im shocked.. stunned.. amazed... astounded... ...flabbergasted....



in a way im glad i dont have this... all i'd end up doing would be to sit here playing chord progressions all day while demoing different sounds..

Yeah, there goes my next pay-cheque, dammit.
What about that Cathedral Strings adagio demo.
Ggggaaaahhhh (Homer Simpson style drool noise.)

No chance of a package price is there on all 3 VSTi
Nice one, Spectrum.

Rob

Glad you like

I told you guys it would be cool! There's a lot more there than the demos show too...but it gets the point across. There's a good reason why it has taken so long to finish...there's a whole bunch of stuff in there!

We'll have more demos coming soon too from some more artists. Love to know which demos hit you the strongest.

best,

spectrum

I made a mess in my underwear again when I listened to some of the demos. I especially loved Breath of Fresh Air

Rabban

Hmm, not a mental picture I really needed, thanks Rabban.
But you're right, they're pant-wettingly awesome.

For me, Spectrum, the cream of the bunch...
- Absorb (gaaaggghh)
- Adagio
- Breath of fresh air
- Mortons Lunar Orchard
- 1985 (I'm still stuck in the 80's !)

But, heck, they're all superb.
Its a million miles from the average hardware synth demo.
I really hate those cheesy funk-fusion demos, usually with abrasive overuse of pitch-bend etc.
You know what I mean.

Great work,
Rob

PS: It was a serious question about all 3, although bought Stylus already.

Cool...thanks for the feedback!

(Glad you like 1985 too, I wondered if people would think it was too retro...but hey, I'm getting old enough that some of the old tricks might be coming back in style....you never know!)

I'd love to hear from more people about their favorites and why they liked them (or not)

We have a pretty diverse bunch of folks who are connected to Spectrasonics. My own tastes are really eclectic, and our testers and contributors hail from all over the world. I like to keep our interests firmly planted in as many camps as possible. It seems like it's the best to have a good mix and have everyone learning from each other. One of the trickiest things though these days, is that there is such a huge diversity of people with different tastes who use instruments like this, that it can be a trick to find a common denominator for people to latch onto musically in the demos. Some Jazzers and Film composers absolutely abhor techno, and some techno guys want to vomit when they hear odd meters or complex progressions. So it's great to hear positive feedback on our demo selection....we treat it very seriously, and almost more like producing a record.

Best,

spectrum

I love it too wOw. 56k.....so I just jumped on the "BoFAir" bandwagon-----and it's very cool (both sounds and song). There's so much to buy! and so little money.

Great job!!!

Wow. Usually, I'm left cold by 'synth' style vstis (once youve heard one....), but this sounds really good. You don't want to swap a copy for a bottle of cider do you??

Thats a hefty price tag, is it worth $399 (i havent heard the demos yet)

donkey tugger wrote:

Wow. Usually, I'm left cold by 'synth' style vstis (once youve heard one....), but this sounds really good. You don't want to swap a copy for a bottle of cider do you??

I can die and meet the Lord now...I think. Donkey praise is the highest honor there is on KvR

How much cider are we talkin'? It is a 6 disc set after all.....

spectrum

Hi,

first post here.
Stylus blew me away so I was happy to hear Atmosphere today!
Sounds cool!
Any chance there will be more string-oriented demoes?
Craig armstrong,air,...
Are there plans for a dedicated strings-vsti?????
That's what I'm waiting for.
Don't want to pay 1500$ for one of those gigastudio-sets.

Bye

VitaminD wrote:

im shocked.. stunned.. amazed... astounded... ...flabbergasted....

you bet...Spectrasonics rocketh hard!

-david abraham

spectrum wrote:

donkey tugger wrote: Wow. Usually, I'm left cold by 'synth' style vstis (once youve heard one....), but this sounds really good. You don't want to swap a copy for a bottle of cider do you?? I can die and meet the Lord now...I think. Donkey praise is the highest honor there is on KvR How much cider are we talkin'? It is a 6 disc set after all..... spectrum

Ahh, 6 CDs eh? Hmmm, well I suppose I could just afford to throw in a packet of cheapo French cigarettes though (smoke at your own risk!! )



Seriously though, good work sir!!

Great just freaking great!!!!

now help me come up with some lies to tell the wife why I need this!!!


She flipped out when I bought DR2 she said you spent how much on those CD roms..... then I tried for the next hour to try an explain that they were not cd roms.... well you know the rest of the story

Wow... if i had any money, I'd be sold.

OT: Check out the url for this topic!
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=100000

The day I can afford it, Atmosphere is mine.

Oh My God!

Atmosphere is so beatiful. So beatiful. Why is average salary in my country only 500 usd per month? Eric, do you take payments in Croatian Kunas?

Just kiddin

the ones that I like the best are:


The Haunted
1985
Attack of the Spectrum



I WANT THIS

Thanks for the encouragement guys....gives me just enough energy to finish this up.

OK...back to work!

spectrum

Oh hell, there goes my party money for the next few weeks! Now I have to buy one of these.

Amazing stuff, really. I can't wait!

hey spectrum,

great sound, really raising the bar

do the lfos sync to vst host tempo?

what kind of lfo waveforms are there?

brgds

The LFOs are really simple in the first version 1.00 release. Sine wave only and not syncable. In future updates we will add complex LFO waveforms and host syncing. We know it is something that everyone wants....us too!

spectrum

i'm weeping... its beautiful.. really beautiful..
the one that really got me was Deep Vision Lead.. the explination of what composed the patch actually is the best.. i love to hear about that stuff, filtered sitars and sine waves.. freekin drooooooool
i'm selling one of my computers to buy this..

(anyone want a dual PIII 800 in trade for atmostphere or 400 bux which ever comes first?)

Quote:

... is it worth $399

I'd pay that for "Cathedral Strings" alone.

[demo = "Adagio Expressivo"]

I've been looking for that sound for 25 years.

deW

deWaverley wrote:

Quote: ... is it worth $399 I'd pay that for "Cathedral Strings" alone. [demo = "Soundtrack Strings"] I've been looking for that sound for 25 years. deW

Dew if you mean this demo- Adagio Expressivo oh ya I am right there with you!!

