Crystal 1.5 is now available for download from http://www.greenoak.com/crystal

New features include more modulation targets (there are now 87 parameters which can be modulated in Crystal) and improved performance when loading Crystal into your VST instrument rack.

This is a relatively modest update compared to other Crystal updates, but I'd highly recommend downloading it. It has some important new features and you will need version 1.5 to use the new user bank of patches which will be available shortly.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

- Glenn

hey, one of my favourite softsynths is updated again!

downloading...

thx, Glenn!

Wow, you are amazing Glenn. Thank you so much for such a great instrument and for continuing to improve it, all for free.

Hooo-hah! Mo' better Crystal! Can't wait to download it tonight...

Thanks again, Glenn!!

Wow, the new file is 9mb (it was 4mb before)

Hat off!! Really impressive.

The best things in life are free! Impressive, Glenn; your dedication is inspiring.

Actually I can´t find words to describe how crystal fits into my musical structures...glenn, this is really an amazing piece of software!!

The track I´m working on at the moment is heavy influenced by some soundscapes I built with crystal plus an uptime-jazzbeat and a bassline..

once it´s nearly finished I´ll send it to you!

peace&respect, moritz

Holy Shit !!

Thank you very much Glenn !

I'm still confused that it is free !
Wouldn't mind paying for it !! Glenn ? 10 $ ? 15 $ ? Let me know !

Thank you !

Thomas

SSHH,Quiet.

Glenn, I've never taken the time to thank you for this extraordinary instrument, so...

Thank you for this extraordinary instrument!

The more time I spend with Crystal, the more impressed I am. It's really helping me get some of those weird noises out of my head and into the world. Loved the new waveforms in 1.4 - do you intend one day to allow imported waveforms, or is that a bit complicated?

Can't wait to try 1.5.

The only thing I haven't really been able to do yet with Crystal is get a strong bass end. I realise it's not designed as bass synth, but I'd be interested to work with with some bass-heavy evolving textures. Crystal sounds seem (to my ears) to lack a little grunt when they enter the lower end. Is this due to my poor synth-programming skills, or is it the nature of Crystal? Any hints? (Ignore me if this has already been addressed in 1.5.)

Thanks again, Glenn. You set an inspiring example.

Congratulations......there is a CPU-usage improvement. Before this it was hardly to use in poly mode. But still this could be optimized. What I am waiting for is the support of the sustain pedal. Or am I missing something? All in all one of the most impressive free VSTi's! Thanks, man, for your work!

Hi Glenn, great work!

Crystal 1.5 is *the* most kick ass awesome free VSTi synth available IMHO.

a great credit to you and a generous gift to music makers
everywhere.

I hope to get some new patches to you soon, but i doubt in time for the imminent user bank u mention....

regards,

Dave

Well - in another Thread I have raised the questions of pro vsti's vs cheap and free vsti's and I think this synth pretty much reinforces the old "It doesnt matter whether it uses FM/Analog etc....." debate, because this sounds fantastic.

I just downloaded the user bank that (i assume) has been up there for a while and it sounds brilliant - really nice arpeggio lines, decent swirling sounds, lovely spot effect................. To be honest, for free, you really can't argue.

GOOD WORK !!!!!

I didn't had the time to test version 1.4. Ok, but now I can't wait to test version 1.5
BTW I used Crystal(version 1.3) in a song from the album of my band that was finished yesterday(the album, not the song) and it sounds great.

greetZ ANdreas

anyone using logic 4.8.1 on w98se? crystal 1.4 crashed for me.. it's a bit of work to install too since i only have 1 monitor between 2 pcs and my floppies are down to ~600k reliably, so lots of trips..

glenn my hiphopper pal (beginning synthesist.. uses presets.. shudder loves 1.4! sounds lovely..

TrekStar wrote:

What I am waiting for is the support of the sustain pedal. Or am I missing something? All in all one of the most impressive free VSTi's! Thanks, man, for your work!

