asio for example) so you're almost forced to stay in windows or Mac... No plug-in or DAW has a CLI... I could go on for hours... I'm doing some digital audio processing for a startup idea and the only thing I've came up with is using sox trough a Python API.
- xbpx 5y ago
  Since you're a software dev you may have explored supercollider and other environments where you can employ great tools. I've been looking for a hybrid UI/UX + Audio programming environment that would combine the freedom of code with the visual cues of a DAW but haven't found the ideal fit. So far I've been rolling my own with cl-collider, a common lisp client for Supercollider which uses some lisp tricks (macros) to good effect.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  > Also consider that there are no good audio drivers for Linux (like Asio for example) so you're almost forced to stay in windows or Mac... This is false. > Imagine if they applied something similar to a git versioning system to music projects. People have done this. Using git itself is a little problematic because it is very line-oriented and most project file formats for DAWs are not. Regarding plugins, I know that I'm not the only lead developer of a DAW who, if they possibly could, would refuse to support plugins entirely. The problem is that most users want more functionality than a DAW itself could feasibly provide (they also sometimes like to use the same functionality (plugin) in different DAWs or different workflows). There are things close to DAW functionality that have a CLI (such as ecasound). You can also run plugins from the command line by using standalone plugin hosts. You can use oscsend(1) to control plugins inside several different plugin hosts. It sounds to me as if you've worked with a relatively small number of DAWs on only Windows and macOS and are not really aware of the breadth or depth of the "field".
_eLRIC 5y ago
Discovered a few days ago another nice music studio of the same kind that I really liked : Sunvox https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ I'll have to try Bespoke as well ...
- tlhunter 5y ago
  Bespoke has some definite SunVox UI vibes going on.
- jay-anderson 5y ago
  Sunvox was my first thought as well. Watching the intro video it seems in bespoke the modules' internals are more visible. Though it's missing the sequencer portion compared with sunvox.
squarefoot 5y ago
Very interesting. A possible improvement could be some "knob linkable objects" (can't imagine the correct name) that could be tied to analog inputs (GPIOs, ADC connected to i2c or USB, etc). The purpose would be to be able to modify certain parameters live on the fly, should anyone want to create a physical synth out of this software and a *PI like small SBC. Also, I like a lot the way it links inputs and outputs just by dragging the mouse. Does anyone know if there is any general purpose library to do that? I mean, Ideally I create some list nodes, then use that library to link them in a certain order by using the mouse.
- capableweb 5y ago
  > Very interesting. A possible improvement could be some "knob linkable objects" (can't imagine the correct name) that could be tied to analog inputs (GPIOs, ADC connected to i2c or USB, etc). The purpose would be to be able to modify certain parameters live on the fly, should anyone want to create a physical synth out of this software and a *PI like small SBC. This is usually called "MIDI mapping" or similar and is available in basically every DAW these days. > Also, I like a lot the way it links inputs and outputs just by dragging the mouse. Does anyone know if there is any general purpose library to do that? I mean, Ideally I create some list nodes, then use that library to link them in a certain order by using the mouse. Something like qjackctl (with Jack, obviously) could do this for you, as you can route things however you want in a drag-and-drop UI.
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    > This is usually called "MIDI mapping" or similar and is available in basically every DAW these days. I'm aware of MIDI mapping, my question was about the possibility to make a stand alone sysnthesizer (with keyboard and knobs) in which the necessary controls would be read from analog inputs while still displaying them on the screen as if they were changed with the mouse, which is not easy to do when playing live. > Something like qjackctl (with Jack, obviously) could do this for you, as you can route things however you want in a drag-and-drop UI. Sorry, my second sentence wasn't clear at all. I'd love to see a general purpose (not related to sound or any other use) library to allow the graphical representation of structures links (list nodes) together as this software and others do with generators, effects, etc. Ideally, it should operate on the header of a structure which contains the relevant fields for linking to others. When I alter the links on the screen, it does the same on the represented nodes. That would be the way I would build for example a drum machine in which each structure contains also a pattern and I can move them at will back and forth, replicate them, set their own fields (number of repeats, etc). This would be again a sound related application, but what I'm looking for is something really general purpose.
ruph123 5y ago
Another instance where "Linux == Ubuntu". At least regarding the dependency install script which is just a bunch of "apt-get"s. Sad that it has come to this.
- runjake 5y ago
  Yeah, it's a bummer. But at least its a short install list [1] and its probably not too difficult to install the deps on your distro of choice and fire it up. 1. Deps: g++ libfreetype6-dev libx11-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev mesa-common-dev libasound2-dev freeglut3-dev libxcomposite-dev libcurl4 libusb-1.0-0-dev libgtk-3-dev python3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev libjack-dev
  - tomxor 5y ago
    I'm running Debian 11 and it still doesn't run. Thought I'd try build it and... > Use the "Projucer" from https://juce.com/ https://juce.com/ to generate solutions/project files/makefiles for building on your platform. [0] eh? https://juce.com/get-juce https://juce.com/get-juce Is this really a FOSS project? [0] https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth
    - adultSwim 5y ago
      Projucer is GPL3, as is this project. I think it just needs a little better build instructions...
      - deleted 5y ago
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  - fjfaase 5y ago
    I am running Ubuntu 18.04 and after having run the script, installing Python3.8 and running ldconfig, it still complains that 'libpython3.8.so.1.0' cannot be found.
- 5y ago
ejarzo 5y ago
Really well thought out interface, looks super easy to quickly make a bunch of edits -- The SHIFT+Touch to connect modules is nice and I love that you can always just export the last 30 minutes. Looks like a ton of work went into the documentation as well -- can't wait to dive in!
WillEngler 5y ago
Can anyone in the know compare and contrast bespoke's feature set with Max for Live? (https://www.ableton.com/en/live/max-for-live/ https://www.ableton.com/en/live/max-for-live/) It also has a circuit diagram-ish UI and supports scripting with Node. Put another way, does Ableton already offer Ableton smashed to bits with a baseball bat? (fwiw, you have to pay for the $1k suite version of Ableton to get Max, so Bespoke could still be a great alternative even if they do a lot of the same things)
- andrewmg 5y ago
  Standalone Max is available for $10 / month.[0] And the similar Pure Data is open source.[1] [0] https://cycling74.com/shop https://cycling74.com/shop [1] https://puredata.info https://puredata.info
- zwegner 5y ago
  I only found out about Bespoke a few minutes ago, but I will say using Max as a programmer can be incredibly frustrating. I've made a handful of nontrivial M4L devices and have run up into tons of weird decisions, limitations, bugs, and plenty of Ableton crashes. (Caveat: this information in this post is mostly from a couple years ago and might be out of date, I haven't gotten the latest Ableton) The JS support is really weird. It's only JS 1.6 (from 2005), and had weird glitches (like loading two instances of the same device causing the first device to stop working), and I couldn't get the timing tighter than about 30ms. Ideally you could write code that runs at audio rate. There's also "gen", which is a Max-specific scripting language that is presumably real-time suitable through a JIT. Unfortunately you need a separate Max license to use it, even the full Ableton Live Suite doesn't give you gen support. You can sorta hack around and use it by manually editing the .maxpat files (which are almost JSON), copying from a device that uses gen, but there are lots of weird glitches going this route. A list of a few annoying things about M4L: * Documentation is pretty sparse and/or low quality, and weirdly split into two (help and references). * All variables are global across devices by default, local (device-specific) variables need the prefix "---", which is barely documented * Tons of annoying UX issues, like entering an invalid value in the inspector just reverts to the old value. You can't enter an empty string for parameter values, that reverts too (you need to enter a literal ""). Certain functionality is only available depending on whether the device is "locked", so you have to lock/unlock the view all the time if you're working with e.g. subpatchers * Abstraction is quite annoying to do. There's three different types of patches, and it's not really clear what the difference is between them. Creating subpatches and then duplicating them creates two different subpatches--changes in one are not shared with others. * ...and a ton of other things. I have a big text document of these gripes I was intending to turn into a blog post, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I'm wrong and there's better ways to do some of these things, but overall my experience learning M4L was pretty bad. If it wasn't the only way to do certain advanced things in Ableton, I'd never touch it again.
