A whole new way to make electronic music
September 17, 2021 12:15 PM Subscribe
In a way, Bespoke is like if I smashed Ableton to bits with a baseball bat, and asked you to put it back together.
It's an open source modular synthesizer, a live looping station, a VST host, a Python livecoding environment, and a MIDI controller performance platform. it's a ten-year passion project from developer Ryan Challinor (@awwbees), released as version 1.0 this week, and it's absolutely stunning.
The 1.0 Trailer
The Documentation
The Github page
Gearnews:A Modular Synth For Jamming And Exploration
It's an open source modular synthesizer, a live looping station, a VST host, a Python livecoding environment, and a MIDI controller performance platform. it's a ten-year passion project from developer Ryan Challinor (@awwbees), released as version 1.0 this week, and it's absolutely stunning.
The 1.0 Trailer
The Documentation
The Github page
Gearnews:A Modular Synth For Jamming And Exploration
This look pretty interesting/cool, but would it hurt them to post sysreqs somewhere? I haven't stumbled across anything that might clue me in to just what minimum flavor of Mac the Mac version works on.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:36 PM on September 17, 2021
posted by Thorzdad at 12:36 PM on September 17, 2021
Reminds me of Jeskola BUZZ but on steroids. BUZZ was (is?) an awesome piece of work, once you could figure out how to make it go, but in my experience, it was horribly unstable.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:38 PM on September 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:38 PM on September 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Looks kinda like Max/MSP or whatever they're calling it these days.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 12:39 PM on September 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by coolxcool=rad at 12:39 PM on September 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
I'm reminded of AudioMulch. Also things like Max/MSP and Pd, though those are a bit lower-level, whereas in this, as in AudioMulch, the connectable objects are closer to whole open-ended instruments than building blocks. Conceptually it's perhaps closer to Reaktor Blocks or VCV Rack, only without the skeuomorphism of attempting to look like a Eurorack setup with voltage-carrying patch cords and such. And also with VST plugins and Python scripting, though I haven't managed to get either working yet.
posted by acb at 12:44 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by acb at 12:44 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
Was about to say this looks like Max/MSP or Quartz Composer, but for audio, instead of graphics.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Post title: "A whole new way to make electronic music". ITT: "wow this reminds me of this other thing". Lol. Yes, there's a lot of modular synthesizer setups like this with a graphical interface for wiring modules together. The last one I spent a lot of time with was VCV Rack.
posted by Nelson at 1:21 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 1:21 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of SunVox
Reminds me of Jeskola BUZZ but on steroids.
I always thought SunVox was the nearest successor to Buzz. To be honest I’m not as familiar with Buzz but it also had a tracker-style sequencer and a modular instrument section, right?
posted by atoxyl at 1:24 PM on September 17, 2021
Reminds me of Jeskola BUZZ but on steroids.
I always thought SunVox was the nearest successor to Buzz. To be honest I’m not as familiar with Buzz but it also had a tracker-style sequencer and a modular instrument section, right?
posted by atoxyl at 1:24 PM on September 17, 2021
Just grabbed this today. Given that it is Mac, Linux, and Windows, it supplies its own UI, which is quirky at best. The inputs are not clearly designated on the modules. They are implicit... There are a lot of modules, but I couldn't find a basic mixer. Lots to play with, but it's not clear how you could interface this with anything else, other than audio out and in. It does use VST2 plugins, but it went off to never never land while scanning all my plugins, so I force quit it. Yes, something to play with. With VCV Rack, I have built ginormous contraptions. It has a pretty apparent UI, 2000+ modules of all kinds, and I have interfaced it to hardware modular synths, with the required DC-coupled interface. Rack is now 1.0 and free, with purchasable module packages to supplement the 2000+ free ones. After a long wait, 2.0 has been announced, with a release in November. It promises a better UI, and the ability to run as a VST2 plugin in your digital audio workstation (I hate saying DAW...) There will be a free and paid for Pro version. Another similar thing is Audulus, which Bespoke looks like. Audulus runs on iOS and Mac. This a a very interesting time for electronic music. Bespoke... you can make hand tailored noise machines like all those Savile Row audio engineers make.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:04 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 2:04 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
Love the feature matrix for the pricing tiers
posted by jozifd at 2:26 PM on September 17, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by jozifd at 2:26 PM on September 17, 2021 [11 favorites]
A couple of years ago, when I started (trying) to make the computer music, I started out with Audiomulch (which now seems defunct), largely because visualizing routing with cables was how I was familiar in the non-computer world and I could pirate it. I had a free copy of Ableton but their routing is so non-intuitive. Sidechaining, for instance, I just frequently forgot that I had done that.
