MonoGrizzly 1.2

[Kriminal]

just had a listen to the demo on your website - while i do like the sounds i think you should be thinking about the price again - seems a little bit too high in my books. ymmv

Everythingh has a basic price level, and a complete synth should not cost the same, as on other places a soundset with 64 sounds....

Thinking about this... whats the better deal?
40€ for a complete synth with 150 presets
or
30€ for 64 sylenth1 sounds like vengeance trilogy etc...

well, E40 (going up to E50after offer ends) isnt a good price for a very basic monosynth, not by a long shot, and E30 for half a bank of presets isnt a good deal either IMO.

YMMV

[Cyforce]

just had a listen to the demo on your website - while i do like the sounds i think you should be thinking about the price again - seems a little bit too high in my books. ymmv

Everythingh has a basic price level, and a complete synth should not cost the same, as on other places a soundset with 64 sounds....

Thinking about this... whats the better deal?
40€ for a complete synth with 150 presets
or
30€ for 64 sylenth1 sounds like vengeance trilogy etc...

sorry didn't want to offen you - i was just making my point : with this price tag i do compare Grizzly to others ( MS20 same price , ACE little higher to name just a few ) - and yeah that is my point - ymmv

ps : i do agree on the price of soundsets though!!

I absolulty understand your point, and also agree.

Sure compared to ACE/MS20(as single) the price could be taff, but compared to other vsti's the mono is on a cheap price level/value for money.

It's mostly only the point, with which other products you compare it.
And also if it would be too cheap, also than would be there enough moaners... some guys also says komplete 7 is too expensive.....
I could now also list a long list with other products where the value/for money is much much lower, but for what? The price issue is always/mostly senseless based on everybodys own view/meaning about pricing.

Small example in the hardware world, DSI Mopho & MoogSlimPhatty - Mopho can MORE - and cost 400€ less, but the mass didn't say the SlimPhatty is to expensive, because the mass didn't always compare it to the direct competition-products.^^

From my personal point of view, a vsti should be not cheaper than a soundset, alone through the fact, that it's a complete synth.
And generally the prices @ cfa-sound are very fair, compared also to others.

So my advice, if the MonoGrizzly looks interesting for you, take a listen to the audio-demo, if the audio-demo is nice for you, try the demo version, if you like it than still - you should make your minds if you should buy it



/fine.. through this long post i missed the final on an ebay auction

[Cyforce]

Updated to 1.1

2011-02-05 - v1.1

- filter overload fixed
- circuit improved
- clipper added after drive-unit including clip-led

[vata44]

I am with Kriminal on this one. The market is flooded and there are tons of freebies and cheaper/same priced/more flexible VSTi's out there. This one just does not scream "I am unique enough to justify not buying the Korg MS20 instead".

Thanks for the filter though, it tuns my Korg MS20 into the Mono Grizzly and then some.

Its your work and your price, but of luck to ya.

[Cyforce]

The last days many user have some bad cpu-usages on the MonoGrizzly, which has a good reason, as main testing daw was used Reaper, MonoGrizzly version 1.0 eat there with using all features 1,67% cpu - looks quiet low, so all was fine there, but parallel the same version eats in Ableton Live up to 20% - so strange difference, so if Reaper didn't showed the hole time false cpu results the 1.0 version wouldn't be released like they was. So sorry for this bad cpu-trouble there.


Through that comes this night/tomorrow an update to version 1.2, which saves a lot of cpu, specially based on overworking(again...) the hole circuit and reduce the quality-settings a little bit, like back from 64 bit internal to 32 bit, instead 4x now 2x oversampling, and only 1 oversampling stage instead of 2. But the biggest difference comes now through an overwork on the oscillators, if now a waveform/slave-osc is not "on" its now really offline instead of a kind of sleeping mode than before, this saves a lot, specially on patches which using not all 12 waveforms/slave-oscs.

Short summary of the cpu-usage differents from 1.1. to 1.2.:

REAPER - all waveforms with FuzzDrive: -29,5%
REAPER - all waveforms without FuzzDrive: -12,5%
REAPER - one waveform without FuzzDrive: -70,5%

LIVE - all waveforms with FuzzDrive: -31%
LIVE - all waveforms without FuzzDrive: -19%
LIVE - one waveform without FuzzDrive: -73%

Specially to see on the init patch(one waveform only) a heavy reduction. Overall the maximum cpu-usage is reduced about ~30% and the minimal cpu-usage(init/one waveform only) ~70%.

And the 1.2 version comes also with a new feature(duo-phonic mode) and a new price.

Cheers CYF

[Cyforce]

New feature and new price for the MonoGrizzly! With version 1.2 the MonoGrizzly comes with a duophonic play-mode option and a performance-update, which saves a lot of cpu. Next to that the general price is reduced to 40,00€, and the best at last - the introduction offer is extended till 28th february - during this time the MonoGrizzly 1.2 is available for only 30,00€.

v1.2 / 2011-02-11
- duophonic mode added
- circuit improvments
- oversampling reduced to 2x
- internal precision reduced to 32 bit float
- cpu-usage works dynamic, depending to the feature-usage
- maximum cpu-usage reduced by ~30%
- minimum cpu-usage recuded by ~70%

[Cyforce]

This week comes an update for the MonoGrizzly, which quite many changes

- new gui
- sub oscs for all 3 main osc's
- advanced lfo routing
- second fuzz-drive stage
- cpu usage improvements

Compared to version 1.0 the new one is much much more cpu-friendly. On the lowest settings(only 1 waveform) the difference is up to 76%! On maximum settings(all waveforms + filter-drive + sync usage) around 55% less.