serverholic 5y ago
One thing I'd love to see in a DAW someday is houdini-like functionality. It'd be cool if there was this node-based environment that went a step further than just generating sound and could generate midi clips, automation clips, etc. and have it integrated into the DAW. Like you could see what was generated in the arrangement view.
- mejutoco 5y ago
  Sounds a lot like Bitwig‘s grid. https://www.bitwig.com/learnings/getting-around-in-the-grid-39/ https://www.bitwig.com/learnings/getting-around-in-the-grid-...
- jcelerier 5y ago
  The sequencer I'm working on, https://ossia.io https://ossia.io, has a plug-in API which allows that. But no interesting "meta-creation" plug-ins so far for it ^^' at some point I'd like to provide primitive composition-like tools like some of the OpenMusic objects for instance, and there has been work towards e.g. segmenting a sound file with audio improvisation algorithms by an intern.
- gavinray 5y ago
  You can do this with scripts or native extensions in REAPER https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/reascript/reascript.php https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/plugin/plugin.php
diskzero 5y ago
I like it, I bought it! Lot's of nice features and a tweaky graph UI. Added bonus for implementing the "kissing nodes" connection idiom. I would love see more prefabs, especially ones designed to emulate some classics synths. It also might be time to add undo. Everyone (especially me) likes to save it for last. Keep up the good work!
fivre 5y ago
damn, the audio wave visualization on the wires in the thing that's like the Bitwig grid editor is just BRILLIANT. probably would be a bit much in a complex finished instrument but that's amazingly intuitive for the building phase, or for reading someone else's instrument. i wish there a way to translate old Reaktor library stuff into more modern synth GUIs. there's some amazing gold in there but it is nigh impossible to understand between Reaktor's uh... challenging UI and the total lack of documentation for the signal paths to try and explain them to a relative novice. you can very easily see _what's_ built, but god help you try to understand why on your own without adding a ton of scopes everywhere manually
- mortenjorck 5y ago
  The oscilloscope-as-wire idea is one of those rare ideas that seems obvious in hindsight, yet no one (to my knowledge) has done it before, at least in a box-and-pin UI. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it start popping up elsewhere, similar to how Ableton made everyone realize they had somehow been living without retrospective MIDI capture.
  - ioseph 5y ago
    Not quite the same but I love the way the ports in VCV Rack are LED's who's intensity changes with the signal voltage, really makes debugging at a glance easier.
    - bouvin 5y ago
      This, I believe, was something introduced by Expert Sleepers in their Eurorack modules. That was certainly the first place I saw it.
  - awwbees 5y ago
    hey! I'm the guy who developed bespoke. I too thought that the waveform-in-wire thing was original, but a few years after I put it in, I realized that I had subconsciously stolen it from ReacTable. there's nothing new under the sun, everything is a remix! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgy1S8qymx0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgy1S8qymx0
detay 5y ago
Genius work. There are real UX gems here, very intuitive.
MrScruff 5y ago
So this is of course very cool, but I would say that one of the main appeals of a hardware modular is the tactile nature of it. It feels very different to experiment with vs plugging virtual cables in software.
- fivre 5y ago
  Modern MIDI controllers are quite flexible in that regard. Stuff like https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block-studio-edition https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block-studio-editi... https://artiphon.com/pages/instrument1 https://artiphon.com/pages/instrument1 are designed such that you can easily assign fine-grained inputs on the controller to whatever software parameter you like. Traditional modular required you build a lot of things you'd expect from a physical instrument incrementally, and there's some interesting music that comes from that alone, but it's a real joy to have something you can use to construct, say, lifelike vibrato that responds to multidimensional inputs, without a shitton of work. much more cost-effective too. you can use a single $300 controller and software to make the same shit that'd require several discrete multi-grand dollar setups if fully implemented in hardware
  - MrScruff 5y ago
    Yes, this is where I came from. I spent a great deal of time building stuff in Reaktor/Max and software is still useful for some things. However dedicated hardware (which granted is an expensive hobby) wins on intangibles like happy accidents, touch and feel, muscle memory. It feels less like working with a computer and more like experimenting in an audio laboratory. I think with instruments it’s more about what keeps you in the creative flow than anything else. At least for me hardware has been 10x more productive than software in terms of actually making music.
ericfrederich 5y ago
Never seen this warning from Windows before. Happened when I tried to download this .msi Windows protected your PC Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk. App: Bespoke-Windows.msi Publisher: Unknown publisher
- mastazi 5y ago
  It's quite a common sight if you often download installers from smaller publishers. On MacOs you get similar warnings (even though Mac "notarization"[1] works differently compared to Windows certification[2]) Obviously it's up to you if you want to consider the application trusted or not. My rule of thumb for open source projects is that I trust them if they have lots of "stars", and Bespoke has 1.2k https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/ https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/ (but I'm not suggesting you follow the same rule, I'm not responsible for anything that happens etc. etc.) [1] https://developer.apple.com/developer-id/ https://developer.apple.com/developer-id/ [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/win_cert/windows-certification-portal https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/win_cert/wind... (edit: added links to Mac notarizing / Windows certification guides)
gtvwill 5y ago
Linked it to a mate...he had a wee geez :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFcGtq_dM8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFcGtq_dM8k
mastazi 5y ago
While I have used modern DAWs in recent years, the music making tool I've used the most was Jeskola Buzz[1], it's a weird mix of music tracker[1] and modular setup[2] (but not modular in the same way a modular synth works, you connect "machines" such as sequencer->generator->effect->[more effects]->mixer). This was when I was a "poor" student and I couldn't spend money on music. Later I could afford real modular/semi-modular synths and I enjoy them a lot but I still appreciate being able to connect cables on a screen where you can save the state and rapidly recall it, rather than having to free up a table, setup all the modular synths, connect them together etc. - So I think I'm going to enjoy Bespoke Synth a lot. Another alternative that I have enjoyed is VCV Rack[3] and its little brother for iPad/iPhone miRack[4]. PS I loved the "Feature Matrix" on the Bespoke home page ahah :-D [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker [3] https://vcvrack.com/ https://vcvrack.com/ [4] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mirack/id1468259834 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mirack/id1468259834
- oidar 5y ago
  Buzz was my first "DAW" too. I immediately thought this kinda looked like what the buzz patching area might look like had development continued to now. I'm on mac now, but the thing that reminds me of Buzz the most currently is SunVox which is free. I haven't played with it in ages, mainly b/c I use live now. Did you spend any time in the tracker communities when Buzz was around? I was on em411 in various guises. Nothing like that community online now - too much noise everywhere.
  - mastazi 5y ago
    I have tried SunVox on the iPad, it's a very nice application. On tracker websites I used to be mastazi just like my HN username, but I never released my own music I think. However I made a CD and gave it to friends, I might still have a copy somewhere at my parents' home in Italy. That's the only memory I have, because I lost all of my Buzz project files in a HD failure many years ago. The modern web is different from what we have back then, but if you look hard enough you can still find corners of the web that look familiar :-)
ChuckMcM 5y ago
This is awesome! It looks a bit like the love child between Visio and GNU Radio Companion re-spun for audio frequencies :-). I found the explainer video linked to the github repo[1] as a good way to figure out what its doing. [1] https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth
