StiX : MultiSynthesis Drum Machine (v1.6 Released + Flash sales)

[Dillinger]

The sequencer is lively, and Lotuzia was right, you cannot achieve the results in daw automation easily or maybe at all.

A couple of improvements would be:

to be able to relabel the pads, so for example if I am using 2 different Snares one could rename a pad to reflect the sound. As it is you have to make note that snare 2 is actually under Misc as an example.

batch importing of samples or a directory that samples can be put into then read into program without the import process. If directory structure could determine the tagging of the file, that would be fantastic but I understand it may be impossible.

About A year latter, and I am still finding StiX incredible for Rhythm and Design.

[Unqlenol]

The sequencer is lively, and Lotuzia was right, you cannot achieve the results in daw automation easily or maybe at all.

A couple of improvements would be:

to be able to relabel the pads, so for example if I am using 2 different Snares one could rename a pad to reflect the sound. As it is you have to make note that snare 2 is actually under Misc as an example.

batch importing of samples or a directory that samples can be put into then read into program without the import process. If directory structure could determine the tagging of the file, that would be fantastic but I understand it may be impossible.

About A year latter, and I am still finding StiX incredible for Rhythm and Design.

+1 on all points. Very deep instrument. Batch Sample import process needs sorting...well at least on my PC. Currently I avoid it. Still love Stix though.

[Lotuzia]

I'm not sure I've seen such a powerful and flexible sequencer in a vst before.

I've not seen one either, but I don't know all the soft synths. Long after I created StiX sequencer, I found an interesting one in Elektron's drum machine. Not very easy to use for some functions, and it's on an hw machine, but quite powerfull. If StiX did not exist, that's probably the one I would use.

[Lotuzia]

The sequencer is lively, and Lotuzia was right, you cannot achieve the results in daw automation easily or maybe at all.

A couple of improvements would be:

to be able to relabel the pads, so for example if I am using 2 different Snares one could rename a pad to reflect the sound. As it is you have to make note that snare 2 is actually under Misc as an example.

batch importing of samples or a directory that samples can be put into then read into program without the import process. If directory structure could determine the tagging of the file, that would be fantastic but I understand it may be impossible.

About A year latter, and I am still finding StiX incredible for Rhythm and Design.

Yes there are a lot of things possible to add on StiX. It's only version 1, and still, my feel is that it is already the most powerfull, creative and versatile 'all in one' drum machine. I hope that Xils-Lab will be interesting to carry on developping it, cos I have a lot of ideas to make it even both more powerful, and pleasurable to use.

Rewriting labels could be usefull. Usually, I use the mixer to see in a glance what plays what, but, as a former drummer, I can make instant relation between the partition (well, the XoX sequencer) and what I'm hearing. There are many possible directions to enhance the 'what plays what' feedback user perception. And beeing able to customize drumpads labels is one of them, I agree.

Sample batch import already exists. As for 'reading without importing samples', there have been endless discussions about this before StiX was made public. There are pros and cons, and globally the balance was made to favour avoiding the (in)famous 'sample missing' pop up one can encounter with some machines handling samples, and the endless browsing on users HDs wich usually follow this message, and StiX global preset and projects total integrity ( With StiX you'll never be confronted to a 'sample missing' problem) It's a trade off, as both approaches are not very compatible, as you can guess. It's not totally impossible to get/think of a more liberal and still unified engine with a lot of works in the future, with some AI added wich would be supposed to take decisions for the user, but it's a bit risky. So it is probably wise not to wait for significant breaches in this field in the near future.

Anyway, samples are just a part of the many various synthesis engines that can be used/mixed in StiX. There are things that can be done in this field, but we'll probably go there slowly.

[Lotuzia]

The sequencer is lively, and Lotuzia was right, you cannot achieve the results in daw automation easily or maybe at all.

A couple of improvements would be:

to be able to relabel the pads, so for example if I am using 2 different Snares one could rename a pad to reflect the sound. As it is you have to make note that snare 2 is actually under Misc as an example.

batch importing of samples or a directory that samples can be put into then read into program without the import process. If directory structure could determine the tagging of the file, that would be fantastic but I understand it may be impossible.

About A year latter, and I am still finding StiX incredible for Rhythm and Design.

+1 on all points. Very deep instrument. Batch Sample import process needs sorting...well at least on my PC. Currently I avoid it. Still love Stix though.

