Groove Blox Live Virtual Instrument - 30 day demo now available for download

[Karmacomposer]

In about 10 minutes, you can go to:



Direct link:



I am uploading the video 'GrooveBlox Overview'

It's a 15 minute overview of GBL and how to use it.

I'll create a better one when I get back.

Mike

[Spitfire31]

…I like to start GBL by playing the most pronounced groove (like 'standard8beat_drm.wav', for example - then time every other groove to that one as I latch them on the keyboard.

Somehow I can't help feeling that it would be more expeditious to be able to start all the loops playing, using the graphical keyboard latch function and then hit a single button to sync them all to a common downbeat. Syncing by ear strikes me as rather inexact and time consuming.

Most Groove Blox start at the exact same position, but some, due to the looping, start a bit late. You can either time them to work together or use the RPA (which is a way to adjust the % of the groove to start a bit earlier or later, but that is kind of hit or miss)

I have a somewhat 'loose' feeling about this whole project. "Most" blox start at the same position but "some" start "a bit" late. Well… I think that you wrote somewhere that all Blox are designed to work together. But apparently, we need to fiddle around with "some" to make that (hopefully) happen?

As for using the RPA (still don't understand what it stands for) = changing speed and pitch at the same time, please imagine for a minute that I don't wish to be locked down to 120.00 BPM for a certain groove. I adjust the main beat loop RPA down "a bit" to hit around 118 BPM. If I have a tonal bass track going on, I have to adjust it the same amount, so it won't play out of sync, won't I? But since speed and pitch are locked together, the bass will now play out of tune!

How do you get round that conundrum?

Further, even assuming that there's no tonal loop playing, do you seriously intend the user to first adjust RPA individually for all layers by ear (so that they play in sync, more or less) and then sync up the beats, also by ear, before any performance using the Mutes is possible? Isn't that just a tiny bit clunky?

All layers are tied to a master-clock which should tempo sync with the host, but I cannot guarantee the timing with DAWs since I did not test that feature (I do not own Ableton Live). The Live in GBL is intended to be used within itself - live.

Since GBL is a VST, it's obviously meant to be hosted in a DAW. It's hardly unreasonable to imagine a scenario where I want to add more DAW tracks for other loops or even manually played synths with beat-synced LFOs, for example.

The current version of GBL does not tempo sync with Ableton Live 8.2.7, I can assure you, nor does it obey the Start command from Ableton Live, which is arguably one of the most used DAWs for playing live (!) groove based music.

I hope that it will, eventually (there's a 30 day demo of Live, so you don't have to buy it for testing) and I think that it should, in order to be an interesting tool. But again, perhaps tempo sync is of the RPA kind (speed interconnected with pitch) and then you have the out-of tune problem again.

With the reservation that I may have missed the genius of GBL, I can see that it doesn't really fit into my current setup and I will now gracefully withdraw from this thread.

I wish you the best of luck and a great day with your kid!

Kind regards,

Joachim

[SampleScience]

Hi Karmacomposer,

Here's why I think you don't sell:

- I had a look at the Groove Blox Live video on YouTube, while I think it is a cool little tool, I don't really see the point of it. There's nothing it can do that I can't already do in Ableton Live & Sony Acid Pro:

http://www.ableton.com/live
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidpro

My suggestion: become a third party developper for these two big DAW, like Puremagnetik (for Live) & Peace Love Productions (for Acid) has been doing successfully for years.

- Revamp the GUIs, you already have a distinctive look, you just need to upgrade the whole thing so it can look professional. I've shown your GUIs to other people & they thought it look amateurish. Maybe give a % of the sales to a talented graphic designer?

- Instead of doing your own instruments in the good but unstable SE, I thing it would be wiser to build Kontakt instruments with scripts &/or combinators for Reason. Jeremy from Nucleus SoundLab has been doing ReFills for Reason for a couple of years now & he is successfull.

- For Klang: again, why not support other successfull samplers/grooveboxes that people already own: Kontakt, Ableton Live sampler, Reason ReFills/Combinators, GURU. But I have to say that Klang itself isn't anything new, you're competing with those already well established products:

http://www.soundsonline.com/Stormdrum-2
http://www.nucleus-soundlab.com/ambient ... efill.html

Ambient Drums from NS is said to be a "Storm Drum Lite" by Jeremy himself (when it was out), that's why it's 29$ & not 395$.