Oops..yes - original post now edited!

I was so...you know... ..that I lost the power of rational thought!

deW

hey spectrum...........are you all working on making stylus usable in orion platinum?.......I am wanting atmosphere too, but waiting to see if you all can fix stylus and orion's problems BEFORE I shell out any more money
thanks

Yes....we are working with the orion guys to sort it out. Atmosphere doesn't use Groove Control though, so it won't have the same issue that your having with Stylus.

spectrum

thank you for the timely response.......great stuff you all make.....I will be getting atmosphere too hopefully soon.
thanks again

hey spectrum.. do i get a free copy?

..remember my birthday.. it was months ago.. *wink*

and christmas is coming up soon.. *ahem*

*grins*

I really like the demos and the sounds that Athmosphere can produce... it's way high on my purchase list.

However on a technical note I find it interesting that the tracks are almost all quite distorted at some points (specially the loud parts). Did the mastering go wrong here? Why then make them 320kbit if it doesn't sound clean (and I don't mean the meant-to-be crackles from the Stylus grooves)?

I wrote 2 of the demos on the Atmosphere page - none of them distort here in my studio - they sound big... but they don't distort.

-John Lehmkuhl

PS - you guys are gonna love this instrument. Way way way more than what you think it can be......

realkuhl wrote:

I wrote 2 of the demos on the Atmosphere page - none of them distort here in my studio - they sound big... but they don't distort.

Did you download the mp3s from the website? Maybe they where further processed after they left your studio...

I tried on 2 different PCs with different soundcards and through my monitors (Mackies) and Headphones

Your first piece "Zero G" in my opinion has some distortion for example between 0:34 - 0:44. It sounds not like digital clipping, but nevertheless...

Sure they sound big, but for my taste that goes just a bit too far... reminds me of the Spinal Tap Movie where their amp goes to eleven - just one louder...

They are hot....but there's no distortion over here on any of our computers playing from the site. Sounds like you just need to turn the playback level down before it hits your mixer. Mackie's don't have a lot of preamp headroom and distort pretty easily with hot signals.

Anyone else having distortion issues?

spectrum

spectrum wrote:

They are hot....but there's no distortion over here on any of our computers playing from the site. Sounds like you just need to turn the playback level down before it hits your mixer. Mackie's don't have a lot of preamp headroom and distort pretty easily with hot signals. Anyone else having distortion issues? spectrum

Yes I am having Major Problems.... I think that you need to send me a copy so I might Beta this problem for you..... I will fix it right away!!!! so send fast!!!!!!







ok really none on my end and I was cranking them

Good One

spectrum

Fantastic! This is the first chance I've had all day to listen to these, and they are magnificent. Everything I was expecting. Nice, too, that one of my fave artists played a couple of the demos (Richard Souther). Okay, who has four hundred bucks they can give me?

Eric sorry but I seem to have some problems playing back these
demos !

The only thing I can think is that they have corrupted during
download somehow, not sure though ? I never had this happen
with mp3's before

I am using Windows media player, when I start play on a couple of
them the seek bar moves as if it is playing but there is no sound
if I then move the seek bar slightly ahead of the begining say 00.02
and then play I get sound.

Some of them cut into a shhhhhh sound that continues all the way
through the track but will then play if I move the seek bar to slightly
after where this sound starts and play it is OK untill the next shhhhh.

an example is Attack_of_the_Spectrum ..... this plays ok untill
00.03 and then shhhhhh..... if I move the seek bar to
00.05 it is ok again , I think it must have droped some bits or
bytes coming down the modem

Any what I have heard so far has totally blowen me away
it's FANTASTIC !!!!

I want one

will there be a KVR Atmosphere competition by any chance

I thought they were distorting a bit and its definatly not my levels because i play alot of mp3s every day and i would have noticed. I have however had problems with mp3s that decode fine in one program but have distortion in another so it could be a codec thing?

chris

Just tried a few more and all of them have a bit of what sounds like vinyl crakle in places. I have the same shh sound problem Raven mentions and it hapens in both WMP and Soundforge. A few of them decompress into complete silence in soundforge but play ok in winamp. It sounds like you have a dodgy mp3 encoder?

chris

Some of the sounds have vinyl stuff in them...so a few crackles is part of the vibe on those sounds...but distortion shouldn't be happening at all.

You guys have quicktime installed in your browser? Then you can just play the demos from the popup window.

Different encoders were used, and they play fine here....so that's probably not it.

I'll check it on a few more windows rigs. We're mostly Mac based here.

spectrum

The same here. The demos are great but some are distorted indeed.

The demos are great and skeptic that I am it seemed like Atmosphere was vaporware. Thankfully it is and hopefully I'll some day be able to purchase it.

I love pads and these are some of the best I've heard. Congratulations on a fine sounding product.

Bruce

It's because they are using the crappy Xing codec to create the demo MP3s. If you are using the simpler Windows Media Player (not the resource hogging 7.1 or 8.0), the songs will often not play at all or will simply be a solid "hiss" unless you move the position slider. These songs also distort on my speakers and headphones as well. There are also audible artifacts and a general lack of clarity. But heck, it's what Xing has always been famous for... the sacrifice of quality for high encoding speed. I strongly recommend using something other than Xing to make these MP3s. It is the lowest quality codec of all that are available. At least try to use Fraunhofer if you can, but LAME is the finest of all. You can even reduce the resulting file size by using it's superior VBR and Joint Stereo modes. Try taking a look at the site www.r3mix.net if you are looking for more information on this. It has very detailed comparisons, blind listening test statistics and a lot of terrific technical information on perceptual encoding.

-Tronam

yes i agree

try VBR and maybe a 'lofi' set of mp3s in the future.. (is 128kbit lofi now?)

i say this just to remind that not everyone has OC192 über-connections.. (example: 320kbit files take decades on my poor little dialup and im probably not going to hear much, if any, difference from a 128kbit or 160kbit rate.. which are incredibly smaller than the 320's)

LAME with VBR (the only codec that truly does this properly) will reduce the file sizes, but yet still be superior in quality to what is currently on the site. Also, it is not advised to normalize the audio to 100% (99% is safer) before encoding them. Some MP3 players decoders can generate distortion when the audio files are completely maximized like that before being compressed.

