MetaSynth Changelog

What's new in MetaSynth 5.4

Apr 11, 2014

Adds full OS X Mavericks compatibility

New in MetaSynth 5.31 (Mar 20, 2012)

New in MetaSynth 5.3 (Mar 15, 2012)

Key Commands & Special Clicks:
Control-click now pops up the Edit popup menu (in all rooms). The old control-click shortcut (to audition in the Image Synth had Spectrum Synth is now control-option click.
Scroll wheels now scroll in rooms where scrolling can happen. The secondary mouse button behaves as a control-click. Pressing the second mouse button will pop up the Edit popup and option-second mouse button click will audition (where applicable).
Sample Editor:
Generate Popup - add commands for generating pure saw and pure square waves. These can provide interesting starting material for the Spectrum Synth.
Effects Room:
Parametric EQ replaced by new SO Filters effect.
SO Filters. The new SO Filters Effect (Second Order Filters) implements combinations of Peak, bandpass, high-pass and low-pass filters. (Second Order filters have a steeper slope than first order filters)
Center frequencies are envelope-controllable.
The last parameter controls the blend of filter A to filter B. If you only need one filter, set it to 0 or 1.
Try these filters with white noise or a saw wave (generated from the Generate popup).
Try the Effect settings examples that we provide to get a feel for these filters.
Parameters:
Bandwidth % (slider/mono envelope)
Filter 1 Frequency in Hz (slider/envelope)
Filter 2 Frequency in Hz (slider/envelope)
Balance (Filter 1 Filter 2) (slider/envelope)
New periodic random generator envelope tool (found to the left of the triangle wave envelope)
Instruments:
Samplers/MultiSamplers
Controller 15 can be used to control the sample start offset.
Sample start offset is now a floating point number which provides finer control than was previously available.
A speed multiplier option is now available when the Sample Start is set to a cycling option. Choices: 1/1, 1/2,1/3,1/4,1/8,*2,*3,*4
Spectrum Synth:
Brushes up to 64 pixels are now supported.
Stereo/mono switch moved to the main user interface rather than hidden in the popup menu.
New Apply Image filter tool. This popup works similarly to the Image Synth's Apply Filter popup. The chosen filter is applied to the harmonics to shape their amplitudes. This is especially useful for shaping the stereo image and for filtering many harmonics at once. The image is scaled to the size of the selection marquee (if there is one) and the result is the intersection of the image and the harmonics in the selected events.
New Edit menu commands:
Fade In / Fade Out - these paste the selection with a progressive fade-in or fade-out.
Mul in Place - multiplies the spectrum amplitudes of any events in the clipboard with the selected events (preserves only harmonics that are common between the clipboard events and the selected events)
Fill with noise (f) - fills in all bands. The result is a rich noise that can be further shaped by filtering. Option-tuning noise can create rich electronic sounds.
Fill with harmonics (opt f) - fills the selected region with harmonics of the current reference pitch
Fill with Maximum (;) - fills the selected region with the maximum value of any harmonic found in the region.
Clear (delete key) - when applied to a marquee selection the area is filled with silence. With an entire region selected, the events are removed (as before).
When used together, these new functions allow the creation of sounds from scratch and make it easier to shape the harmonic content of spectrum events.
For example:
Select All
Fill with Harmonics (option f)
Use the Apply Image filter to shape the spectrum -- apply selectively to different regions, too.
Use the Harmonic Scale Brush with a large size to accentuate or de-emphasize certain harmonic clusters.
Use the marquee tool to create selected regions and fill with either noise or different harmonics (try changing the reference pitch when filling different regions with harmonics

New in MetaSynth 5.0 (Aug 3, 2009)

