Roli: Equator 2 is here !

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BONES wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:20 am
Echoes in the Attic wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 11:55 pmI can plainly hear loud digital artifacts and stepping at high resonance in Equator, which Vital doesn't have.
No, Vital doesn't even have high resonance. It's pathetic on that score. I agree that Equator's filters are nothing to write home about at least you can get a bit of life out of them. Vital's are as flat as a tack.
This is very obviously not true. Open the default match, simple saw wave. Turn on the filter. Chose almost any filter like analog, ladder, dirty, diode, use either 12 or 24 (for more res), now crank the resonance and move the cutoff. It squeals. You only need a tiny bit of level from the osc to get loud resonance. And all the filters are quite smooth, no artifacts, and they have various levels of drive thanks to the drive knob. Have you even tied this synth? What are you talking about no resonance? I'm not meaning to pit Equator against it, I like them both, but equators filters aren't even in the same league as Vital's filters. I happen to like the sound of Equators oscillators more by the way, but the filters I would say are not so much a matter of taste as vastly different quality.

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Equator 2 is dope af, but Vital is free, and pretty cheap if you want presets. I dont know, its silly to compare. I like Vitals business model. Free, but if you want presets you buy them, or subscribe for cool content and $5 a month till you have enough to buy it. A $200 synth in 2020/2021 is becoming less and less popular if you arent offering anything vastly different.

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You have to remember that most Equator owners got it for free, too, when they bought a Roli hardware product. I would never even contemplate paying $200 for a VSTi. But, equally, I won't bother with something that's free if it can't even get the basics right, as is the case with Vital.
Echoes in the Attic wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:59 amThis is very obviously not true. Open the default match, simple saw wave. Turn on the filter. Chose almost any filter like analog, ladder, dirty, diode, use either 12 or 24 (for more res), now crank the resonance and move the cutoff. It squeals.
No, it doesn't. Not even close. At about 80% you get a tiny bit of resonance but that's about it. Turn up the drive even slightly and it goes away. If you'd like to prove me wrong, provide us with a patch file because I can do the same to prove my position.
And all the filters are quite smooth, no artifacts, and they have various levels of drive thanks to the drive knob. Have you even tied this synth?
Yes, I've spent several hours with it, which is why I know you are wrong. By the time the drive gets to about 40%, the resonance is gone completely and you're left with a strangled filter sound (because of the unwanted attenuation that goes with the resonance setting).

As for being smooth, what synth has filters that aren't smooth, unless maybe by design? (Serious question, it's not something I have ever noticed, even in the cheapest, nastiest freebies I've tried.)
equators filters aren't even in the same league as Vital's filters.
Yes, Equator's filters are at least usable, Vital's really aren't at all. And seriously, if you can get some resonance out of them, I would be really grateful if you could share a preset file because the rest of Vital is pretty damned good.
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BONES wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:36 am By the time the drive gets to about 40%, the resonance is gone completely and you're left with a strangled filter sound (because of the unwanted attenuation that goes with the resonance setting).
That's how filter drive usually works, it reduces audible resonance, but also distorts the resonance that is left.
As for being smooth, what synth has filters that aren't smooth, unless maybe by design? (Serious question, it's not something I have ever noticed, even in the cheapest, nastiest freebies I've tried.)
Equator is one example (if you put the res to or very near max). Audible stepping and digital harshness.

I'm not sure a vital preset would help given that the default patch just turning on the filter and then cranking the resonance and adjusting the cutoff should demonstrate the filter just fine. The sound of Vital isn't my favorite out there, but I'm just saying the filters behave more like analog filters than equators filters, which have some issues.

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Equator1 (and thus v2) filters were designed to run on the Arm chip on the Seaboard GRAND, so they are not some high-cpu modelled designs. Still, they are very good as they are and are capable of a huge range of sounds, especially with the non-linear, saturating LP/HP modes which also have a good sounding filter drive.

TIP: The LPF12, LPF24, HPF12, HPF24 filter modes have non-linear behaviour (they introduce subtle saturation) thus don't use these on acoustic samples if you want clean sounds! Use the SV versions which are 'clean'.

In Equator2, the filter selection has been expanded with new saturation and wave-shapers modes. So much to play with without worrying about extreme, maximum resonance settings (how many sounds do you actually make with near max, or max resonance?)

