Exponential Audio Excalibur

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I Haven't gotten a chance to really dive into this plugin too deeply and the control scheme is still confusing to me but man this plugin sounds phenomenal. I'm loving the delay and vibrato-y effects on guitar. I think I'm going to have to pull the trigger on this before the end of the introductory sale. Phoenix verb is my favorite reverb plug and Excalibur seems to be made to the same level of quality.

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What are people's thoughts on how this compares with Native Instruments Molekular?

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Different thing really, Molekular is more experimental, Excalibur is more of a mainstream multi fx unit with more standard fx types, although the modulation possibilities can also lend themselves to experimentation and complexity (but not as extreme as Molekular).

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This thing sounds great indeed, but boy do I find it complicated. On the one hand I want to buy it because the effects sound great, on the other hand I can't help but think this would just be a preset box to me because it will be so hard to learn. I'd love a multi-fx box at this quality that's perhaps slightly less deep, but easier to use.

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I've only briefly tried the demo and flicked through some presets. It does sound fantastic. A step above anything else like it that I've used, or at least a dry different flavor.
Aiynzahev-sounds
Sound Designer - Soundsets for Pigments, Repro, Diva, Virus TI, Nord Lead 4, Serum, DUNE2, Spire, and others

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Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:This thing sounds great indeed, but boy do I find it complicated. On the one hand I want to buy it because the effects sound great, on the other hand I can't help but think this would just be a preset box to me because it will be so hard to learn. I'd love a multi-fx box at this quality that's perhaps slightly less deep, but easier to use.
That's my feeling at the moment as well.

It really does sound great but i'm having trouble tweaking. I'll spend more time with it over the next week and see how I get on before committing to buy.

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I'm sure once you start using it the programming will become easier. At least that's what I'm going to bank on. The fact that a lot of people are saying that it's difficult might also be a little 'hint' for the sound programmers around here. There are lots of preset packs for synths, but I don't recall seeing anything for effects (besides the ones for Aether) :)

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Couldn't demo it without iloc 2 hardware (I have iloc 1) - Probably a good job, I always ending up buying things I demo!

Anyway- just bought UHE MFM2 (http://www.u-he.com/cms/mfm2) for $29 USD with the free $50 voucher I got for owning BWS :-)
4 delay lines....multi-fx....familiar? This with Valhala UberMod have me covered ;-)
X32 Desk, i9 PC, S49MK2, Studio One, BWS, Live+PUSH 3 Standalone, Reason, Osmose, Summit, Pro 3, Prophet8, Syntakt, Digitone, Drumlogue, OP1-F, Eurorack, TD27 Drums, Guitars, Basses, Amps and of course lots of pedals!

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Sequent wrote:I'm sure once you start using it the programming will become easier. At least that's what I'm going to bank on. The fact that a lot of people are saying that it's difficult might also be a little 'hint' for the sound programmers around here. There are lots of preset packs for synths, but I don't recall seeing anything for effects (besides the ones for Aether) :)
I'm not so sure the "once you start using it the programming will become easier" thing will apply to me though. For instance, I just started demoing Blue Cat's Patchwork. Makes perfect sense. You have a series of parallel and serial chains, the signal flow is easy, just insert plugins where you want them and you end up with a great multifx box.

By comparison, Excalibur is "ok, so I have 4 voices where I can load effects, those effects are selected on the far right, but what does everything to the left of that do?" I get that any parameter can be modulated, but the signal flow just seems odd. For instance, let's say I want to put the Vintage Shifter into the Feedback of a delay so that each delay gets more and more effected by the pitch shift amount. How do I do that? In Patchwork it's a no brainer, but Excalibur leaves me scratching my head on that. I'm sure it can do it, but damned if I can figure it out.

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Agreed on everything said here. The sound quality is SUBLIME of all the effects but the user interface is an absolute nightmare.

I can't help but feel this could have been much better designed. As it is now, I don't feel at all like purchasing it due to it's interface. It's very uninspiring and confusing.

This is a plugin where a good drag and drop type of interface would work a lot better.. and having as much as possible on the screen at one time instead of dividing it up into sections.

Heck, you can't even tell if a "voice" is in use or not at a glance.