Aeolun 5y ago
This is very similar to a modular synth that I used in university.
tomcam 5y ago
Bought it based on the feature matrix, which is worth $15 for honesty\comedic value alone. Probably no time actually to use it
- onionisafruit 5y ago
  > Probably no time actually to use it That describes every music related purchase I’ve made in the past 20 years. I’m glad I’ve done a small part to support some creative people, but aside from that I’ve got a bunch of pedals I’ve used once.
- raffraffraff 5y ago
  Haha. I love that. Fuck it I'm gonna buy it too! I played piano for 9 years as a child, and then stopped when I went to college (because no piano). But I taught myself to play guitar in (boredom + found guitar and music know-how). But I'm in my mid 40s now and have done very little musically in 20 years. I really really really want to play more music, but I'll probably end up saying that on my deathbed (in past tense). Maybe downloading this thing and plugging a guitar or piano up to a computer will change that.
  - OhHiMarkos 5y ago
    I'm in the exact same situation as you (played piano for years, then stopped, and now want to get back to it). The only difference is that I have a few keyboards at my disposal, but again, I don't touch them... I need to get back at playing and creating music.
Amir6 5y ago
I love the pricing scheme! I would certainly be paying for the top tier if I were a user. Good luck
MadWombat 5y ago
Paid my $15. Great effort. A bit cryptic, but a nice deviation from a standard DAW experience. A bit weird how a lot of things you would expect to be separate modules are combined (like LFOs are created by right clicking on parameters and filters are buried somewhere under "effect chain" module. Naming is a tad weird as well. LFO is LFO, but VCO is a sig gen. I get that it is not really "voltage controlled" but it has been an industry standard naming for decades. I will definitely play more with it and hope it matures.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  Inside of similar-ish computer environments (CSound, SuperCollider, Chuck, PureData), these things have been known as "gens" (short for generator) for at least as long as [ EDIT: digital synthesis ] has existed (since it dates back to Max Miller and the origin of the MusicN language family). [ I edited it because I realized that VCO's actually go back to about 1910 ]
adultSwim 5y ago
It looks like the Linux Makefile is included in .gitignore Linux build instructions would be great. I wasn't able to get the binary running on Debian 11 due to library version differences.
- makeworld 5y ago
  Not sure how to get it running on Arch Linux either. Opened an issue for this: https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/issues/108 https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/issues/108
sydthrowaway 5y ago
How do GUI DAW's compare against pure code approaches? Are there any artists today working with pure code?
- chefandy 5y ago
  Surely there are some— every artist has a different process. But I doubt there are many. I'm less of an audio artist than a visual artist (which I do professionally to some extent) but I imagine the reasons are similar to why few people make visual art using scripts and imagemagick or some similar workflow. Most creative output is birthed in a more freeform state of play, to some extent, rather than being reasoned about and assembled like code. Coding itself can be playful, but when your goal is expressing emotions and ideas in art, having to pipe that through a rigid, logical process is much less expressive than grabbing something, even a virtual something, and making some sort of gesture with it. So unless you're trying to express something algorithmic, code is a layer of abstraction that operates in a very different way with persnickety bounds that just aren't useful in most creative expression. I've done generative design using action script in Photoshop and made some really cool algorithmic photo collages, but even as a long-time developer, the frequency with which I think "this could look cool if I set up a function to do it like this" is pretty rare.
  - sydthrowaway 5y ago
    Interesting perspective. I also think of OpenSCAD vs a tool like Solidworke. The latter is far more popular
    - chefandy 5y ago
      Even then I'd say the difference is less extreme. When I'm designing physical objects, my free-wheeling creative energies will largely be expended during the sketching phase, and when I'm in the CAD phase, that's more like coding— it's more about getting things to line up, be the proper dimension, etc. In music or visual art, what you're creating is the expressive end product, not a precisely crafted representation of the end product. Then again, I'm not architect or mechanical engineer so maybe that's different for different folks.
peterfield 5y ago
One more tool to play with - cool. https://non.tuxfamily.org/ https://non.tuxfamily.org/ http://openavproductions.com/ http://openavproductions.com/ https://kx.studio/Applications https://kx.studio/Applications https://www.renoise.com/ https://www.renoise.com/ https://www.giadamusic.com/ https://www.giadamusic.com/ https://github.com/jackaudio/new-session-manager https://github.com/jackaudio/new-session-manager
- molotovbliss 5y ago
  Avid tracker musician here from days past. ReNoise, is one of the purchased license holders I'm proud to promote. +ReNoise Also, add this to your list. :-) * https://www.kvraudio.com/product/4klang-by-alcatraz https://www.kvraudio.com/product/4klang-by-alcatraz
  - molotovbliss 5y ago
    http://4klang.untergrund.net/ http://4klang.untergrund.net/ specific details about 4klang for those curious.
- officeplant 5y ago
  Renoise is forever the best bang for my buck I've ever gotten out of a DAW.
- yojo 5y ago
  Reminded me of SunVox: https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
- bodge5000 5y ago
  Renoise has been my "daily driver" for a good number of years now, but I'm looking at getting into more modular or programming (like live coding, but without the live bit) stuff as I want to be doing more generative stuff. Still, can 100% recommend renoise for what it is, and more, and I doubt I'll ever fully stop using it
  - 5y ago
grae_QED 5y ago
>five fewer dollars in your pocket >fifteen fewer dollars in your pocket Definitely gave me a chuckle
- bambax 5y ago
  Funny, but incorrect? Bespoke Plus is $5 and Pro is $15; there should be no check in the $5 line for Pro, OR if both lines are checked, the second line should be $10 and not $15. As it is it means Pro is $5+$15=$20.
  - Lurkars 5y ago
    It depends a bit on interpretation: if you pay 15, you of course have also 5 fewer in your pocket, so the 5 fewer can be included in the 15 fewer, than it's correct.
  - y4mi 5y ago
    i disagree. what you propose wouldn't make sense in my opinion, as its basically two consecutive boolean declaration $5 less = pocket - paid <= pocket - 5 $15 less = pocket - paid <= pocket - 15
  - boomlinde 5y ago
    $15 less in the pocket is at least $5 less in the pocket.
  - mekkkkkk 5y ago
    const originalDollars = 30; const myDollars = originalDollars - 15; const fiveDollarsLess = myDollars <= (originalDollars - 5); const fifteenDollarsLess = myDollars <= (originalDollars - 15); console.log(fifteenDollarsLess && fiveDollarsLess); // true
  - bambax 5y ago
    Replies and downvotes mark a strong disagreement. So okay, my interpretation is not mainstream, but I still think it's a possible interpretation. The difference in interpretation comes from the nature of "features": are they actions or verifications? A verification is (usually) idempotent / has no consequence on the state of the world, but an action isn't. I read the lines as "takes $x from your pocket".
lunarpunk 5y ago
Incredibly cool. What is the visualisation in the background called?
qwertox 5y ago
17 MB installer... I've just installed it and wanted to try this Python live-coding but it crashes when loading the example file. This looks all so promising, it could well be what I've been waiting for for years.
bravura 5y ago
Is there a headless mode, for synthesizing sounds and performing FX, from an API? Or is this like 99.9% of music software that the authors assume only a human will be the user? I've been doing research on music AI, inverse synthesis, and the like, and shockingly few open-source software packages were usable for creating training sets.
- chrislo 5y ago
  There's a scripting interface[1] which might help you do some of what you want, but I'm not sure if patches can be run headless. If you haven't seen them already, SuperCollider, Chuck, PD, Faust and/or the Web Audio API might be better suited to generating training sets in an offline fashion. [1]
bodge5000 5y ago
modular + live coding in a single environment sounds fantastic! To be honest even just another modular based DAW excites me at the moment, VCV is fantastic but like with traditional DAWs theres many different ways to break an egg
Adduh 5y ago
I love the business model!
sigg3 5y ago
As a total amateur this is mind-blowing :D Can't wait to play around with it!
jmaclabs 5y ago
I'm sorry I'm late to this 10 year project - but I'm glad I'm here now. Congrats on the 1.0.0 release!
davidandgoliath 5y ago
Friday, please come sooner.
themusicgod1 5y ago
It's NSA/Microsoft walled garden only. This isn't open source - github does not count as open source.
- Splendor 5y ago
  You're using the term "walled garden" incorrectly. A public repository is the opposite of a closed ecosystem.

