Satin goes V1.1

[4damind]

I'm sorry, but the demo version is really unusable, in a multitrack setup there's practically always noise somewhere, not even one or two minutes of silence to do some a/b comparisons. Really annoying and offputting.

Yes, I agree.
The boring crackling starts Afaik after 2 min. After this it becomes more unusable with every minute. After some minutes it's the best to re-open the project because the crackling is often louder like the rest of the sound.

[Urs]

I'm sorry, but the demo version is really unusable, in a multitrack setup there's practically always noise somewhere, not even one or two minutes of silence to do some a/b comparisons. Really annoying and offputting.

Sorry, we have no quick solution for this.

We have ordered a "mini-DAW" from an external developer which will run Satin fully functional for demo purposes. However that thing wasn't finished in time.

[Compyfox]

That's fixed...?

Should be, but a global switch would be nice.

Then again, that doesn't mean that the presets (the beta ones) need fixes in both terms of input and output. If you do that, you ultimately change the tape response that the preset provider aimed for.

Especially with the big machines(!) (Studer, Ampex, Otari, etc).

And of cousre, no-one stops you from using your original presets

True, but I really created these presets not only for fun and for myself, but also for others to benefit from. Which is the very reason I put so much effort into it. And at least paid attention to detail in terms of the noise a bit.

Sincere apologies, Compyfox!

No harm done, no harm taken, Howard.

I'm too used to fixing level inconsistencies in synth presets (I'm not a tape effect expert), and in the hectic yesterday, I "fixed" yours (Verschlimmbesserung?). Got a deserved slap on the wrist this morning for doing that!

What you essentially did what actually raising the output volume of the whole engine.

Like:
Input Module -> Delay Module -> Service Panel -> Output.

What I did with the RE-201 and Copycat presets was to actually use the mix knob in the Delay Module. It's turned up to maximum. If it'd be 50%/50%, then we could talk about balancing things out. But even then you can't really do that - or only really subjectively, since the settings of the Delay (EQ!) and the Service Panel drastically change the audio stream as well.

You thought (which is understandable) that the signal is just too low since you didn't hear the dry one. And the endresult was, that you raised the whole Output of the tape. Along with that, the nosie floor.

I thought the info "Send FX ready" was enough to know "oh great... I can put it on an AUX and get going".

Stuff like that happens - I was just massively caught off guard.

And then (to avoid such problems in future)
"...aber vorher würden wir gerne eine Art Waschzettel kommunizieren, z.B. Dateinamen (Initials, descriptive name - nicht zu lang, am besten mit Angabe zum RMS level), Information, ob Insert oder AUX, für welche Einganssignale gedacht etc.."

Agreed - we should scrible down some notes on that behalf, as some sort of guideline.


Actually, if Urs would make it possible to scroll the info text box, then we could add more information. I did add TXT files with my presets - but apparently... I think I forgot to write in there that they're send ready. Though as audio engineer, I usually assume that - or at least know how to handle a mix dial.

Learned something new as well. Will keep that in mind the next time I post presets.



Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex (I could go for Fos 280, or Fost-x 280, Japanese 280 would be too cryptic!) or my Grundig TK747 (I'd call it GR-TK747, which does sound great actually - and there are MANY German tape manufacturers). It would actually help to be allowed to use regular company names. I mean... I wrote down the exact machine name in the info text of Satin after all. And stuff is "based upon" pretty much constantly.

Or is this really such a problem these days in creating presets? I mean, asside from Studer, Ampex and Otari (maybe Tascam) - who is still manufacturing and maintaining R2R's or cassette tape machines these days?

[Greedo]

I've bought Satin last night, but it still has the Status "Payment not yet received". I had to renew the payment (paypal) twice, but the status is the same. I've double checked that i have money on my account
Frustrating.

[Urs]

I've bought Satin last night, but it still has the Status "Payment not yet received". I had to renew the payment (paypal) twice, but the status is the same. I've double checked that i have money on my account
Frustrating.

Send email to support at u-he dot com - I'll pass it on to our account manager at ShareIt.

[sascha]

Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex (I could go for Fos 280, or Fost-x 280, Japanese 280 would be too cryptic!) or my Grundig TK747 (I'd call it GR-TK747, which does sound great actually - and there are MANY German tape manufacturers). It would actually help to be allowed to use regular company names. I mean... I wrote down the exact machine name in the info text of Satin after all. And stuff is "based upon" pretty much constantly.

Or is this really such a problem these days in creating presets? I mean, asside from Studer, Ampex and Otari (maybe Tascam) - who is still manufacturing and maintaining R2R's or cassette tape machines these days?

