Fxpansion have a NEW drum synth on the way!

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@keel: BFD & BFD2 have actually had an option to disable keyboard response for many years (or you can remap key-commands to different keys), so not strictly true. :)

Hit me with you fav eks pro Kick preset, I'll be surprised if Tremor can't match it (giving all due respect to eks pro, and not wanting to sound cocky - I'm just interested to explore this, having just given eks pro a go).

@paterpeter - I guess I'm looking at it (too much) from a coder's point of view (naturally); the power I was referring to was the underlying sequencing engine (which is Geist-based). There are certainly many extra gestures we can (re)introduce to enschlicken accessing parts of the engine that were downplayed or hidden to give precedence to the independent tempo multipliers and repeat/end markers.

We wanted to create a step sequencer that didn't require scrolling to visit far flung parts of large patterns. A trade off between immediacy of the interface, and pattern length, of course.

There are several presets which show how it is possible to write single patterns that evolve over time spans much greater than the immediate pattern length would suggest - creative use of the multipliers (divide down the tempo on slowly changing, beat-aligned lanes for economy), note repeats, etc and a single pattern can extend for many bars.

It occurs to me we could start a demo scene by restricting patterns to a maximum of 4 steps and seeing how complex a beat people can make...
SKoT McDonald
BFD | inMusic

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The multipliers are indeed nice, that's true. But my "more than 2 bars" feature request was really the least of my requests. It's more important to re-enable the editing capabilities of Geist.

Sound-wise there's nothing to complain from my side. Tremor sounds great. Really unique and organic.

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did anybody else receive an announcement mail from fxpansion that reads tremor in the subject and the release of geist from nov 2010 in the body yesterday, or is it just me? :hihi:

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The posts mentioning Punch having a better default soundbanks just goes to show how much personal taste comes into choosing an instrument.

I (My opinion, which of course is only relevant to me, people forget this important fact when posting a personal opinion) found the Punch out of the box presets to be lacklustre. It contained a whole host of drum sounds I've heard in 100 synths 10,000 times before. I tried hard to find originality and inspiration in there but failed, that's maybe my fault. I quite Like Robs sound design. Predator, delay and distort get used a lot in my music, as do, Geist, Synth Squad, Omnisphere and Trilian.

Of course the point of a synthesis based instrument is to learn and program your own sounds as this way lies originality. After all everyone has the presets don't they? This is where I dismissed Punch from my buy list, I could create some good sounds but the workflow was convoluted and I really disliked the sequencer, which on the surface looks like a cut down version of the Arp in Predator and is not really suited to programming beats.

I found Tremor intuitive and it was easy to create some interesting sounds without manual diving, and It can also create all of the stock <insert drum machine of your choice here> sounds.

Price wise, it's more than uTonic (Except for the offer where it is the same) and cheaper than punch.
Sounds like it's in the correct area to me.

:)

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SKoT - keel is talking about something else, it's a bug specific to FL Studio where their keyboard hook isn't installed properly (or at all?) & so when a plug-in window has focus the host stops responding to keypresses (because it has no hook).

kylie - some mails apparently went out with incorrect text in the plaintext version. Full press release here:-
http://app.streamsend.com/private/Jmmm/ ... e/15393845

paterpeter - the Tremor sequencer may pick up one or two more features but don't expect it to turn in to a full-on Geist sequencer. They're different animals. As I mentioned, you can drive Tremor from Geist & in the long run (@5Lives) we will likely offer some closer integration - something along lines of, lets say, being able to load individual Tremor patches in Geist & edit the macro knobs.

@pdxindy you could pull the Level sliders all the way down in the mixer page? The snare *can* be poly (on old analogue drum machines it wasn't, of course) but it may well spank your CPU.

@musikmachine should be about the same in all hosts, although their metering varies somewhat. 8 voices = 30ish% of one virtual core of a 2.8GHz i5/i7. Minimum system it'll work properly on is a 2.2GHz Core2 Duo, but you'll find yourself Freezing a lot there.
This account is dormant, I am no longer employed by FXpansion / ROLI.

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elipsis1 wrote:Hey, check out "Frost Ambience" patch! wow! just sit back and let it take you to another world, it DEFINITELY is an evolver!

Yes CPU is a tad high, 35-50% on an i7 2.8GHz.
with that patch, im only getting 10-15% useage on one core of a 4.4Ghz 2700K here. so about 2-3% of overall CPU horsepower.

I kinda like it. Its the first drum synth where I dont feel the need to run through an amp sim and other heavy duty toys to get rich percussive textures; rather than just being a 'drum machine' its got a distinct character, and the synth engine is capable of some interesting surprises. Nice.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."