-Tronam

I'll agree on the LAME thing, MP3s I've encoded with LAME sound better at 128 than most encoders sound at 192. None of those wierd high end artifacts and loss of clarity or stereo image that most encoders seem to excell at producing. And forget about Atmosphere, I still don't have the cash to buy Stylus which I'm just itching for .

Thanks for the info Tronam. I did use Audio Catalyst, which is Xing...but only because I have found it to be the best sounding encoder so far. I use the low speed, high-quality VBR modes and that sounds much better than the Sound Jam/iTunes encoding over here in Mac land.

I'll take a look at the site you mentioned and look into it. It's strictly a windows problem though, Mac play everything cool, so it's a little tricky to sort this out.

Thanks for the feedback.

BTW...the bandwidth of Atmosphere is such that lofi 128k MP3s don't really do it justice.

But we'll keep searching for a good high-quality/low bandwidth solution that will play great on every computer.

spectrum

I'm buying it the minute it's released!

Can't wait until November 15. This (and hopefully Nexus - if it's released by Christmas) will be presents to myself.

Ian

Forgot to ask ... Will it be available at music stores like musiciansfriend.com or Guitar Center?

Ian

Yes...all Spectrasonics instruments are available though the major dealers.

spectrum

PS. Glad your excited about it Ian...we are too!

OK, so there are problems with Xing on PC's ? I've found the quality of their conversions (Xing's) to be the best in comparison to the other MP3 encoding applications out there for the Macintosh... is LAME on it's way to the Mac ? Is there a "Cousin of LAME" that is Macintosh savy ?

-John Lehmkuhl

Spectrum -

Is Stylus and Atmosphere multitimbrial? If it's not I think they should be, or it would be much easier to manage if they would be multitimbrial.

?

Xing = best encoder? Since when? The whole "MP3 movement" took a bit of time to make it to the Macintosh after it's inception and the platform was bereft of good encoders and DAE rippers for a while. I remember when XingTech finally ported Audiocatalyst to the Mac platform and it was definitely the best program available for ripping and compressing audio files on the Macintosh at that time. But their MP3 codec, while always impressive speed wise (often 8-10 times faster), has never been regarded as high quality and I honestly don't think they've updated it for years. When compared with Fraunhofer (original developers of MPEG, Layer 3) or LAME which are constantly being updated and improved, it is a very old and mediocre perceptual encoder. Also, Xing's VBR and Joint Stereo modes are some of the worst implementations comparatively. I think iTunes uses Fraunhofer. At least use that with CBR 256kbit or greater and while I don't think anyone's ported the LAME source code to the PowerPC platform, VirtualPC should run it perfectly.

Regardless, it's Atmosphere itself that we should probably be talking about and I love what I have heard so far! As good as Stylus is, it's Atmosphere that really has me excited. I can't wait.

-Tronam

-----Edit-----
I stand corrected. LAME has been ported to the Mac and there are some commercial software packages that include it as well. The following link has a fairly comprehensive list: http://www.mp3dev.org/mp3/links.html

Nice one...thanks Tronam....I will start some comparison tests now with Drop MP3, which seems to have the LAME codec for the Mac.

I only go by my ears, and Audio Catalyst sounds WAY better to me than iTunes or Sound Jam (even though they came later....later is often worse I've found . Anxious to check out Drop MP3 though...I'm always up for finding a better solution.

Thanks!

spectrum

AndrewW wrote:

Spectrum - Is Stylus and Atmosphere multitimbrial? If it's not I think they should be, or it would be much easier to manage if they would be multitimbrial. ?

Version 1.00 is not multitimbal, but good things are coming in future updates that will make you happy. You a Cubase 5 guy? All the other hosts, it's not really a big problem now with Logic, Pro Tools, and DP being able to do 64-256 instrument tracks. Cubase SX can do 32 now I believe. But I know that MT is very handy.

spectrum

Writen by me on page 3

Quote:

I am using Windows media player, when I start play on a couple of them the seek bar moves as if it is playing but there is no sound if I then move the seek bar slightly ahead of the begining say 00.02 and then play I get sound. Some of them cut into a shhhhhh sound that continues all the way through the track but will then play if I move the seek bar to slightly after where this sound starts and play it is OK untill the next shhhhh.

So can someone please tell me what I need to do to make
these demos play properly.
If I need a new codec can someone please give me link to the
one I need.

Thank you

Try using the quicktime version on the site.

Or use a different player like Winamp or MVP.

spectrum

Winamp will play them without the "hiss" which is good, but it still doesn't resolve the distortion problems. Hmm... "I'm A Spaceman" is particularly bad in this respect. And you are saying that you don't hear this on the Mac? I'll have to check them out on my G4 when I get home.

If you do choose to continue using Xing, I'd at least humbly suggest switching off Joint Stereo and using Simple (or pure) Stereo instead. That way the L + R channels are processed independently and there isn't any loss of the stereo image. Xing always had the worst JS implementation and it's VBR mode produces nasty artifacts and audible glitches, often in the >16khz range of frequencies, which the original codec used to simply shave off completely. This is most notable on music with a high amount of dynamics, like a really good acoustic orchestral recording.

-Tronam

just heard the demos n all i can say is ...it's the missing link to my setup. AMAZING job! now time to save some money so i can buy this. can't i just sell you my soul for a copy?

n my fav demo's were (in no particular order):
Breath of Fresh Air
Adagio Expressivo
parts of 6AM
Glitchmosphere
Absorb
1985
...ahhh,,too many! lol

this is seriously the missing link to my setup. it's great that u included single sounds as well as full mixes. seeing how well they sounds work in a mix would have been my one reservation.

Thanks!

You can be sure that it fits in a mix extremely well. The reason we don't show this type of demo on the site, is because we didn't want the distraction of other elements to take away the ability to focus on how Atmosphere sounds. We also think that it is much easier to make an instrument work with other non-Spectrasonics sounds, because then you have more sonic personalities to create a mix. When you are limited to only using our two instruments in a song, it's a much more effective example of how so many different songs and styles can come from the same instrument and not start to sound "samey".