Please, see my post above.
Yes, atm I think it's better to batch import a folder of Snares only, or Bass Drums only etc. If you import misc drums, you'll probably have to retagg at least part of them afterwards. Retagging them is optional, but it's important for those who use the various Random Kits creation tools to get more accurate on the fly created drumkits. ( And also for those who browse drumpads per drum category when changing single elements of a drum kit)

[Unqlenol]

Thanks, Lotuzia

I am not sure I get this though: "( With StiX you'll never be confronted to a 'sample missing' problem)"

When I try to batch import samples, I suffer from a 'sample not found' error when relaunching a project. It may say 'WAV' or 'File' not found...but same idea. One has to be careful to save your kit in your project folder with samples to try and avoid this. So in that respect there is still indeed a 'sample not found issue' of sorts - unless I am missing something here. Apparently it's due to a system for identifying samples that cannot adjust to neatly integrate newly imported samples without messing with the ID's.
It would be great if there was a better way to do this regardless of the Stix internal ecosystem.

Other issues for me relating to sample import:

2. On Windows, you cannot truly import a folder full of samples. You can select multiple files within a folder, but only a few at a time (well, if I remember correctly it was 8 or either way a very limited number). I can't remember seeing this discussed in this thread - perhaps I am wrong...


3. When I tried to batch import samples Stix would bug out in the following ways:
3.1: Once importing to one category, I could no longer import to another category unless I would relaunch Stix. It is almost as if the batch sample import GUI would freeze or just stop responding. Anyone else have this? This seems like a bug as opposed to a feature gripe.
3.2: I would get general GUI instability.

I was in communication with Xavier about all of this some time ago. I have not heard of developments or fixes so what I am doing now is simply avoiding importing samples. I have spent hours fiddling and faffing to test behavior and write a bug report. Avoiding importing samples has greatly increased my Stix pleasure - and that is a lot of pleasure still.

Any other PC users having these issues? I tested standalone and within Cubase 8 x64...

[Lotuzia]

Thanks, Lotuzia

I am not sure I get this though: "( With StiX you'll never be confronted to a 'sample missing' problem)"

When I try to batch import samples, I suffer from a 'sample not found' error when relaunching a project. It may say 'WAV' or 'File' not found...but same idea. One has to be careful to save your kit in your project folder with samples to try and avoid this. So in that respect there is still indeed a 'sample not found issue' of sorts - unless I am missing something here. Apparently it's due to a system for identifying samples that cannot adjust to neatly integrate newly imported samples without messing with the ID's.
It would be great if there was a better way to do this regardless of the Stix internal ecosystem.

Other issues for me relating to sample import:

2. On Windows, you cannot truly import a folder full of samples. You can select multiple files within a folder, but only a few at a time (well, if I remember correctly it was 8 or either way a very limited number). I can't remember seeing this discussed in this thread - perhaps I am wrong...


3. When I tried to batch import samples Stix would bug out in the following ways:
3.1: Once importing to one category, I could no longer import to another category unless I would relaunch Stix. It is almost as if the batch sample import GUI would freeze or just stop responding. Anyone else have this? This seems like a bug as opposed to a feature gripe.
3.2: I would get general GUI instability.

I was in communication with Xavier about all of this some time ago. I have not heard of developments or fixes so what I am doing now is simply avoiding importing samples. I have spent hours fiddling and faffing to test behavior and write a bug report. Avoiding importing samples has greatly increased my Stix pleasure - and that is a lot of pleasure still.

Any other PC users having these issues? I tested standalone and within Cubase 8 x64...

Hmm it clearly doesn't work as intented, its true. I'll fw this to Xils.

The solutioon I use : Import samples : I mainly import samples one at a time. So I do this by editing the drumpad itself, and then import one sample. You can hear the sample before actually importing it with the OS browser ( Mine is Win7 64b pro) even while StiX is running. So it's somewhat handy to browse large samples collections.

[Unqlenol]

Okay, cool - thanks for that consideration.

So if one imports a single sample that way does the sample get integrated into the library forever more?
Or do you need to re-import it if you want to use it again in another session?

Hmm, actually you have reminded me of a comment I wanted to make about file management:
With Stix being so powerful and detailed there are various options for saving different objects. On the GUI these options are spread all over the place. I still am not sure I fully get how each one behaves. Currently the explanations are spread around the manual depending on what 'object' is being discussed.... and it is not always clear to me exactly how each item behaves (what gets saved, how and where...export vs Save as etc...).

I think it would be very helpful to have in the manual - or even here in this thread - a comprehensive, detailed and clear to understand list of all the save/load/import/export options in Stix and how exactly they behave.
The main thing is that the explanations should be consolidated on one page so that mushy brained users like myself can more easily internalise the details.

