TUTOR VIDEO - Make a synth in Scope SDK in less than an hour

Make a synth in Scope SDK in less than an hour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwSm_JaOBxU

- The video shows all important processes, from scratch to preseting and even some photoshop works (very basic).
- No device is available for download because the aim of the video is DIY
- The device shown is "finished inside" but graphic are for you to finish. You will have to copy/paste the EG and LFO parameters (using the same process as shown in the video for the VCO and filter)

Please note that I wanted to go as fast as possible I did not bother with making nice graphics. Also, more tricks below.

The video has no sound but music made with stuff from https://spacef-devices.com . You will hear BB3 oscillators and filters, KrOn and Eurorack, Aquarius, JunZ, etc as standalone or in various productions with vstis. You can of course disable the sound and listen to something else.

Adding parameters to a preset list
============================
It is in this video (quickly) , and is more detailled here: ../development/36390.html?

Presets will work only when the device is reloaded in the project. You make the preset list, save tdevice, then delete it from project and load the latest version. Presets will work only after that.


PosX /Pos Y parameters
They are used to restore panel position. Here I restore it only in "Screensets" . In the video, The position will not be restored when loading a new preset, or when loading a project. You can check the boxes coresponding to Projects which is smarter thing to do in my opinion (because the device panels will be where you left them, which is generally the best position for this device).


Checkboxes in Module Parameters window
They are used to store/restore parameters in
- Presets,
- Projects
- Screensets

The "default" value is merely when you update a deviwith new parameters. It says "if this parameter is not found in the preset, then apply a value of...... It allows to apply a default value of X that would be similar to this parameter being "off" (ie older presets will be restored and new parameters will be "neutral" as if they did not exist. of course, it depends on device or parameter).
you set the default value of the pad by "long-clicking" on the space at the right of the "default" checkbox so a text display appears where you can enter the value that you want).

Tip: Select a pad in the parameter tree and the coresponding line in the Module Parameter will be automatically selected.




Shortcuts
===========
n = connect next pad
shift+n (does not work in sdk... or may be sdk 7 (to be verified)


Put a pad on a module side
- select a pad then strike
t = top
l = left
r = right
b= bottom

Move a pad to organize them better (avoid future confusion and connection errors)
==========
You move a pad up or down in the pad list and it will reflect on the module
u = up
b= bottom

---> You need to rename the module for the new order to show on the module (updated). Generally you rename the module with the same name, it is enough to refresh the module.

Export / Unexport a pad
============
select a pad then strike "e"
e = export or un-export the pad (depends on its current state)


Keys
=====
(I forgot, except Ctrl+G for grouping several modules together, but I prefer to group/ungroup fold/unfold buttons on the project windows, rather than keystrokes)
You cannot use the above function in the project explorer.
You can only use them in the project windows.


Control Pads
===========
Re-connecting every poti to new controlelr pads is not compulsory
It only allows to change modules while the pads and presets stay the same (ie, pads are still in the parameter list).
If the device is for your own use, you can put the modules pads or the graphics themselves (ie the pots and faders).

Renaming control pads is better for yourself and because you will not have tpo rename parameters after dragging them in the parameter tree.

Last advices:
==============
- Save often without overwriting the previous versions. example "my device-0001.dev , my device-0002.dev , my device-0003.dev" etc
and you can also add a name for what you just done (example mydevice-0021-filter-graphics.dev)
this gives unlimited undo capabilities if you want to go back to a version that was working fine before you messed something up



ADDED FURTHER TO DISCUSSION BELOW
==========================================

Where is the 8 controller pads ?
I did it myself
- Load 8 "controller pads", Fold them together (''shift+select each one, then choose "fold")
- then go inside this new folded module, and export each D pads (select pad then press E key).
- They should now appear at the right of the folded module, so use B key to place them at the bottom of the new module (click on a pad in the Pad Listthen press B key).
- Save this new module in your library


Cut & Paste= keeps the connections (the selected graphics are moved but connections are kept)
Copy & Paste= creates a new copy of the module or group. ie connections are not kept and the copied groups or modules are new instance. In general you want to delete the source group or modules in order to avoid double connections that can cause crashes due to exceptions ---> always check that what you want to connect is not connected somewhere else ie it does not create a loop of some kind with contradictory values or infinite loops that end up in an infinite loop of exception (stack) that obliges to hard-reboot your Scope !!! (ctrl+alt+del or PC reset button



GOOD LUCK !!!!

As I'm often lost in SDK, I'll try to follow your Vid this evening.
The underlaying music is exactly the reason for me to go for scope.

thanks !
if i do somehing on screen that is not understandable, let me know.
it is pretty basic though. the synth is made during the 1st half. the rest is adeing switches, graphic stuff etc.
for beginners there might be a lot of play/pause every 30 seconds or so , but well, that's how you learn.
I hope it helps!

stickied!

