Stuck with a SynthEdit project?

Category: Controls

Resizable slider control.

The stock Slider Control in Synthedit has one major disadvantage- It’s not resizable. This project uses third party modules, and can be re-sized by editing its panel view. Note: Resizing the actual slider knob does mean creating a new .png file for it. This control also has the option to “spring” back to a default value, which can be useful, you could use it as a pitch bend slider control for example.

The Joystick/Slider module.

The ED Joystick Image control is used for the slider control itself, there are few properties settings to note, see below:

Setting Constrain X Max to 0 stops any horizontal movement of the control by locking it to the 0 position. Leave the Constrain Y settings as Min=0 and Max=1 as we want the full range.
Ctrl Scaling factor sets how fine the control movement is when holding the Ctrl key down and moving the slider. Both the backgrounds are set as 00 for the Alpha (transparency) level so the rest of the ARGB setting can be left blank.
The Mouse Down plugs are connected so that the control will be returned to it’s default position when this option is selected.

The control background and scale grid.

The background for the control is supplied by another third party control, the DAM Rectangle, which allows us a resizable background, outline and grid with control over the colours of the background and grid, the settings are shown below.
Although I have left the background colour as preset, you could easily link the Top ARGB and Bottom ARGB to allow these as user settings.

The “Spring”.

This is the section that allows us to have a position that the control automatically returns to our user determined default position as soon as the left mouse button is released. Although we have two Spring modules connected only one needs a Reset and normalized value set ( the Y position) Note: Although it seems like only one Spring module is needed this will not work without both connected as shown.
The reset value is the position we want the control to return to, and it is the normal GUI float range of 0 to 1, so to return to the mid position a value of 0.5 must be set for the “Spring Position”. This is independent of any values given to the Min Max values for the control, and will always follow this 0 to 1 scale.

The label and value display.

Another third party module is in use here, the DAM Text Enter module as this gives us greater control over the text formatting than the stock SE text modules.
Float to text is used to for the value readout with an ED GUI Multiply (Float) so re can re-scale the readout ( for example you want to convert a range of 0 to 10 to a range of 0 to 100%- this only affects the display, not the Volts/Float outputs.

Output.

I have Included a GUI Float output, a DSP Float output, and a Volts output. The Float to Volts conversion is set to smooth (30mS).

Resizing the control.

All that need to be done is open the Panel View then drag the relevant controls to their required sizes, then lock and close the panel view.
The panel view and control settings are shown below.

Renaming a Knob control in SynthEdit.

This seems to be something that confuses most newcomers to the world of SynthEdit plug-in design. Once you know how it’s done its easy, if a little repetitive in large projects. The usual mistake that’s made is to change the Name in the properties panel, then wonder why the control is still labelled “Knob” in the panel view.
The first thing to realise is that the Knob control is not so much a module as a prefab, which you can open up and customise.

How to rename the Synthedit Knob control.

Put a knob control into a structure window. Double click on the blue bar at the top, and it will open a new structure window.

Once this is open all you need to do is select the Text Entry4 module, then in the Properties panel change the entry in the Text box from “Knob” to a suitable title for the control. press the return (enter) key and close the window. Your knob is now renamed.

Renamed knob control


Hint:
If you find yourself doing this lots of times and using the same titles, why not set up some prefabs knobs of your own with useful titles such as: Cut-off, Q, Frequency, Attack, Decay & so on. You can even set up your own sub-folder in the Prefabs folder called Knobs to keep your selection in. You’ll usually find the Prefabs folder by using Windows File Explorer in one of the sections under Users: see below…

Saving a new Prefab.
Just right click on your renamed Knob control, and select Selection to Prefab from the popup menu and save in your folder of choice. You’ll then be able to see your new prefab control in the Modules menu.

Saving a prefab