Next to this update will comes a third grizzly - DrumGrizzly.
More infos about the upcoming updates etc you can find here: http://www.cfa-sound.com/news-blog/wordpress/

[Ingonator]

This week comes an update for the MonoGrizzly, which quite many changes

- new gui
- sub oscs for all 3 main osc's
- advanced lfo routing
- second fuzz-drive stage
- cpu usage improvements

Compared to version 1.0 the new one is much much more cpu-friendly. On the lowest settings(only 1 waveform) the difference is up to 76%! On maximum settings(all waveforms + filter-drive + sync usage) around 55% less.

Next to this update will comes a third grizzly - DrumGrizzly.
More infos about the upcoming updates etc you can find here: http://www.cfa-sound.com/news-blog/wordpress/

I downloaded the Demo version of MonoGrizzly v1.2 and am quite impressed by the sound quality. The GUI seems to be quite nice too. The GUI seems to be based on the Studio Electronics SE-1X Nova Red eye edition:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/studio_electro ... dition.htm
Am i right that MonoGrizzly is mostly modeled after that one?

The features are mostly the ones which i was searching for in a basic Lead synth. Some of the synths which i made with AAS Tassman 4 (e.g. "LeadIngo") in the past have comparable features.
I could not tell much about the presets since the amount is a bit limited in the demo version.

Possible Improvements:
- What i like to see is that you are able to route the vibrato and/or the Modwheel. I guess a button for switching those on and of would be enough. You wrote about an "advanced lfo routing" in the next version so maybe this will be already included. A lead synth without aftertouch and/or Modwheel modulation is lacking a lot of performance control IMO. Of course you could try to add this in the host but it should be included with the synth itself.

- It would be nice to have a graphical display of the values of the current knob like e.g. for the "fine tune" knob in the OSCs.

- I'm missing a full ADSR envelope for the filter like it's done for the Amp envelope. It would be better to have the "Env amount" knob in the section of the filter.

- In the original SE-1X modulea and in the Minimoog there is only 1 knob for the Osc tuning. Instead of a "fine tune" knob the SE-1X has a knob for the pulse width which is a nice feature. If it would be implemented the same way in MonoGrizzly a numerical display of the value (e.g. in the display on the left side) would be necessary.

- Another thing which would be nice but not essential is a basic Arpeggiator (or Step sequencer). Maybe this could be integrated in a second GUI page like in LittleOne:
http://www.xhun-audio.com/site/xhun.php?page=littleone


Best wishes,
Ingo

[Ingonator]

Hi Martin,

the "HOLD" button in the "CONTROL" section is a bit confusiong. in fact it works like a legato mode with last note priority. At the first look i thought the legato mode is missing. If i think about "HOLD" i expect that the last note is playig after i release the key. Maybe you should rename it to "Legato" or something like that.


Ingo

[Cyforce]

Some nice suggestions in the posts. Something like after-touch & modwheel, as advantage for perfomance usage will definitiv come in a later update.
Usually it was planed to make end of the year a kind of semi-modular version of the grizzly. But perhaps it comes than more as MonoGrizzly 2.0, also with additional effect-rack inside. Than also will full polyphonic mode.

Graphic display for the values, well i renounced the issue aware. By designing the sound that you want/search etc, it's always better to hear as looking only on values And from the basic the focus was completly on fast- and easy to use, without big displays, values etc, just following your ears...

Hold, belongs which mode is used, normal monophonic, if you hold for example c2, and press a new note and release it, the hold note will be automaticly retriggered, on duophonic mode it's logical the second note, through the dou-polyphonie. So it's just hold note yes/no, not a real legato, thats why there standing in gui "hold" and not "legato"

If nothing goes wrong version 1.5 is saturday or monday online.

[Ingonator]

Graphic display for the values, well i renounced the issue aware. By designing the sound that you want/search etc, it's always better to hear as looking only on values And from the basic the focus was completly on fast- and easy to use, without big displays, values etc, just following your ears...

That explanation is almost as good as the one which the government of good old Germany presented about not accepting the Libya UN resolution...

[Cyforce]

Usually it should be already out, but mhmmm other things stealing the time for it

The update/features has be also changed, the sub-osc feature is canceled, because it brings not really much, specially through the oct-ranges of the oscs, if the oscs runs on 16" - the sub oscs would effect the sound to minimal on 32" etc....


So v1.5 will contain this features/changes:

- once again cpu usage reduction
- fm mod for osc 2 & 3 !
- second drive stage
- 3 lfo routing targets(filter, pitch and amp - last one logical negativ routed)
- new gui, like drum and filtergrizzly
- load time is reduced
- ram usage should be also lower than before


I still mention about PWM, would be doable - but than all presets would be "crashed"... And it would raise up the cpu perhaps - because, like some guys knows, the oscs working on wavetable-basement.

So hmmm perhaps the Grizzly gets in the 2.0 layout a complet restructuring.
With pwm, different tube models, perhaps a dirt mode for the osc's and waveform blending, but this is usally planed for another small dirty analog synth

[Cyforce]

Advance information - Version 2.0 is on the way, with a public beta phase. All infos about that you can find on:
http://www.blog.cfa-sound.com/upcoming- ... blic-beta/

So if there are any suggestions, ideas for making it better, feel free to write them down here.

Previously wishes like readout display is already on the list. Also the cpu usage will like on all updates before, again reduced.