Those answers are all good to me ! Thanks.



I think boat is the only way I'd get out of Plymouth by the sounds of it. Have a code (and water) free Christmas !

thanks for all the info colin.

will this tool be sample accurate & automatically latency compensated where needed ? If I'm imagining things right, there's the likelihood of modules nested in macros and stuff like that, which can add up in complexity and presumably latency... ? Not to mention the inherent latency within plugins adding up...

Cheers & Seasons Greetings

Plug-ins are only ever inserted on an output module, so latency affects only things at the tail end of the patch; safely away from all the complex macro routing bits. (But yes, it does do delay compensation to keep your hosted plug-ins working nicely together if any of them have a latency requirement.)

As far as keeping the rest of the patch in sync, it's generally not something you'll need to concern yourself with. Epoch does a great job at deciding which modules need to be processed, when, and in which order. The only special-case is when your create feedback - routing a module's output back to its own input. In this case it may, if needed, add a single tick delay at some point along the feedback to keep all the signals in sync.

And a season's greeting to you all too: hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and New Year!

This is the most excited I've been about software in a long time. Merry Xmas and ... no pressure

Looks interesting. Do you have an ETA on this?

I wouldn't like to narrow the release down to anything more accurate than early 2013. It's feature complete in terms of being ready for a beta release, but there is still tidying and improving happening; lots of little tweaks, rather than any grand renovations. Expect a more specific release date when I'm confident enough that it's a realistic one.

... Checks date... 4th Jan 2013 (early). Yup.

... Squeezes into 'will test betas for free' T-shirt (too many mince-pies).

... checks wallet. Empty. Hmmm (notices pile of virtual software licenses from Christmas).

... checks Credit Card. Space !!! Sorted.

... gets deckchair and looks for start of waiting line

(Excuse any hysteria, but I'm back to work on Monday and the good life will end)

Happy New Year !

any news about epoch?
more pictures, please?
is there a way to record the notes of one sequencer to several others live?

At some point, but not for version 1.0.

I've been reworking the way data flows between modules, the ultimate goal of which is to be able to support sysex a la justin3am's request from several pages back. This has involved replacing some core code from within the depths of Epoch's innards, but ultimately should have a number of massive benefits (such as, coincidentally enough, being able to support sequencer to sequencer recording!)

I suppose the main question is whether you will have a beta before Live 9 comes out, and tempts me to spend my money

To both releasing before Live 9, and tempting you to spend some money: I hope so!

I'm definitely ready, and payday is close enough

Anyway, a fresh question regarding workflow: How exactly will audio out and routing work ?

I realise this is for sequencing and all things MIDI/CV, but will there be any facility to route audio from one hosted VST to another ? I wouldn't want anything more than that, but I can see mileage in being able to directly connect audio rather than having to take the audio outs into another app/host and back again.

Perhaps an audio matrix (similar to the matrix in Reaper).

Conversely, could there be a way that multiple VST instances of Epoch could share a common wiring 'bus' so if I had several 'sequencers' hosted in different tracks, they could be wired together 'inside' Epoch as though they were all in one setup ?

I can figure out plenty of workarounds, but I'm thinking either of the above would allow for some really nice integration with other tools.

Just throwing ideas around though - I don't want to delay anything

Bring it on

Adding to my previous questions

Will there be a way of automating 'hosted' plugin parameters directly ? So, instead of using CC, being able to target a parameter of the connected VST. This would be very useful, especially if there was a way to 'learn' the parameter as the programmatic names are trick to separate on bigger VSTs and it removes the need to MIDI learn controls.

Also, will the entire 'state' of Epoch be saved if it's being used as a VST in a host, including scripts and inner hosted VST settings, in the host project ? Or will they have to be saved separately ? I can see it being a rather deep rabbit hole of recursion, potentially.

I've got so many ideas to try

Always pleased to get more questions. I'd rather be confronted by limitations now, when it is easy to fix them without worrying about keeping Epoch backwards compatible, than after release.

Not at the moment, but it would be doable, and probably an easy change too. Consider this feature requested!


Yes! An Output module, of which there can be up to eight in a patch, can be routed to either a hosted plug-in, to any MIDI Out device, or via the host. But you can have multiple objects (sequencers, or note generators, etc) connected to a single Output. Or you can have the same object connected to multiple Outputs. It's a simple set-up, but it seems flexible enough to cope with every scenario I've tried it with.

You can also route the audio output from a plug-in (be it stereo, or thirty-two channels, or anything in between) to any of Epoch's audio outputs. Handy for drum samplers, but also nice if you want to host multiple plug-ins, but keep them discrete for further processing or mixing in your host.

Not yet, I'm afraid, but it's something I'm aware of and intend to add shortly after release. But I'm afraid you're stuck with MIDI CCs for Epoch 1.0!

Everything is saved in the preset or host project, including scripts and hosted plug-in states. Scripts, custom scales, and macros can also be saved separately though, if you want to build your own library of re-usable components.

(How's the weather in Plymouth? Has society ground to a halt due to the snow, like it has here?)

Morning Colin,



We haven't seen any snow. Everywhere around has, to the extent that dartmoor was gridlocked with everyone having 'fun' apparently, but nothing here whatsoever, much to the dismay of my 3.5-year-old daughter.

Thanks for all of the answers. It occurred to me this morning (as I settle in to the day job) that really I should provide some use-cases instead of specifics, as that's the correct way of specifying requirements Anyway, I think you've already answered as much as I can ask until I actually see how Epoch all hangs together and what it can/can't do.

Anyway, I should start thinking about mundane work things now

Here's to the weekend.