Okay,

There's a demo of the current Windows build (RC) of pHATmatik PRO available to everyone at

http://www.bitshiftaudio.com/download/pp_demo_20020427.zip

Just a friendly reminder: you can still pre-order for $59.95 at bitshiftaudio.com for three more days. (After May 1st, pHATmatik PRO is $99.95... save $40!)

I really hate demos that don't give me a good idea of what's going on, so I've tried to have a sane cripple list:

• Monotimbral (pHATmatik PRO full is 16-part multitimbral)
  
• Only first stereo pair is enabled (pHATmatik PRO has four stereo outs, assignable per-slice)
  
• Automation is disabled
  
• Only 44.1K operation
  
• Won't save settings with song
  

Other than that, no white noise, no timeouts. Play with it until you're convinced it's the right purchase for you. (Our own research with test subjects indicates the mean time to go from skeptical software buyer to fanatic pHAT-head is about 3.2 seconds. )
There's also a brief Tutorial pdf included in the download, put together by beta tester extraordinaire and all-around great guy, Scot Solida. The full version of pHATmatik PRO will come with substantial documentation.

Enjoy the pHAT!

Art
>>0xBA
http://www.bitshiftaudio.com

so basically what your saying is that after 3.2 seconds, if im still not convinced, i probably wont go on to buy it?

hmm

im just pulling your leg! its been on my list for a while now. It looks awesome.

good work!

prophet: LOL - I hate to boast, but if pHATmatik PRO doesn't get you excited within 3.2 seconds, you may want to get to a hospital.

submerge: Alas - the VSTi interface makes dynamic parameters very difficult to address in a sensible manner. At one point, I calculated how many parameters would show up if you had all 16 channels loaded with loops with 16 slices each... came out to about 8000 parameters. (!)

So, in the first release, only channel master parameters are automatable. In the very first point release (planned for June), we'll have midi learn for any parameter you can access through the interface (including per-slice).

Best,

Art
>>0xBA
http://www.bitshiftaudio.com

I might just point out a touch of anti-Mac behavior:

Though Phatmatik looks perfect for many of my needs, but I'd still like to try it before I buy it.
Any chance you'll extend the $60 pre-order to 3 day after the Mac demo is out?(if there'll be a Mac demo at all)

Just a thought - No PC vs Mac ire intended.

dirtyaudio - Great point... thanks for bringing it up. Since the Mac version is running behind the Windows release, I'll be sure to offer a similar incentive for Mac musicians when the time comes.

Fair enough?

Best,

Art
>>0xBA
http://www.bitshiftaudio.com

this man really is the best -

can't wait to try it.

Hey bitshift,

Could you please contact me at: pvmas@ono.com

I've tried to get your mail, but no luck. It's about business.

Nice piece of software, by the way

Pere

Art,

I just got an idea for dynamic parameters:

In my opinion, it doesn't make much sense to remote control parameters of slices, that aren't to be heard, right?

There's (normally) only one slice to be heard at a time. So what about that: A midi note message that triggers a slice, determines also, to which slice midi messages are targeted at. Thus, you "only" end up with a few dynamic parameters per slice on a channel...
If you want a slice's parameters to be remote controlled, you simply "midi select"/trigger it first...

Similar with midi output: PPro only outputs midi for the current selected slice for the "time" it is the latest one triggered...

Anyone?

TTTTTabSel

[ 28 April 2002, 17:03: Message edited by: TabSel ]

bitshift ... since you're about ... can you mail me my full version of ppro?

I paid 24 hours ago and haven't received a thing yet, but thought maybe you were away from your machine (in the basement that you love )

cheers = kev

Kevvvvvvvv (you should hear the way Mrs. Bitshift pronounces that... It's quite erotic )

Anyway, the full version isn't ready yet! It's a pre-order!

Ahhhhh!

If you'd like a copy of the current beta rc, shoot me a mail.

Hugs and kisses,

Art
>>0xBA

yeah and can you email me the way for me to get the latest build of phatmatik pro. and my contact info again.

(I too have not recieved a reply from my email)

thanks

dw

Hey dusted,

Sorry about that. People who lose their beta account userid and passwords aren't exactly my top priority right now.

Check your e-mail.

Art
>>0xBA

Understandable Bitshift.

Sorry

dw

great piece of software !!

question though:
what happened to REX import/load ?
only wav's ?... if i have a lot of rex's, why not load them like phatmatik-not-pro can ?

regards
jwt

Hi jwt,

That's a good question and I really don't want to start on my holy war just yet, so here's the short version:

Proprietary file formats are bad for musicians.

You'll hear a lot from me on this topic in the future... I'm very passionate about it.

In the meantime... pHATmatik-not-pro will continue to support REX1 files for the time being. (Eventually, pHATmatik free will be converted to support only ACIDized and pHATsized .wav files.) I recommend converting all your REX1/2 files to a standard format like WAV or AIF, so that your options are not limited by the whims of software developers.

Cheers,

Art
>>0xBA

Hi Art,

I've been trying to contact you before on this thread. I don't know if you've read it. So, could you please contact me at: pvmas@ono.com

It's business matters!

Best regards

Pere (from Spain)

PS. By the way, I spent a week in Masachussets last November, in Sheffield. Cool place!

WOW ! Better than I imagined.

quote:

---

Originally posted by bitshift:
<snipped>[QB]

Automation is disabled[QB]<snipped>

---

Just one question for anyone using logic 5 - as the automation is disabled I can't see how this works, but are for example, the 'per slice' filter parameters automatable and do they appear in the parameter list of the automation tracks ?

cheers

What software (freely-available, I'd hope...) can we use to convert a .rex (1 or 2) file to some less-proprietary format? Is there really no information loss in converting to ACIDized .wav?