As much as people bash sample-based synth technology as being "old"...I still dig it, because it's such a blank pallete....the character can radically change simply by what you put into a sample-based instrument like this. That way there isn't only one "Atmosphere"-type sound, like you sometimes get with DSP based instruments. There are advantages to both methods, but what I like best about sampling is that it is always fresh and has that "chameleon-like" quality which can capture the sound of what is in my head in such an accurate and pleasing way. Being more flexible in how you can create and modify the sounds in Atmosphere, is what is even more exciting...since you can make things to your own taste. We're trying to get the best of both worlds in one approach....great, inspiring sounds, that are very flexible and easy to use too. You don't need a degree in synthesis to create your own sounds in Atmosphere, you get plenty of flexibility, but you can work with it very fast...which lets you concentrate on what you're doing musically. I think that the musical quality of the demos really reflects that. Each of the composers, are not only talented people, but more importantly, they were inspired to write music with it.

As you can imagine, that gives us great satisfaction! Getting back to basics....the point of creating instruments is to make something that inspires people to make music. That simple idea gets lost sometimes in the software field IMHO....things can get hung up on the technical side.

For me the ultimate test of an instrument is how well it holds up in live band situation, especially with a live drummer, guitarist, etc. For example, the JV-1080 can sound great in the studio, but live...I always have a very hard time getting it to cut through the other instruments. On the other hand, something like a JD-800 or the Virus sounds excellent live and cuts through even when playing softer. So I was pretty happy when I field tested Atmosphere in a live situation using an iBook...and it blew away my rack modules!

(Of course the downside was that it perpetuates the "keyboardist geek" thing to a ridiculous level! No one takes you seriously in a band when you have a laptop on your controller..."checking you email again during the gig..huh??" )



spectrum

PS. Sorry for the rambling....must get more sleep!

musicians.






..lol

Hmmmm! Beware these release dates that Spectrasonics keep peddling. Remember this was originally due for release in April! Then September, then October......!

Could it be that problems developing the thing have meant missed deadlines? And if so, how many bugs will it have on release?

As for hinted at multitimbrality in 'future' updates...is a straight yes or no asking too much?

I see we have a skeptic here among us!

Understandable, considering the delays. However, note that we have commited to a DAY....which we are working extremely hard to hit. The reason Atmosphere was delayed...is because the opposite is true....we want to make sure it is very stable and no issues to deal with. You see that that the instrument is shipping with WAY more than we promised in January, for the same price. If you are familiar with our history, you'll know that we never release anything until it is totally happening. Our whole reputation relies on the quality of our products....it means everything to us. So please becareful in giving an unfounded warning like this. The only thing we are guilty of is delaying the release to make it right.

Sorry, but on commiting to new features like multitimbrality I won't commit to anything here in a public forum. It's important when commiting to somethingin public that we can give schedules that we can hit. We know this is very important, and we are learning how to gauge development time much better now. (Keep in mind that Stylus is the very FIRST software product we have ever made, and it we are making it work on EVERY platform and host...no small task). We will announce new features on our instruments as we have them ready to go, or a reliable schedule. I'm happy to discuss ideas and suggestions here, and to let everyone know that Atmosphere is not a "fixed" instrument with only these features in 1.00. We have A LOT of plans for it in the future, and it will grow and evolve in many cool and interesting ways. What I can definitely say is that it's great now, and it's going to get even better in ways that people expect and in ways that they don't expect.

All the best,

spectrum

eric.....you said atmosphere and stylus are going to be available through musiciansfriend.com ?......when?.......when I bought stylus, M.F. had never even heard of it......I have a M.F. card, so if atmosphere is going to be offered through there website.................I AM IN!!!!!!......lol

You could always check out audiomidi.com

http://www.audiomidi.com/software/synthesizers.cfm

First posting here. All the demos sound great, looking forward to this synth being released.
Just wondering why Spectrasonics doesn't have any demos for any of their software or am I just blind.

GaryI

hey gary

this question was asked abit ago.. on a different thread...

and i think his response was basically.. that he felt it wouldnt detail the instrument enough in a small, downloadable package to truely get the depth of the instrument and the sounds that can be created with it.. so no demos (only audio files)


i personally.. think that is hogwash.. but oh well.. devs. decision..

i, for one, like to try a program out simply to see if it 'feels' right using it.. im picky though i guess.

In Atmosphere many of the sounds load something like 15 - 50 megabytes for one program !!! Remember, Atmosphere is a 2 oscillator capable synth. The downloadable demo would be probably around 350meg and that would be for only what..... 10 sounds ?? There are 1,000 patches !!!! The core ROM of Atmosphere is sitting around 3 gigabytes in size.

There is no way you can get a "demo" from just playing thru a few sounds of either Stylus or Atmosphere. These are old fashioned Sample based products - not DSP synthesizers where the entire application is 340Kb in size.

That's why the demo page is so important for these instruments. You can get a really good feel for the types of sounds that you will have in your toolkit from the demos. But even then - ALL OF THOSE DEMOS DON'T TRULY SHOW EVERYTHING THAT ATMOSPHERE IS !!!!!

When it is installed and you are playing thru the patches, you'll know what I mean.

-John Lehmkuhl

Spectrum,

2 things, if you want a demo of how to fit Atmosphere into a mix I'd be delighted to beta-test one Throw in Stylus and Trilogy and I'll do you 3 for free

Serious question tho'. I'm now more keen than ever to get my hands on this and I'm about to go through the arduous task of updating my PC (sorry, my house will remain a macless zone) - have you optimised the code on Atmosphere to run against AMD or Intel in any way? Do you know which it responds better with? I appreciate that something this good will benefit from being run on its happiest platform.

Works great on both AMD and Intel machines....not sure which is really better...they're both great and will work really well with Atmosphere. As a Mac guy...I'm jealous of all the horsepower in Windows land...you can do so much more now...oy!

Best,

spectrum

spectrum wrote:

The reason Atmosphere was delayed...is because....we want to make sure it is very stable and no issues to deal with.

Hear hear! Who wants to pay $400 to be a beta tester? I say all the time at work 'Do you want it now or do you want it right?'. Most opt for the former first time round (users! Tchah!), then after they have to come back, next time I ask they say 'right, please'. Give me right every time.

spectrum wrote:

As a Mac guy...I'm jealous of all the horsepower in Windows land...you can do so much more now...oy!