I'm stuck at 7:25. ( I took me 45min to get there, as I had to learn a lot where to do the right clicks. )
At 7:25 you add an "8 pads" from folder basic.
My folder starts with "amplifier 12dB". I'm using SDK7.
Where does "8 pads" come from ?

I did it myself.
Load 8 "controller pads", Fold them together (''shift+select each one, then choose "fold")
, then go inside this new folded module, and export each D pads (select pad then press E key).
They should now appear at the right of the folded module, so use B key to place them at the bottom of the new module (click on a pad in the Pad Listthen press B key).
Save this new module in the library
You now have the 8 pads that I use very often

You could also place the pads left (L), right (R) or top (T). It is merely a visual thing (ie, to keep your project window clean).



I also did a "switch#2" which is very useful. It is just the switch#4 where in 3 and 4 are unexported (or simply hidden (select pad then "H" key).

Another trick - save very often.
I have a "mantra" in SDK which is "I never want to do this again": i save very often (each time I do something and say to myself "i don't want to do that again": this is because when my PC is left idle, it can crash on simple manipulations). , for example if I switched scope in the morning, did not work on the computer all day, then come back in the evening to work on devices.... my system will give me craches in such conditions if I fold/unfold too much stuff. It probably doesn't happen to many poeple, but I had to redo stuff too often to my taste, so each time i do something borting, difficult, or that takes a bit of time, I save the device.
folding/unfolding can give you such crashes . I Guess that the PC stayed idle and some ram or else goes in sleep mode, and operations in sdk don't wake it up.

PS: bravo to you to follow the tutorial. I imagine it is not easy and requires lots of motivation. Keep it up

Worked. So I made a stop for the night at 8:00.

In the 90's using my 3D software (and Photoshop on 16bit versions of Windows) was just as bad. The littlest unrepeatable issue would be a catastrophic crash, and sometimes a simple crash would corrupt large month-long projects. So good habits were a must when billing for high end 3d stuff.

Thank you! With all of the various attempts at documentation gathering related to the SDK, and support, this first example is extremely helpful!

you are welcome. I've updated the 1st post with info in "light blue" color.

I'm stuck again at 14:45.
Pressing the freq-knob of LP24 doesn't show Rangetext val at connections, as on your video.
Pressing store and connect doesn't add Pot Val to the connections.
Are this differences, I should care about ?

Here is some help (2 posts)

You can download all images to see them better from your pc
or right click and "open image in new tab"
I also added more text/info at the end of the next message (under the images)

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-01.jpg (98.32 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

NB: to delete the connection, select it in the connection list and hit "Del" key

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-02.jpg (95.65 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-03.jpg (109.39 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-04.jpg (113.15 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-05.jpg (112.97 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-06.jpg (105.88 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-07.jpg (116.14 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

TUTORIAL-FOCUS-08.jpg (96.67 KiB) Viewed 11216 times

After all that, you can Cut & paste the pot and display group to the main surface.


Another way (more "pro") would be to delete all panels first, so pads are not connected to anything. Then import as many potis as you need on the surface panel, then make the connections that you need. BUT this method requires that you check the Min/Max values and curves of all these new potis. That's because you just copied the same poti many times, and it is unlikely that the setting of that pot conform the requirement all types of pads of all modules.
To do this, you can load a module a check what are the default values of various stuff (eg, you load a filter and check what are the min/max of the filter cutoff). .


Cut & Paste= keeps the connections (the selected graphics are moved but connections are kept)
Copy & Paste= creates a new copy of the module or group. ie connections are not kept and the copied groups or modules are new instance. In general you want to delete the source group or modules in order to avoid double connections that can cause crashes due to exceptions ---> always check that what you want to connect is not connected somewhere else ie it does not create a loop of some kind with contradictory values or infinite loops that end up in an infinite loop of exception (stack) that obliges to hard-reboot your Scope !!! (ctrl+alt+del or PC reset button )

Wow!
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. I managed to get the connection correct now.
Tomorrow I'll continue to watch your video at 25% speed

so how is it going?
I just wanted to point that you should be almost finished around minute 25. The rest is choices (like adding switches, replacing stuff) that may interesting to watch but not necessarily to reproduce because ymight want to another way. I used the switches ony to show how you set the min max value of a poti so it goes from 0 to 3 to conform the number of inputs of the switch. Also the finalization of the connections to pads and presets, or removal of module panels. At some point I copy 1 pot many times on the panel, but I think it is easier with and paste.
Let me know how far you are.
No rush though

I have to do some "debugging".
The VU2 doesn't show a signal like it should do. So I check my wiring.

