Sneak Peek - Introducing Maxwell - A software laser synth (analogish)

[flecom]

any chance this could work with a sound card type DAC? I love the idea just don't want to buy ANOTHER dac hehe

keep up the good work

[BlueFang]

any chance this could work with a sound card type DAC? I love the idea just don't want to buy ANOTHER dac hehe

keep up the good work

Well, I will support any DAC that has a sufficient SDK and can be supported cross-platform, however, I currently have no plans in making the app natively support audio-output.

It does however, output to ILDA files.

[shizhihui]

Hello I have some questions，，I do not know how I should set it,,,, when i connect my etherdream and laser....

Maxwell Laser Synth

Beta 3 (April version) is here!

Beta 3 Release Notes / Bug Fixes:

• Intensity slider now actually controls intensity of both OpenGL output and laser output
• Mixer cross-fader bug fixed - now accurately crossfades between WaveGen 1 & WaveGen 2
• OpenGL output has been improved
• Sensitivity of knobs has been adjusted
• Output to ILDA file & Ether Dream has been extended for another month
• Mac OS version should now default to 64 bit version

For Mac users, I have yet to purchase an Apple OS X developer license yet, so for this beta you still have to right-click on the app and hold down option while selecting open to override gatekeeper - or you could just disable Gatekeeper in your System Preferences - which is what I do.

And a special note: Windows x64 beta testing has begun. Please PM me for details.


Here is a summary of the features so far:

• 6 independent oscillators broken up into 2 discrete 3D waveform generators
• Full hardware accelerated OpenGL preview window (with viewport control)
• Native support for Ether Dream DAC (currently limited to single DAC)
• 3 LFOs which can be routed to modulate amplitude of each oscillator
• Solid color output or modulatable color with HSL modulation (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)
• FX section, including a translator, rotator, and duplicator
• Points FX - Overlays shape with colored points. Point color is independent of line color
• User adjustable blanking optimization
• Record to ILDA file
• MIDI Controller support - MIDI learn mode can be used to assign MIDI controllers to control all knobs and switches

Release / Installtion Notes

• How to install (Mac)... unzip and drag to your Applications folder.
• This is not a signed app. So if you try to run it and you are greeted with a dialog that says something like "the app is damaged and can't be opened", don't believe the dialog. The app is not damaged. It is simply an unsigned app. You can get around this either by running the app from the terminal or by right clicking on the app and selecting open from the contextual menu. You may get another dialog asking if you really want to open the app. Select Open. An alternative if you don't want to be bothered by command line or right clicking is to temporarily turn off Gatekeeper in the System Preferences before opening the App. To do this go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy->General and select "Allow applications downloaded from" and select "Anywhere". You should now be able to open the app without OS X complaining. It is probably a good idea to turn Gatekeeper back on - but I leave it off.
• There seems to be a random OpenGL initialization problem if you try to run the app in 32 bit mode. Make sure you have unchecked "Run in 32 bit mode" in the App 'Get Info" window. If you turn the power button on and the OpenGL preview window turns grey instead of black - then OpenGL did not initialize correctly. You will have to quit and restart the app.

Operation Details
Attachment 46401

Section 1 & Section 5

Attachment 46402

This is where the oscillators live. Choose from 4 different oscillator types - sine wave, triangle wave, square wave, and line. You control the frequency of each oscillator with the freq multiplier control. Currently, the frequency is limited to integer number of cycles. The amplitude of the waveform is controlled by the amp mod control. The amplitude can either be constant or modulated by one of the three LFOs. The phase of the oscillator can also be modulated with the phase mode control. Phase mod is not applicable to the line mode oscillator. The inv button is used adjust the phase by π/2 - effectively choosing between sin/cos waveforms.

Each section of X,Y,Z oscillators is then combined by the mixer to generate an array of vertices - or your shape. The way the two waveforms are combined is controlled by the mixer type (addition, subtraction, multiplication), as well as a slider which controls the amount each waveform generator is applied. If the slider is all the way to the left, only the left waveform generator (X,Y,Z oscillators) are used, and vice-versa.

Section 2

Use this to control the number of points used in the vertex array. It is important to realize that this is the number of points used **before** any effects are applied. So if you add effects, like points mode, or duplication, your points will be increased. Be carefull! For a 30kpps scanner, 500 points is a friendly number of points to use if you are simply drawing a single shape (i.e., no duplication or points mode). Reduce points as necessary as you add fx.

To the right of the points control is the preset area. Shift-click on a preset to store your current settings. Clicking on a preset recalls the preset. You can save and load different banks of preset files using the Load and Save buttons.

Section 3

Clicking on this button will bring up a dialog allowing you to choose the location and name of a ILDA file to record. While the dialog is open, it goes into "record arming mode". As soon as you click "Save" it starts recording to the file. You can click on the record button again to stop the recording. The recording will also be stopped automatically if the maximum number of ILDA frames are reached (65,537). Maxwell generates ILDA v4 files (3D with fullcolor points).

Section 4

OpenGL preview window. This is an OpenGL representation of the laser output. If you feel the need, you can rotate the 3D view around by clicking an dragging in the preview window. This does not effect the final projection of the laser, but allows you to see Z effects if needed. Click on the button next to the FPS display to reset the 3D view back to its default state.


Section 6

This is where you control the color of line mode. When in "solid" mode - the entire waveform is drawn using whatever color is selected in the color picker and the laser is not turned off between vertices - effectively drawing lines between each point. Hue is adjusted along the x axis of the picker, lightness is adjusted along the Y axis, and saturation is adjusted using the saturation control. You can modulate the hue with the Hue Rotation knob.

In LFO mode, an LFO is used for each value of hue, saturation, and lightness. The width (or amount of modulation) is controlled with each width control, while the frequency is controlled by the modulation knob.