I guess Equator2 won't make a convincing acid bass where the resonance needs to be set to max, or a kick made with self-resonance, but it is more than capable of making a huge range of good sounding resonant sounds. Here is a demo of 4 acid bass presets which use resonance at various settings (but don't go to max). The first three are more traditional (with some bit-crusher FX in places), but the last one is extra cool. It is made by Aiyn Zahev and uses wavetables and FM for a more contemporary, psy-acid sound.

https://soundcloud.com/electric-himalay ... id-presets
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Last edited by jancivil on Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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jancivil wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:26 pm So I bought the thing.
this is bullshit.jpg :help:
I opened Equator 2 in ROLI CONNECT. All my ***registered*** products appear and I am logged into the website and obviously ROLI CONNECT.
Log out of connect and then log back in.
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Last edited by jancivil on Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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When does the intro offer (€90) for upgrading to Equator 2 ends? Is it only a Black Friday thing?

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jancivil wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:52 pm The problem evidently is that it isn't registered. I have no way of registering it since no serial number has been provided me. I thoroughly checked every bit of instruction available.
Possibly another reason to order through Plugin Boutique, because they do provide a serial (for upgrades, at least... just checked my order).

Though I don't think I'll install it before we can specify the sample library location. Could be a better upgrade sale before then for all I know.

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S4410 wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:28 pm When does the intro offer (€90) for upgrading to Equator 2 ends? Is it only a Black Friday thing?
It goes on until 3rd December.
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BONES wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:49 pm
gofer wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:20 amItem #1 on my big wish list in terms of engine features: MPE enabled FX. One can dream.
Not possible, for the simple reason that effects come after the VCA and, therefore, are not polyphonic.
I did not expect the existing 12 fx slots to all become polyphonic with a flick of the wrist.
There is no law saying that effects cannot exist upstream of MPE channel summing. Obviously my wish can’t come true without a newly designed type of pre-summing fx slot, that’s why I called it a dream, indicating that I don’t really expect it to happen any time soon. But of course it is totally possible to pull off.

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gofer wrote: Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:16 am
BONES wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:49 pm
gofer wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:20 amItem #1 on my big wish list in terms of engine features: MPE enabled FX. One can dream.
Not possible, for the simple reason that effects come after the VCA and, therefore, are not polyphonic.
I did not expect the existing 12 fx slots to all become polyphonic with a flick of the wrist.
There is no law saying that effects cannot exist upstream of MPE channel summing. Obviously my wish can’t come true without a newly designed type of pre-summing fx slot, that’s why I called it a dream, indicating that I don’t really expect it to happen any time soon. But of course it is totally possible to pull off.
Yes of course it's possible. Repro-5 has per voice distortion. Falcon has some per voice effects, so does Rapid. It would definitely be cool for equator to have a few.

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himalaya wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:13 pm Equator1 (and thus v2) filters were designed to run on the Arm chip on the Seaboard GRAND, so they are not some high-cpu modelled designs. Still, they are very good as they are and are capable of a huge range of sounds, especially with the non-linear, saturating LP/HP modes which also have a good sounding filter drive.

TIP: The LPF12, LPF24, HPF12, HPF24 filter modes have non-linear behaviour (they introduce subtle saturation) thus don't use these on acoustic samples if you want clean sounds! Use the SV versions which are 'clean'.

In Equator2, the filter selection has been expanded with new saturation and wave-shapers modes. So much to play with without worrying about extreme, maximum resonance settings (how many sounds do you actually make with near max, or max resonance?)

I guess Equator2 won't make a convincing acid bass where the resonance needs to be set to max, or a kick made with self-resonance, but it is more than capable of making a huge range of good sounding resonant sounds. Here is a demo of 4 acid bass presets which use resonance at various settings (but don't go to max). The first three are more traditional (with some bit-crusher FX in places), but the last one is extra cool. It is made by Aiyn Zahev and uses wavetables and FM for a more contemporary, psy-acid sound.

https://soundcloud.com/electric-himalay ... id-presets
Yes I'm ok with the filters for the most part. I'm saying the there are artifacts, so the quality isn't up to par with many other synths (I can't think of another synth with such audible artifacts at high resonance). But like you say, for most sounds it doesn't matter. You jut wouldn't want to do 303 or MS-20 style filter squelchy sounds

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whannel wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:36 am Can anyone who has it please make a video showing off al the oscillator features, and the filters, maybe even show off the effects after?
Asking again now that a few more users have bought it. Still not seeing a lot of content, had hoped the developers might have shared more by now?
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