GUI design: adventures in Blender.

You didn't notice when i said, right above the picture, that the MS-20 image is "not my picture"?

You also didn't notice the four screenshots i included in the same post? The screenshots of my project that looks nothing like a Korg MS-20?

You didn't notice when i wrote, quote: "(my screenshots / render)" above the four screenshots of my project that looks nothing like a Korg MS-20?

Did you not read or understand my reply to you saying: "I used a picture of an MS20 as an example. It has nothing to do with my project"?

Because then you replied again about your MS-20 project.

Read very slowly:

I am not working on a Korg MS-20 emulation.

I don't intend to start working on a Korg MS-20 emulation the near future.

I am not working on something that looks like a Korg MS-20.

I am not working on something that sounds like a Korg MS-20.

I am not working on something that has in any way similar features to a Korg MS-20.

I am not looking for, and have never asked for, advice about how to build an emulation of a Korg MS-20.

Greets,

Bolle

Yes. A looooot of frames.😆

Imagine how happy i am that my first choice for a 'full synth' attempt only has 25 keys.

You've maybe noticed that i pay attention to detail. Please don't feel obligated to indulge me or even read this entire post (skip to the end for a description of the main problem i'm having). I have no expectations whatsoever about other people following me into the weeds.

Anyway.

As i said: the shadows and reflections on every key do change depending on the state of its adjacent keys. But: i'm probably the only person on the planet who would ever notice the difference.

The way i lit the 'scene' makes the shadows very diffuse. I've done a few tests, and even the most basic method (i.e. paying zero attention to shadows) already looks very good. It just goes from looking good and real enough to looking hyperreal when i give it that extra push. Pure pragmatics, it's not worth the extra amount of effort. I just enjoy trying it out.

I have something like 5 different build methods i can experiment with, ranging from very simple to complex. But i think what i have going now is a good base to work with, even if it is entirely flawed in the technical department. It's simple. I like simple.

I don't have a very good grasp on how voice count affects the behaviour/possibilities of A: Midi Input modules and B: things like this keyboard. I've seen examples of 12 voiced instruments with a keyboard. Makes sense if you want to represent a lot of moving keys at once. But i'm sure there's a better way of achieving this without needing such a high voice count.

I know that the sound generating part of this synth will only require two voices. I would like to keep that count, but still be able to display 10 moving keys at once. (Sorry, 11 fingered people).

So, with all that said: here's where i'm at right now.

Both Ensemble and Instrument are set to 2 voices.

Exhibit A: The keyboard macro (notice the no-shadows-but-still-looking-pretty-good keyboard):

A Midi Gate In, set to the values on the left (i have my reasons), is quantized (step size 1). The result goes into the Visuals macro, together with a Midi NotePitch in.

Exhibit B: The visuals macro.

Yes, i made a Core Cell. I think that's a first for me. 😆

It's in a torn down state here, but the routing for the first key is intact so you get the idea. It's the same for every other key. Incoming velocity is routed to each Multi Picture (key) by use of the incoming note numbers.

Apart from having sticky keys, this works. With three-step velocity and only three frames per key. So i need to find out what the problem is. Maybe the Gate doesn't send Note Off commands? Maybe it does, but the Quantize gets rid of it? Maybe sending one Velocity signal to all keys at once is wrong? Right now, i haven't a clue.

If i can make it work with a better version of this, that would be great if only for simplicity's sake. There are always things i can do to each key/frame to make everything behave and look more realistic.

Sorry. I talk too much. But you get the idea.

Greets,

Bolle