Le Masque: Delay is a Time Line driven Delay Effect which can be used to perform unique and totally new Delay based effects in a fast and intuitive way.



Le Masque :Delay lets you specify in a very accurate way which part(s) of the dry signal will be processed by the Delay unit and its components and modulators.

The Masked zones of the grid are processed by the Delay Unit, while every audio data outside the Masks stays untouched.

The Grid is synced to your Daw, or to its internal clock.

Note 1 : on the picture above you can see the Masked zones in blue
Note 2 : Le Masque: Delay can also perform like a regular Delay.

Finally released You can find it all the details here :

http://www.xils-lab.com/pages/Le-Masque-%3A-Delay.html

Intro Price : 39 € - until Feb 28th

Note All audio demos are in the second post of this thread (see below )

Here are the links for the demo installers ( and please remember that if you use a 32bits Daw in a 64bits environment you should use the 32bits installers )

Win 32
http://www.xils-lab.com/download_files/LeMasqueDel ay/LeMasqueDelay_demo_win32_setup.exe

Win 64
http://www.xils-lab.com/download_files/LeMasqueDel ay/LeMasqueDelay_demo_win64_setup.exe

Mac 32
http://www.xils-lab.com/download_files/LeMasqueDel ay/LeMasqueDelay_demo_osx32_setup.dmg

Mac 64
http://www.xils-lab.com/download_files/LeMasqueDel ay/LeMasqueDelay_demo_osx64_setup.dmg


All comments and questions welcomed.

LtZ
Last edited by Lotuzia on Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:05 am; edited 30 times in total

Reserved for audio and videos demos ( curently only audio )

Please, See notes on the "making of" the demos at the bottom of this post if you're interested by Le Masque

Drumloop Z with Le Masque

Elektro Drums

Soulf Funk Demo

Playing an EP part with Masque inserted

Hits and Masks

LiveDrums 2

Masks and sitar

V 1.1 New Features

Stereo Masks

Feedback or no Feedback ?


Drumloop Z : Le Masque was placed on an Auxilliary Bus, feeded with a send from the Stereo Output of a Batttery Instrument (no separated outputs). First you hear the dry Loop, then each four bars you can hear a different Masque factory preset. At the end you can hear once the Dry Loop. No modwheel or automation, its only the presets without any real time action.

Elektro Drums : "On this complex and clubbing Zero-G drumloop, Le Masque was placed as an insert in the Drumloop channel itself. You can hear the drumloop dry then the processed loops. You can hear how I can change the HH beat while preserving the entire drumloop quality, or the Snare/Clap shuffle, or both. Thanks to its Hi Quality surgical MultiMode filters, Le Masque lets you extract the information you want form a loop and then process it rythmically. "

Shaftesque EP impro : " Here again Le Masque was inserted in the channel of an FM8 EP preset. I then created 4 random masks and a groove delay with LFO and Enveloppes modulating the Filter. Then, and only then I improvised the EP part while playing Live with Le Masque. So what you hear is the result of Le Masque influencing the way the EP part was played. Note also that with a "regular" delay, you could never have achieved the same 'subtle' results, this is due to the multimaks and all real time modulation ( The levels of the masks are also modulating some parameters "

EP and Masks : Here again Le Masque was inserted in the channel of an FM8 EP preset. I then created 4 random masks and a groove delay with LFO and Enveloppes modulating the Filter. Then, and only then I improvised the EP part while playing Live with Le Masque. So what you hear is the result of Le Masque influencing the way the EP part was played. Note also that with a "regular" delay, you could never have achieved the same 'subtle' results, this is due to the multimaks and all real time modulation ( The levels of the masks are also modulating some parameters )

Hit the Masks : Le Masque was placed on an Auxilliary Bus, feeded with a send from the Stereo Output of a NI Batttery Instrument (wich makes the Hits and the drums altogether ). First you hear the dry Loop, then each four bars you can hear a different Masque factory preset. At the end you can hear once the Dry Loop. No modwheel or automation, its only the presets without any real time action.

LiveDrum2 : "In this example Xavier tweaks the mask parameters in real time using the mouse on the GUI, while a standard clubby drumloop is playing. Yu can hear cut-off and resonnance tweaking. So you can see you can generate some Simmonesque "toms" and add "groove to the groove". This would not be possible without the Filters and hopefully show the musicality of the zero-delay feedback Filters used for ages by some Xils-Lab synths"

Soul Funk Demo : "This tracks is based on a drumloop of natural drums, that you can hear dry at the beginning of the clip, and two PolyKKB II bass and keys instruments. Only the drumloop is processed by Le Masque , wich was placed on an Aux Bus.

