DUNE 2 is out now!!

[burkek]

I find the upgrade pricing too expensive and therefore will refrain from buying.

KEv

[fluffy_little_something]

I was not complaining, just mentioning it.
20 bucks is not a lot to me, either, but to others it is...

[fluffy_little_something]

I find the upgrade pricing too expensive and therefore will refrain from buying.

KEv

Actually, I find it generous as it is basically a completely different synth. The upgrade path is only available because for whatever reason they decided to keep the name DUNE. They might as well have given it a completely new GUI layout and name and thus not offered any upgrade.
At least that is how I see it

[raymondwave]

What I was a bit surprised about the pricing was the currency difference. $79 is not exactly 69€, especially if you add taxes to it. I managed to pay in dollars tho, which I gather is more than 10€ cheaper. Why announce in dollars if it's a European store.

But tax is tax, there's no point adding "tax" to otherwise tax free price, just because it's unfair that some get it cheaper.

[fluffy_little_something]

What I was a bit surprised about the pricing was the currency difference. $79 is not exactly 69€, especially if you add taxes to it. I managed to pay in dollars tho, which I gather is more than 10€ cheaper. Why announce in dollars if it's a European store.

But tax is tax, there's no point adding "tax" to otherwise tax free price, just because it's unfair that some get it cheaper.

I don't really get that IVA thingy. Some EU companies charge EU customers IVA, others don't...

[chk071]

I find the pricing a bit odd. Dune 1 users used to pay 140 dollars, now they can upgrade to v2 for 80 dollars, i.e. they will have paid 220 dollars for both. The new bundle v1 & 2 costs 200 dollars, meaning that those who paid in the past and financed the development of v2 in the first place end up paying more than those who never paid a dime in the past.

Couple of things: Dune 1 is 5 years old, and now version 2 is out, it's somehow obsolete, at least concerning what people would buy, so you can't take the initial price, and tag it on it. Second thing is that you can't say that the version 2 development was financed by Dune 1 sales. Fact is, you don't know what financed, or finances Dune 2 development. Dune is not the only product from the dev, and you don't know if he maybe took a credit or whatever. And the most important thing is, you don't measure the price of a product on a "fair enough" scale. A salesman determines the price based on what you can get for it, what the market offers. Now, if this was his first product, he wouldn't be able to get for it, what he is able to get for it, when you already have established yourself. The price is also completely up to consideration. Synapse could also charge 1€ for this, if it is sold 3 million times, you can figure what the pay is. But of course you wouldn't do this, as this is a rather small market. But imagine you do the same app for the iPad, maybe even out of advertising reasons. You wouldn't charge 150€ for it. rather 1/10 of that.

[fisherKing]

I was not complaining, just mentioning it.
20 bucks is not a lot to me, either, but to others it is...

seriously, anyone looking at dune 2 (or ANY software) must own a computer. so even if they bought a used 1999 powermac (or whatever), they've spent some money.
$20 is NOT that much, for ANYONE who's bought a computer, or a DAW, or...

[Ingonator]

Same here... I've sort of got a grasp on it, I managed to create SOMEthing, but it was all happening way too slowly. I'd like to be able to pick key waves, hit "interpolate", maybe choose between different types of interpolation, then export.

Yep, this is the result of a long list of additional feature and format requests over the past years. The very first version was a batch converter without GUI and with two parameters. But the results sounded often like random and very similar. Creating results beyond "sine-saw-square" or "random waves 45" requires a bit more work to get the best out of the input data.

AT was intentionally made for my personal use and "just for fun" to learn how to code in C - my version of "Hello world". There never had been 'seroius' plans for making it public when I started this project. Maybe this explains why it's so 'strange'. Due to very limited time and some health issues I used all of my energy for the program itself and not for writing a manual.

AT consists of different sections, KTERM<> is the one for creating wavetables for Dune2 and other products. KTERM<> is an additive synth: 33 slots with 64 bipolar sine partials each. It's an emulation of the Terratec Komplexer wavetable osc, all other formats are derived from that model.

I chose this model because it has the right ratio of data amount and quality. Further many products beside Komplexer can use the results (converting wavetables which make full use of proprietary features of a certain product is much more difficult than converting normal audio data for different samplers).

AT has an automated file recognition and sorting system. It can distinguish a Komplexer *.WT file from a Dune2 *.WT file or from a Surge *.WT file... . Different file types are stored in different directories to keep track of which *.WT file belongs to a certain synth. Damaged and/or unknown formats are moved to a special 'recycle bin' folder (button RECBIN<> in the start page).