745 points by paulshen 5y ago

This looks very interesting, checking it out now (download links were broken, but I found releases on github). For people new to this type of software, definitely also check out VCV Rack for a more skeuomorphic take on open source software modular.

marcodiego 5y ago

Love the feature matrix.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
"Five dollars less in your pocket". Brilliant!

Jenz 5y ago

Haha this is the most amazing feature matrix I've ever seen. On a more serious note, modular music is an extremely interesting and growing area and just about every module is surprisingly expensive; I'm curious to how well this translates to virtual racks.

41209 5y ago
Agreed. That alone makes me want to donate. Can it work as a VST plugin ?
- yellowapple 5y ago
  If there's a plugin version of this I can see it giving ZynAddSubFx a run for its money in my workflow.
  - 41209 5y ago
    It's GPL so you can always create your own. I wouldn't mind feature bounties for a project like this.
quantified 5y ago
Pricing plan you can understand!
armchairhacker 5y ago
I've never heard about modular music, but I know must VSTs are extremely expensive. And they're expensive to even seriously try. I want to get into music production but a barrier is that Omnisphere and FL Studio are $500 and have a super-limited trial version. As a grad student I'm not going to spend $500 for a piece of software I might be interested in using. I would much rather have it be like software development where almost everything is free. And instead of paying upfront, synths / effects can make money by taking a cut of your revenue (I don't think that's like software development but it means synth producers still make revenue).
- munificent 5y ago
  Take a look at Reaper, VCV Rack, Surge, Tyrell, Zebralette, Dexed, and Helm.
  - yummypaint 5y ago
    Second for vcv rack. Waveform free has been working well as a DAW for me recently, and it has a linux version.
  - peapicker 5y ago
    Of that list, Dexed is the only one appearing in my tracks regularly. This is because I’m more likely to use Serum, Massive, or Pigments for the other duties. But Dexed, especially after downloading many preset libraries, is freaking amazing in its DX7 early FM synthesis emulation.
  - chrislo 5y ago
    Vital[1] is fantastic, I've been using it a lot. https://vital.audio/ https://vital.audio/
- jasondoty 5y ago
  If you're not going to make money off it, my opinion is you can use cracked VSTs without any concerns of "is it right". In fact, as with a lot of pirated soft/media the experience is superior. Licensing and DRM of music software is a headache - dongles, software centers and other bloat. Scene groups like R2R even optimize performance and patch out bugs in addition to cracking protections, making their releases superior than that of the original developers. Otherwise have a look at Splice rent-to-own plugin licensing.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

pier25 5y ago

> In a way, Bespoke is like if I smashed Ableton to bits with a baseball bat, and asked you to put it back together. LOL

rcarmo 5y ago

This seems awesome. I’ve been playing with Bitwig’s Grid and VCV Rack, and it looks like something else to explore.