- One of the problem is that you're trying to compete with the big guys without being one. Check EastWest & their products on Soundonline.com. If you want to sell, fill your own niche market with original products. de la Mancha is doing this, AlgoMusic did that a couple of years ago, Nucleus Soundlab, Puremagnetik, etc... That's the reason why Monstrous sold in my opinion, it's a unique instrument, a unique concept I haven't seen anywhere else, so it sold. I would focus on doing more of the most original concept you can think of.

I truly hope it helps, all the best in your endeaviour!

[revo11]

I would take out the "tech support ticket system" - since it's a one person shop, just put up your contact. The generic clipart combined with the idea of a "tech support ticketsystem" makes it look like you're trying to be some sort of faceless porn billing site.

Also the two white boxes (the one that scrolls and the main frame) should probably aligned. Right now the scroller box is a few pixels lower and it doesn't look right.

Otherwise the new site looks a lot better though!

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Mike you can get Ableton Live 8 Lite for gratis at the moment if you have or sign up for a (free) soundcloud account. Worth grabbing that one I should imagine simply for testing your products inside of plus being able to try replicating bugs and so on dude, If you have not a link and how to already then its here: http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/04/02/s ... d-ableton/

Oh and I e-mailed you just before you were releasing Klang Drum offering to do some patterns/presets and not even taking the offer of a free copy if you liked/used whatever I would of done (As in if I liked I would of bought Klang at its regular price), It was when you had piracy problems/A thread on here about your frustrations. You never got back to me after the first e-mail which you replied to, Totally understand though as keeping a family life along with running a business on your own must be alot of work, I have sole custody of my two children, They do not see thier Mother so its Dad 24/7...Working full-time in my situation is simply not possible. That offer still stands and take care, Best to yourself and family

Dean and Family

[glokraw]

Hi Karmacomposer,

Here's why I think you don't sell:

- I had a look at the Groove Blox Live video on YouTube, while I think it is a cool little tool, I don't really see the point of it. There's nothing it can do that I can't already do in Ableton Live & Sony Acid Pro:


- One of the problem is that you're trying to compete with the big guys without being one.

You can spend $500 on a host and soundset, or $100, and the quality of music still
depends on on the musician. You can peddle expensive boxed versions til your
wallet bleeds, but that is not the market this product is aimed at, so save your breath. Find an ableton/kontakt rocks thread somewhere on the other side of the tracks.

[Karmacomposer]

Mike you can get Ableton Live 8 Lite for gratis at the moment if you have or sign up for a (free) soundcloud account. Worth grabbing that one I should imagine simply for testing your products inside of plus being able to try replicating bugs and so on dude, If you have not a link and how to already then its here: http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/04/02/s ... d-ableton/

Oh and I e-mailed you just before you were releasing Klang Drum offering to do some patterns/presets and not even taking the offer of a free copy if you liked/used whatever I would of done (As in if I liked I would of bought Klang at its regular price), It was when you had piracy problems/A thread on here about your frustrations. You never got back to me after the first e-mail which you replied to, Totally understand though as keeping a family life along with running a business on your own must be alot of work, I have sole custody of my two children, They do not see thier Mother so its Dad 24/7...Working full-time in my situation is simply not possible. That offer still stands and take care, Best to yourself and family

Dean and Family

Dean,

PM me and we can talk about presets and demo work.

Mike

[Karmacomposer]

I would take out the "tech support ticket system" - since it's a one person shop, just put up your contact. The generic clipart combined with the idea of a "tech support ticketsystem" makes it look like you're trying to be some sort of faceless porn billing site.

Also the two white boxes (the one that scrolls and the main frame) should probably aligned. Right now the scroller box is a few pixels lower and it doesn't look right.

Otherwise the new site looks a lot better though!

But I like my ticketing system. It makes it easy for me to help people. I just wish it emailed me when a ticket came in. One can always reach me here, use my handy dandy contact form or email me. It is reasonable easy to reach me.

Porn site??? Really?

Mike

[SampleScience]

... but that is not the market this product is aimed at, so save your breath.

I've got Ableton Live Lite free with my Focusrite soundcard. As someone mentioned, you can get Live Lite for free with a Soundcloud account. Otherwise, Ableton Live Intro is 99$ (& Sony sells their basic version of Acid for 70$). I think that this product is aimed at the same market, since Ableton Live has been made for playing with loops (amongs other things) live, just like Groove Blox Live...