[memyselfandus]

I'm not sure I've seen such a powerful and flexible sequencer in a vst before.

I've not seen one either, but I don't know all the soft synths. Long after I created StiX sequencer, I found an interesting one in Elektron's drum machine. Not very easy to use for some functions, and it's on an hw machine, but quite powerfull. If StiX did not exist, that's probably the one I would use.

Are you talking about this?
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/contro ... &A=details

[Lotuzia]

I'm not sure I've seen such a powerful and flexible sequencer in a vst before.

I've not seen one either, but I don't know all the soft synths. Long after I created StiX sequencer, I found an interesting one in Elektron's drum machine. Not very easy to use for some functions, and it's on an hw machine, but quite powerfull. If StiX did not exist, that's probably the one I would use.

Are you talking about this?
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/contro ... &A=details

Yes, this one

[Lotuzia]

Okay, cool - thanks for that consideration.

So if one imports a single sample that way does the sample get integrated into the library forever more?
Or do you need to re-import it if you want to use it again in another session?

Hmm, actually you have reminded me of a comment I wanted to make about file management:
With Stix being so powerful and detailed there are various options for saving different objects. On the GUI these options are spread all over the place. I still am not sure I fully get how each one behaves. Currently the explanations are spread around the manual depending on what 'object' is being discussed.... and it is not always clear to me exactly how each item behaves (what gets saved, how and where...export vs Save as etc...).

I think it would be very helpful to have in the manual - or even here in this thread - a comprehensive, detailed and clear to understand list of all the save/load/import/export options in Stix and how exactly they behave.
The main thing is that the explanations should be consolidated on one page so that mushy brained users like myself can more easily internalise the details.

Single sample import via drumpad edit : It's integrated in StiX library forever. It will show in the Sample list when you browse the category you have tagged it with. And it will be part of all the one click drumkits creations on the fly.

Manual and savings of various objects : A special chapter might prove usefull. As maybe some video tutorials. The global rule is :

A global preset will save all the data needed in a track project, even if the objects are not saved individually (or were edited) : The Drumkit, or actually, all the drumpads in their current state (including possible dependancies like samples data), all the patterns, all the seuqncer data of the 10 lines, effects and mixer settings.

You can also load/save individually : Dumkits, Drumpads, Songs (a collection of patterns) etc. So this means for example that you could, during a session create several drumkits, and save them as different drumkits (with or without saving the drumpads first). Obviously, as only one drumkit can be used at a time, these different drumkits would not be saved in a global preset, or the Daw project (only the last one created will be saved like this) But still, you would have created several unique drumkits that could be used in any other project after that.

Hope it answers a bit -in a minimal way- your question.

[Unqlenol]

Thanks. That does help a bit until I get that chapter with lovely full detail
And when it is being written, perhaps it could include some advice on how to maintain 'library consistency' across different computers. Currently I will export a kit and re-import when moving a project from laptop to desktop DAW. However, I would want to know if I can just copy and replace the whole 'library file/container' between one computer and another....or something like that. Not essential, but I am looking for easily maintainable consistency between computers.

By the way, on a different note: I have been considering how to circumvent my frustration with not being able to change the length of an individual line in the sequencer to, for example, have a snare cycling in over 3 beats instead of 4. Realizing that this kind of poly-metric feature may never be added, I have decided the way around that is to simply run another instance of Stix set to a different signature. Double Stix with shifting polyrhythms...

Cheers

[memyselfandus]

By the way, on a different note: I have been considering how to circumvent my frustration with not being able to change the length of an individual line in the sequencer to, for example, have a snare cycling in over 3 beats instead of 4. Realizing that this kind of poly-metric feature may never be added, I have decided the way around that is to simply run another instance of Stix set to a different signature. Double Stix with shifting polyrhythms...

Cheers

Oh, man.. I would really like to have this option! Has to be doable? I use reapers piano roll like this to do it

[jbuonacc]

wow, that's pretty nice. anything else that works like this, or just the Reaper piano roll?

[memyselfandus]

Live does it but it's a bit clunky WAY easier in Reaper.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MpAAQyQfEQo


This kind of stuff would be amazing to have in a plugin that allows dragging midi patterns to the host! I wonder if Xils would ever do a midi dragable sequencer plugin..... just for sequencing. The Styx sequencer with midi drag and 3 over 4 type tuplets and stuff. that would be amazing..