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v0.5.0 — songs, chords and a voice

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@github-actions github-actions released this 13 Oct 02:16
· 285 commits to master since this release
v0.5.0
ef95a9b

Soba can play a whole song now, and sing it. An Arranger holds the song's sections and moves the patch through them. A Chord Sequencer plays the harmony, voice-led and strummed. A Vocoder puts a voice on the chords, and a Tape machine sits on the mix. The new example Clair de Satellite uses all four: four minutes in the manner of Air, played and sung by one patch. You can hear it in the browser before you download anything.

If you have v0.4.0, Soba offers this update itself: the dot after the version number lights up, and Install puts it in place.

New modules

  • Arranger: a song's timeline. Up to 32 named sections, each some bars long and played up to 16 times, and eight automation lanes the sections move. A lane can ride a fader, pick a drum pattern, open a filter over a build or press a Looper's button: hold, jump, ramp (on the curve you choose) or hit. Zoom and pan long songs, and let one Arranger follow another's sections.
  • Chord Sequencer: a chord per step, sent out on polyphonic cables, so every Library voice plays it as it is. It voices chords close, open or spread, with voice leading, ties and slash basses. Write a step by playing the chord, on a MIDI keyboard or the letter keys, and hear it voiced as the step will play it. Strum rolls each chord across its strings, down or up per step, with a velocity taper.
  • Vocoder: one sound speaking with another's mouth, usually a voice on a synth chord. Freeze holds a vowel for as long as you like, and Flatten evens out the carrier first.
  • Tape: a tape machine for a bus, with wow, flutter, saturation, head bump and age. A Stop gate winds the tape down and back up. Afterglow and Shoreline now play on tape.
  • Slope: rise and fall at rates you set, after the Make Noise Maths. One module does slew and glide, attack-release envelopes, function generators and cycling LFOs.

Sampler

  • Record straight into it: In jacks and a Rec button on its face.
  • Trim and Normalize a recording, and preview it from the face, even while the patch is stopped.
  • Slices: play parts of one recording by note.

Sequencing

  • Step Sequencer patterns A–D, chained, for melodies longer than 16 steps. A tie on the last step carries into the next pattern.
  • Slide: glide into the notes you choose, legato, 303-style.

Groups

  • Pin dropdowns and toggles to a group's face, not only knobs, and name them.
  • Add, remove, rename and reorder a group's jacks after it's made.

Everywhere else

  • F frames the view: on the selection, or on the whole patch.
  • Cables run behind modules and labels, showing faintly through.
  • The Looper keeps its loops with the patch, as WAVs beside it, and reloads them stopped.
  • The SVF and Ladder filters have a Cutoff CV knob, for envelope depth.
  • Two new Library voices: Electric Piano and String Machine.
  • Every example now plays at about the same loudness, so moving between them doesn't jump.
  • In the browser, example samples load when they're played, so the page opens faster.

New examples

  • Clair de Satellite: an Air-style song, four minutes at 88 BPM, sung through the Vocoder. Three Arrangers are the score.
  • Soba Speaks: a chord of saws says "Hello. I am Soba. I sing in sines," in a person's voice or a synthesized one, or yours.
  • Held Vowels: a pad whose chords hold the vowels a singer only touches.
  • Front Porch: rhythm guitar, strummed on the Electric Piano, over a walking bass.
  • From One Sine grew: a 16-bar motif, its harmony on one Chord Sequencer, swells and fades in place of 4-bar steps, and a breakdown warped on tape.

Downloads

  • Windows: soba-windows-setup.exe (an installer), or soba-windows.zip. For low latency through an ASIO driver, use soba-windows-asio-setup.exe or soba-windows-asio.zip.
  • macOS: soba-macos-apple-silicon.dmg or soba-macos-intel.dmg. The app isn't signed by Apple yet: the first time, right-click Soba and choose Open.
  • Linux: soba-linux.zip

The Windows downloads aren't code-signed yet either, so SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info → Run anyway.

Licence: Soba is MIT. The low-latency (ASIO) Windows builds contain Steinberg's ASIO SDK, which Steinberg offers under the GPLv3, so those builds are distributed under the GPLv3. The licence and a notice are in their zip and installer, and the exact SDK they were built from is attached here as asio-sdk-source.zip.

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