It's there. Just go to the Modulation page, select "Sustain Pedal" from a Source menu in the Modulation Matrix. Then, choose "Note Sustain" (way at the bottom of the menu) from the adjoining Target menu.

But, this _is_ Crystal, which means that's just the beginning. Try a different target for the pedal than Note Sustain, for example Voice Pitch. Or, try using the Delay Presets to define a chorus (for example on Delay 1), then map the sustain pedal to the Delay 1 Level.

xoxos wrote:

anyone using logic 4.8.1 on w98se? crystal 1.4 crashed for me.. it's a bit of work to install too since i only have 1 monitor between 2 pcs and my floppies are down to ~600k reliably, so lots of trips..

I was using Logic 4.8.1 on Win98se until my recent upgrade to Logic 5.x, which I highly recommend. I didn't have any problems running Crystal before, but I don't remember which version of Crystal I was on at the time. No problems in Logic 5.x yet either. Yuck on the one monitor situation.

EagleEye wrote:

Holy Shit !! Thank you very much Glenn ! I'm still confused that it is free ! Wouldn't mind paying for it !! Glenn ? 10 $ ? 15 $ ? Let me know ! Thank you ! Thomas

Thanks for the offer, but there's no need to send me money. However, I'd gladly accept payment in the form of Crystal patches. If anyone has any patches they'd like to share, save them as .fxp or .fxb files and send them to me at glenn@greenoak.com

- GlennO

Glenn: happy to report v1.5 running just fine in SONAR2 and Orion Pro (even those wackly pops/clicks I was getting with certain envelopes in the last version seems to have gone)...!!

Had one lock-up in Orion where, while running a looped repeating pattern and changing presets, the CPU shot up to 115%....! But I wouldn't be surprised if that's just from me using a PIII 450...

Damn excellent job once again, Glenn!!

Moritz Morpheus MkIII wrote:

Actually I can´t find words to describe how crystal fits into my musical structures...glenn, this is really an amazing piece of software!! The track I´m working on at the moment is heavy influenced by some soundscapes I built with crystal plus an uptime-jazzbeat and a bassline.. once it´s nearly finished I´ll send it to you! peace&respect, moritz

Yeah, please do, I'd like to hear that when it's done.

- GlennO

quantize wrote:

Hi Glenn, great work! Crystal 1.5 is *the* most kick ass awesome free VSTi synth available IMHO. a great credit to you and a generous gift to music makers everywhere. I hope to get some new patches to you soon, but i doubt in time for the imminent user bank u mention.... regards, Dave

Go ahead and send me your patches...I'll wait. I really liked your patches last time.

- GlennO

you will! ..should be finished in a few week because my next EP will be released in November..and I feel like I really want to have that track on it!

peace, moritz

Is there any way to save my Logic Crystal presets as fxb? (I should know this one... heh)

Art
>>0xBA

Yeah, Crystal continues to be stunning...

Moritz Morpheus MkIII wrote:

you will! ..should be finished in a few week because my next EP will be released in November

Hey Mo, this is probably a dumb question, but what name do you release your records under? I'd like to check your music out, if I can buy it in the UK...?

hey mwnp,

I release my own music under my real name which is Albin Janoska...so I´m also a mwnp..


peace, moritz

ill take this opportunity to jump on the bandwagon too - just got it last night .Id never bothered with the demo before - i didnt envision a freeware (im such a snob) modular was gonna be quite so complete or user friendly, or even sound so good. i agree it definately has a future as a commercial product (why am i talking them out of future free versions?), so good luck to Glenn and the Green Oak people with Crysta .

Moritz Morpheus MkIII wrote:

I release my own music under my real name which is Albin Janoska...so I´m also a mwnp...

Aha, there you are!

Seems like I can buy your record directly from klein. Very cool.