Considering there's more than 10 millions users on Soundcloud, I think Ableton understand something about the music making business.

[Karmacomposer]

... but that is not the market this product is aimed at, so save your breath.

I've got Ableton Live Lite free with my Focusrite soundcard. As someone mentioned, you can get Live Lite for free with a Soundcloud account. Otherwise, Ableton Live Intro is 99$ (& Sony sells their basic version of Acid for 70$). I think that this product is aimed at the same market, since Ableton Live has been made for playing with loops (amongs other things) live, just like Groove Blox Live...

Considering there's more than 10 millions users on Soundcloud, I think Ableton understand something about the music making business.

I'm sure I have a free copy of Ableton around here somewhere (that came with hardware), so i'll try to find it and install it.

I'll have to find out how to make a synthedit synth play when you hit the play button on your sequencer.

Right now, everything is tied to a main clock source and that main clock source is based off the tempo of the host. Hence, it should sync with your DAW or sequencer, but if it's not, then I have to look and see what I can do about it.

Mike

[koolkeys]

Mike, have you considered just going the sample route and forgetting about making your own VSTs?

Here is why I ask: look back at most any criticism of your products, and you'll find that it's almost never about the sounds themselves. In other words, people like your SAMPLES. What do they always complain about? In my estimation, it's almost always about the GUI, or the fact that you use SE, or whatever.

Now, whether these complaints are valid or not is not for me to decide. But if you consider the possibilities that are available in something like Kontakt, I think it opens up more doors for you.

Yes, you would be restricting yourself purely to a third party platform. But you know that tens of thousands of people have a version of Kontakt sitting around. Plus, you are then CROSS PLATFORM instantly. No need to find a coder.

You have, built in to Kontakt, great time and pitch stretching, great effects, the ability to make your instruments FAR more complex, and then there is scripting. With your coding background, the scripting is likely much easier to get into than learning C++ and coding your own plugins. Plus you have everything built in for making great multis, routing, automation, complex modulation and effects usage, disk streaming, etc.

You could maybe create simpler sFz formats as well for those without Kontakt. Or make an Ableton Simpler patch or something like that.

I think it would help to simplify the entire process by letting you focus on what you do best: recording and editing samples. You would eliminate the headache of not being cross platform, eliminate the need to tweak the instrument to work in different hosts(that would be left to Kontakt devs, and your instruments would be identical no matter where used). Kontakt has more robust methods of finding samples if people move them, etc.

I just think that from a business perspective, it's the best option. Even start with a few pre-sliced Groove-Blox libraries(since slicing is also very well done in Kontakt), along with some MIDI file variations to play the Groove Blox in different patterns, and run from there. With the money you make, hire a graphic designer for a script for your next instrument, and just snowball up.

Obviously, whatever you do is your decision. But I think this makes so much sense, don't you? Less stress, more time to spend on samples, and you essentially open up your market in a big way. In addition, users don't have to learn a new instrument. They can use Kontakt, which most people who use samples already own and know how to use.

And of course, you could start with like version 3 of Kontakt if you find somebody selling it, and be compatible with a large amount of people whether they have upgraded or not! Unless you already have Kontakt, in which case, you're already prepared!

Brent

[bailees7irish]

Mike, have you considered just going the sample route and forgetting about making your own VSTs?

Here is why I ask: look back at most any criticism of your products, and you'll find that it's almost never about the sounds themselves. In other words, people like your SAMPLES. What do they always complain about? In my estimation, it's almost always about the GUI, or the fact that you use SE, or whatever.

Now, whether these complaints are valid or not is not for me to decide. But if you consider the possibilities that are available in something like Kontakt, I think it opens up more doors for you.

Yes, you would be restricting yourself purely to a third party platform. But you know that tens of thousands of people have a version of Kontakt sitting around. Plus, you are then CROSS PLATFORM instantly. No need to find a coder.

You have, built in to Kontakt, great time and pitch stretching, great effects, the ability to make your instruments FAR more complex, and then there is scripting. With your coding background, the scripting is likely much easier to get into than learning C++ and coding your own plugins. Plus you have everything built in for making great multis, routing, automation, complex modulation and effects usage, disk streaming, etc.

You could maybe create simpler sFz formats as well for those without Kontakt. Or make an Ableton Simpler patch or something like that.