Regarding the proprietary wavetable formats (Surge, WaveGenerator, Dune2, EPS/ASR, Blofeld): AT can only load it's own files. This is a required limitation, because the formats are VERY different (in data type, size, content, number of slots). All of these formats hold special synthesis data for reloading and instant playback in the browser pages. In some cases this additional dataset is encoded in the wavetable data itself (Blofeld, Komlexer). In other cases it's appended. Editing these files outside Audio-Term will destroy these data, so don't try that if you want to reload them later in AT.

Regarding the GUI: The lower button row holds the main pages and the playback buttons. The upper row holds the functions of a page and further sub pages / input options ( in that case the button name has an <> appendix)

Finally found out how to work with Audio Term (many thanks for this tool..) and how to create wavetables in different formats. Especially finding out how to save took a long time...

Here is my first wavetable from Audio term in Dune 2 format:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... tive_01.WT

A picture with details about the wavetable (screenshots from Audio Term):


This was done from 27 single cycle waves and another 6 of the 33 waves are done by interpolation with the IPOL feature in Audio term.
I tested this in the Dune 2 demo and seems to work. The location of the wavetables (in Windows 7 64-bit) is:
Users\your name\Documents\Synapse Audio\DUNE 2\ Wavetables

The DUNE 2 engine seems to create additional interpolations between waveforms to get smoother transitions.


In the past i have done a huge amount of single cycle waves using e.g. DNR Wave Designer, Camel Audio Cameleon 5000, NI FM8, Curve 2 and other sources.
Those in this first wavetable above were done using quite simple combinations of additive partials in Cameleon 5000 but the result is quite nice IMO.

Also saved it in PPG Wavegenerator, Blofeld and WAv format. Loading the Dune 2 wavetable again in Audio Term seems to work too so it is possible to edit it further, create new wavetables or export to new file formats.



Have fun,
Ingo

[maschinelf]

I thought I already posted this and even got the confirmation, but apparently not

I own an nfr DUNE 1 license. If I upgrade to DUNE 2, will DUNE 2 still be nfr or is it transferable?

[PietW.]

The wavetable folder in dune2 also allows subfolders. So many folders can be used with different wavetables. In wavetable folder simply open new folders.

[elassi]

Manual...

Thank you very much for your time to enlighten us with the manual! And the program, of course.

[Sendy]

Manual...

Thank you very much for your time to enlighten us with the manual! And the program, of course.

Indeed, thanks for that. I'm sure with the manual as guidance it'll be a lot easier to work out how to get a good workflow going.

I also secretly kinda dig how nerdy and obtuse the interface is, and how it mimics the lighpen menus and CRT screen.

[Sendy]

BTW, one thing I find a bit lacking in Dune 2 are it's LFO's. They're a bit, um... static? No waveshape control for the pulse and triangle?

Asymmetric triangles can be essential sometimes because the leading edge of a sawtooth, when used as modulation, can cause pops and clicks. Likewise, being able to adjust the trajectory of a sine or other waveshape can be important with things like filter sweeps, because often you're wanting to hit certain harmonics with the resonance that are out of reach with the preset waveshapes.

It seems to me, all "modern" synths have morphable LFOs so I kinda expected it to be in Dune 2 - not that it's a big deal if it never is. Just wanted to toss the idea out there.

[Kriminal]

i had an idea to make a wavetable from randon clips of music. Of course, they are not tuned, and dont loop correctly (they are not 'cycles') but they can be quite useful for ambient/soundscape/weird pad noises

here's one i just made using David Bowies 'Life On Mars' (6 samples in the Wavetable)

the LFO is scanning the WT, and ive added some onboard Delay/Verb. Long notes and WT scanning means you dont get the odd loop sound so much

http://soundcloud.com/kriminal-dave2/kriminal-dune2-lom

it may be possible to make the samples stereo and reverse one channel, then save as Mono, to help with the loop, i'll try that later

Edit: just tried, it works well...

[Kriminal]

BTW, one thing I find a bit lacking in Dune 2 are it's LFO's. They're a bit, um... static? No waveshape control for the pulse and triangle?

Asymmetric triangles can be essential sometimes because the leading edge of a sawtooth, when used as modulation, can cause pops and clicks. Likewise, being able to adjust the trajectory of a sine or other waveshape can be important with things like filter sweeps, because often you're wanting to hit certain harmonics with the resonance that are out of reach with the preset waveshapes.

It seems to me, all "modern" synths have morphable LFOs so I kinda expected it to be in Dune 2 - not that it's a big deal if it never is. Just wanted to toss the idea out there.

Can you not use an MSEG instead?