You have stability, we have speed...! It's a bit Heisenberg, isn't it...

Are you coming over to the UK for Music Live in November? I would really love to see this in action and it would be a great launch opportunity...

spectrum !!!

I have listend to all the demos now and it realy
does sound quite superb

My fav's are...
Attack_of_the_Spectrum
Adagio_Expressivo
Ice_Blue

I would like to ask if 15 Nov is the date it starts
shiping or the date it is available in the shops world
wide ?
I ask this because my local dealer is taking advance
orders and I would consider placing an order now if
they will have it for sure on Nov 15, it also mentions
on their web site that it will be in limited supply.

Also I would like to ask you if the wavetabe/core library
will be expandable in the future , maybe like Sonic Synth
is with eROMs. I know this is alredy massive and great
mileage is to be had from it as it exists now so I am realy
asking this out of curiosity .
If it will be expanable which seems a logical step
it will add to the already large "WOW" factor.

and alos eric you said atmosphere is available in major shops..........uh, musiciansfriend.com is a HUGE shop...........is it available through them?

just go to their website http://www.musiciansfriend.com and find out..

..or are you asking rhetorical questions?

Also Eric , looking @ the screen shot of Atmosphere I
am wondering as I can't see the save/load button, how
the presets are managed ?

as it comes with 1000 presets how do you quickly find
what you are looking for ?

Are they sorted in catagorised banks ?

I see the 2 up/down arrow buttons @ the top
how do they function ?

Would it be possible for you to post some examples
of just one patch as it comes out the box demonstrating
the extreams of new textures that can be created from it
by tweeking the GUI controls ?

I hear reverb and delay in the mp3 demos I assume as
I see no onboard FX on the GUI screenshot they have
been added from seperate Fx plugins , right ?

Sorry to bombard you with questions like this Eric
but this will be an expesive outlay for me to make
without a demo , but by "expensive" I do not mean
it is overpriced AAMOF IMO it is good value.........
$399 divided by 6 disks = $66.6 per disk of spectrasonics
reputation and quality , it becomes a bargain.

Raven wrote:

Also Eric , looking @ the screen shot of Atmosphere I am wondering as I can't see the save/load button, how the presets are managed ? as it comes with 1000 presets how do you quickly find what you are looking for ? Are they sorted in catagorised banks ? I see the 2 up/down arrow buttons @ the top how do they function ? Would it be possible for you to post some examples of just one patch as it comes out the box demonstrating the extreams of new textures that can be created from it by tweeking the GUI controls ? I hear reverb and delay in the mp3 demos I assume as I see no onboard FX on the GUI screenshot they have been added from seperate Fx plugins , right ? Sorry to bombard you with questions like this Eric but this will be an expesive outlay for me to make without a demo , but by "expensive" I do not mean it is overpriced AAMOF IMO it is good value......... $399 divided by 6 disks = $66.6 per disk of spectrasonics reputation and quality , it becomes a bargain.

Brief answers:

Clicking the patch name opens a popup directory with all the patches, catorized in sub folder "trees' Like Stylus and EXS24

Clicking the layer name does the same, but you can load the layers independantly from any patch.

Saving/Recalling your own sounds is handled by using the Save Plug-In settings feature of your host.

There's little to no FX added in the demos. Many of the sounds either have separate processing layers (like the Strings), or have processing built-into the sounds as part of the sound design process (using many, many devices and plug-ins). The sounds are much more full and stereo sounding than your average VSTi. The instrument sounds so good, that you don't really need a lot of additional FX....but of course you can process it all you like with your own plug-ins. As you can tell, it isn't really necessary to have effects in an instrument like this for it to sound great. There's plenty of "raw" unprocessed layers in Atmosphere too (like straight Minimoogs, CS-80s, Jupiters with no FX, etc) When combined with the heavily processed ambient layers, you really get the best of both worlds.

The demo "Vinyl Ambience Morph" is exactly what you are requesting...no effects, one patch played in real time and the entire demo is showing what you can do with the all the filters in real time.

In terms of schedule, you'll be able to get Atmosphere the fastest directly from one of our distributors. The stores are usually the last ones to get it, so I'm not sure when they will have it in stock. Best to call your local Spectrasonics distributor (Time & Space for you) if you want it right as soon as it is released.

Best,

spectrum

sooooo?.............will it be able to be purchased through musiciansfriend.com mr persing?

I'm not sure if Musician's Friend is an authorized Spectrasonics dealer or not yet....I don't do the sales part of our products, but I know that a lot of new stores are being added every week. You can ask the guys at ILIO that question (our N. American distributor)....they be able to give you the best info on how and where you can get Atmosphere in the US.

1-800-747-4546
info@ilio.com

All the best,

spectrum

Hey Spectrum.

I broke down on Friday and bought Stylus at Guitar Center. I am not a dance or hip-hop genre guy but David Fenton and the great reviews in every magazine I have read convinced me I needed to get on board, as much for the virtual instrument concept developed by you as for the beats themselves. I have to say I am very impressed with Stylus and I hope to integrate it into some new material shortly. I LOVE Backbeat and Liquid Grooves, both for the loops and for Groove Control. but the virutal instrument is much easier to work with. I hope in the future you release add-on disks with rock and pop beats like Backbeat. I am using Stylus with Sonar and the FXpansion adapter 4.0.

Now to somehow convince myself I don't need to get Atmosphere!

fred..........................WE ALL need atmosphere................lol
great to have ANOTHER stylus person on board.....................the bad part is, I can NOT use stylus with orion platinum UNTIL eric and richard work out the "kinks"......................but sylus's sounds..........................GOOD huh?
you lucky bastard you.
have fun while I can not DO anything with stylus!!!!!!!!

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the kind words about Stylus...really glad you are enjoying it. We really did make an extra effort to make sure that it was not "one-dimensional" in it's approach, and would appeal to our "non-breakbeat" users too...so it's great to hear you comments. You will be REALLY happy with the things we have in the works...lots of great stuff in the pipeline...just takes time to get it all ready.

