Hey folks

Shift 2.2.0 is now available: download the evaluation demo or update here.

Shift is a diatonic granular pitch shifting delay. Shift combines an intuitive and beautiful user interface, with a great sounding granular synthesis engine. Shift's flexibility allows a palette of timbres ranging from basic echo effects, through intelligent harmonies, to exotic evolving ambient soundscapes.



This is the first in what will be a number of minor updates to our entire product line over the next couple of weeks. The real focus of these releases is a fix for a nasty interface locking bug with Cubase 6 on Mac OS X, but there are additional features and improvments, such as:

• Native 64-bit VST plug-in for Mac OS X (64-bit VST support requires Mac OS X 10.6 or greater; 64-bit Audio Unit requires Mac OS X 10.5 or greater; all other formats require Mac OS X 10.4 or greater.)
  
• Integrated undo and redo, with unlimited history size.
  
• Preset Browser is now maximized to fill the entire plug-in window.
  
• Windows RTAS plug-in is now installed to the correct location on 64-bit Windows operating systems.
  
• MIDI Program Changes are now multi-threaded, and so will no longer potentially stall the audio synthesis.
  
• Fix for crash (on both Windows and Linux) that could occur when 'space' is pressed when confirming the overwrite preset dialog.
  
• Fixed interface lock that could occur on Cubase for Mac OS X.
  
• Preset meta data (ie, author name, notes, tags) is now correctly displayed after loading an .FXP based preset or restoring a saved project.
  
• VU meters now automatically reset their overload status after a few seconds.
  For Windows VST (32-bit and 64-bit), the preferences file can be placed alongside the DLL file to facilitate USB or portable installs.
  
• Windows RTAS plug-in is now installed to the correct location on 64-bit Windows operating systems.
  
• Clearer font in PDF documentation.
  
• Fix for rare issue that stopped presets from loading in Linux Renoise when LADSPA plug-in support is enabled.
  
• Factory presets now load significantly faster.

Shift v2 is a free upgrade for Shift v1 users, who can request an updated license key: please see the section "Free Licence Upgrade" near the bottom of this page.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks!
Last edited by colin@loomer on Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:00 am; edited 1 time in total

As promised here, Shift 2.2.3 for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux is now available. Download the updated version here.

This minor update contains the following fixes and features:

• Fixed incredibly rare crash which may occur when first opening the plug-in on certain 32-bit VST Windows hosts.
  
• Massively improved speed and responsiveness of all UI controls.
  
• Improved CPU usage when tweaking parameters from a hardware controller.
  
• Standalone versions now support multiple simultaneous hardware controllers.
  
• For the Windows VST plug-in, when using a relative path for the presets folder, the path is now relative to the DLL, not the host.
  
• Preset searches are now multi-threaded. Preset browser can now immediately respond to user interaction, even whilst searching a massive preset library, or when browsing a folder containing a large number of presets.

Thanks!

And just to clarify, you don't need to request a new license key if you've already got one for Shift v2. New license keys are only needed if you own only a Shift v1 license key and want to enter the exciting modern world of Shift v2 (where have you been?).

A Shift v2 license key will be good for all Shift 2.xx versions, and probably even Shift v3 and beyond if we don't decide to change the key format again. (And whilst I'm clarifying, I may as well restate that, as with all our products, even major upgrades will always be free to registered owners.)

I'm a bit disappointed with the ps quality on this, sorry

I plan to buy manifold, resound, string and aspect as soon as i can afford it though as i love them;

Would love to see bundle discount pricing too! hint.

I'm definately going to have a good demo of these once I'm settled into using Renoise



Ha!

Feedback always appreciated, thanks, be it positive or negative. Shift is - by design - aimed at emulating the lo-fi grainy pitch shift algorithms of early Eventide units and the like. And I think it does that fairly successfully, judging by the amount of people who've informed me that Shift has replaced some aging hardware in their setup. If you need formant preservation or ultra-clean transposition, then I would not hesitate to say: you're better looking elsewhere. On saying that, I usually find that tuning the Grain parameters usually gets me a decent sound: larger grains generally sound cleaner, but can also soften transients and introduce small amounts of latency.

( Oh, and thanks for the positive impressions of the other products too: also much appreciated! )

ok! i get it now..

shift is like discord 3 so to speak going for the not so pristine sounds.

all good

the sound demo mp3 's maybe don't do it justice though?? they sound not quite right, i don't know how to explain it.

Bundle pricing, bundle pricing, bundle pricing.


Group buy, group buy

i think you are one of very few devs to do a GB... HINT!

Actually, all the product audio samples are due for a re-vamp when the new website goes live, although I can't say when exactly that'll be. I'd like the new website to coincide with the launch of the new product, but that may not happen if time is against us. I certainly won't delay the launch of the product if the site isn't ready.

There are several reasons we've still not done a group buy: the products all sell well enough without such discounts; all marketing literature I've seen warns against competing on price, or a 'race to the bottom'; and most importantly: I don't want to send the message to the loyal customers - the ones who have already purchased and supported us - that they should have waited.

But don't take that as a concrete NO: one advantage of being a small company is that we can quickly react and change to suit the current climate. I've no problems with mercurial pricing; it's just I want to carefully consider and choose how we do it. I'm debating that for the next product launch, we'll use a U-he style, 'early adopter discount'. Having the numbers, being able to see the effect of discount pricing vs non-discount pricing will go a long way towards helping convince me, one way or another, of a change in pricing structure. Which is a long-winded way of saying: we'll evaluate this after the next product launch! Talking of which, back to some coding...

Thanks again for the feedback.

Loomer = all top notch stuff

I'm a happy Aspect, String and Sequent user

Very interested in what the new product will be!

Something with.. virtual cables??

Thanks Nielzie, much appreciated.

Yes, the next product does in fact use virtual cables. It's also got a hypnotic 'cable slackness' control (which is MIDI mappable), so when you're bored of makin' beats, you can amuse yourself by jiggling around some virtual cables.

Hey CPB, maybe indeed a group buy is a bad idea. your reasoning makes sense.

Look what has happened to products that have gone on such sales for example, their value if ever need to resell is reduced drastically, and ultimately more people might not buy waiting for another GB.

However, bundle pricing like voxengo and psp and ohmforce, d16 and a few others do IS a good idea, and will not piss anyone off, and is not drastic discount, just nice and appealing.

let me explain..
say...
every product you add to your cart, adds a little bit more % discount, so say you have 5 products that you are willing to buy at one time, maybe you get 20% discount?

make sense?

very easy to implement, quickly

I don't think huge and seasonal GBs are a good thing too. Look what happens to ... hum. Loomer products are in the average price range, with a very good quality/price ratio.
Althought I never bought one... but I plan to. I already have Cumulus, and it works really good. I'd like to have shift, sequent and manifold and certainly the incoming alien.
The idea of a "bundle price" or "returning customer rebate" seems a better idea.