But last year I purchased Ableton Suite with a full Max license and, oh my word, it's fucking college degree of a learning curve but it has everything. What's relevant for this product (and for Audiomulch for that matter) is that Max differentiates between presentation and patch mode where the latter shows everything (well, at the level of your current patch) and the former formats your UI components for easy interaction. I rather wish Cycling 74 and Ableton would merge so complex routings under-the-hood, and straight-forward performance UIs could encompass all of Ableton.
Does this have a presentation mode? And... oh, I'll find out myself. It's free?!
ps - Boy, did I like Audiomulch
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 2:43 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
But last year I purchased Ableton Suite with a full Max license and, oh my word, it's fucking college degree of a learning curve but it has everything. What's relevant for this product (and for Audiomulch for that matter) is that Max differentiates between presentation and patch mode where the latter shows everything (well, at the level of your current patch) and the former formats your UI components for easy interaction. I rather wish Cycling 74 and Ableton would merge so complex routings under-the-hood, and straight-forward performance UIs could encompass all of Ableton.
Does this have a presentation mode? And... oh, I'll find out myself. It's free?!
ps - Boy, did I like Audiomulch
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 2:43 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I am weirdly hung up on the chart that shows the $15 version features both "$5 fewer dollars in your wallet" and "$15 fewer dollars in your wallet," which is true from a "it has a cup holder and a speedometer" point of view, I guess, but also feels like it should mean it's $20?
posted by Shepherd at 3:03 PM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Shepherd at 3:03 PM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Audulus is very similar in look, but these modules are much higher level than the “start with basic math” approach of Audulus. This reminds me more of Drambo than anything, except with a wire based interface and more features. I was never comfortable with Drambo’s conventions so I love this!
posted by q*ben at 3:06 PM on September 17, 2021
posted by q*ben at 3:06 PM on September 17, 2021
@Shepherd You can both have 5 and 15 fewer dollars in your wallet at the same time without having 20 fewer.
Math and English are both very strange.
posted by andreaazure at 3:42 PM on September 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Math and English are both very strange.
posted by andreaazure at 3:42 PM on September 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
If you're looking for visual modular audio routing on a touchscreen in a pedal, the Poly Effects Beebo does it all in a fetching pink case. I periodically get extremely tempted by this (very not free) thing.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:25 PM on September 17, 2021
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:25 PM on September 17, 2021
I love it, but I can't find a way to turn off the visualizer thing that keeps flashing in the background.
There probably is a way, and it's probably really easy and obvious and I'm just being dull. Pulsating pattern effects in the background make me really uncomfortable.
I would keep playing with this if I could stop them.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
There probably is a way, and it's probably really easy and obvious and I'm just being dull. Pulsating pattern effects in the background make me really uncomfortable.
I would keep playing with this if I could stop them.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
For pedals, I am very happy indeed with the also very not free C4. I used to be interested in midi guitar, that is now far down the (neverending) list.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:47 PM on September 17, 2021
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:47 PM on September 17, 2021
I discovered this on Thursday and immediately rewrote my lesson plan for my 2nd year sound design students based on it. It's cross-platform, a tiny download (22mb! when was the last desktop audio app you downloaded that small?!) and seemed to work well across the range of cruddy hand-me-down computers and massive gaming machines my students are using for online learning. There's loads of inbuilt widgets to play with, almost every parameter can have a modulator, there's a bunch of odd sequencing and modulation devices. It's also a lot easier to immediately grasp than VCV Rack or Voltage Modular's skeuomorphic interfaces. Heck, it supports a custom control surface for the Ableton Push 2 that's both functional and attractive. On the other hand, it's a bit wonky, still very much attuned to the developer's personal setup, and VST support is.. unpleasant.
