Bentō could be such a brilliant machine for soundscape design inspiration. Sadly, it is a standalone application.
In some ways it’s more versatile and suitable for workflows that don’t involve a DAW. However, having it available as a VST/AU would’ve opened up countless new possibilities—for example, after seeing the demo video I immediately had a vision of a soundscape that uses a few of those simultaneously, but 1) the app does not let you launch multiple instances of itself; 2) even if that was allowed, orchestrating launching all of them and saving/loading corresponding presets every time would be an obstacle; 3) that aside, playing (let alone automating) all instances when performing or recording your scape would be quite a royal challenge.
And as a minor grumble, unlike VST plugins and audio units commonly distributed as single files that can be manually copied where appropriate, this application needs to be installed (and with root privileges to boot, not sure why that’s necessary).
There are several virtual modular synths available, with VST implementation, including Voltage Modular by Cherry Audio, Modular by Softube, and many others.
VCV Rack is totally free and open source and works on most platforms. The VST module is not free, but there is another implementation (Cardinal) that's free (although it's not quite ready for prime time yet).
Without the VST module, VCV can be controlled from the DAW via virtual midi and virtual audio cables. It's a world of limitless possibilities. I would strongly encourage anyone interested to try it.
(At the end of the Bentō video the author shows how to record audio using virtual audio cables; but they don't say if and how it's possible to control it from a DAW.)
Good catch! Bentō allows to map MIDI to knobs. The app can still run in one instance only, limiting concurrent performance/recording possibilities the DAW offers, but MIDI control should make it easier to automate recording pieces, which is nice.
Aw man, that's sad. I was just reaching for my wallet when I saw the standalone thing and I wondered if that was really the case. It looks radical, but if I can't hook it into my DAW then it's no good to me :-(
Yeah, I got the trial and it did not install any plug-ins.
I am close to buying it regardless. I plan to record various pieces which could be extensively used in the DAW for layering in post, triggering at a live gig, etc. Basically same as digitized audio from a live instrument, voice or hardware synth—slice and dice it, layer, transpose, reverse. Not as many possibilities as from a playable DAW plug-in, but still quite a few.
> and with root privileges to boot, not sure why that’s necessary
Maybe it needs low level access to audio outputs to reduce latency, or that's the only way to achieve low-latency / lossless interprocess communication? I'm just making guesses here.
The video is well worth watching to understand what the main sections do. If you have some familiarity with analog synthesis, the components will be familiar (oscillators, filters, modulation, clock/envelope generators), but the magic is in how they're wired together and the design choices of what the potentiometers affect.
This really is an incredible piece of virtual electronic design. It's surprisingly deep, yet effortlessly responsive and playable.
Well, they will be familiar depending on how good is their written Japanese vocabulary or else understanding of the block diagrams.
I see that Giorgio used the word 頻度 (hindo) on a variable frequency low-pass filter; but that word is not frequency as in of a periodic signal measured in Hertz; it refers to frequency of occurrence, like how frequently an accident occurs at some intersection or whatever.
I think a PoS/lexical category mismatch in a translation like that ultimately comes to the fact that source and target are independently conceived languages.
Frequency is a fast-ness or intervals of an event. The wrong translation, 頻度, is likewise a likelihood in a regular occurrence.
The technical translations, 周波数, is “loop-wave count”, and 振動数 is “swing-move count”(used in context of acoustic energy — I’m aware you would be familiar with it but for the record).
There is clearly no etymological connection between Frequency and 周波数 or 振動数; one way to call it is it’s a domain knowledge, but it’s also true that one is adjective and one is noun, or one is single and the other is a composite word.
So I think it goes down to the fact that each language encodes human cognition differently, even though it is often argued that languages are universal in ability to express ideas, and that translation is “impossible”.
I love circuits (I'm poring over the circuit diagrams for a Rodgers 32c/d organ from the 60's in my spare time).
I'm a musician (degree in piano performance... currently trying to fix an organ so I can start organ lessons).
