Polaris updated to v1.9 - Early Digital Echo / Reverb with Shimmer and Swell - AAX,AU,CLAP,VST2,VST3

[Audiority]

It's just 1 octave up pitch shifter recirculating inside the reverb loop, so the pitch keep shifting one octave up the previous one over and over. In Polaris you can only set the amount of the shifted signal.

Cheers
Luca

[Audiority]

It seems to work, even if testing in a VM is pretty much limited. For now I keep the builds separate.
You can download the XP Demo from the product page (click on the "ZIP" link)
If you are going to purchase it, just remember to use the XP Demo installer instead of the one provided in the purchase email.

Please, post here your feedback!

Cheers,
Luca

[jens]

according to statistics winxp is still the thirdmost OS in use, so supporting it still is not entirely nonsense.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operatin ... pcustomd=0

This may reflect the overall usage of OSes in the world, but it isn't an accurate reflection of that used by musicians.

Yes, that includes people like my parents who need the old machine my brother gave them years ago mainly to look up recipes and skype with their grandson - and it works perfectly fine for that.

[kylie]

according to statistics winxp is still the thirdmost OS in use, so supporting it still is not entirely nonsense.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operatin ... pcustomd=0

This may reflect the overall usage of OSes in the world, but it isn't an accurate reflection of that used by musicians. The 2 versions of OSX in this poll take up 6.47%, yet about 51% of my customers use OSX, which reflects the 50/50 split between OSX and Windows reported by most plugin developers. From my own experience, my guess is that XP is in the 3% to 4% range for plugin usage.

indeed, sean, I would expect a much higher percentage of osx users among musicians as well. what I wanted to point out is that xp isn't that much dead as microsoft would want it to be. and I would prefer other people not misleadingly declare it dead just because they don't use it.

I'd happily switch my last windows machine to linux if developers would just port their software (and hardware manufacturers would make reliable drivers for it).

[kylie]

Btw, I'm wondering what kind of PC do you guy use with XP and what DAWs. (pure curiosity)

I have a custom setup with an Intel DP43TF, Q9650 cpu (Core2 Quad 3ghz) and 8GB ram (when I bought it I expected to switch much earlier, so I put it in even though I can only address about 3 1/2GB currently). when I put it together I used to have a matrox P690 which uses about 9W power, but later I put in a Geforce for occasionally gaming. OS installation was nLite'ed to use native SATA from the onboard ports (having a WD Raptor connected to it) and to apply some tweaks. it has been rock solid for years, whatever I throw at it. my main DAW is Studio One v2 (as v3 requires at least Win7), and I use Wavelab a lot.

[kylie]

It seems to work, even if testing in a VM is pretty much limited. For now I keep the builds separate.
You can download the XP Demo from the product page (click on the "ZIP" link)
If you are going to purchase it, just remember to use the XP Demo installer instead of the one provided in the purchase email.

Please, post here your feedback!

I can at least confirm that it loads and I can authorize it. off to work now, will provide more feedback later).

[jens]

I have a custom setup with an Intel DP43TF, Q9650 cpu (Core2 Quad 3ghz)

Yeah, you are then one of the rare cases where it makes sense - it's still an okay machine by today's standards and you probably got it at a period when either Win 7 wasn't out yet or when it at least still made some sense to install XP instead of 7.

[kylie]

I can't exactly tell when I installed it, but I tend to think it was very early 2010 when windows 7 was just out for a few months, and vista was not even remotely an option to use. somehow I miss the times when Intel made motherboards that weren't overloaded with features but reliable, well supported and not overpriced (well, some of them). driver support for my audio cards was one of the main reasons I did not go the Win 7 route at that time, now that I come to think of it...

the only issue I remember was an unconditionally spin up and down of system fans after a bios update that was addressed with another update afterwards (referred to as "fan ramping" which perfectly describes what it felt like ). lately I had some OS freezes where I suspect a slowly dying PSU. so I would not rely on it for much longer (wipe'ing XP in favour of 7) but use it until it breaks or its predecessor is up and running, whatever happens first. and no, I would not do a fresh install of XP nowadays, unless it's a virtual machine where I have to use stuff that just won't run on a recent OS.

[Audiority]

Honestly, parting from XP was traumatic for me too. Before jumping the sole trader adventure, I was an IT manager for a big company in Italy: over 50 users, various servers (unix, linux, windows and mac). Most of the clients were on XP or 2000, mixed with some Mac for the graphic department. I totally refused to install Vista on any machine and we switched over a new Windows only after 7 came out. I missed the quick response of XP, but I must say that 7 Pro was rock solid (even if not hassle free). I switched on 10 for development and so far (finger crossed) is VERY stable and responsive. In the past I had any kind of machine... branded, self assembled and so on. I remember one day I spent a lot of money for a custom system with a LOT of copper inside, to prevent overheating. I had no luck, so I switched (for the first time in my life) to a Mac and I loved it: turn it on, work, turn it off. Unfortunately today OSX is not so much easy to deal with as it was with Snow Leopard. I'm currently on Mavericks and I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it lol But so far is good enough to work and I don't want to switch to a new OSX.. even if in the near future I'll have to set up another Mac for testing the plugins with the newest frameworks (AU v3 in primis).

Back to the thread purpose: any feedback about the XP build?

Cheers,
Luca

[kylie]

Honestly, parting from XP was traumatic for me too.

at least you can understand why I want to see it running on XP again...
can't appreciate your efforts enough

Back to the thread purpose: any feedback about the XP build?

well, it loads with no issues now in cantabile and Studio One v2, and it has some really nice modes. I don't get warm with the room presets right now, but echo and hall is great, as well as sfx. swell and shimmer is killer, imho

[Audiority]

Thank you guys! I'll be very glad if all of you can share their experience by leaving a review and rating Polaris on KVR. This will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Luca

[kylie]

damn, I knew there was a catch...
I will do that after spending some time with polaris. feel free to remind me every now and then in case I forget about it...

[jens]

I could perhaps do that too but also first need to get more familiar with it - I'm working on a song right now where I ended up really using Polaris for the first time - it's applying shimmer and being used together with Valhalla Plate - and it compliments it really well...

for me it's just a matter of finding the right sources for it and then it's lovely.

[Audiority]

Thanks Jens!

[mcbpete]

Has anyone got this AS WELL AS the Valhalla collection ? I sounds so lovely but .... I've just spent so much on plugins over the past year or so ! Are there sounds in Polaris that can't be done with Valhalla's VVV & Shimmer ?