KVR Audio

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:12 pm

himalaya wrote: An example of a cool design, which saves space is the PW knob. It acts differently depending on the oscillator mode selected. So in VA type oscillator, it may control pulse width, which is to be expected, but also the balance between dual wave oscillators, like sawtooth+square.
However, select a wavetable oscillator, and the PW knob will scan through the harmonic content. Extra cool!

That's excellent! That is exactly the kind of thing I look for in a synth. The least amount of controls but the most amount of functionality with those controls. The multi-purpose functionality of the PW actually answers one of my questions. I didn't see any position parameter or anything in the layout to scan through wavetables or samples, but was hoping for that because yeah, it's a great thing to modulate. I hope the PW works on imported samples in the same way!

Happy Frog · Post by **Happy Frog** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:13 pm

I would like to hear some layered beats from this, hats and snares with the added filters and fx's can help make some nice 4/4 patterns.

himalaya · Post by **himalaya** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:23 pm

Happy Frog wrote:I would like to hear some layered beats from this, hats and snares with the added filters and fx's can help make some nice 4/4 patterns.

Exactly! It is very easy to treat ElectraX as a cool little drum machine! I have experimented with such sounds, and it all groves along with enough 'oompah' to keep the house jumping.

jens · Post by **jens** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:01 pm

pdxindy wrote:he is promoting people to buy another product to accomplish layering...

Is he? Care to quote him on that?

jens · Post by **jens** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:14 pm

MaxSynths wrote:
exh wrote:
jens wrote:But am I the only one who is reminded of this when looking at the GUI:
I think I had a similar reaction, I find it aesthetically appealing but not necessarily productive.
Guys don't be fooled by the first impression. As I've seen the GUI the first time I was a bit confused, then it took me 5 minutes to understand the workflow and start programming sounds. It can produce incredible complicated sounds and realtime performances (when you start layering things using the arpegiatiors) but it's one of the most simple synths to program and understand.

I quite like the layout, the colours, etc. - what I meant is that I think the perspective is wrong, it's fisheye, and then it isn't - how far is the viewer away from the surface? I don't know it, looks just wrong
- it's the same as with Polyana, that's why I mentioned it.
They attempt to look realistic but fail.

1-2-Many · Post by **1-2-Many** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:32 pm

More bothersome for me on the GUI is the strange lighting. Especially on the displays. All the knob reflection-shadowing, along with trying to mimic screen glare-reflection gets in the way of readabilty and is bothersome to my eyes.

This is the sort of thing I always try to minimize with HW gear in the studio - seems silly to amp it up on software just to be more "realistic".

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:56 pm

dhalfen wrote:I'm really looking forward to the demo for this baby! I love the layout (and the look. which I think is really cool!). The ideas of integrating these synthesis techniques across 4 "oscillators" (more like ADVANCED COMPLEX oscillators ) and being able to directly mix these with the filters (which are surely the FilterBank3 guys, which I have and love).

A standalone version for Mac would be nice but is not necessary to me.

Onward to the demo release!!!

no. 3 osc's (multiple synthesis) per layer, 2 filters per layer, one insert fx slot with multiple fx algorithms per layer, 4 completeley independant layers. all that goes into one master insert fx slot with multiple fx algorithms. and the main analog modelled filters are completeley new, iirc the are nowhere else to be found in other tone2 products.

dhalfen · Post by **dhalfen** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:59 pm

brok landers wrote:and the main analog modelled filters are completeley new, iirc the are nowhere else to be found in other tone2 products.

Oooooo, that promises to be positively enticing, then!!!

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:09 pm

1-2-Many wrote:More bothersome for me on the GUI is the strange lighting. Especially on the displays. All the knob reflection-shadowing, along with trying to mimic screen glare-reflection gets in the way of readabilty and is bothersome to my eyes.