IMO (engineer, not lawyer) it doesn't matter if the machines are still manufactured or if the company still exists. In some cases, those were bought out or the brand was re-licensed to somebody else. Some brand names and their current status might seem a bit unclear at present. But that doesn't change much. Under all circumstances, we'd like to keep our stuff free from 3rd-party names, to be on the safe side.

I'd think Fos280 is ok, as is GR-xx.

BTW: just fiddled with lower speeds. At 1 7/8 ips (4.76cm/s), the model kind of freaks out a bit, bias range doesn't match, emphasis is way off. But 3.75 (9.53cm/s) is surprisingly tight in within our specs range.
Need to look more deeply, but lower speeds are possible, yes.

[Compyfox]

Awesome. Good to hear that. Though "freaking out" is, again, to be expected. We're talking about consumer speed (compact cassette) in this case.

Sascha, can we maybe get in touch through mail or something regarding future specs for presets? If we can fiddle something out together, I think all future preset providers might benefit from that.

[Howard]

Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex... Grundig

suggestions: Foxtec, Grundge
Then there's Ronald, Apex, Taec, Rovex, Otrai... the list goes on

[sascha]

Sascha, can we maybe get in touch through mail or something regarding future specs for presets? If we can fiddle something out together, I think all future preset providers might benefit from that.

We had a bit of a problem that many presets went in just-in-time, and - of course - we made algorithmic changes until the last moment. This is far from ideal and we need to improve. That also affects organising, time schedules asf., which is not always easy when a company grows. Apart from that, I tend to be precise with preset terms and regulative aspects. We will be more stringent in the future, but that'll start first with our regular beta team first, and then expand ideas and rules outwards.

[sascha]

Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex... Grundig

suggestions: Foxtec, Grundge

Eek... nope... disgusting

[ThomasHelzle]

BTW: just fiddled with lower speeds. At 1 7/8 ips (4.76cm/s), the model kind of freaks out a bit, bias range doesn't match, emphasis is way off. But 3.75 (9.53cm/s) is surprisingly tight in within our specs range.
Need to look more deeply, but lower speeds are possible, yes.

Well, I guess a lot of people would be eager to hear that "freaking out" part
Maybe one should have to first use the plugin for a certain amount of hours with normal settings before certain "Levels of Mayhem" are unlocked?
The GUI goes from it's current splendid look to really broken down in that case, with a "we told you not to do this" sticker... LOL

Cheers,

Tom

[momalle3]

Compyfox, will you presets run on an OSX machine/ They show up as unix executable files on my mac, and I'm not sure that's going to work


Thanks for going to the trouble--I'm exploring the delay mode now and it's really cool.

[queller]

Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex... Grundig

suggestions: Foxtec, Grundge

Eek... nope... disgusting

Footsex, Grundfunk

[Ch00rD]

Speaking of which... I don't know how to rename the Fostex (I could go for Fos 280, or Fost-x 280, Japanese 280 would be too cryptic!) or my Grundig TK747 (I'd call it GR-TK747, which does sound great actually - and there are MANY German tape manufacturers). It would actually help to be allowed to use regular company names. I mean... I wrote down the exact machine name in the info text of Satin after all. And stuff is "based upon" pretty much constantly.

Or is this really such a problem these days in creating presets? I mean, asside from Studer, Ampex and Otari (maybe Tascam) - who is still manufacturing and maintaining R2R's or cassette tape machines these days?

IMO (engineer, not lawyer) it doesn't matter if the machines are still manufactured or if the company still exists. In some cases, those were bought out or the brand was re-licensed to somebody else. Some brand names and their current status might seem a bit unclear at present. But that doesn't change much. Under all circumstances, we'd like to keep our stuff free from 3rd-party names, to be on the safe side.

I'd think Fos280 is ok, as is GR-xx.

Imho (lawyer, not engineer), u-he's 'better safe than sorry' policy makes a lot of sense - we don't want devs to spend time on investigating the nuances of trademark law instead of bashing out awesome DSP code, do we? And it's a good excuse to make you guys come up with funnier preset names, too.

BTW: just fiddled with lower speeds. At 1 7/8 ips (4.76cm/s), the model kind of freaks out a bit, bias range doesn't match, emphasis is way off. But 3.75 (9.53cm/s) is surprisingly tight in within our specs range.
Need to look more deeply, but lower speeds are possible, yes.

That's great to hear, Sascha! If you have some time to spare (no hurries), can you perhaps post some audio examples? Like Thomas, I typically love it when models freak out a bit.

[Ch00rD]

Compyfox, will you presets run on an OSX machine/ They show up as unix executable files on my mac, and I'm not sure that's going to work [...]

Yes, it will work. But if it bothers you, you can fix it quite easily by e.g. going into Terminal, and doing something like this in the folder containing the preset files:

Code: Select all

sudo chmod -x ./*.h2p