64 Bit - Uhbik, Filterscape, Zebra 2.5.2 up!

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Urs wrote:
kaverka wrote:Urs:

I've been waiting for x64, and now that you've also announced VST3 support and Note Expression, I'm definitely in! That's exactly what I was hoping for. Before I buy, a couple of questions:
Regarding Note Expressions, you'll have PitchBend, ModWheel, Breath Control, Expression and Aftertouch available per note. That's basically what we can do without much of a rewrite. We might add some further MIDI controls later, but it'll be difficult for instance to use parameter automation per note.

We hope to add that some day within the next few weeks, but if you want to be really, really sure you should wait and see when & how it works.
Excellent! Looking forward to take advantage of those features. At some point, it would be great to have individual filter controls over each note, but for now, I'll gladly take what you can expose to Note Expression... or maybe I can already get filter control via aftertouch?
Urs wrote:
kaverka wrote:1) If I purchase Zebra, Uhbik and ACE now, will I get the upgrades when VST3 and x64, etc., are released?

But of course. Yes.
What I hoped you would say. So there's not much point in me delaying joining the club, is there? :)
Urs wrote:
kaverka wrote:2) Are you planning a bundle of those three packages, or is there a discount to buy more than one plugin at a time?
Usually there are individual discounts for the packages, such as the Zebra2 Dinosaur Crossgrade or the Uhbik Introduction Offer (still on until I fulfill a certain promise). We are restructuring the website however and we are thinking about some sort of a shop - no concrete plans though - so we *might* add some functionality to entice people to buy a few items at once. However, as with all special offers they have to be put in perspective. If an offer creates too many impulse sales to people who are unhappy afterwards, then customers are generally better off without. So - if, then any discount will be rather moderate.

Cheers,

;) Urs
Glad to hear you'll entertain the possibility of special offers/bundles... I tend to buy into companies rather just one product if they're consistently good (and it's pretty clear your products are top-class). In the end, I find I end up spending more with a company I like because they've earned my trust with quality and consistency, even though I might not have purchased as many individual products from them.

I've done this with several plugin developers that I think are excellent. I especially appreciate the developers that offer a discount the more I purchase, so I have a clear path to upgrade to everything they make, even if I start off with just one plugin. I've ended up buying most, if not all of their plugins because of it -- even plugins I wouldn't normally use that often... so this is a net positive for the developers (who end up getting more money overall from me) and for the customer (who ends up getting more tools, even if I don't use all of them as often).

FabFilter and Applied Acoustics are two that come to mind right now among "smaller" developers that have superb products and offer clear upgrade paths and/or bundles. There are many others. FabFilter's simple but effective "My Account" on their website might be a good model of how unintrusive license management and automatically-discounted plugin upgrades are handled (for your consideration when you deploy your new website). Any time I log into my account at FabFilter, for example, if I've missed a new plugin release, it's sitting there waiting for me at a discount, since I've purchased everything else from them over the years.

Anyway, thank you for your responses, and I can't wait to finally add your killer plugins to my toolset. The x64 issue has been a key factor for my recent purchases (lately, I won't buy a plugin unless the developer has at least committed to x64), and now with your support of VST3 and Note Expression, that really encourages me to jump in now. I'll probably start with Zebra first. Expect an email from me with a dinosaur upgrade very soon!

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Yes, thanks 8)

Regarding the new website, there'll be an account/profile thing, but it's optional. You can directly retrieve lost serial numbers even if you don't want to sign in (provided you use the same email address you used for purchase), so it's quick and unintrusive.

However we'll encourage people to sign in, manage their profile and tell us what's missing etc. After more than 8 years with the occasional license transfer, the occasional sale over non-ShareIt channels and a number of winners in various competitions, our database might not be 100% up to date. In addition we might have up to a dozen different email addresses for some users which are sometimes hard to entangle. We'll see how this pans out. If after a while it settles down, we can indeed throw some offers into the pot.

;) Urs

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Excellent, and best of luck developing the new website. I can imagine you'd rather be spending your time on plugin development. It might be a pain in the neck, but the new site will be worth it for long-term support and customer retention, conversion, etc. :) BTW, just sent you some photos for the Zebra dinosaur crossgrade. Might be a stretch, let me know!

EDIT: For the record, Urs responded to my email (great customer service), and I just purchased Zebra. Looking forward now to x64, VST3, Note Expression, Uhbik, ACE, and other goodness! Thanks again, Urs, keep up the great work!

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Urs wrote:Any modulation inside the voice structure (any Osc, Filter, Env, per-voice-Lfo), either attached directly or via ModMatrix will be per Channel (or per Note via Note Expressions)
Thanks for the explanation, understood it now!
Urs wrote: However, if such a controller is used outside the voice structure [...] the controller with the lowest channel number [...] will take over the responsibility.