I was a user of Buzz back in the day, so I'm intimately familiar with software that doesn't quite work properly while also being immediately creative and fun, but YM, as they say, MV.
posted by prismatic7 at 10:30 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
I was a user of Buzz back in the day, so I'm intimately familiar with software that doesn't quite work properly while also being immediately creative and fun, but YM, as they say, MV.
posted by prismatic7 at 10:30 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
I didn't see this yet in this thread-
Ryan has a walk-through on YT
posted by MtDewd at 8:13 AM on September 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
Ryan has a walk-through on YT
posted by MtDewd at 8:13 AM on September 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
The requirement for Python 3.8 has got me grinding my way through the weekend. I can't wait!
posted by rhizome at 6:32 PM on September 18, 2021
posted by rhizome at 6:32 PM on September 18, 2021
The thread lead me to VCV Rack, where after a couple hours I went from never having tried a eurorack synth (for that matter, never having noodled around on a synthesizer for decades) to having a reasonably-credible and extremely skronky bass synth fuzz/flanger built out of analog input from my electric bass interacting through a couple frequency oscillators.
So I think I'll try Bespoke next.
posted by ardgedee at 7:09 PM on September 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
So I think I'll try Bespoke next.
posted by ardgedee at 7:09 PM on September 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
On Linux it requires a bunch of experimental-repo packages of things like glibc, so I think I'll put it on the back burner for a while. Jealous!
posted by rhizome at 8:46 PM on September 18, 2021
posted by rhizome at 8:46 PM on September 18, 2021
I used to be interested in midi guitar, that is now far down the (neverending) list.
That reminds me, I wonder what happened with the Moog guitar? (That wasn't a MIDI guitar, but, still, I am now wondering about it).
posted by thelonius at 3:05 AM on September 19, 2021
That reminds me, I wonder what happened with the Moog guitar? (That wasn't a MIDI guitar, but, still, I am now wondering about it).
posted by thelonius at 3:05 AM on September 19, 2021
As far as I know you can still buy one. The inventor, Paul Vo, has moved on to electromagnetic pick technology.
posted by q*ben at 6:55 AM on September 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 6:55 AM on September 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
...yay! I was wondering how i'd get through the coming winter. New toys!
posted by Artful Codger at 7:38 PM on September 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Artful Codger at 7:38 PM on September 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
btw, the Patchblocks project had a similar instrument creation GUI. Although the Patchblocks hardware is no longer available, their software programming environment and simulator are still downloadable.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:47 PM on September 19, 2021
posted by Artful Codger at 7:47 PM on September 19, 2021
It's been great to follow Ryan developing this and I'm really excited for it. I think the ReacTable is/was way ahead of its time and this feels like a natural progression as a meeting between visualised interactive live synthesis and live coding. I think if you see this as a computer programming environment/IDE as much as a music environment you can see the future in it.
posted by yaxu at 11:17 PM on September 19, 2021
posted by yaxu at 11:17 PM on September 19, 2021
Ice Cream Socialist, Ryan Challinor got this question on Twitter today, and he's working on putting in graphics options. He suggested: "for now, a workaround: you can create a globalcontrols module and reduce the color to dark grey, so it matches the background".
posted by MrVisible at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by MrVisible at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Quick view:
- It loads really fast
- It's nothing like Ableton
It will take a bit of time for me to sort it out more, but so far this looks like a great tool for students & curious to get into the soft-synth thingys.
posted by ovvl at 4:35 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
- It loads really fast
- It's nothing like Ableton
It will take a bit of time for me to sort it out more, but so far this looks like a great tool for students & curious to get into the soft-synth thingys.
posted by ovvl at 4:35 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
That's awesome, MrVisible! Thank you for letting me know!
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 6:41 AM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 6:41 AM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
And now someone has used Bespoke to create a vector-graphics driving game.
posted by MrVisible at 2:06 PM on September 22, 2021
posted by MrVisible at 2:06 PM on September 22, 2021
This is a really impressive project, and I feel like maybe I could pick it up and start playing with it and enjoying the results, but I'm an idiot who knows nothing about music and I really just want something that I can just kind of jam on without too much of a learning curve. Is there anything out there that's kind of like this but is -- well == more like a toy?
posted by webmutant at 4:57 PM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by webmutant at 4:57 PM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
webmutant, with any luck, there's going to be something like that next year, if the Kickstarter campaign we're planning goes well.
posted by MrVisible at 5:05 PM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by MrVisible at 5:05 PM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
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https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
Odd choice of name though.
posted by Ayn Marx at 12:26 PM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]