Olga?

[warbug]

Hi,

Olga v1.00.03 is now available http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37 . This update should fix some state save problems in various hosts.

If you have any patches or projects saved in Olga prior to v1.00.03, please read this http://www.stillwellaudio.com/forums/vi ... ?f=35&t=79 on how to update safely. I'm sorry for the hassle, it's a one-time thing. Patches and projects saved in v1.00.03 will load in any later version.

(By the way, Olga licenses will remain valid for all updates through 2.00.00. If you put the new Olga in the same place the old one was, you don't have to do anything else for Olga to remain licensed.)

Thanks!

i have a problem with Olga and T3. olga does not always play the notes that are in my midi clip.

[WhiteTie]

Hi folks, glad you're enjoying Olga, we're enormously proud of her. That there's a split of opinion on some of the 'quirks' is extremely gratifying, its a sure sign we've not accidentally done anything boring or predictable. Similarly with the Russian, if a good chunck of people think its the coolest thing ever, then that's a result worthy of slighty inconveniencing a few others I think. The best marketing plan ever? Maybe not... but if its cool, its cool, and thanks so much to all of you!

Plus, we've had some very grateful feedback from Russians. They read Russian, so why shouldn't a synth have Russian writing?

Just want to clear up a few misconceptions if I may:

1)There's small (or not!) amounts of non-linearity throughout the signal path, its not just a block of distortion. Dial up the drive and it actually affects levels/tuning/you-name-it throughout the synth. With it very, very low you may approach a point where the instability in the oscillators is so small as to be almost indistinguishable, but the oscillators are completely free running. Its not the case that that's what it sounds like, plus distortion, when the drive is up higher. I can also assure you all that there's no LFO-based oscillator drift cheats going on here. Over my dead body!

2)I know nothing about code, but can say that the filter is all new and all very fancy, not that same bit of code that's been rehashed so many times. How it sounds is of course very much a matter taste, but I hope I can urge Algorythm to give it another quick spin and hopefully change his mind. Well, I can but ask...

3) When tracking the filter to the keyboard, you can still modulate it with its envelope and the first LFO. You can then modulate the oscillators against it with the second LFO. If you put the mod wheel to vary these in different amounts, you get a lot of control of the sweet spot where the two interact.. just take a bit of practice! We're all about the playing...

4) Olga costs $80. That's the price, we'd like to think its extremely good value, we hope you agree. However we do offer a whopping reduction if you're only using it in Reaper and only in a non-commercial environment. Its a loyalty thing, a gratitude thing, and a reflection that Reaper makes things easy for us all.

Thanks also for some really useful feature ideas folks, there's some good food for thought.

NOW - the important question : Duck or Vodka?

[lucknow13]

Olga no worky for me. Tried it in chainer cantabile FlStudio and luna.Didn't show up on most lists or didn't show up. ?????

[schwa]

Olga no worky for me. Tried it in chainer cantabile FlStudio and luna.Didn't show up on most lists or didn't show up. ?????

Doesn't-exist problems are almost always SSE2 related. If you are on a slightly older CPU (like a pre-64 Athlon XP), would you mind trying this installer http://downloads.stillwellaudio.com/sch ... nstall.exe (it's linked at the very bottom of http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37 )?

[lucknow13]

Thanks alot. Works now. A very edgy synth.Congrates on the concept and execution. Bravo!

[bmanic]

Ok, I've now had my hands on Olga for the past two hours or so.. and my, what a fine sounding beast you have created!!

It's one of these things that lure you with the fantastic basic gritty sound but makes your soul cry because of the lack of final touches and polish to the underlying thing.

I wish that the envelopes of the synth were much snappier and more "musical". Now they seem linear and quite frankly, boring. The underlying sound engine is brilliant and can create some awesome snarly sounds but the control elements are not nearly as temperamental. They seem much too tame for this synths nature.

Also, some of the knob ranges could benefit from being much more precise and perhaps more logarithmic? Like "slide-time-to-note" knob, also known as portamento. I'd like MUCH more control over the early range to create subtle, extremely fast slides. Again, the slide motion itself seems very boring, linear.. bah! If the engine itself within this synth snarls and spits fire then why the hell not the control elements???!!

A mini-moog's attitude is NOT JUST THE SOUND of the oscillators and filters. It is EQUALLY MUCH the envelopes and other control elements!!

ARGH!!! This synth is making me nuts! The potential is there but at the moment it feels only half-finished. The sound engine part is perfect. The GUI is nice and catchy (though the perspective makes me feel like I'm flying over my TFT!) Now give it the same attention to detail on the control elements and you'll have a winner.

Cheers!
bManic

[Locus M]

I found it sounds kind of "thin" and "crunchy", ya know, that high paperlike digital sound from older synthedit creations that can be harsh to your ears. But maybe thats exactly what somebody needs. However, the unicorn sound might suggest that it can be programmed to reproduce nice version of classic sweeps and maybe the lovely slightly detuned fat synthbass.

Best Regards

(From the Olga manual)

Q: Where is the "Van Halen Jump" Preset?

A: Go away. We hear some generic bland synthesizer calling you.

GOT ME!

Eh...never mind me, just an old school guy to whom the multimode filter still is something of an invention.

Seems like you have a winner after all, judging from all the positive responses. Congratulation!

I'II creep back into my hole now....