On the highest level of editing, I tried to add a Midi-monitor, but the SDK asks for keys, although my registry is full of my keys.
( Midi-monitor works flawless in normal scope)
Is this "normal" ?

I don't think there is a Midi Monitor in the sdk as I needed one recently. i can't check right now but will check that tomorrow.
The one i have in the project is from a very old version of the sdk (dp) but i am not sure it works. I will chek that too.
I am not sure I can send it though, in case it works (I should check with SC or Gary first).

nebelfuerst, Your SDK keyfile doesn't get 'seen' by SDK from normal Scope install, they're separate directory structures.

Tbh, I have no idea what happens with devices you don't have discrete keys for in SDK, so trying to add that device might have failed because it's covered by the basic Scope 5.x/7.x key which is replaced by the SDK key when running the SDK. At least this seems to make sense....

Would it work to merge Scope 5.x/7.x keys with the SDK keys file?

I don't imagine it will cause irreversible damage, so it can't hurt to try it. But I have no idea if the key method is compatible, or if it might be the case that you need to enter each key so that the string can be calculated from within the SDK version of the software. That shouldn't be hard to verify either, tbh.

It has never been a problem to me importing a keyfile of scope from sdk. For example, when the midi monitor requests a key, try to load the keyfile from scope (using the "import key file" option of the registration pop up window).I use it to activate devices in scope or in sdk . But you should first copy your current keyfiles somewhere for backup in case of problem. I don't know if it will work in this particular case because it could be scope app key that is required. Worth trying anyway.

try it, it should.

Time to give some update:

Midimonitor now works.
I imported keyfiles, but they didn't contain v7 keys. I searched around and found the "activation key" for V7. Entering this one makes the V7 devices work.

I hear sounds from the synth:
In 2mLD, the "mod offset" was at -128, which muted my sound. I found this by connecting my audio to several stages after VCO.
The VU2 showed some signal, which I wasn't able to hear. ( Probably whales could hear this

I'm still not finished with the video, but my "milestones" seem to work now. Thank you for your support.

One more question:
At 16:02 surface editing is selected, then the first item of Midi VC 16 is selected.

I can press surface editing, then click the first item, but no selection appears. I tried left click, right click, middle click.
Is there some prerequesite to select an item ?

Hi there,

So , I Put myself in "move" mode ('not "edit mode which is something else" that allows to resize panels and move various elements of a Go (eg, in edit mode you can select each led of the vu meters, but in Move mode you can only select the whole vu meter ensemble).

So,
On the MVC, I do not select the surface or a poti, but the "group" : in most stock modules, the following are in a group : poti+label+value display. They always use this "trio" .

It is true that I Know where are those groups and what is their area without seeing them.

Just click in an empty space between the poti and the display and the whole group will be selected.

The reason why I select the group is to highlit it in the Project Explorer.
Now I Know where it is in the Project Explorer which becomes focussed on that selected group.

Then, in the Project Explorer, i drag the other groups of that surface panel, into that group that I selected previously.

After that, I have several groups into a "top group". (Icould have renamed that top group "Top Group" but did not because it dinot look necessary to do so).

Now I can select that top group and cut/paste it and it will contain/bring with it all the groups that are inside it.

Does this explain what I am doing on screen ?


Please note that dragging groups into groups (or potis into groups) with the Project Explorer is usually very difficult and quite unpracticable. Here it works because the groups are one under each other in the Project Explorer, so i don't go far and the project explorer does not need to "scroll" to follow my moves.

I decided to drag them because I didn't want to use the cut n paste which is slower but easier to use. and drag-n-drop exists, and in this example, it is useable

Sometimes it is just unpracticable because the Project Explorer doesn't follow, everything becomes unreadable and there is no way to know what you are doing. and it happened to me that I was obliged to drop a module in a location that I am unable to find back (like a doctor that leaves his tools in the body of the patient, lol,. In small devices it is not issue, but in very large devices with hundreds or folded modules inside several levels of "fold", it happened that I find a module only by chance, weeks after i lost it

There is a passage of the video (later on i think) when i try to drag n drop again but it is more difficult.

So use the drag and drop method when groups are close to each other. Otherwise, the cut n paste method is more adviseable.


Also, please save before"un-grouping" stuff. You should be ok but on SDK7 some of my old devices could not be edited because of this (crash when ungrouping groups of older devices). This may be something particular to my system or to some of my older devices. But well, just save the device before ungrouping so you are crash-proof. I do not ungroup stuff in this video, but it should be done at the very end, in order to let scope user select the panel even if there is a group "between the mouse pointer and the panel" (a group forbids to select the surface "beneath" it, so you either ungroup stuff or apply various settings in the Go Tree. I can show that after you are done (it is not in the current video).