Oh and regarding Atmosphere, think about all those "warm" sounds that will help you get through that Minnesota Winter. (there's an "Ice" section too, but you probably have enough of that already in St. Paul )

Best,

spectrum

hey eric....................................where are they with the copy i bought of stylus and the problems with orion platinum..................we would not want people who are considering to buy TWO products thinking you all do not care.
thanks for the UPDATE

Of course it is important...but my own focus is on finishing Atmosphere and getting it out the door. Please continue to talk to Nick about this issue with Stylus/Orion through our tech support line, and not on KvR. I think Stylus has been sent to the Orion guys and it's completely in their court, but I really don't know...you should ask Nick, since he's handling it.

Thanks!

spectrum

erm sorry eric, while it sounds great, the demo's are not what I expected. I was expecting a sort of distorted reality 3 and a half. Maybe more demo's without beats would show this off. Since i'm more in the Eno, Tangerine Dream, Jarre skool.

Bluey.

Hey Bluey, yourself and I are in the same skool, maybe even in the same class. I too was hoping for demos in the classic T-Dream & Jarre styles.

I'm sure Atmosphere can do this stuff... I just think the demos show how Atmosphere can do so much more (they are all awesome). I would not worry mate, I'm sure we are catered for.

Still you do have a point! Tangerine and Jarre are what Atmosphere brings to mind and I would like to see a few demos in these styles.

Go on Eric!

Hey Guys....I've got the perfect demo brewing for you!....Paul Haslinger (from Tangerine Dream, and now a successful film composer) has done a very cool Eno-ish one that shows off much more of the ambient stuff (with no beats).

There's also a little one that was unfinished that Adrian did, that sounds like Jarre meets Vangelis meets Moroder...maybe I'll put up a little link for you guys to hear an excerpt of that one too.

Believe me...the Ambient side is crazy! Much more than DR had...and many possibilities with all the real-time controller stuff.

Thanks for the feedback on what demos you'd like to hear too....this is very useful. There are MANY ways to use this instrument, and so you are right that we wanted to show more of the unexpected ways to use it first. I'll let you know when Paul's demo goes up.

Best,

spectrum

That is great news Eric! Jeez, I'm all excited.

Looking forward to those... especially that demo by PH!

arrakeen.......good piece "oceans away".....what was used?

Mighty_Hero wrote:

arrakeen.......good piece "oceans away".....what was used?

Cheers! I never expected to read that is this thread

Actually the version on my web is an old one (think I prefer it) If I can dig it out I'll look:

Here we go.

Orion Platinum - Host
Ocean Sample
Sonic Synth - Main Pad (Cosmic String Pad)
Crystal - Main Melody (Harmonium Plux)
Triangle II - Main Bass (Bass 04)
Crystal - Second Bass (Potomac Toms)
Pentagon - String Low (Oberheim String)
FM7 - Extra Pad and Lead near end.

Effects

Orion stuff
OhmBoyz Delay
PSP Mix Saturator

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~daves/music/Ocean_Apart_old.mp3

All you need is the notes now

If anybody would like to comment perhaps another thread is best.

Nice one centurian.

Since Spectrum's monitoring this thread, I thought I'd toss this in: I'm also thrilled for Atmosphere - it sounds like a dream. When I saw the alpha at NAMM in January, I was impressed, but this takes it sooo much further!

Also, big up on Stylus - it is such a groove machine! I did a killer track this weekend with it - it saved my butt on a deadline that I've had trouble meeting with a 2-week old infant in my life...

Eagerly awaiting Audiounits - with Atmosphere, Trilogy, Stylus, and my Emagic Instruments, I'm never going to OS9 again.

PPG

nice peice arrakeen

Arrakeen, I really like this piece! Very pleasant and mellow. It seems to end rather abruptly though... is this only part of a larger piece? On a side note, I did notice something a little odd. It seems that all frequencies above 16khz have been completely cut off. Was this intentional?

-Tronam

Counting the days off now .......................... Only 10 to go

BTW Spectrum will the "Autherisation" process allow me to run
Atmosphere on both my PC's

Hopefully it's not PACE protected ?

Hey Raven,

Glad you're excited....we are too!

Things are looking pretty good so far. The Discs are being pressed and the Book being printed. If all goes well on the manufacturing, assembly and shipping side, we'll make our ship date. I know a lot of you are anxious...but it is definitely on its way...yeeha!

The final 1.00 came out SOOOO nice! The fine tuning of all the sounds really made a big difference....really happy with how it turned out.

1034 patches, 3.74Gb and 6 CD-ROMs......it's a big one!

Yes... the authorization allows you to run it on as many computers as you need. No problem. It's not PACE either.

Pretty soon, we'll have up some more info to check out on the site while you're waiting for it to arrive. I'll let you know guys know when it goes up.

best,

spectrum

OK...some more info about Atmosphere is posted on the site now:

Frequently Asked Questions about Atmosphere

Core Library Patch List

...and for you guys that love the gear lists:

Atmosphere Equipment List

Happy Reading!

spectrum

wowee

holy chit man!!!
I now will not be able to SLEEP!!!!!
when audiomidi.com has a preorder, does it ship on the 15th, or before so that I get it on the 15th?

Hi Spectrum,

I have a question. In your FAQ you state that people cannot use atmosphere as a basis for creating new samples or loops. However, your equipment list makes use of other people's plugins to create content for Atmosphere ?

I'm just trying to figure out how this part of the industry works. I cannot use my own created patches from Atmosphere to create commercial loops for example ? What's the difference with your process ? As you use other people's plugins, that makes it a bit strange to enforce your rules tho ?

I'm not slapping or starting a flame here, remember that. I'm just trying to understand the difference.

-- WW.

Tronam wrote:

Arrakeen, I really like this piece! Very pleasant and mellow. It seems to end rather abruptly though... is this only part of a larger piece? On a side note, I did notice something a little odd. It seems that all frequencies above 16khz have been completely cut off. Was this intentional? -Tronam

I'll be brief since this aint my thread! Thanks for the comments! You too etherize.

Tronam, the piece is not actually finished so I just faded out quick when it started to loop... I'll crack on with it soon. As for the missing high frequency content - I'll have a look, dunno what happened!