On this track you can hear Le Masque's REAL TIME AUTOMATION via MIDI CC. I've added some midi tracks modulating the following parameters Live : Mod Wheel on Cut off, Delay Time Left and Delay Feeddback Left, and finally the resonnance. So what you hear on the drums is a single Le Masque preset with added Midi CC automation.

I created only two masks on the grid for this preset : Theyre placed on the second and 4th beat, and therefore only the Snare drum is in the masks and is processed by the delay."

Lounge Sitar : " Le Masque was placed as an insert on a live PolyKB II playing, you hear the dry pattern once then the effected pattern. A reverb was added on this demo and it was applied on an aux bus, processing the entire PolyKB II + The Mask Channel. This demo is intended to show how a very boring electronic, quantised, "Sitar" part can go back to life with the Help of the Mask. If you listen carefully to this track you will hear endless subtle variations as I browse the presets. Le Masque can be as subtle as you need it to be. First the dry loop with reverb, then the effected patterns "
Last edited by Lotuzia on Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:43 am; edited 6 times in total

Well, at the moment that there aren't audio demos (yet) i only can say that the GUI it's precious, i like unsaturated colors. And seems very intuitive.
What a pity i didn't win in the contest, i wanted to do some demos for it.

Some basic questions that, although i'm not going to purchase (i barely get money) i think people will want to know.

Prize?
Release date?
It uses Dongle?

Have a good day Lotuzia. And best wishes with the new VST

Do I see it right that Grid Precision is per bar? That would mean that with 4 bars there are 64 "slots" are available? Will this be scrollable? I think otherwise that much slots will be a little bit fiddly...
Are the Attack and Release for every "block of mask" of are they globally for all masks?
Would you mind showing the LFO & Envelope and Time & Mod pages?

There are some promising bits in there.

Thanks IDR well I think you might be able to do some demos whith the ... demo ( but more likely see if you like it, or less )

The introductory price intro will be 39€ so I think quite affordable.

And finally its only serial protection It doesnt require a Dongle.

Btw I've added three audio demos in the second post of this thread + little notes about the "making of" of the demos. Le Masque is very content dependant, and polymorphic, but hopefully it will give some ideas to people of what it can do.

So the Grid precision is only indicators/lines dividing the grid into musical values. and its the same if the grid lenght is 1/2/3 or 4 bars but :

You dont have to think in slots, like in the good old (again ) stepsequencer : Each mask can have its own lenght, and not a fixed nap to slot/multiple of slot one, so the mask lenght is NOT dependant from the grid precision : Its totally free and a Mask can be as wide, or as narrow, as you determine/need it.

HOWEVER, we included a SNAP function, wich you can use to quantise each Mask left and right Locator (or boundaries) according to the Grid Precision value.( so you can come back to the idea of slots, but its only a possible way to do things )

Here again you can have a Mask and Quantize only its Left ( start) locator, while its right locator will remain unquantised, so you can "capture" any event of any musical phrase in a very accurate way.

The Grid area covers the main part of the UI, so that its the more easy possible to work with. In 1/2 bars mode there's no problems, with 4 bars its a bit more difficult sometimes, but only sometimes, it really depends on the precision needed. We feared this, but after working with it a lot, I did not find it too annoying. the work can still e very precise even in 4 bars mode.

But I'll recommend you test it and see if it suits your workflow and your needs, as these are very personal matters.

Regarding the Masks, the envelope attached is very cool to complement the precision of their implementation : Sometimes adding a bit of release on the Masks just eliminates an unwanted pop or click wich would be more difficult to eradicate using the Masks only. Then the attack paremeter can be used for all the more or less retarded attacks you can hear on some clips of the demos : From subtle aspirations to complete swooooshes.

Glad you liked this one. In this demo the goal was -sometimes in some of the clips- to process only the last HIT, without processing the bass drum or the little HH wich are embeded in the stereo track processed.

Then for some possible dublike effects. With le Mask it takes only 20 seconds to craft this kind of "selected processing". (erf once you know a bit how its ins and hows )

And what restrictions has the demo comparing with the full version?
When the demo will be available to download?

Have a good day

sweet. i'll be all over this like a cheap suit

Is it possible to set individual panning for each zone?

Looking forward to trying out the demo

Its not period limited, but it will time out after 5mn ( you have to relaunch it ), it doesnt import/export banks or single presets. And the control of every parameter via Midi CC is disabled/

Thanks Mac Murphy

Hope you'll like it.

Not currently but it is one of the things we consider to add in a future version. Good to ask so.

You can automate the Left and Right Pan of each Delay line via Midi CC however as a workaround, but I agree its not the same thing.

LtZ

Liking the demo & GUI, i hope it's easy on CPU too