Look for a free utility from >>0xBA to batch convert REX files to ACIDized wavs/pHATmaticized wavs in the weeks to come.

Just point it at a directory of REX files... and Bam! A directory of wav files.

part of the Jihad on proprietary formats. Repeat after me: Proprietary file formats are bad for musicians



Art

P.S. Digital audio is digital audio... no quality loss in the conversion.

[ 29 April 2002, 03:09: Message edited by: bitshift ]

Chris...
Won't ReCycle do just that? It won't convert to ACIDized waves, but it will convert .rex1 and .rex2 to standard waves, won't it? It would serve 'em right to use their software to shake off the shackles of the proprietary .rex format...
Don't get me wrong, I own and use(d) ReCycle, but it'll be getting a lot less use now that pHATmatik Pro is on the scene...
Scot SOlida
Christus And The Cosmonaughts

Dang. Too slow posting that, wasn't I!?! Now, along comes Art and throws yet another tantalizing morsel just out of our reaches! Put the torches down, villagers, I think I heard the word "free" mentioned...
Scot Solida
Christus And The Cosmonaughts

[ 29 April 2002, 03:04: Message edited by: Scot Solida ]

oh!
90% of my files are in SDII-format.
(As it is with most of the Logic-mac-users.)
hmm......

SDII?
Or am I just a putti-minority?
Anyone else with the wish that PhatMatPro will be also able to work with SDII`?

putte

Putte: You should convert to using AIFF or Wav when you record in Logic. These are much more "portable" to other apps. SDII is Logic's default, and it's only really for Pro Tools at this point. EVERYTHING on the planet reads AIFFS or WAVs.

spectrum

PS. You can use Sound APP to convert SDIIs to AIFFs quite easily.

Spectreum - SoundApp is indeed one of my most used tools, and I really love it.

Hmm...I think if PhatMat won´t support SDII I will start recording all my Logic-Stuff in AiFF.
Don´t know, but somehow I always felt better with SDII than with aiff and wav.
But this is probably just an "esoteric" issue...

Spectrum, I would love to get a little opinion from you about the qualitiy-diffrences between sdII, wav and aiff.
Are there any?

keep care everybody
putte

Uh-oh! Not the never-ending CD-R color argument.



Putte: SDII is a well-documented format, and as far as I can tell, digi has no problems with people implementing support for it. (It also looks pretty straightforward to implement... Art likes easy!) In this sense, it's "open" and, although it's not exactly at the top of my list, if enough pHATmatik PRO musicians ask for it, I'll put it in.

Let me make one thing clear... there are a lot of file formats out there (and within any given file format, a host of variations)... I don't have fundamental problems with formats like SDII or SF2 because the proponents of these formats obviously _want_ them to be widely supported. They're well-documented, there are either no or nominal licensing fees, and no-one sends you a cease and desist order when you write a file converter. This is _good_ for musicians. What I'm out to stop is companies who _don't_ want their file formats widely supported, who use secret file formats as a means of insuring that you have to use their tools or of forcing musicians to 're-license' their soundware in a new format.

This is just plain bad for musicians, and, therefore, bad for the entire industry. I'll have a lot more to say about this in the future.

For now, let's just look at an obvious example. Sonic Foundry's ACID-ized wav vs. Propellerhead's REX2

Sonic Foundry uses standard wav files with two additional chunks to store the meta-data necessary for slicing information. The format of these chunks is easy to reverse engineer, and the folks at SF have been very supportive of people who have added ACID-ized wav support to their applications. They believe so strongly in the format that they're expending the resources to develop an ACID-ized wav SDK. This is great! Now if a musician buys a sample CD with ACID-ized wavs, not only can he drop them into ACID, but since they're wav files, he can use them in any software or tool... applications that don't support the ACID-specific extensions will simply ignore them and treat the file as a standard WAV. So, he's paid for a sample license, and he can use the samples freely in whatever tool is appropriate.

Now, let's imagine you buy a REX2 sample CD... you can load your new samples into.. Reason, Logic, Cubase... Load them in Wavelab? Uh, no. If you want to edit them, you need ReCycle. Can you send the slices to your sampler? Um, no, not without ReCycle. Are there batch converters available (say to convert them to SDII files ) No. Of course, you could always render them singly using one of the pieces of software that supports REX2, but do 300 loops that way and see if you still feel like making any music.

And what happens to all those loops, hmmm, when you upgrade to a new tool? ReCycle 2 won't let you save as REX1... so will ReCycle 3 render all of your expensive, hard-earned REX2 libraries obsolete? With open file formats, you don't have to worry about it.

But, Art, don't those file formats provide some advantage sonically/technologically? Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Anything that can be done in a proprietary, closed format can be done openly. (ACID-ized wav's contain the same information as REX2... REX2 has the Propellerhead's proprietary lossless compression, but there are a number of similar and equally performant lossless compression algos available as open-source and in the academic literature)

BTW, this just occurred to me: spectrum deserves a huge shout for not making any of his VSTi's 'shovelware' versions of his previous libraries. It would have been the easiest and most profitable thing to do, and he didn't. Bravo.

Best,
Art
>>0xBa

Art - I know (or at least assumed) that there's no "sound quality" loss between .rex and ACID .wav. What I was asking was "information loss" - ie, is there any information about the sounds or how they're played in a .rex file that doesn't have an analogue in an ACIDized .wav file. However, from your later longer post, it sounds like there is not, so that's cool. And doubly cool that you plan to offer a free convertor - I'll be sure to download it before Propellerhead makes you take it off.

Scot - ReCycle may indeed allow you to save as .wav, but I don't own ReCycle. Also, I'll bet it would only save as a basic sound .wav file, not an ACIDized .wav with the playback data intact...

just wanted to say thanks to art and spectrum for the informations concerning file-formats.
putte