Thank you for the detailed background information.
I'm still stuck at this "movement".

I can group the objects in explorer.

Clicking between poti and display selects the group in explorer, but I don't get that box in the graphics.
I cannot move the group.

So I tried to move the controls group in explorer into the empty synth.
I appears now right to the synth, but I cannot move it.

HI !
This is very weird.

2 things:

1/// what surprise me in your pics is that the synth panel seems to be floating like any "normal" surface that is not in "surface edit/move"mode"

I attach a picture that shows my sdk, with the Project window in "surface" mode adfter the Panel was selected : the panel can go "under" the edges of the window, it is not floating above it, but is contained inside the surface mode window.


2/// check that the group is selectable
Select the group (in any way you can, ie in the project explorer ) then, in the Project explorer, click on "Go" to reach the attributes of the graphical object that a group is.
Then, in the attribute, check that "selectable" is checked.


3/// it could be something with sdk7 but I am absolutely not sure of this. Normally, I have the same behaviour as you when the group is "not selectable" . This makes the group "invisible" to the mouse pointer and the panel under it can be selected directly.

If you cannot select the group, you will not be able to ungroup stuff, which is not normal. I Know ungrouping is possible in sdk7 as i tried it myself.

If it is not about selectable group, i have no idea what it could be, except may be that the attribute of the synth panel is not "graphic" but this would be strange as you pobably used the stock "empty synth". Mismanipulations are possible, such as shortcut stroke unvoluntarily. it happens.

You could save your device and send it to me, so i can check what happens.

Let me know !

EDIT; a group or graphical object that has the "selctable" *un*checked, can still be selected in "edit" rather than "move" mode. however, edit mode is a bit more complicated to use as it allows to change the positions of several Gos in a Group or a Go (graphics can be child of another graphic, and when you are back in "move" mode, you can move this ensemble as if it was 1 graphic, ie, relative positions will remain the same (example: the vu meter is made of several "Leds" graphical objects arranged into a group in a child/parent relationships).

Put the sdk working screen at your main monitor if you use two monitors. Then close the floating panel you want to edit. Then press once the "circuit" button and then again to the "surface" mode. You have to be in the view layer "inside the module" you want to edit its panel. By pressing the surface button the panel should appear in a way that you can change the position of the graphics, selecting etc. (it will not float)

So go inside the module you want to edit its panel by double clicking on it. And then press the surface button to get the panel to edit.

yes, what fra77x says is right too. Might be it indeed. I checked on your picture and it seemed correct to me but i have no way to know for sure.

to summarize
The panels are at the same level as the "surface interface+panel" couple.
the panel module "is" the graphic panel of the device (if you delete it, you loose your device panel and all connections of potis/faders to circuit pads.... so don't delete it lol).
pic attached

The surface must be closed too. if it is "open" it may or may not appear in surface edit view (if you right click the panel in surface view and choose "show" the panel should disappear). it must be closed either by going back into surface view, right click panel (in project explorer) and choose "close" (going back in surface view may "refresh" it and the panel/graphics re-appears) , or by selecting the "Surface interface" or "panel" module, and setting the "show" pad to 0 (if you can't make the graphic panel appear again).

Found another possible cause.

There are two levels of edit/move/use mode

For what we want to do, make sure that
- project window=move
- surface client area mode = move


If project is "move" but client area is "use" , then I do not have dots around the group, i can move it around though.

Thanks again to spacef and fra77x2 !
Not being able to move/select was due to the "wrong level" in circuit.

In circuits I was on top level, but Midi Voice control was on the second sublevel.
I was expecting some WYSIWYG behaviour, but now I learned about an addtional dependency.
One more thing, I learned for live now.

nice tool to make graphics, it is like photoshop, but online and free . I haven(t fully tested but so far it works exactly like PS.
https://www.photopea.com/

Good to make a nice device panel and other bitmaps (faders for example).
I would not use it for potis (animations) because there seem to be nicer tools around.


free 3d tools
there is a famous app for potis (knobman?)
there is also blender https://www.blender.org/

Free vector tools (illustrator-like)
https://inkscape.org/

.

I never heard of such a function. You can group stuff together to make it easier to find different elements.
automation in project explorer? not sure it would make it easier.

So ? any help required to finish the device ?

This is awesome. Thanks, hopefully I can use this as a starting point?

Want to use SDK but up till now I’ve done nothing with it.

It's really nothing more than a starting point. It is difficult to follow because I do not talk and it's all on screen so it can be confusing.
I should not have used the drag and drop of modules into groups because it is not a good habit (it is not manageable anymore once a device becomes crowded internally). But it shows how to connect stuff and the general workflow.

Wicked, thanks. I see your website is coming back to life.