GlennO wrote:

It's there. Just go to the Modulation page, select "Sustain Pedal" from a Source menu in the Modulation Matrix. Then, choose "Note Sustain" (way at the bottom of the menu) from the adjoining Target menu. But, this _is_ Crystal, which means that's just the beginning. Try a different target for the pedal than Note Sustain, for example Voice Pitch. Or, try using the Delay Presets to define a chorus (for example on Delay 1), then map the sustain pedal to the Delay 1 Level.

Even though it's no big deal to map the sustain pedal to note sustain, it's on my wishlist for the next update that this is default for all patches.

By the way, I LOVE the AtmoEPiano patch, it's quite possibly the best electric-piano-sound-designed-to-not-sound-like-an-authentic-electric- piano-at-all patch I've ever heard.

A weird thing: When Crystal is idle with the AtmoEPiano patch loaded, Cubase reports that it uses 70% CPU on my system. The moment I hit a key the CPU usage drops to 20%. Why is this?

Also: You do realise you could have made a fortune if you sold Crystal (not that I'm trying to give you any ideas...)?

Z wrote:

By the way, I LOVE the AtmoEPiano patch, it's quite possibly the best electric-piano-sound-designed-to-not-sound-like-an-authentic-electric- piano-at-all patch I've ever heard. A weird thing: When Crystal is idle with the AtmoEPiano patch loaded, Cubase reports that it uses 70% CPU on my system. The moment I hit a key the CPU usage drops to 20%. Why is this?

Just when you think you've found the last denormal problem, another one pops up. Sorry about that. Download 1.5.1 to get the fix for this.

- Glenn

GlennO wrote:

Just when you think you've found the last denormal problem, another one pops up. Sorry about that. Download 1.5.1 to get the fix for this. - Glenn

Thanks a lot Glenn, it is now PERFECT.

I wouldn't go that far, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Wait until you see the next version .

However, there are now so many features in Crystal that are not in Absynth that I hope people will no longer feel a need to compare the two as if they were competitors. Or, if they must compare them, there is no need to feel Crystal is in some way inferior. At the same time, Absynth has features not found in Crystal, so I hope people will view them as two complementary synths.

GlennO wrote:

I wouldn't go that far, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Wait until you see the next version .

I think it's safe to say most of us can hardly wait.

Quote:

However, there are now so many features in Crystal that are not in Absynth that I hope people will no longer feel a need to compare the two as if they were competitors. Or, if they must compare them, there is no need to feel Crystal is in some way inferior. At the same time, Absynth has features not found in Crystal, so I hope people will view them as two complementary synths.

Naah, Crystal is in NO way inferior to Absynth! Don't you worry, I don't think there's a single person who thinks that way. But I do think a comparison is somewhat fair because both are motion synths, and I use Crystal for creating rich evolving textures, and I assume many people use Absynth for that as well (I haven't gotten Absynth, I have only tried the demo).
As far as I know, the only motion synth that can be directly compared to Crystal, is Absynth and ES-2, but unfortunately the latter is Logic only. FM7 can to some degree be one even though it is more or less based on rhythm, and to a lesser degree, the PPG Wave 2.V can be thanks to wavetable sweeping.

But judging from all the positive feedback you get, I think that when people compare your free synth to a full priced product like Absynth, that'll say a lot about the quality of Crystal.
To be perfectly honest, I have thought about purchasing Absynth, but thanks to Crystal, I no longer have any need to do so.

But, if you include wavesequencing a'la the Wavestation in Crystal, and let us import our own waves into it, I'll erect a statue of you in the garden.

GlennO wrote:

Wait until you see the next version

Jesus Glenn, you must have the mother of all shoehorns over there! Just how much more can you fit into Crystal?

With reference to the Crystal/Absynth comparisons - I think the main reason people jumped on that was Crystal's multi-point syncable envelopes.....

Either way Glenn, thanks very much for Crystal 1.5 and keep up the good work.

Amen, amen..

Way cool synth Glenn thanks very much

Is v1.51 the one that is now up on your website? It's still marked up as v1.5 on the page you see?