smt923 5y ago

damn, I've been looking for something similar to Max/PPOOLL but more accessible (especially on windows/linux) after reading about Tim Hecker using it and this seems like it could get to that point

operatorius 5y ago
> reading about Tim Hecker using it hey could you please share the link where you've read that. Thanks!
- Minor49er 5y ago
  You can see it being used here at :22. The original title of this video is "Rewire - Studio Visit: Tim Hecker" https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.36240-6/10000000_966703663905085_1089689244937449956_n.mp4?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=985c63&efg=eyJybHIiOjI3MzYsInJsYSI6MTY0NywidmVuY29kZV90YWciOiJvZXBfaGQifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ohc=3RDE0onCgV8AX-aiOg5&rl=2736&vabr=1824&_nc_ht=scontent-frt3-1.xx&edm=AGo2L-IEAAAA&oh=89425d47a02770c8d7fe12d3d81b790d&oe=6146730E https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.36240-6/10000000_...
- smt923 5y ago
  the other link has a little, it's kinda just something i've seen around in different places when I was super curious about his music and how you'd produce stuff like that, specific ones I can find right now are in random threads[1] and in a red bull music interview he talks about it a tiny bit[2] [1] https://llllllll.co/t/ppooll-max-msp-networking-system/28352 https://llllllll.co/t/ppooll-max-msp-networking-system/28352 [2] https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/tim-hecker-lecture https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/tim-hecker-lect... (ctrl f for "P-P-O-O-L-L")
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> I've been looking for something similar to Max/PPOOLL That would probably be PureData.
- smt923 5y ago

112233 5y ago

Is there a modular audio environment like vcv/reaktor/max, where I could plug stuff together by typing text, instrad of mousing pips? I honestly tried to get into pd, but it felt like typing book using the character map.

kleer001 5y ago
Second vocal vote for that. It'd make it a more powerful tool and be less of a pain at the same time. Or at the very least some kind of remedial hot key navigation would be great too.
premek 5y ago
sonic pi is not exactly like modular but easier than pd
- lgas 5y ago
  If you like Haskell you might like Tidal Cycles[1] and if you like Clojure you might like Overtone[2]. [1] https://tidalcycles.org/ https://tidalcycles.org/ [2] https://overtone.github.io/ https://overtone.github.io/
premek 5y ago
there's also ChucK https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/doc/language/ https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/doc/language/
yata69420 5y ago
There's quite a few actually. The term is "live coding". Supercollider sounds like what you're after. You can even use vim :) https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music here's a list of related stuff
- dewert 5y ago
  Saw a good talk at PyCon a couple of years ago about FoxDot, which is a wrapper around SuperCollider. Bit foggy on the details now, but it seemed like a good place to start.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

thenberlin 5y ago

This is incredibly cool. Looking forward to loading it up. Reminds me a bit of Reaktor's builder environment, but based on that demo video, it seems like a more useable, better thought out version (and you can't beat that price / feature matrix).

Lucasoato 5y ago

I'm a software developer right now but I've worked with DAWs as a producer for more than 5 years. You can't even imagine how frustrating is working with Digital Audio Workstation. One messy plug-in and you can lose hours and hours of work. Preset management is a nightmare, there are so many things that they could do to go forward, but the Sequencer market is stall and hasn't moved in years. Imagine if they applied something similar to a git versioning system to music projects.... I don't even know if the VST interface can be used or if it's licensed somehow from Steinberg. Also consider that there are no good audio drivers for Linux (like Asio for example) so you're almost forced to stay in windows or Mac... No plug-in or DAW has a CLI... I could go on for hours... I'm doing some digital audio processing for a startup idea and the only thing I've came up with is using sox trough a Python API.

xbpx 5y ago
Since you're a software dev you may have explored supercollider and other environments where you can employ great tools. I've been looking for a hybrid UI/UX + Audio programming environment that would combine the freedom of code with the visual cues of a DAW but haven't found the ideal fit. So far I've been rolling my own with cl-collider, a common lisp client for Supercollider which uses some lisp tricks (macros) to good effect.
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> Also consider that there are no good audio drivers for Linux (like Asio for example) so you're almost forced to stay in windows or Mac... This is false. > Imagine if they applied something similar to a git versioning system to music projects. People have done this. Using git itself is a little problematic because it is very line-oriented and most project file formats for DAWs are not. Regarding plugins, I know that I'm not the only lead developer of a DAW who, if they possibly could, would refuse to support plugins entirely. The problem is that most users want more functionality than a DAW itself could feasibly provide (they also sometimes like to use the same functionality (plugin) in different DAWs or different workflows). There are things close to DAW functionality that have a CLI (such as ecasound). You can also run plugins from the command line by using standalone plugin hosts. You can use oscsend(1) to control plugins inside several different plugin hosts. It sounds to me as if you've worked with a relatively small number of DAWs on only Windows and macOS and are not really aware of the breadth or depth of the "field".

_eLRIC 5y ago

Discovered a few days ago another nice music studio of the same kind that I really liked : Sunvox https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ I'll have to try Bespoke as well ...

tlhunter 5y ago
Bespoke has some definite SunVox UI vibes going on.
jay-anderson 5y ago
Sunvox was my first thought as well. Watching the intro video it seems in bespoke the modules' internals are more visible. Though it's missing the sequencer portion compared with sunvox.

squarefoot 5y ago

Very interesting. A possible improvement could be some "knob linkable objects" (can't imagine the correct name) that could be tied to analog inputs (GPIOs, ADC connected to i2c or USB, etc). The purpose would be to be able to modify certain parameters live on the fly, should anyone want to create a physical synth out of this software and a *PI like small SBC. Also, I like a lot the way it links inputs and outputs just by dragging the mouse. Does anyone know if there is any general purpose library to do that? I mean, Ideally I create some list nodes, then use that library to link them in a certain order by using the mouse.

capableweb 5y ago
> Very interesting. A possible improvement could be some "knob linkable objects" (can't imagine the correct name) that could be tied to analog inputs (GPIOs, ADC connected to i2c or USB, etc). The purpose would be to be able to modify certain parameters live on the fly, should anyone want to create a physical synth out of this software and a *PI like small SBC. This is usually called "MIDI mapping" or similar and is available in basically every DAW these days. > Also, I like a lot the way it links inputs and outputs just by dragging the mouse. Does anyone know if there is any general purpose library to do that? I mean, Ideally I create some list nodes, then use that library to link them in a certain order by using the mouse. Something like qjackctl (with Jack, obviously) could do this for you, as you can route things however you want in a drag-and-drop UI.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  > This is usually called "MIDI mapping" or similar and is available in basically every DAW these days. I'm aware of MIDI mapping, my question was about the possibility to make a stand alone sysnthesizer (with keyboard and knobs) in which the necessary controls would be read from analog inputs while still displaying them on the screen as if they were changed with the mouse, which is not easy to do when playing live. > Something like qjackctl (with Jack, obviously) could do this for you, as you can route things however you want in a drag-and-drop UI. Sorry, my second sentence wasn't clear at all. I'd love to see a general purpose (not related to sound or any other use) library to allow the graphical representation of structures links (list nodes) together as this software and others do with generators, effects, etc. Ideally, it should operate on the header of a structure which contains the relevant fields for linking to others. When I alter the links on the screen, it does the same on the represented nodes. That would be the way I would build for example a drum machine in which each structure contains also a pattern and I can move them at will back and forth, replicate them, set their own fields (number of repeats, etc). This would be again a sound related application, but what I'm looking for is something really general purpose.