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I love it so far. Sounds great though i agree that pre/post distortion/shaping is heavily used in the presets.

I would buy Tremor on the spot, if you would consider include/bundle a 'Tremor light' version with just one engine + master, no seq.

But overall killer product, congrats.

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Wasn't sure about Tremor initially - as I'm a real uTonic junky, and I couldn't really imagine needing another drum synth.

But after a few hours, I'm starting to find that it does provide me with a lot of nice alternative drum textures that I can really use.

Thoughts on how it compares to uTonic:

* uTonic is a drum synth I can build sounds in on the fly when I'm making tunes (one of the few synths that doesn't interrupt my creative flow). With Tremor, I'll need to make a bunch of basic presets and map out the macro controls so I have sounds to tweak as I make tunes.

* The DCAM effects in Tremor are pretty central to it's appeal, compared to uTonic. I made some really nice, deep, but textured kicks using the Synth filter, subtle DCAM distortion and compression. No need to route drum voices out to separate channels and process them with third party effects.

* The ability to add DCAM processing to the master encourages me to really push the envelope and experiment with new sounds - again, meaning I'll use Tremor for different things from uTonic.

* Of course, the Tremor oscillators and modulation system offer far more flexibility, at the expense of highly intuitive operation. Some people would be happy without the extra functionality, others would be happy with the trade-off.

* Tremor presets aren't to my taste - but I don't care because I don't use presets, other than to get an idea of the character of a synth.

* Tremor UI is REALLY nice - can't wait to see more of this style in other Fxpansion products (esp. SynthSquad :-)

So, for me, there isn't really much overlap between uTonic and Tremor. Not surprising really, because they're based on completely different philosophies!

Not sure if I'll buy Tremor yet, but it does have a lot to offer, and I think the price is fair. Especially with the discount.

Good work!

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Angus_FX wrote: @pdxindy you could pull the Level sliders all the way down in the mixer page? The snare *can* be poly (on old analogue drum machines it wasn't, of course) but it may well spank your CPU.
Pulling the levels all the way down does not use less cpu...

How do you define if the snare is poly? Sometimes it is and sometimes not and I see no user control for it.

Also, in some presets, different tracks run at different speeds. How do I control that? Length only seems to affect all tracks.

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Hit the 'Show Setup' button under the osc/noise mixer. You can switch polyphony on & off ('Cut' = monophonic) & set the tempo multipliers for the current drum's sequencer labe.
This account is dormant, I am no longer employed by FXpansion / ROLI.

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On the plus side is 32 steps, random option and the different patterns lengths for each sound :-) I'm not a big drum user but those enhancements are almost enough to unhook me from Utonic and some sample sets.

The demo video was interesting, but the guy seemed to really struggle to make a decent sound at the end. He twiddled about 30 knobs and it still sounded really awful. Put me off a bit.

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Angus_FX wrote:Hit the 'Show Setup' button under the osc/noise mixer. You can switch polyphony on & off ('Cut' = monophonic) & set the tempo multipliers for the current drum's sequencer labe.
Thanks...

PS - I really would like the per track steps and multipliers in Geist!!

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I haven't had a chance to download the demo yet, but I'm already planning to buy Tremor. Quite honestly, I don't need yet another drum synth... I have that covered to the nth degree. However, I like what I've seen of the synth engine, and I'm also a big fan of Geist, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this offering. What actually pushes me over the top, however, is the sequencer. I'm basically lazy when it comes to drum programming, and I really appreciate anything that can help me add some variety to my patterns. The combination of variable sequence length per lane, event probability, repeats, and being able to trigger different sequences on the fly from MIDI notes collectively adds up to a lot of sequencing power with very little effort.
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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Hi Angus / SKoT

Any chance of Geist getting a Tremor like skin? I don't mean to change the whole UI, just the colour scheme. For the most part I actually like Geists GUI but it is slightly on the bland side. Tremors GUI is verrry easy on the eye.

I'll be hinting at my girlfriend later to get me Tremor as an early birthday prezzy....wish me luck. :pray:

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We worked with a new designer on this project & we're very pleased with how it worked out.. in terms of immediate re-skin work on Synth Squad & Geist, that's not realistically going to happen right now, but given the positive comments around Tremor's UI it would certainly make sense to put him to work on it next time they get a major update.

Good luck :hihi:
This account is dormant, I am no longer employed by FXpansion / ROLI.

Find me on LinkedIn or elsewhere if you need to get in touch.

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