General Features:
MetaSynth 5 is universal binary, multi-threaded and fully Leopard-compatible.
Recording available in both Sample Editor and Montage Room.
32-bit floating point sound buffers and 64-bit floating point math for all audio operations.
Full support for .caf and .wav files.
MetaSynth 5 can read and write .aif, .sd2, .caf and .wav files in all rooms.
Add output device selection to Preferences.
MetaSynth no longer uses the default output device chosen in Audio MIDI Setup. MetaSynth now allows the selection of any available output device.
Files can be saved at up to 32-bit resolution.
Much longer sounds can be loaded and created than previously.
Sample Editor:
New Slide Selection Samples tool - Click and drag on the tool’s icon to move the sample within the selection. This tool is very useful for correcting small rhythmical errors and for moving syllables and words in voice tracks.
New Swap Left/Right command - This command, found in the Edit popup menu, swaps the left and right channels of the loaded sound.
Record to the sample editor - It is now possible to record to the Sample Editor.
Longer sounds can be loaded than previously - MetaSynth 5 dynamically allocates buffers when sounds are loaded which allows for the loading of much longer sounds than was previously possible.
Direct loading of mp3 format files - MetaSynth can now read mp3 files. It cannot, however, save in mp3 format. Loaded mp3 files can be saved in .aif, .caf, .sd2 and .wav formats.
Effects Room:
Render to disk - The new render to disk command (found in the Effects Room’s File popup menu) allows the creation of sounds longer than can be loaded into memory and removes the previous six minute maximum duration for sounds that result from duration lengthening. Shortcut: hold down the option key when clicking on the Render Effect icon. MetaSynth will try to load the sound back into memory when rendering is complete. This command essentially removes limitations on the maximum duration that can be achieved when applying duration-lengthening effects such as Grain and Pitch & Time.
Convolution - The Crossfade effect now has a convolution parameter that performs convolution of the Sample Editor sound and the Auxiliary sound.
Improved Graphic EQ crossfades - Improved the behavior when applying Graphic EQ to a selection when the Auto Crossfade setting (in the Preferences dialog) is greater than 10 ms. This change allows you to seamlessly apply the Graphic EQ to a selection.
Image Synth/Image Filter:
11 new instrument modes and many new instrument capabilities added - Several new exciting capabilities were added to the MultiWaves and Granular Synth instruments. These are available in the Sequencer Room as well.
Change tuning during playback - It is now possible to changing the tuning map (custom tuning) during playback.
New Drawing Tools - 14 new Quartz-based graphics tools have been added to the brush palette. These tools are especially helpful when constructing filters and percussive sounds. Note: the line tool is not anti-aliased in Dot brush mode (which allows the drawing of stair step patterns). In all other cases, the Quartz-based tools create anti-aliased output.
New Remap Colors mode - The Remap Colors dialog now has two modes allowing remapping by color or brightness. The documentation for Remap Colors has been updated.
Support for importing most image types - The Open Picture File command can now import most image files that can be opened by QuickTime. Previously, only PICT format files were directly supported.
Remove the 16 kHz limit for notes - MetaSynth will now render notes whose pitch is higher than 16 kHz.
Render to disk command/2X oversampling - The Render To Disk command (found in the File popup menu) uses 2X oversampling to render the preset to disk before trying to load the rendered sound into memory. Use this command when either oversampling is desired or when you are rendering a sound too long to be loaded into the available memory. Shortcut: Option-click the Synthesize Current Pict button.
Batch Render command - This command (found in the File popup) renders all of the presets in the open preset library. Press and hold the Escape key to abort a batch render.
Fit Tempo command - Fit Tempo has been added to the Edit popup menu. Shortcut: ‘F’. This command performs the same function as the Tempo and Duration dialog’s ‘Fit to Current Sample’ button.
New Play Selection button - The Play Selection button previews the selection. Shortcut: command- spacebar
New scales added to Fit To Scale - Some useful new scales were added to the Fit To Scale popup and a few seldom-used scales were removed.
Automatic retriggering - When switching between presets during playback (with the [ and ] or ( and ) keys) MetaSynth will retrigger playback in cases where playback would have stopped (such as when picture widths change).