ruph123 5y ago

Another instance where "Linux == Ubuntu". At least regarding the dependency install script which is just a bunch of "apt-get"s. Sad that it has come to this.

runjake 5y ago
Yeah, it's a bummer. But at least its a short install list [1] and its probably not too difficult to install the deps on your distro of choice and fire it up. 1. Deps: g++ libfreetype6-dev libx11-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev mesa-common-dev libasound2-dev freeglut3-dev libxcomposite-dev libcurl4 libusb-1.0-0-dev libgtk-3-dev python3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev libjack-dev
- tomxor 5y ago
  I'm running Debian 11 and it still doesn't run. Thought I'd try build it and... > Use the "Projucer" from https://juce.com/ https://juce.com/ to generate solutions/project files/makefiles for building on your platform. [0] eh? https://juce.com/get-juce https://juce.com/get-juce Is this really a FOSS project? [0] https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth
  - adultSwim 5y ago
    Projucer is GPL3, as is this project. I think it just needs a little better build instructions...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- fjfaase 5y ago
  I am running Ubuntu 18.04 and after having run the script, installing Python3.8 and running ldconfig, it still complains that 'libpython3.8.so.1.0' cannot be found.
5y ago

ejarzo 5y ago

Really well thought out interface, looks super easy to quickly make a bunch of edits -- The SHIFT+Touch to connect modules is nice and I love that you can always just export the last 30 minutes. Looks like a ton of work went into the documentation as well -- can't wait to dive in!

WillEngler 5y ago

Can anyone in the know compare and contrast bespoke's feature set with Max for Live? (https://www.ableton.com/en/live/max-for-live/ https://www.ableton.com/en/live/max-for-live/) It also has a circuit diagram-ish UI and supports scripting with Node. Put another way, does Ableton already offer Ableton smashed to bits with a baseball bat? (fwiw, you have to pay for the $1k suite version of Ableton to get Max, so Bespoke could still be a great alternative even if they do a lot of the same things)

andrewmg 5y ago
Standalone Max is available for $10 / month.[0] And the similar Pure Data is open source.[1] [0] https://cycling74.com/shop https://cycling74.com/shop [1] https://puredata.info https://puredata.info
zwegner 5y ago
I only found out about Bespoke a few minutes ago, but I will say using Max as a programmer can be incredibly frustrating. I've made a handful of nontrivial M4L devices and have run up into tons of weird decisions, limitations, bugs, and plenty of Ableton crashes. (Caveat: this information in this post is mostly from a couple years ago and might be out of date, I haven't gotten the latest Ableton) The JS support is really weird. It's only JS 1.6 (from 2005), and had weird glitches (like loading two instances of the same device causing the first device to stop working), and I couldn't get the timing tighter than about 30ms. Ideally you could write code that runs at audio rate. There's also "gen", which is a Max-specific scripting language that is presumably real-time suitable through a JIT. Unfortunately you need a separate Max license to use it, even the full Ableton Live Suite doesn't give you gen support. You can sorta hack around and use it by manually editing the .maxpat files (which are almost JSON), copying from a device that uses gen, but there are lots of weird glitches going this route. A list of a few annoying things about M4L: * Documentation is pretty sparse and/or low quality, and weirdly split into two (help and references). * All variables are global across devices by default, local (device-specific) variables need the prefix "---", which is barely documented * Tons of annoying UX issues, like entering an invalid value in the inspector just reverts to the old value. You can't enter an empty string for parameter values, that reverts too (you need to enter a literal ""). Certain functionality is only available depending on whether the device is "locked", so you have to lock/unlock the view all the time if you're working with e.g. subpatchers * Abstraction is quite annoying to do. There's three different types of patches, and it's not really clear what the difference is between them. Creating subpatches and then duplicating them creates two different subpatches--changes in one are not shared with others. * ...and a ton of other things. I have a big text document of these gripes I was intending to turn into a blog post, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I'm wrong and there's better ways to do some of these things, but overall my experience learning M4L was pretty bad. If it wasn't the only way to do certain advanced things in Ableton, I'd never touch it again.

serverholic 5y ago

One thing I'd love to see in a DAW someday is houdini-like functionality. It'd be cool if there was this node-based environment that went a step further than just generating sound and could generate midi clips, automation clips, etc. and have it integrated into the DAW. Like you could see what was generated in the arrangement view.

mejutoco 5y ago
Sounds a lot like Bitwig‘s grid. https://www.bitwig.com/learnings/getting-around-in-the-grid-39/ https://www.bitwig.com/learnings/getting-around-in-the-grid-...
jcelerier 5y ago
The sequencer I'm working on, https://ossia.io https://ossia.io, has a plug-in API which allows that. But no interesting "meta-creation" plug-ins so far for it ^^' at some point I'd like to provide primitive composition-like tools like some of the OpenMusic objects for instance, and there has been work towards e.g. segmenting a sound file with audio improvisation algorithms by an intern.
gavinray 5y ago
You can do this with scripts or native extensions in REAPER https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/reascript/reascript.php https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/plugin/plugin.php

diskzero 5y ago

I like it, I bought it! Lot's of nice features and a tweaky graph UI. Added bonus for implementing the "kissing nodes" connection idiom. I would love see more prefabs, especially ones designed to emulate some classics synths. It also might be time to add undo. Everyone (especially me) likes to save it for last. Keep up the good work!

fivre 5y ago

damn, the audio wave visualization on the wires in the thing that's like the Bitwig grid editor is just BRILLIANT. probably would be a bit much in a complex finished instrument but that's amazingly intuitive for the building phase, or for reading someone else's instrument. i wish there a way to translate old Reaktor library stuff into more modern synth GUIs. there's some amazing gold in there but it is nigh impossible to understand between Reaktor's uh... challenging UI and the total lack of documentation for the signal paths to try and explain them to a relative novice. you can very easily see _what's_ built, but god help you try to understand why on your own without adding a ton of scopes everywhere manually

mortenjorck 5y ago
The oscilloscope-as-wire idea is one of those rare ideas that seems obvious in hindsight, yet no one (to my knowledge) has done it before, at least in a box-and-pin UI. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it start popping up elsewhere, similar to how Ableton made everyone realize they had somehow been living without retrospective MIDI capture.
- ioseph 5y ago
  Not quite the same but I love the way the ports in VCV Rack are LED's who's intensity changes with the signal voltage, really makes debugging at a glance easier.
  - bouvin 5y ago
    This, I believe, was something introduced by Expert Sleepers in their Eurorack modules. That was certainly the first place I saw it.
- awwbees 5y ago
  hey! I'm the guy who developed bespoke. I too thought that the waveform-in-wire thing was original, but a few years after I put it in, I realized that I had subconsciously stolen it from ReacTable. there's nothing new under the sun, everything is a remix! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgy1S8qymx0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgy1S8qymx0

detay 5y ago

Genius work. There are real UX gems here, very intuitive.