Best Regards

[bduffy]

jesus, this synth is cool as shit. A real stand-out in the boulevard of carbon-copy synths! Great job! Love the look and the trashy Russian sound! This should be a big favourite of out-of-the-box KVR folk!

[Kriminal]

Olga no worky for me. Tried it in chainer cantabile FlStudio and luna.Didn't show up on most lists or didn't show up. ?????

Doesn't-exist problems are almost always SSE2 related. If you are on a slightly older CPU (like a pre-64 Athlon XP), would you mind trying this installer http://downloads.stillwellaudio.com/sch ... nstall.exe (it's linked at the very bottom of http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37 )?

think i need that, didnt show up here either...my pc is 5 years old i think, and xp3000 (win xp)

[Kriminal]

double post

[JimmiG]

I wish that the envelopes of the synth were much snappier and more "musical". Now they seem linear and quite frankly, boring.

I hope the developers view this as constructive feedback rather than trying to defend the synth. This just means that they know what they have to work with for the next update

Also, some of the knob ranges could benefit from being much more precise and perhaps more logarithmic?

I noticed that with the filter cutoff knob. It seems to fully open the filter at about 12 o clock, with very little headroom between fully closed and fully open. Some very noticable "zipper noise" unless you use an LFO to modulate filter cutoff. Parameter smoothing/interpolation would also benefit a "realtime performance" synth like this one.

Dial up the drive and it actually affects levels/tuning/you-name-it throughout the synth.

Well, the way the Drive knob is named, and placed on the GUI, makes it look like it's just a distortion effect at the end of the signal path. If it was placed somewhere else on the GUI, and maybe renamed to "Stability" or something, it would be more clear to new users what it's doing.

Also, separate "stability" and "drive" knobs might be a good idea. Sometimes, you may want the phasing, evolving sound of unstable oscillators, but without the nasty overdrive. Other times, you may be looking for a heavily distorted sound with lots of overtones, but with reasonably stable osc's.

[grymmjack]

It seems that i was the only one who didn't liked Olga synth (I had a girlfriend with that name too.. )

This synth has a lot of distortion IMO. I could say that its sound is based on distortion! Yes i tried presets with lower "drive" settings but there still was much distortion. Its filter is very basic and sounds "softwarish" IMO.

I must admit that i loved its design (I'm an eye candy fan)

The price is veeery good too!

no you aren't the only one.

the novelty of it is very cool and the interface is a work of art (props WT) but the sound doesn't do it for me so much.

i had hoped for something along the lines of noslogans rogue judging by the UI for greasy dirty filth sounds and didn't really get that. i didn't stay to visit long just had a run through the factory presets many of which were fair but nothing sounded like it looked and that's one of the caveats of having such a unique and cool interface, the synth has a lot to live up to.

i concur with algorythm that the filter sound isn't what i expected. expected dark dirty grunge and got something else. so perhaps my preconceptions ruined olga for me. i wish the best of luck to the devs however.

[Integratron]

I really like the rawness of the synth. I just don't understand why the developer wouldn't finish the work off with a nice, complete, set of presets that shows the synth at its' best. It almost seems as if he lost interest in it before it was finished. I guess it's just me as I don't see any similar posts?

[HunterKiller]

It seems that i was the only one who didn't liked Olga synth (I had a girlfriend with that name too.. )

This synth has a lot of distortion IMO. I could say that its sound is based on distortion! Yes i tried presets with lower "drive" settings but there still was much distortion. Its filter is very basic and sounds "softwarish" IMO.

I must admit that i loved its design (I'm an eye candy fan)

The price is veeery good too!

no you aren't the only one.

the novelty of it is very cool and the interface is a work of art (props WT) but the sound doesn't do it for me so much.

i had hoped for something along the lines of noslogans rogue judging by the UI for greasy dirty filth sounds and didn't really get that. i didn't stay to visit long just had a run through the factory presets many of which were fair but nothing sounded like it looked and that's one of the caveats of having such a unique and cool interface, the synth has a lot to live up to.

i concur with algorythm that the filter sound isn't what i expected. expected dark dirty grunge and got something else. so perhaps my preconceptions ruined olga for me. i wish the best of luck to the devs however.

Same here. TimewARP still holds the "grittiest/most raw synth" title.
Olga sounds like it has enormous potential, but the sound for me right now sounds like it's floating on air with nothing to support it. Boomy and loud but not heavy and deeeeep.

The GUI however is genius, those flashing lights are something that we should see on every analog-like and analog-emulation synth from now on.

[schwa]

I hope the developers view this as constructive feedback rather than trying to defend the synth. This just means that they know what they have to work with for the next update

I wish that the envelopes of the synth were much snappier and more "musical". Now they seem linear and quite frankly, boring.

Believe me, I'm listening!

The envelopes are not linear now, they are in fact Bezier envelopes, which we intentionally set to a not-super-fast shape. But given some consistent feedback that people want snappier envelopes ...

Please try out this test build of Olga v1.00.05 that has faster envelopes, a faster portamento curve, finer portamento control at the "fast" end, and finer-grained parameter ramping for some parameters. http://downloads.stillwellaudio.com/schwa/test/

This is just a test build, so:

- If you find bugs or bad behavior, please let us know over at our forum http://www.stillwellaudio.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=35 where it's sure not to get overlooked.

- If you don't care for the changes, you can always re-download the release build from http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37.

(If you are updating from v1.00.02 or earlier please read this http://www.stillwellaudio.com/forums/vi ... ?f=35&t=79 .)

Thanks!