I think it would help to simplify the entire process by letting you focus on what you do best: recording and editing samples. You would eliminate the headache of not being cross platform, eliminate the need to tweak the instrument to work in different hosts(that would be left to Kontakt devs, and your instruments would be identical no matter where used). Kontakt has more robust methods of finding samples if people move them, etc.

I just think that from a business perspective, it's the best option. Even start with a few pre-sliced Groove-Blox libraries(since slicing is also very well done in Kontakt), along with some MIDI file variations to play the Groove Blox in different patterns, and run from there. With the money you make, hire a graphic designer for a script for your next instrument, and just snowball up.

Obviously, whatever you do is your decision. But I think this makes so much sense, don't you? Less stress, more time to spend on samples, and you essentially open up your market in a big way. In addition, users don't have to learn a new instrument. They can use Kontakt, which most people who use samples already own and know how to use.

And of course, you could start with like version 3 of Kontakt if you find somebody selling it, and be compatible with a large amount of people whether they have upgraded or not! Unless you already have Kontakt, in which case, you're already prepared!

Brent

+1

[Santini]

Mike, a question for you seeing as you've gone so far as to update your website and synths based on customer feedback:

Will PRIZM ever be completed?

Since I got access to the new server, I have gone ahead and re-downloaded PRIZM. From what I can tell, everything in regards to the files is the same (including the file dates), apart from being in rar format and not Zip Genius format.

However, I did notice that about 1-2GB of "Bonus Sounds" you had up before for free and/or for presets that were giving some of us errors were not part of the new server download. I had these backed up on an old drive, but was disappointed to see that they are no longer available in the event I lose the backup.

Also, a feature that was (and is still being currently) advertised when I purchased it back in 2009 appears to be missing from the server--or was it never completed?

Vocals

We have recorded several excellent vocal performers in a wide variety of stylings. You get ahh's, oh's, oo's, eh's, ee's, la's, na's, hey's and phrases. Both male and female, these generic instruments add that amazing ethereal human quality to any production!

The "male" subfolder in the "vocal" rar file is empty, and the female folder only contains ahh's, eh's, and ee's.

Doing KVR forum searching, I see that you'd mentioned that these were already finished in PRIZM-related posts from a few years back.

Knowing this, as it stands, I can't shake the feeling that I was ripped off by purchasing an incomplete product. Never a good feeling for any customer.

Let me know if I'm mistaken, and the fix is just a simple server update away.

[Karmacomposer]

Mike, a question for you seeing as you've gone so far as to update your website and synths based on customer feedback:

Will PRIZM ever be completed?

Since I got access to the new server, I have gone ahead and re-downloaded PRIZM. From what I can tell, everything in regards to the files is the same (including the file dates), apart from being in rar format and not Zip Genius format.

However, I did notice that about 1-2GB of "Bonus Sounds" you had up before for free and/or for presets that were giving some of us errors were not part of the new server download. I had these backed up on an old drive, but was disappointed to see that they are no longer available in the event I lose the backup.

Also, a feature that was (and is still being currently) advertised when I purchased it back in 2009 appears to be missing from the server--or was it never completed?

Vocals

We have recorded several excellent vocal performers in a wide variety of stylings. You get ahh's, oh's, oo's, eh's, ee's, la's, na's, hey's and phrases. Both male and female, these generic instruments add that amazing ethereal human quality to any production!

The "male" subfolder in the "vocal" rar file is empty, and the female folder only contains ahh's, eh's, and ee's.

Doing KVR forum searching, I see that you'd mentioned that these were already finished in PRIZM-related posts from a few years back.

Knowing this, as it stands, I can't shake the feeling that I was ripped off by purchasing an incomplete product. Never a good feeling for any customer.

Let me know if I'm mistaken, and the fix is just a simple server update away.

I actually lost the free update in a server crash at my ISP - one of the reasons I had to switch servers. I cannot find them here either. I will look again and if I find them, I will upload them (I assume you are talking about the xmas 'gift' so long ago).

Yep, I did record male vocalists and advertised it - and lo and behold forgot all about it. The female is already there, just have to make sure all the parts of it were included or not.

Since I am done with GrooveBlox, I can take a little time to make sure the vocals part of PRIZM is as advertised. Sorry for forgetting.

Mike

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Dean,

PM me and we can talk about presets and demo work.

Mike

Hello Mike, Cheers man I shall do that when I next get chance. The website looks nice and clean to me fwiw. So yep shall be in touch when I can and looking forwards to it

All the best and take care

Dean