Cheers,

Moz

Mozzer wrote:

Way cool synth Glenn thanks very much Is v1.51 the one that is now up on your website? It's still marked up as v1.5 on the page you see? Cheers, Moz

It's there. Just download the 1.5 again.

Barnadine wrote:

Loved the new waveforms in 1.4 - do you intend one day to allow imported waveforms, or is that a bit complicated?

I don't know about that. I go back and forth in my own mind. It wouldn't be complicated to add waveform import to Crystal, but it would make it more difficult to use. In particular it would make it more difficult to share patches, to install updates, etc. With all the sound mangling capabilities in Crystal, I think one could get a lot of mileage out of a relatively small number of waveforms. But, I'll think about it and see what I can do.

- Glenn

Thanks for the response, Glenn. As you say, there's already vast potential in Crystal without extra waveform imports. I was just curious about what future directions you have in store for us.

By the way, I should put in a good word about the way Crystal handles CC assignment. Simple and effective. Not owning a hardware controller, I find some implementations of midi learn a bit fiddly, so having the option to directly map any CC to any function with a simple mouse click is ideal for me. (Incidentally, why don't all VSTis have this function? I know of full-price VSTIs that have neither midi learn, nor CC assign, nor hardwired CC channels. Is it difficult to program?) Love the granular synthesis too.

Cheers. Keep up the great work.

GlennO wrote:

I wouldn't go that far, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Wait until you see the next version .

Uh oh....... another NI-takeover in the making

Hello Glenn,

I don't know if you have Buzz installed. There is a very good synth called 'Jacinth'. It has a build-in wave editor, that imports waves and saves them within the bmx (Buzz's song format). The patch can also be stored as single jwf (jacinth wave file) or jwl (jacinth wave library with 15 waves).



Storing waves within a 'song' may be more difficult to do in a VSTi, but perhaps you want to look at Jacinth to get some inspiration.

Thanks for an already gorgeous synth!

crimsonwarlock wrote:

GlennO wrote: I wouldn't go that far, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Wait until you see the next version . Uh oh....... another NI-takeover in the making

No, no, no . Don't worry about that.

I don't think I'm giving away any secrets though if I say that to get Crystal 2.0 you'll have to buy a magazine.

- Glenn

GlennO wrote:

I don't think I'm giving away any secrets though if I say that to get Crystal 2.0 you'll have to buy a magazine.

SEE...SEE.... I told you all

Hahaha....just kidding of course. Your synth deserves that kind of coverage

Any clues as to which magazine will have Crystal 2.0?

Collusion wrote:

Any clues as to which magazine will have Crystal 2.0?

Since Crystal 1.4 is included on this month's Computer Music CD, I wouldn't be surprised if 2.0 is a CM feature of the month in the future.

Wow Glenn!

If it is CM Magazine that will give you fantastic coverage. Good for you.

it'll be great just to get a VSTi off exclusive from CM that doesn't crash all the time [unlike some other recent exclusives they've featured].
Thanks for the terrifc plug-in!
ktelj in brooklyn

And for those of us who would love to get Crystal 2 but cannot afford yet another foreign music magazine?.....

Robert

Rabid wrote:

And for those of us who would love to get Crystal 2 but cannot afford yet another foreign music magazine?..... Robert

Well you'll just have to look on in envy by the sounds of it.

Crystal 1.5 is good enough.I still can't believe it free!

If however you do make a crystal 2 I for one wouldnt object to downloading a registered version for a reasonable fee

Thanks so much for a fantastic synth Glenn !
I played with 1.5 for a couple minutes in Orion Plat. and using the genetics tool was able to get a 1984 skinny puppy sound ! WoW !

One thing though, the CCs in Orion don't show up properly, the names are shorthened...

Keep up the good work !
-Des

I believe CM said their next branded CM VSTi is in issue 53. I'd love it to be Crystal 2.0.

Z wrote:

But, if you include wavesequencing a'la the Wavestation in Crystal, and let us import our own waves into it, I'll erect a statue of you in the garden.

I frequently visit Oslo, where can I find the statue?