I also think there is too much bass comming from the Pentagon pad bass now I played it on another system... very muddy!

What I NEED now to finish the tune is Atmosphere! How is that for getting back to the thread?...

I don't think the use license is at all restrictive. Spectrum is pretty clear - if you're making music, you can use it. If you're selling sounds AS SOUNDS, you MAY, but only IF YOU ARRANGE things with him.

And none of the instruments listed were sold with use agreements that prohibit resampling, as far as I know.

PPG

I'm not saying it's restrictive, I'm just wondering why I wouldn't be able to create a new sound by creating a new patch on Atmosphere and sample that in a loop or sample, just like Eric does using other plugins ...

... it is just a question, not a rant. If it is only because Eric wants to enforce his vision on license agreements, I will understand, but I'm not sure what he thinks about it ... so I ask about it.

I'll just wait for an answer from Eric himself.

Well I have pre-ordered this baby and cant wait!!!!! Of course with 2 kids I will never have time to play


I just got Stylus... and this goes alongs the lines of the License deal...

It states that I dont have to give credit to Stylus... if I make a tune with it in it...???

Why do I have to do that with DR1 or DR2 or MetaMorh???

Just curious!!!

Hi WW....fair question indeed and one that I anticipated would come up. Big subject that's been discussed to death on other forums...so I'll try to be brief and sum up the main points....hopefully, we can avoid a major flame war debate.....

It does at first glance seem to be weird that I have created an instrument using many other tools, and then not allow people to use my instrument to create their own instruments or sample libraries.

The important legal distinction is that Atmosphere is a hybrid between a sample library and a synthesizer. Samples and sample based synths are protected under the SR Copyright Act...and DSP waveforms are not (since they are not a sound recording). Creating a new for sale work from any sample based synth is legally considered a derivitive work, and therefore you need to have permission granted or a special license from the copyright holders of the original waveforms. Therefore, since our instruments are based on samples, they have the same legal protection and license agreements that our sample libraries have always had. Since this situation is new to a lot of soft synth users (and new developers), we wanted to outline the restrictions very clearly in plain english in our FAQ....and not just have it buried in a license agreement that no one reads.

(BTW, ALL sample-based soft synths that I've seen have these same restrictions...if you read the fine print on the licensing agreements -including Sampletank, Sonic Synth, Plugsound, etc.)

Some of you will be quick to note that there are numerous Roland sample-based hardware synths that were used in the creation of source of Atmosphere. I'm in a unique position in that I actually own many of the waveforms in Roland's instruments, and have licensed the use of them to Roland. For those samples that I did not own, I obtained a special license from Roland Corp Japan to use them to create derivitive works in Atmosphere. We have contracts and documentation on everything.

The reason that we don't allow people to create derivitive works without a special license, is that my work with Spectrasonics and Roland has been ripped off in wholesale fashion hundreds of times....and we have to protect the hard work and expense that we have put into our samples. Someone making an a quick Atmosphere sample disc or a loop disc using Stylus is something we have to protect ourselves against....and this kind of rip-off stuff happens constantly in our business. (You wouldn't believe some of the cases of infringement we have had...you don't have to search too far for examples on the Internet) So we are being super-clear that this is not allowed with out special permission and licensing....so that no one mistakenly purchases the instrument thinking that it's OK to use it to create samples that they distribute, when it's actually not allowed.

Ethically, we've been very careful too...because we have created something entirely original with Atmosphere....it doesn't sound like any of the instruments listed in the Gear List. We created our own completely original sounds with all the instruments listed. We used no factory patches or other people's creative sound design work....everything was made from scratch and completely original. The core library is truly an original Spectrasonics creation. In fact...you'd be hard pressed to figure out what instruments and processors were used to create each sound (except where it's listed)...because we often used many different plug-ins and processes to create the sounds in the core library.

Hope that helps explain why we do what we do....it's a little different than other DSP type soft synth companies....but if you check around the world of soundware and sample-based instruments, you'll find that this is long established, industry-wide policy for nearly every company producing samples.


All the best,

spectrum

wickedwild wrote:

I'm not saying it's restrictive, I'm just wondering why I wouldn't be able to create a new sound by creating a new patch on Atmosphere and sample that in a loop or sample, just like Eric does using other plugins ....

Just to clarify....we would encourage people to create their own original samples with our instruments. But those created samples cannot be distributed or sold.....They are completely allowed for a licensed user to create for his or her own music. That's obviously an important part of the creative process.

best,

spectrum

ner0z wrote:

Well I have pre-ordered this baby and cant wait!!!!! Of course with 2 kids I will never have time to play I just got Stylus... and this goes alongs the lines of the License deal... It states that I dont have to give credit to Stylus... if I make a tune with it in it...??? Why do I have to do that with DR1 or DR2 or MetaMorh??? Just curious!!!

It makes more sense if you look at the evolution of Spectrasonics and the soundware business, and then us moving into the Virtual Instrument business.

Soundware was born out of the need for license free/copyright clean samples, that didn't cost a fortune to license (like commerical recordings do). However, we have always felt that "credit should be given, where credit is due". We specifically put the crediting requirement into our sample-library licensing for when major artists would use our samples in prominent ways.

We instigated this policy when Enigma used Heart of Africa for the LEAD Vocals on an entire album and we got zero credit! It's weird enough to have a major artist like that building an entire record and compositions based around our samples (when they only paid a couple of hundred bucks for the priviledge), but at least they could credit us as the source samples that they licensed (just like commerical recordings have to be credited)

So requiring a credit when a recording artist builds tracks around our samples seemed like a simple thing to require...it costs them no additional money, and it's an accepted practice anyway. Since we did that, it's been very nice for us to have our samples credited when major acts like Sting, Eminem, BT, Bjork, Timbaland and others use our samples in significant ways. Obviously, it helps us to have our work being recognized for how it is actually being used.

The truth is that we've never enforced this policy, and still have lots of major groups using our loops and samples and not crediting us. If you own any Spectrasonics discs...you know that this is true! But it's something we just appreciate and we think it's a reasonable and respectful thing to require.