Sound = 10/10
Interface =4/10

:(
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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It would also be good if you could easily turn each voice on or off. As far as I can tell, you cannot or at least not without zero-ing everything out. :shrug:

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bmanic wrote:Agreed on everything said here. The sound quality is SUBLIME of all the effects but the user interface is an absolute nightmare.

I can't help but feel this could have been much better designed. As it is now, I don't feel at all like purchasing it due to it's interface. It's very uninspiring and confusing.

This is a plugin where a good drag and drop type of interface would work a lot better.. and having as much as possible on the screen at one time instead of dividing it up into sections.

Heck, you can't even tell if a "voice" is in use or not at a glance.

Sound = 10/10
Interface =4/10

:(
Geez, if Bmanic isn't a fan of the interface, then I've got no hope. And a big YES on the drag and drop point. The other thing I don't get here is why can't I just load a stereo input if wanted as the source for a voice, then have the option of loading stereo or mono effects into that voice? I can sum stereo down to mono on the input, but I can't have a stereo input (or am I missing something)?

My dream multi-effects processor would be something like an Excalibur meets Patchwork or even Reaktor where I can drag and drop the effects into crazy chains. It allows me to select either a right, left, stereo to stereo, or stereo to mono input (or multiple of each), and from there create parallel and serial chains where I can add "effect modules" wherever I want in the chain. Each module would have input/output gains and a mix control, along with a few parameters that control the effect. After each module I'd have the option to add another effect module after it (serial), or create a new parallel branch (for instance, if I wanted to do things in feedback chains). Then I'd be able to click and drag to move around those modules as needed. Available modules would include: HP/LP filters, Parametric EQ, Delays, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Pitch Shifter, Reverbs (Hall, Room, Spring), Ring Mod, Resonators, Bit Crushers, and Distortions. Add a DCAM style modulation system and a global mix control and you're done! Easy right? :wink:

Did I just describe Reaktor?

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Sequent wrote:It would also be good if you could easily turn each voice on or off. As far as I can tell, you cannot or at least not without zero-ing everything out. :shrug:
Yeah there's the solo button, but no bypass?

I also haven't figured out how to link common parameters between multiple voices yet. So if I want to pitch-shift the right and left signals at the same time, how do I do that? I surely can't be expected to pitch the left voice down, then go to the right voice and do the same again?

I hope Michael doesn't see these critiques and get discouraged. The effects sound amazing. I really just want to see these algorithms in an effects unit and interface I can understand while still being flexible enough to allow me to be creative.

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Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:
bmanic wrote:Agreed on everything said here. The sound quality is SUBLIME of all the effects but the user interface is an absolute nightmare.

I can't help but feel this could have been much better designed. As it is now, I don't feel at all like purchasing it due to it's interface. It's very uninspiring and confusing.

This is a plugin where a good drag and drop type of interface would work a lot better.. and having as much as possible on the screen at one time instead of dividing it up into sections.

Heck, you can't even tell if a "voice" is in use or not at a glance.

Sound = 10/10
Interface =4/10

:(
Geez, if Bmanic isn't a fan of the interface, then I've got no hope. And a big YES on the drag and drop point. The other thing I don't get here is why can't I just load a stereo input if wanted as the source for a voice, then have the option of loading stereo or mono effects into that voice? I can sum stereo down to mono on the input, but I can't have a stereo input (or am I missing something)?

My dream multi-effects processor would be something like an Excalibur meets Patchwork or even Reaktor where I can drag and drop the effects into crazy chains. It allows me to select either a right, left, stereo to stereo, or stereo to mono input (or multiple of each), and from there create parallel and serial chains where I can add "effect modules" wherever I want in the chain. Each module would have input/output gains and a mix control, along with a few parameters that control the effect. After each module I'd have the option to add another effect module after it (serial), or create a new parallel branch (for instance, if I wanted to do things in feedback chains). Then I'd be able to click and drag to move around those modules as needed. Available modules would include: HP/LP filters, Parametric EQ, Delays, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Pitch Shifter, Reverbs (Hall, Room, Spring), Ring Mod, Resonators, Bit Crushers, and Distortions. Add a DCAM style modulation system and a global mix control and you're done! Easy right? :wink:

Did I just describe Reaktor?
That sounds like Native Instruments Molekular.

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Molekular is very, very close, but it's still Reaktor based from what I understand and I'd like something as a standalone effect. I basically want the Excalibur modules in the Molekular UI as a standalone VST plugin.

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