MIDI Learn [...]will use all 16 channels to allow for 2000+ (almost 16 x 128) assignments.
Fortunately in the newest versions of EigenD (the host application for the Eigenharps) there is a MIDI matrix where you can set the midi channel of selected CCs to a constant value. So it should be possible to adapt the setup to this new approach for global CCs.
Normally each key takes a free channel from a pool of currently unused channels when pressed down and uses that for modulations from that key until it is released in order to achieve up to 16 times polyphony with per-key CCs (each key has three axis so Poly-AT alone is not sufficient, the channels are required for note<->modulation assignment.) - So using channel aware MIDI Learn or reacting only to the CC on the lowest channel would lead to rather random results with the out-of-the-box EigenD setup... (are there other MIDI instruments out there that might use similar approaches?)
Urs wrote: Thus a parameter that's MIDI Learned to any CC will only react on a global scope but not on a per-channel/note basis. The opposite would require a fiull rewrite of the engine (fully multitimbral) and that's gonna blow cpu efficency and my mind among other things...
Ok, if that makes Zebra using 16 times the CPU then users with less esoteric use cases might revolt :help:
Urs wrote: Now I just need to finish that website and Cocoa support to free the resources to do all that stuff :-x
The "brute force 16 instances" approach already works for many presets so no need to hurry :) (I nonetheless see every new feature as a present, after so many years of free Zebra 2 "updates" - thanks for that!)

Greetings,
NothanUmber

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Hi Urs

How's the website progressing? And probably a stupid question, but: do you have any idea when the Uhbiks will be 64Bit finals on the Mac? Or are they and I missed the party? :-o

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medienhexer wrote:Hi Urs

How's the website progressing? And probably a stupid question, but: do you have any idea when the Uhbiks will be 64Bit finals on the Mac? Or are they and I missed the party? :-o
Website is progressing very well. Recorded audio and video with an exceptional guitarist tonight. We need that for proper representation of Uhbik and MFM. Last time I looked at uhbik.com I was quite shocked about the lack of audio/video demos. I have neglected that in an way that can hardly be excused. Where Zebra and Filterscape websites have too much of information, Uhbik and MFM fall short. This however boils all down to presentation of effects versus presentation of synths.

Webdesign is just a really slow thing though. On the other hand side it's quite exciting. A lot of work goes into this and it literally *shows*.

The 64-bit Uhbik AUs on Mac are pretty much as good as they get (PC too). The only thing missing om AU64 is drag'n'drop preset organisation (afaiaa). There may be minor niggles apart from that but these would be really minor.

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That sounds exciting. Yes, I think with the Uhbik ads all over the place, people must be drawn to your website in masses. I absolutely love the UI. And with convincing sound examples, you'll win a lot more of them over.

Is there any chance you'll extend the Uhbik range by a compressor, by the way? I know you're not even where you'd like to be with Uhbik-X and other products are probably more profitable. But did you ever dig deeper into why some compresors sound a certain way and are more pleasing to the ear in this or that situation?

I found the Uhbik EQ to be very useful in brightening up without harshness or giving more bass without becoming boomy. And all starting with little coloration. I think you may produce a new classc if you tried a compressor :)

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Yeah... a compressor is definately on the list. I once thought about a dynamics bundle, but it's too much work. I'd rather just add a compressor to Uhbik.

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Urs wrote:Yeah... a compressor is definately on the list. I once thought about a dynamics bundle, but it's too much work. I'd rather just add a compressor to Uhbik.
Hey, great! I understand that this isn't by any means an announcement of an upcoming addition or anything. But making it part of Uhbik (with the Uhbik UI) sounds like a cool idea.

I think there are a lot of good limiters on the market. De-Essers... Probably, too. I might just be too stupid to use them correctly (The FishPhones one was decent..). Gates.. Well, by now, I think the Gates that come with DAWs are great. Expander.. Maybe. But Compressors.. I'm still looking for the "invisible" one which preserves the sound but helps tame the energy..

So for me, a whole dynamics bundle wouldn't make sense. But the one go-to compressor.. :love:

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what is the latest with 64 b it versions.Any idea how much longer until released?

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colystuart wrote:what is the latest with 64 b it versions.Any idea how much longer until released?
We're currently working like crazy on the new website - it has been a full time job for almost 4 people for several months. This is a prerequisite before releasing anything new. Once it's done we have buckets of things to be released, including 64-bit versions.

The ones we have here are pretty stable, the only thing missing is 64-bit support for VST Mac, which we'll do later alongside VST3.

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(that said, I might bring up a new beta for Zebra shortly... with that little LFO bug fixed where random modes are too fast)

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Urs wrote:Once it's done we have buckets of things to be released
Including RTAS for PC?
Or has santa clause put me on the "bad" list this time again. :D

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critza wrote:
Urs wrote:Once it's done we have buckets of things to be released
Including RTAS for PC?
Or has santa clause put me on the "bad" list this time again. :D
Not yet, I'm sorry... RTAS PC is going to be one of the tedious tasks for my 2nd developer. My RTAS support needs a complete overhaul, which I tend to push aside in my head :oops:

I'll ask Angus how we can fix the issues with the wrapper for now... that might be a good compromise for the time being.

Aside from web development we also have another problem (albeit a pleasant one): Hans Zimmer's favourite Minimoog arrived at our studio today... I have no clue how long we can keep it, but we'll certainly need to spend some time analysing this gem... can't have Diva not sound like it...

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Urs wrote:... Hans Zimmer's favourite Minimoog arrived at our studio today... I have no clue how long we can keep it, but we'll certainly need to spend some time analysing this gem... can't have Diva not sound like it...
:love:

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