http://www.archetype-instruments.com/
This maybe gets little attention, but it's a good price $50, and the demos sound good. Any users?
Any thoughts on the Arc 5? Demos sound great...
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 10535 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Lost and Spaced
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- KVRAF
- 3071 posts since 29 Sep, 2005
So when I go to the site I am unable to find a buy page or requirements page or little else except the announcement. May be why it gets little attention, dunno.osiris wrote:http://www.archetype-instruments.com/
This maybe gets little attention, but it's a good price $50, and the demos sound good. Any users?
Is it just my browser? IE9
But you are right - good sounds.
Happy musiking!
dsan
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- KVRAF
- 3338 posts since 6 Aug, 2009
products page, store page...it's all there. but...windows only. oh well, sounds good...
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- KVRAF
- 1586 posts since 7 Jun, 2007
Yup, I'm a user! It's top quality from top to bottom, great synth engines, great effects. Warmth all over! Not 'vintage warmth', but yummy algorithm warmth.
The macro knob concept is well thought out and well implemented. My only criticism of it is that you HAVE to read the manual to understand how each macro knob works, there's very little visual feedback on the GUI as to waveform selection etc, but in reality it's all so simple and logical and universally applied across all the synth engines that you'll be flying around in no time.
The manual is a quick read, well laid out with minimal text and some good explanatory pics, only 20 or so pages. So RTM.
The factory presets are impressive, and I feel it succeeds admirably in its objective of being a MUSICIAN's synth...find a preset, make music, play with the knobs, see what they do... oh cool!... make some more music.
A seasoned sound designer might feel initially frustrated considering the 'limitation' of macro knobs, but with a bit of lateral thought you can actually achieve a lot with this little guy... and it's really quick and easy to tweak the sounds you want. The factory presets/webpage demos demonstrate that.
I've found the developers to be very responsive to questions and interaction, and I've never needed to be bailed out of any technical difficulties, no crashes etc. (WinXP SP3 dinosaur)
IMO, it's well worth a look, and/or keeping it on your radar. Currently Arc5 is developed in the Flowstone environment, but they are working towards their own framework for future developments and products...(that was one of the questions i asked them, and they were very open about their plans for the future, so as I said, great developers who are open to interaction)
It's almost like a mood synth...what do i feel like now, some FM? Cool, let's play with some FM and crush those bits. Want to compose some ethereal physical modeled strings or amazon flutes? No problem, Wave Guide oscillator on hand. I want it to sound like a Virus doing distorted 303 basslines!
You can get very close... 
Now go download the demo y'all!
The macro knob concept is well thought out and well implemented. My only criticism of it is that you HAVE to read the manual to understand how each macro knob works, there's very little visual feedback on the GUI as to waveform selection etc, but in reality it's all so simple and logical and universally applied across all the synth engines that you'll be flying around in no time.
The manual is a quick read, well laid out with minimal text and some good explanatory pics, only 20 or so pages. So RTM.
The factory presets are impressive, and I feel it succeeds admirably in its objective of being a MUSICIAN's synth...find a preset, make music, play with the knobs, see what they do... oh cool!... make some more music.
A seasoned sound designer might feel initially frustrated considering the 'limitation' of macro knobs, but with a bit of lateral thought you can actually achieve a lot with this little guy... and it's really quick and easy to tweak the sounds you want. The factory presets/webpage demos demonstrate that.
I've found the developers to be very responsive to questions and interaction, and I've never needed to be bailed out of any technical difficulties, no crashes etc. (WinXP SP3 dinosaur)
IMO, it's well worth a look, and/or keeping it on your radar. Currently Arc5 is developed in the Flowstone environment, but they are working towards their own framework for future developments and products...(that was one of the questions i asked them, and they were very open about their plans for the future, so as I said, great developers who are open to interaction)
It's almost like a mood synth...what do i feel like now, some FM? Cool, let's play with some FM and crush those bits. Want to compose some ethereal physical modeled strings or amazon flutes? No problem, Wave Guide oscillator on hand. I want it to sound like a Virus doing distorted 303 basslines!
You can get very close... Now go download the demo y'all!
