csound VS helm

Nobody has mentioned Csound.

Thank you so much for your appreciation ! I'm planning a blog post abou that... but, meanwhile: I use the following free software: 1) Huygens Fokker Scala to tune files (see below which ones); 2) SynthFont (in combination with soundfonts) to play the files tuned by Scala; The files in 1) are text files essentially representing pitches and durations. I set them up by means of an electronic spreadsheet :) Here's a link to Huygens Fokker Scala: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/ The underlying logic is definitely an "abc" one, rather than WYSIWYG. I'm still working under Windows, but I'm trying to switch to Linux, so I could need to replace Scala (which still doesn't install smoothly on recent distros) by Csound: https://csound.com/ 🙂 (Scala doesn't install smoothly on recent Linux distros).

Pure Data, cSound, and SuperCollider are all free and opensource. Incredible possibility, though the learning curb can be steep.

For fun, I took a class in computer music. I still did not know what a synthesizer was. Once class got under way, we started using this archaic horrible piece of software, Csound. Not long into the class, it finally kind of dawned on me that synths exist, what they are and how they work, and I started buying gear. Once I had gear, I really really hated Csound, and I wound up dropping the class (Covid had something to do with that). A lot of things started to make sense (Regular Show, for instance) and I got really interested in sound design.

CSound looks interesting: https://csound.com

csound would be interesting to play with.

undertstand how to install VST (Virtual Studio Technology) download some free plugins. FREE ONES, NO matter if they sound superduper or not. just to play around and try to undertstand them. watch some tutorials how to set them up in your DAW. i recommend the Plugin Helm! yes not the best but for free and alot of options to learn from it. and thats what makes it great! https://tytel.org/helm/ . i recommend this heavily because you have some sounds to start witha and you can create alone with this one alot. i mean really alot. there are endless tutorials how to make some specific sounds with this. than you need to a drumkit. you can use helms drumsounds and so on. but i recommend to search for a better way to do drums. helm can give you good piano, bass, and so on. but take your time to find a drum plugin. after you played around with helm already.

Matt Tytel's Helm is a great option to learn, CPU friendly and it sounds really good.

For a synth, you can't go wrong with Helm https://tytel.org/helm/

Does anyone here have a suggestion for a really cool software synth (preferably free) that can do these kinds of things? I've been messing with Helm, Cardinal and the built-in synths in Bitwig Studio and have yet to get a satisfying result... Don't you hate it when that happens?

What about installing Helm and trying to play it as a standalone instrument.