Plug in to the u-he ACE patch contest!

[xh3rv]

For the next 3 weeks, accepting patches for u-he's ACE!

This is a free-for-all - what do we want to hear? ACE can be simple or deep, feature-for-feature there's a lot of tools and tricks but (IMO) it doesn't take much to get some great sounds. Especially since it's easy, even natural, to cook up modulations that not just any soft synth can pull off.

The only guidelines are: please follow the factory stuff for volume of the patches and CPU usage. (In contrast to the Zebra patch contests, setting an ACE patch to a reasonable volume is maybe a little easier ... )

Details:

- Submissions should be entered before the 25th of October. You may submit one or two patches.

- I can accept submissions at xh3rv DOT andrew AT gmail DOT com, or through PMs on these forums, or snail-mailed on IBM-era 80-column punch cards.

- Submissions shouldn't have your name, however if you can include your name on KVR with the submission e-mail / pm, I have no excuse when I screw that up

- The submissions will be compiled in a set posted after the 25th, with a one-week voting period.

- Winners receive some free u-he software. As seen in this thread, it's not like this is some trivial thing. Urs has exceptional karma with users, this is an example why.

[xh3rv]

If anyone has any questions about how ACE works, please feel free to ask - there are some videos from Urs on youTube, Howard's manual is excellent, and plenty of stuff has been asked & answered already but I and I'm sure a few others are more than happy to point to answers. Part of the karma of these contests is getting to know the synths really well, we can all show each other a few things

Just an observation, but usually when an ACE patch starts looking like home to that possibly intoxicated spider crawling up the wall, don't be alarmed - at least part of that can be separated into 'things that don't rewire the synth'. I can't predict the future but my sense is that patches that tie in some not-rewiring details, e.g. some MIDI performance data will be better received than those that don't. It was that way generally in the Zebra patch contests. These details can be fine-tuned after the stuff that does rewire the synth, that's maybe the one hint for patching ACE I could share that's broadly useful ...

Finally I'll be posting this contest to some other forums, hope to see a lot of entries and most of all hope we generate some of that noise we could call music

[GeorgeZ]

WOOOT! I'm so in for this!!

[Julian Ray]

Hi,

Can I use demo-version of ACE and how many patches should be submitted?

Thanks!

[xh3rv]

Hi,

Can I use demo-version of ACE and how many patches should be submitted?

Thanks!

Up to 2 patches (edited the first post to clarify), and demo version is fine.

[autodafe]

WOW let's try to finish some patch in time

[Cyforce]

Sweet idea

[xh3rv]

Ok, cross-posted a bit to some other forums I occasionally browse (soundcloud, Ableton, Five12). If anyone feels like doing the same (just a quick message with a link back to this thread is enough, I think) at some other forum please feel free - more submissions can be more fun

Looking forward to seeing what shows up in the in-box, there are always a lot of nice surprises!

[loquat]

As much as I suck at sound design I'm sure I'll be able to find a couple of patches that I can submit. This is great!

[Drumtarded]

Just an observation, but usually when an ACE patch starts looking like home to that possibly intoxicated spider crawling up the wall, don't be alarmed - at least part of that can be separated into 'things that don't rewire the synth'. I can't predict the future but my sense is that patches that tie in some not-rewiring details, e.g. some MIDI performance data will be better received than those that don't. It was that way generally in the Zebra patch contests. These details can be fine-tuned after the stuff that does rewire the synth, that's maybe the one hint for patching ACE I could share that's broadly useful ...

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here.

Can someone translate ?

[shanecgriffo]

Just an observation, but usually when an ACE patch starts looking like home to that possibly intoxicated spider crawling up the wall, don't be alarmed - at least part of that can be separated into 'things that don't rewire the synth'. I can't predict the future but my sense is that patches that tie in some not-rewiring details, e.g. some MIDI performance data will be better received than those that don't. It was that way generally in the Zebra patch contests. These details can be fine-tuned after the stuff that does rewire the synth, that's maybe the one hint for patching ACE I could share that's broadly useful ...

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here.

Can someone translate ?

i think he's saying that some of the performance function options (which if included, might get you a better score) are best tweaked after all the spaghetti has been dished up!

[mcnoone]

Have to say, I have a hard time getting the modwheel to do anything.
It's hit and miss, sometimes I get it wired right, and sometimes it doesn't work.
It's the hardest thing I've come across with programing ACE.

[xh3rv]

Just an observation, but usually when an ACE patch starts looking like home to that possibly intoxicated spider crawling up the wall, don't be alarmed - at least part of that can be separated into 'things that don't rewire the synth'. I can't predict the future but my sense is that patches that tie in some not-rewiring details, e.g. some MIDI performance data will be better received than those that don't. It was that way generally in the Zebra patch contests. These details can be fine-tuned after the stuff that does rewire the synth, that's maybe the one hint for patching ACE I could share that's broadly useful ...

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here.

Can someone translate ?

Sorry let me try that again ...

If you're patching ACE, it sort of gets harder the more cables you've drawn - at some point it can start looking completely confusing, especially if you've got dozens of cables hanging around. This is modular fun*.

With Zebra patch contests, there was a fairly clear preference for patches that use performance data - velocity, modwheel, pitchwheel (maybe aftertouch, maybe not) - to make the synth more _expressive_. It doesn't have to be a whole heck of a lot, but using these parameters to modulate things (like modwheel -> filter cutoff) really makes a difference and impresses voters.

ACE has these things on the bottom row of ports, so it takes some cables and this increases the modular fun factor** to use them. By modular fun factor, this implies adding some confusion/complexity to the patch. So it makes sense (to me anyway) to plug these things in after all the other cables are in place, all the cables that are synth modules or envelopes or LFOs. It's just a little cleaner of a space that way.

The other way to use velocity, modwheel, pitchwheel etc. (MIDI performance data) is through the surplus knobs on the envelope modules, which doesn't involve cables so that's also pretty clean.

So - I'm suggesting it might make sense to do things in a particular order, not that it doesn't in another order, but this is about how I approach ACE and I think it might be a useful suggestion. I hope that makes sense

* - really, at some points I kind of lose track about WTF is happening in the patch

** - fun once in a while to plug these MIDI things into random ports on the synth modules

[Drumtarded]

Ok, gotcha, thanks for that

[GeorgeZ]

Is there a particular date for cut-off of submissions?