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- KVRAF
- 3071 posts since 29 Sep, 2005
Yep....all there in Firefox. But not showing up in my IE9. Go figure.fisherKing wrote:products page, store page...it's all there. but...windows only. oh well, sounds good...
Thanks!
Happy musiking!
dsan
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- KVRAF
- 25852 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
Naah most music on the radio these days is rather mediocre, so really I'm looking for mediocre sounds to earn some moneyArc 5 wrote:Are you always on the lookout for outstanding sounds?
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- KVRAF
- 1586 posts since 7 Jun, 2007
It runs quite well. My machine is a 9600(?)quad core, and in Cubase 6 Elements it runs multiple instances quite happily. Had some issues in EnergyXT, but that's just because eXT doesn't support multicores...still. Grrr!DJMashbot wrote:Looks cool, sounds good. How well does it run? This one was definitely flying under the radar.
The BEST way to find out is to download the demo. I remember the noise bursts every few seconds were quite loud, so just be aware of that. But it doesn't take long to realize there's some seriously good stuff going on, and an intelligently novel approach to sound design workflow.
Of course there are areas which can be improved, but that's more a subjective thing as they don't influence or impact the sound quality or performance. One feature I hope to see in future is midi output from the arps, and the devs were quite appreciative of the feedback.
An added bonus in my book is that it runs as a standalone too. And even standalone mode has been pretty solid. I've spent quite a lot of time with Arc5 since I got it, designed a bunch of my own sounds, and I have to admit I've grown quite attached to it.
I even sold JP6K. The supersaw on Arc5 is delicious!
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- KVRist
- 38 posts since 13 Apr, 2013
Thanks for your nice and kind review.xalama qo wrote:I remember the noise bursts every few seconds were quite loud, so just be aware of that. But it doesn't take long to realize there's some seriously good stuff going on, and an intelligently novel approach to sound design workflow.
The noise issue of demo version fixed. Noise is generated every 90 seconds and not loud now
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- KVRer
- 20 posts since 20 Apr, 2012 from United Kingdom
Do you have any plans to make it available on OS X, either Mac VST or AU?
Hoping it's in the works, But I'm expecting a no, as with most plugin manufacturers these days.
Hoping it's in the works, But I'm expecting a no, as with most plugin manufacturers these days.
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- KVRist
- 38 posts since 13 Apr, 2013
Thanks for your comment.jamiesoarmusic wrote:Do you have any plans to make it available on OS X, either Mac VST or AU?
Hoping it's in the works, But I'm expecting a no, as with most plugin manufacturers these days.
We are now on the initial stage of developing our own framework for cross platform.
I cannot promise to you that Arc 5 will be available on OS X soon. But I can say the cross platform plugin is one of our best important goal.
[ARCHETYPE INSTRUMENTS]
OFFICIAL: http://www.archetype-instruments.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ArchetypeInstruments
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/archetype-instruments
OFFICIAL: http://www.archetype-instruments.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ArchetypeInstruments
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/archetype-instruments
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- KVRAF
- 1676 posts since 17 Dec, 2002 from Yorkshire
it DOES sound good. thanks for putting that one in a spotlight. it happens less and less often to me that i want to demo something these days. but this one appears to be different. downloaded
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 10535 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Lost and Spaced
I tried the demo and really liked it. Nice presets. Nice sound. Great arp. Low-ish CPU.
The only thing I didn't like was the inability to program patches with the demo.
I think there's a lot more to the synth than meets the eye, but can't know because of the disabled features. But, I understand why you do that.
This very much reminds me of Nexus. In fact, one pad sounds EXACTLY like one of my favorite pad sounds from Nexus.
It's like a little Virus, and I wish you guys much luck with it and can't wait to see where you go with it.
I hope you add oscillator mix in the future.
The only thing I didn't like was the inability to program patches with the demo.
I think there's a lot more to the synth than meets the eye, but can't know because of the disabled features. But, I understand why you do that.
This very much reminds me of Nexus. In fact, one pad sounds EXACTLY like one of my favorite pad sounds from Nexus.
It's like a little Virus, and I wish you guys much luck with it and can't wait to see where you go with it.
I hope you add oscillator mix in the future.