I am not a guitarist, but I can appreciate the utility and function of guitar pedals.
I don't understand the use for this. I don't see how it is used for music, and the sounds do not seem pleasant to me. Can someone help me understand what I'm missing?
Dntel's "The Dream of Evan and Chan" uses what quite literally seems like recording noise artifacts and incorporates that as one of the defining components of a very beautiful piece of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyispolH20Q
Like the sibling commenter Minor49er says: "Any sound can have musical use". Classical instruments including percussion are just the noises we are most used to.
Any sound can have musical use, and some music doesn't aim for pleasantness. I would make recordings of this, then chop out the most interesting bits, rearrange them into patterns, play them back at different speeds, time stretch them, put effects over them, etc. There is a lot here to work with.
There's a few genres that incorporate these kinds of instruments; shoegaze / pop, synthpop / synthwave and noise come to mind. Whether that's your thing is of course personal preference (for me it's not really but on occasion)
I built a feedback-heavy synth based on Reaktor Spark. I was disappointed to discover how difficult it is to anticipate the pitch of the signal, which limits its harmonic usefulness. For a sufficiently narrow band around each preset, including the frequency of the source waveforms, the map from those source waveforms' frequency to the output frequency can in general be discovered. But as you wander around the relationship can change wildly -- indeed, some output signals don't even have anything that sounds like a fundamental frequency.
I wanted to program something that would manipulate the source waveforms' frequencies to automatically produce an output signal of the pitch a keyboardist had asked for. I think I could with sufficient time but it's a nontrivial problem.
Not everything needs to be flat and sterile, as is common in modern design. Wacky, goofy and peculiar user interfaces are a deeply rooted part of digital synth culture.
Speaking as a person with synth experience, the UI is already cluttered and confusing with the needed symbols. Adding unnecessary stuff makes it more cluttered, hence my question.
Furthermore the choice of symbols and the amount makes it a bit cliche'.
This has nothing to do with respect. I don't see anything offensive, just unnecessary.
That's a really fair assessment, even if I disagree with it, so I appreciate you replying.
Apologies for being a bit aggressive in my earlier reply, I was just struggling to figure out what else it could've been, given your original comment didn't give much in terms of "why", so I jumped to a strong (and, in retrospect, incorrect) assumption. I totally understand your issue with it now.
Imo it looks pretty clean and tasteful for its intended purpose, but this one is very subjective and a certain "we can agree to disagree" point, because I can easily see why it could feel too cluttered to some.
Some of the illustrations actually support the signal flow diagram, such as the katana for cutting frequencies in the filter, or the wave crest for filter resonance. The daruma is purely decorative, however.
Per the excellent explainer/demo video, this is inspired by the Japanoise scene. The creator makes art. It'd be interesting to ask any artist if a specific part of their work was really necessary. I imagine you'd get quite a range of answers.
"This era saw noise channelled as an output for political commentary and primal instincts; motives ranging from ferocious anti-consumerism and heedless nonconformism to compulsive, exploratory introspection".
How dare you culturally appropriate online millennial behavior? You can’t complain about cultural appropriation unless you have an arts degree from 2019.
Were*, and does it matter? You seem to try to white knight for the Japanese and Japanese culture, but they're perfectly capable of doing so themselves and trying to speak for others like that is infantilizing them.
In some ways it’s more versatile and suitable for workflows that don’t involve a DAW. However, having it available as a VST/AU would’ve opened up countless new possibilities—for example, after seeing the demo video I immediately had a vision of a soundscape that uses a few of those simultaneously, but 1) the app does not let you launch multiple instances of itself; 2) even if that was allowed, orchestrating launching all of them and saving/loading corresponding presets every time would be an obstacle; 3) that aside, playing (let alone automating) all instances when performing or recording your scape would be quite a royal challenge.
And as a minor grumble, unlike VST plugins and audio units commonly distributed as single files that can be manually copied where appropriate, this application needs to be installed (and with root privileges to boot, not sure why that’s necessary).