Section 7

This toggles a points effects mode. Points are drawn around the shape using the color selected in the color picker. The density of points is chosen by the Num Points control. Warning - this increases the number of points required to render the shape in the laser.

Section 8

This effects section allows you to duplicte the waveshorm shape - translation of the TRANSLATOR is applied before duplication. The duplicates are rendered radially around the origin. Warning! Duplicator significantly increases the number of points required to successfully render the image. Not only is the original waveform duplicated, but the various optimizations required to draw discrete shapes significantly increases the point count as well. With a standard 30kpps scanner, I was able to get decent 30fps framerate with a shape point count <= 200.

Section 9

Vertex Render Mode. This controls how the vertex array is rendered. In loop mode, line drawing continues when looping around from the last point to the first point. It is a continuous shape. In line mode, lines are drawn between verteces, but there is a blanking cycle between the last and first point. In points mode, the vertices are rendered as points.

MIDI Learn Mode

Attachment 46505

Make sure MIDI is enabled in the top control panel section, then enable MIDI learn mode. You can now mouse-click on any control to arm the control for MIDI learn. A pink highlight means the control is ready for controller input and currently has no assignments. I green highlight means the control is ready for learning but currently does have a saved assignment. Assigning a new MIDI CC to this control does not overwrite the current assignment, but adds it to the CCs that can adjust the control. Multiple MIDI inputs are supported and can be assigned to a single GUI control. Likewise, a single MIDI CC can be used to control multiple GUI controls. It is very flexible.

To remove all assignments from a green highlighted control, simple SHIFT-CLICK on the green highlight.

On the Horizon

* Improved point optimization
* More effects
* Morphable presets. Changing from one preset to another will morph between the two with a tunable duration
* Step sequencer
* MIDI sync for LFOs and oscillators

I have not yet decided on a final distribution or pricing strategy for Maxwell. Because of this, and because of the beta nature of this release, ILDA output and Ether Dream output are time limited to 30 days.


Download Maxwell Beta 3 for Mac HERE

[shizhihui]

I do not know how I should set it,,,, when i connect my etherdream and laser....

Oh yeah... the rc heli stuff.. I forgot about that... speaking of which, I need to start getting some simulator time in as the warm weather approaches - the cob-webs are thick - I haven't flown in a long time and without regular practice, you lose your hand-eye coordination pretty quick. I didn't get out flying much last year, but I hope to change that this year.

I didn't have much Max/MSP experience before starting this little project - but it seemed like a perfect development environment for what I was trying to accomplish. It certainly would not be the ideal environment for a full-fledged desktop app - but I am not trying to make that - I am simply trying to make something equivalent to software synth / abstract generator.

Coming from a traditional programming background as well, it is kinda hard to get use to "thinking" in modular nodes and matrix processing, but it can greatly speed up certain aspects of development - lets say you have an array (matrix) of rgba values - and you want to adjust the "intensity" of the colors - you simply take the output of the rgba matrix object, connect it to the input of an rgb2hsl object - then multiply the L part of the vector with the output of a UI slider object, and then run that output back into an hsl2rgb object. Boom, adjustable intensity with a slider - and absolutely no code written and no having to try and remember or lookup the constants for the relationship between rgb values and intensity. Pretty cool and powerful.



Yeah, we should - I am heading out of town for work this week, but should have a fairly open schedule when I get back next week.

[BlueFang]

New update is available - use the link provided in the first post to download the latest version for Mac OS X.

For Windows users that would like to help with beta testing on Windows, please send me a PM - but note that I am currently out of town on business and will not be able to release an updated build for Windows until I get back home next week.

[Spotta]

I used Maxwell for my last online show, only had 30 mins before hand to try and suss most of it out, and it was all performed live while mixing on turntables. I got so into tweaking it I missed one mix completely and came mighty close to missing others! The viewers loved it.



Just though you might like to know that someone is using it and eagerly awaiting updates

[BlueFang]

I used Maxwell for my last online show, only had 30 mins before hand to try and suss most of it out, and it was all performed live while mixing on turntables. I got so into tweaking it I missed one mix completely and came mighty close to missing others! The viewers loved it.



Just though you might like to know that someone is using it and eagerly awaiting updates

Wow... that is awesome!

Hopefully my schedule will calm down a bit this month so I can put some more time into some new features. The next minor update will include MIDI note triggering of the different presets, as this didn't make it into the original MIDI control update. Just working on finalizing the UI to allow for different range of MIDI notes for triggering the 40 presets.

Also, hopefully will have a few more surprises for SELEM in a couple of weeks.

[catalanjo]

...I am looking for a few brave souls to seriously help beta test a Windows version of Maxwell. There is a catch...Ether Dream DAC. Support for other DACs is dependent on 64 bit driver support for those DACs.

Interesting ....PM coming thru...
Cheers

[BlueFang]

Beta 4 update for Mac has been released... post #1 has been updated with details. Big new feature is MIDI Note-On mode can now be used to trigger presets - making Maxwell a little easier to use for live shows. Also, the preset grid has been adjusted to 5 rows of 8 buttons - to match many popular Ableton Live MIDI devices, like the APC 40.

To use an APC 40, you should select the APC 40 mode button, as this will map the note-on messages from the APC 40 clip-launch buttons to the presets as they are laid out visually. You can also use any MIDI controller for note-on messages. The number field selects which MIDI note # is used to represent the the first preset - auto-incrementing from there. Leave as 0 if you have an APC 40.

Working on updating the Windows version as well... might be a couple of days to get that one done.

[Spotta]

Beta 4 update for Mac has been released... Working on updating the Windows version as well... might be a couple of days to get that one done.

Nice!! I'm also up for trying the Windows version, it would be nice to choose either machine depending on what's running on the other!