This is the sort of this I always try to minimize with HW gear in the studio - seems silly to amp it up on software just to be more "realistic".

the black one is too hard on the eyes, but the white version does not have the glow...

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:09 pm

jens wrote:
pdxindy wrote:he is promoting people to buy another product to accomplish layering...

Is he? Care to quote him on that?

Sure... but do you really want to start that up again!

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:33 pm

brok landers wrote:
dhalfen wrote:I'm really looking forward to the demo for this baby! I love the layout (and the look. which I think is really cool!). The ideas of integrating these synthesis techniques across 4 "oscillators" (more like ADVANCED COMPLEX oscillators ) and being able to directly mix these with the filters (which are surely the FilterBank3 guys, which I have and love).

A standalone version for Mac would be nice but is not necessary to me.

Onward to the demo release!!!
no. 3 osc's (multiple synthesis) per layer, 2 filters per layer, one insert fx slot with multiple fx algorithms per layer, 4 completeley independant layers. all that goes into one master insert fx slot with multiple fx algorithms. and the main analog modelled filters are completeley new, iirc the are nowhere else to be found in other tone2 products.

can we assume that BT did some sound design for it?
rsp

boimb · Post by **boimb** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:34 pm

The only thing i don't like about the GUI are the knobs. Also, although these people are obviously very skilled in GUI design, I'd love to see this skill applied when completely abandoning the "hardware GUI" paradigm.

jens wrote:
MaxSynths wrote:
exh wrote:
jens wrote:But am I the only one who is reminded of this when looking at the GUI:
I think I had a similar reaction, I find it aesthetically appealing but not necessarily productive.
Guys don't be fooled by the first impression. As I've seen the GUI the first time I was a bit confused, then it took me 5 minutes to understand the workflow and start programming sounds. It can produce incredible complicated sounds and realtime performances (when you start layering things using the arpegiatiors) but it's one of the most simple synths to program and understand.

I quite like the layout, the colours, etc. - what I meant is that I think the perspective is wrong, it's fisheye, and then it isn't - how far is the viewer away from the surface? I don't know it, looks just wrong
- it's the same as with Polyana, that's why I mentioned it.
They attempt to look realistic but fail.

himalaya · Post by **himalaya** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:42 pm

brok landers wrote:
dhalfen wrote:I'm really looking forward to the demo for this baby! I love the layout (and the look. which I think is really cool!). The ideas of integrating these synthesis techniques across 4 "oscillators" (more like ADVANCED COMPLEX oscillators ) and being able to directly mix these with the filters (which are surely the FilterBank3 guys, which I have and love).

A standalone version for Mac would be nice but is not necessary to me.

Onward to the demo release!!!
no. 3 osc's (multiple synthesis) per layer,

One thing we didn't mention yet, is that those 3 oscillators can have dual VA waves ! That's why I mentioned the PW knob as it acts as a balance between the two waves. So in effect, if there are people who get off on the max amount of osc per patch, ElectraX can have 24...

Yes, yes, we don't need that many, but the option is there.

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:53 pm

brok landers wrote: ...the main analog modelled filters are completeley new, iirc the are nowhere else to be found in other tone2 products.

Oooohhh - I wonder if there are any plans for an update to FilterBank 3 with the new filters???

DavenH · Post by **DavenH** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:05 pm

The advertising for this synth seems to be entirely a numbers game. Should I wait for the synth with 96 filter types? No. More oscillators and more everything will only make it harder to program. Past 4 oscillators and the basic distinct filter types there are such diminishing returns I don't know why anyone bothers with them.

It reminds me of how designers hand-made tens of thousands of animations for the sims 3 (or w/e), where if they designed something more powerful like proper AI to control the animations they would have saved a bunch of time and made everything more seamless.
I am of the mind that when you need that many of something to get the job done, it's not powerful enough in its essence. So perhaps instead of 23 filters there should be a filter designer that could produce any of them and more. That sort of thing.

Available soon: Tone2 ElectraX