The reason we changed our crediting policy on the instruments -compared with our sample libraries, is that they are by nature more flexible than just samples. You can do a lot with Groove Control and the interfaces...and we expect and encourage people to be really creative with them and create their own voice with them.

We also thought with the nature of the instruments being so flexible, it was a little less practical to require crediting like we did with the libraries. So it seemed like a good time to change the policy. Like it says though...crediting is still really appreciated!

Hope that explains the evolution of our crediting policy.

best,

spectrum

That's what you call a Perfect explaination!

arrakeen wrote:

That's what you call a Perfect explaination!

More then I expected...

Thanks Spectrum!!

Just pre-ordered Atmosphere. The patch list looks awesome and deep. How long would you estimate it will take to go through each patch in the synth? Deep, very deep.

It easily takes a solid week to go through everything in the core library at about a six-eight hour day, playing each sound for a few minutes.

Of course, I doubt anyone will go through the core library like that!

When looking at that Core Library Patch list...keep in mind that these are the basic things you START with....then you can start mixing and matching layers and it gets really insane!

The whole idea is that it's an instrument that will keep you interested for a LONG time to come!

best,

spectrum

I am getting it as soon as it drops in the UK.
One thing I noticed going through the patch list is that there is a Vinyl section... Can you tell us anything about this Spectrum?

One thing I have always thought that is missing from the VSTi world is organic feel (Bar Tricky Clav, lounge Lizard and the EVP). A dedicated 70's funk vsti would be cool, something with combinations of brass / rhodes / bass etc...... Instant filtration material!.... Am hoping Atmos will go some way to rectifying that *G* I make house music, running my own label and have a deal with a couple of other Uk labels and it's a real pain in the arse to find decent quality sample fodder that is copyright free...

Also Spectrum, can you tell us if there going to be a discount for customers purchasing all 3 modules. I am going to pick up Trilogy as soon as that comes out, especially if there are loads of real basses / uprights etc...


Cheers

22Skidoo

Another question i have (sorry but the Spectrasonics stuff intrigues me) is:

One the gear list it says that you used various different delays for creating the sounds / patches in Atmosphere..... If you arte using a delay how does that sync up to tempo? surely some of the patches will be only usable at certain tempos?

Cheers

22

Actually Eric, it would be cool if you could provide a little utility that converted your distorted reality 1 & 2 librarys into the format that atmosphere is using as patches, and allow them to be used in the atmosphere environment. Then I would assume they could be classified as addons packs to Atmosphere.

Bluey.

22skidoo wrote:

I am getting it as soon as it drops in the UK. One thing I noticed going through the patch list is that there is a Vinyl section... Can you tell us anything about this Spectrum?

The Vinyl section is going to be really popular I think. There are samples that are processed with vinyl noiise, and scratchy/poppy stuff in them. Very vibey...check out the "Vinyl Ambience Morph" demo to get a sense of what they are like.

Quote:

One thing I have always thought that is missing from the VSTi world is organic feel (Bar Tricky Clav, lounge Lizard and the EVP). A dedicated 70's funk vsti would be cool, something with combinations of brass / rhodes / bass etc...... Instant filtration material!.... Am hoping Atmos will go some way to rectifying that *G* I make house music, running my own label and have a deal with a couple of other Uk labels and it's a real pain in the arse to find decent quality sample fodder that is copyright free...

Mmmm....I think the Vinyl section might be a little different than what you are after....however, there are so many fresh sounds and ways to work in Atmosphere (and organic elements in the sounds) that I'm confident that you would find it very useful and inspiring.....there's just so much great stuff in there.

Quote:

Also Spectrum, can you tell us if there going to be a discount for customers purchasing all 3 modules. I am going to pick up Trilogy as soon as that comes out, especially if there are loads of real basses / uprights etc...

That would be a question for the sales guys at T&S. We don't sell direct.

Quote:

On the gear list it says that you used various different delays for creating the sounds / patches in Atmosphere..... If you arte using a delay how does that sync up to tempo? surely some of the patches will be only usable at certain tempos?

The delay effects were used at the sample level to create space and ambient loops, not like discreet echoes. Very much like the ambiences in Distorted Reality and Bizarre Guitar. There isn't any delay stuff that is obvious echos, that would need to be synced. You can add that stuff later obviously with your own plug-ins.

Quote:

Actually Eric, it would be cool if you could provide a little utility that converted your distorted reality 1 & 2 librarys into the format that atmosphere is using as patches, and allow them to be used in the atmosphere environment. Then I would assume they could be classified as addons packs to Atmosphere.

It's not quite as simple to do this as just making a little utility. But certainly we have a lot of future possibilities for expansions. For now though, our focus is on all the brand new material that is in the core libraries of these instruments....there's more than enough there to keep you busy for a long, long time!

All the best,

spectrum

spectrum wrote:

It easily takes a solid week to go through everything in the core library at about a six-eight hour day, playing each sound for a few minutes. Of course, I doubt anyone will go through the core library like that! best, spectrum

Hmmmm thats what I was going to do..... had me vacation set up and everything

Eric..... you are up way too late or way to early

ner0z wrote:

Eric..... you are up way too late or way to early

Don't.....sleep.....much.......must.....make.......instruments........

Mighty_Hero wrote

Quote:

when audiomidi.com has a preorder, does it ship on the 15th, or before so that I get it on the 15th?

I was kind of wondering that too

But as Spectrum wrote

Quote:

Things are looking pretty good so far. The Discs are being pressed and the Book being printed. If all goes well on the manufacturing, assembly and shipping side, we'll make our ship date. I know a lot of you are anxious...but it is definitely on its way...yeeha!

It looks like it is out of Spectrums hands now so we will have to
keep our fingers crossed that the printers have enough ink and
paper and the pressers have enough blank disks.........

PHEEWWWWWeeee what a patch list http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/atmos_patch.html

Quote:

Will there ever be any updates or new sounds for Atmosphere? Yes. We have all kinds of exciting things planned for the future…stay tuned to our web site for the announcements. Version 1.0 is just the beginning of what we have planned. (Keep in mind too that it would take years to use what Atmosphere already comes with!)

thanks Eric for the reply...

Hmmm, jus thinking about this VSTi idea for a VSTi - patches just made up of 'organic' instruments... That