MrScruff 5y ago

So this is of course very cool, but I would say that one of the main appeals of a hardware modular is the tactile nature of it. It feels very different to experiment with vs plugging virtual cables in software.

fivre 5y ago
Modern MIDI controllers are quite flexible in that regard. Stuff like https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block-studio-edition https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block-studio-editi... https://artiphon.com/pages/instrument1 https://artiphon.com/pages/instrument1 are designed such that you can easily assign fine-grained inputs on the controller to whatever software parameter you like. Traditional modular required you build a lot of things you'd expect from a physical instrument incrementally, and there's some interesting music that comes from that alone, but it's a real joy to have something you can use to construct, say, lifelike vibrato that responds to multidimensional inputs, without a shitton of work. much more cost-effective too. you can use a single $300 controller and software to make the same shit that'd require several discrete multi-grand dollar setups if fully implemented in hardware
- MrScruff 5y ago
  Yes, this is where I came from. I spent a great deal of time building stuff in Reaktor/Max and software is still useful for some things. However dedicated hardware (which granted is an expensive hobby) wins on intangibles like happy accidents, touch and feel, muscle memory. It feels less like working with a computer and more like experimenting in an audio laboratory. I think with instruments it’s more about what keeps you in the creative flow than anything else. At least for me hardware has been 10x more productive than software in terms of actually making music.

ericfrederich 5y ago

Never seen this warning from Windows before. Happened when I tried to download this .msi Windows protected your PC Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk. App: Bespoke-Windows.msi Publisher: Unknown publisher

mastazi 5y ago
It's quite a common sight if you often download installers from smaller publishers. On MacOs you get similar warnings (even though Mac "notarization"[1] works differently compared to Windows certification[2]) Obviously it's up to you if you want to consider the application trusted or not. My rule of thumb for open source projects is that I trust them if they have lots of "stars", and Bespoke has 1.2k https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/ https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/ (but I'm not suggesting you follow the same rule, I'm not responsible for anything that happens etc. etc.) [1] https://developer.apple.com/developer-id/ https://developer.apple.com/developer-id/ [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/win_cert/windows-certification-portal https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/win_cert/wind... (edit: added links to Mac notarizing / Windows certification guides)

gtvwill 5y ago

Linked it to a mate...he had a wee geez :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFcGtq_dM8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFcGtq_dM8k

mastazi 5y ago

While I have used modern DAWs in recent years, the music making tool I've used the most was Jeskola Buzz[1], it's a weird mix of music tracker[1] and modular setup[2] (but not modular in the same way a modular synth works, you connect "machines" such as sequencer->generator->effect->[more effects]->mixer). This was when I was a "poor" student and I couldn't spend money on music. Later I could afford real modular/semi-modular synths and I enjoy them a lot but I still appreciate being able to connect cables on a screen where you can save the state and rapidly recall it, rather than having to free up a table, setup all the modular synths, connect them together etc. - So I think I'm going to enjoy Bespoke Synth a lot. Another alternative that I have enjoyed is VCV Rack[3] and its little brother for iPad/iPhone miRack[4]. PS I loved the "Feature Matrix" on the Bespoke home page ahah :-D [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker [3] https://vcvrack.com/ https://vcvrack.com/ [4] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mirack/id1468259834 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mirack/id1468259834

oidar 5y ago
Buzz was my first "DAW" too. I immediately thought this kinda looked like what the buzz patching area might look like had development continued to now. I'm on mac now, but the thing that reminds me of Buzz the most currently is SunVox which is free. I haven't played with it in ages, mainly b/c I use live now. Did you spend any time in the tracker communities when Buzz was around? I was on em411 in various guises. Nothing like that community online now - too much noise everywhere.
- mastazi 5y ago
  I have tried SunVox on the iPad, it's a very nice application. On tracker websites I used to be mastazi just like my HN username, but I never released my own music I think. However I made a CD and gave it to friends, I might still have a copy somewhere at my parents' home in Italy. That's the only memory I have, because I lost all of my Buzz project files in a HD failure many years ago. The modern web is different from what we have back then, but if you look hard enough you can still find corners of the web that look familiar :-)

ChuckMcM 5y ago

This is awesome! It looks a bit like the love child between Visio and GNU Radio Companion re-spun for audio frequencies :-). I found the explainer video linked to the github repo[1] as a good way to figure out what its doing. [1] https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth

Aeolun 5y ago

This is very similar to a modular synth that I used in university.

tomcam 5y ago

Bought it based on the feature matrix, which is worth $15 for honesty\comedic value alone. Probably no time actually to use it

onionisafruit 5y ago
> Probably no time actually to use it That describes every music related purchase I’ve made in the past 20 years. I’m glad I’ve done a small part to support some creative people, but aside from that I’ve got a bunch of pedals I’ve used once.
raffraffraff 5y ago
Haha. I love that. Fuck it I'm gonna buy it too! I played piano for 9 years as a child, and then stopped when I went to college (because no piano). But I taught myself to play guitar in (boredom + found guitar and music know-how). But I'm in my mid 40s now and have done very little musically in 20 years. I really really really want to play more music, but I'll probably end up saying that on my deathbed (in past tense). Maybe downloading this thing and plugging a guitar or piano up to a computer will change that.
- OhHiMarkos 5y ago
  I'm in the exact same situation as you (played piano for years, then stopped, and now want to get back to it). The only difference is that I have a few keyboards at my disposal, but again, I don't touch them... I need to get back at playing and creating music.

Amir6 5y ago

I love the pricing scheme! I would certainly be paying for the top tier if I were a user. Good luck

MadWombat 5y ago

Paid my $15. Great effort. A bit cryptic, but a nice deviation from a standard DAW experience. A bit weird how a lot of things you would expect to be separate modules are combined (like LFOs are created by right clicking on parameters and filters are buried somewhere under "effect chain" module. Naming is a tad weird as well. LFO is LFO, but VCO is a sig gen. I get that it is not really "voltage controlled" but it has been an industry standard naming for decades. I will definitely play more with it and hope it matures.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Inside of similar-ish computer environments (CSound, SuperCollider, Chuck, PureData), these things have been known as "gens" (short for generator) for at least as long as [ EDIT: digital synthesis ] has existed (since it dates back to Max Miller and the origin of the MusicN language family). [ I edited it because I realized that VCO's actually go back to about 1910 ]

adultSwim 5y ago

It looks like the Linux Makefile is included in .gitignore Linux build instructions would be great. I wasn't able to get the binary running on Debian 11 due to library version differences.

makeworld 5y ago
Not sure how to get it running on Arch Linux either. Opened an issue for this: https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/issues/108 https://github.com/awwbees/BespokeSynth/issues/108

sydthrowaway 5y ago

How do GUI DAW's compare against pure code approaches? Are there any artists today working with pure code?

chefandy 5y ago
Surely there are some— every artist has a different process. But I doubt there are many. I'm less of an audio artist than a visual artist (which I do professionally to some extent) but I imagine the reasons are similar to why few people make visual art using scripts and imagemagick or some similar workflow. Most creative output is birthed in a more freeform state of play, to some extent, rather than being reasoned about and assembled like code. Coding itself can be playful, but when your goal is expressing emotions and ideas in art, having to pipe that through a rigid, logical process is much less expressive than grabbing something, even a virtual something, and making some sort of gesture with it. So unless you're trying to express something algorithmic, code is a layer of abstraction that operates in a very different way with persnickety bounds that just aren't useful in most creative expression. I've done generative design using action script in Photoshop and made some really cool algorithmic photo collages, but even as a long-time developer, the frequency with which I think "this could look cool if I set up a function to do it like this" is pretty rare.
- sydthrowaway 5y ago
  Interesting perspective. I also think of OpenSCAD vs a tool like Solidworke. The latter is far more popular
  - chefandy 5y ago
    Even then I'd say the difference is less extreme. When I'm designing physical objects, my free-wheeling creative energies will largely be expended during the sketching phase, and when I'm in the CAD phase, that's more like coding— it's more about getting things to line up, be the proper dimension, etc. In music or visual art, what you're creating is the expressive end product, not a precisely crafted representation of the end product. Then again, I'm not architect or mechanical engineer so maybe that's different for different folks.

peterfield 5y ago

One more tool to play with - cool. https://non.tuxfamily.org/ https://non.tuxfamily.org/ http://openavproductions.com/ http://openavproductions.com/ https://kx.studio/Applications https://kx.studio/Applications https://www.renoise.com/ https://www.renoise.com/ https://www.giadamusic.com/ https://www.giadamusic.com/ https://github.com/jackaudio/new-session-manager https://github.com/jackaudio/new-session-manager

molotovbliss 5y ago
Avid tracker musician here from days past. ReNoise, is one of the purchased license holders I'm proud to promote. +ReNoise Also, add this to your list. :-) * https://www.kvraudio.com/product/4klang-by-alcatraz https://www.kvraudio.com/product/4klang-by-alcatraz
- molotovbliss 5y ago
  http://4klang.untergrund.net/ http://4klang.untergrund.net/ specific details about 4klang for those curious.
officeplant 5y ago
Renoise is forever the best bang for my buck I've ever gotten out of a DAW.
yojo 5y ago
Reminded me of SunVox: https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
bodge5000 5y ago
Renoise has been my "daily driver" for a good number of years now, but I'm looking at getting into more modular or programming (like live coding, but without the live bit) stuff as I want to be doing more generative stuff. Still, can 100% recommend renoise for what it is, and more, and I doubt I'll ever fully stop using it
- 5y ago

grae_QED 5y ago

>five fewer dollars in your pocket >fifteen fewer dollars in your pocket Definitely gave me a chuckle

bambax 5y ago
Funny, but incorrect? Bespoke Plus is $5 and Pro is $15; there should be no check in the $5 line for Pro, OR if both lines are checked, the second line should be $10 and not $15. As it is it means Pro is $5+$15=$20.
- Lurkars 5y ago
  It depends a bit on interpretation: if you pay 15, you of course have also 5 fewer in your pocket, so the 5 fewer can be included in the 15 fewer, than it's correct.
- y4mi 5y ago
  i disagree. what you propose wouldn't make sense in my opinion, as its basically two consecutive boolean declaration $5 less = pocket - paid <= pocket - 5 $15 less = pocket - paid <= pocket - 15
- boomlinde 5y ago
  $15 less in the pocket is at least $5 less in the pocket.
- mekkkkkk 5y ago
  const originalDollars = 30; const myDollars = originalDollars - 15; const fiveDollarsLess = myDollars <= (originalDollars - 5); const fifteenDollarsLess = myDollars <= (originalDollars - 15); console.log(fifteenDollarsLess && fiveDollarsLess); // true
- bambax 5y ago
  Replies and downvotes mark a strong disagreement. So okay, my interpretation is not mainstream, but I still think it's a possible interpretation. The difference in interpretation comes from the nature of "features": are they actions or verifications? A verification is (usually) idempotent / has no consequence on the state of the world, but an action isn't. I read the lines as "takes $x from your pocket".

lunarpunk 5y ago

Incredibly cool. What is the visualisation in the background called?

qwertox 5y ago

17 MB installer... I've just installed it and wanted to try this Python live-coding but it crashes when loading the example file. This looks all so promising, it could well be what I've been waiting for for years.

bravura 5y ago

Is there a headless mode, for synthesizing sounds and performing FX, from an API? Or is this like 99.9% of music software that the authors assume only a human will be the user? I've been doing research on music AI, inverse synthesis, and the like, and shockingly few open-source software packages were usable for creating training sets.

chrislo 5y ago
There's a scripting interface[1] which might help you do some of what you want, but I'm not sure if patches can be run headless. If you haven't seen them already, SuperCollider, Chuck, PD, Faust and/or the Web Audio API might be better suited to generating training sets in an offline fashion. [1]

bodge5000 5y ago

modular + live coding in a single environment sounds fantastic! To be honest even just another modular based DAW excites me at the moment, VCV is fantastic but like with traditional DAWs theres many different ways to break an egg

Adduh 5y ago

I love the business model!

sigg3 5y ago

As a total amateur this is mind-blowing :D Can't wait to play around with it!

jmaclabs 5y ago

I'm sorry I'm late to this 10 year project - but I'm glad I'm here now. Congrats on the 1.0.0 release!

davidandgoliath 5y ago

Friday, please come sooner.

themusicgod1 5y ago

It's NSA/Microsoft walled garden only. This isn't open source - github does not count as open source.

Splendor 5y ago
You're using the term "walled garden" incorrectly. A public repository is the opposite of a closed ecosystem.