Cycle: spectral granular synthesizer

[jupiter8]

There seem to be some missing dependencies on Vista SP1 and XP. I haven't pinpointed them yet, but I'm working on it.

Cool. It is the first synth in quite a while that has raised my eyebrows so i'm quite keen on testing it.

[auricle]

i have downloaded and placed presets in:

E:\My Documents\Amaranth Audio\Cycle\presets
and then i tried:
C:\Users\****\Documents\etc

when setting the directory the text in the box says 'could not update directory'
if i direct cycle to the preset folder using file open
i can get to the preset folder but it shows empty
despite windows explorer saying there's a whole load of .rdn files in there

dave

Crap, I uploaded the wrong zip. Sorry! I've fixed it. The files should be .cyc, file associated with Cycle.

I've downloaded the preset and now everything is working great for me. Thank you very much! I just need to learn how to use it now! There's some very interesting sounds there.

[ZenSound]

I tried Cycle a bit and sounds really well, and the gui is awesome. I need to dig deeeper in it

[DavenH]

Hey everyone, going to address a few things here.


First just a reminder that there's ~2 weeks on the intro offer of free updates. A couple have brought up the issue of dual licensing for Mac and PC. So after some consideration, the following is what's on offer:



Buying a license before Nov 1 means you'll get the PC license up front and the Mac edition as soon as it's available (if you want it).

You'll notice there's a small "fee" for dual licensing during the period where lifetime updates are applicable only for the Mac release. That's because they will also benefit from updates to the PC edition, and so the fee is to make it fair for the early PC adopters who took the plunge before Nov 1.
After the free update period for Mac there's no fee.


Second, to the skeptics about whether there's anything other than Cycle in the demos, there isn't. I'll be publishing the FLPs that created them on the audio demo page soon. Now, there's some automation, but in most of the cases it's 1 parameter only- the mod wheel. Sound modulation is an integral part of Cycle, so if you're demoing presets, see what the mod wheel does.


Third, are lifetime updates a good investment. I can't guarantee anything of course, but let me set the stage for you to see what will logically happen. I developed Cycle mostly for my own purposes, to accomplish what can't be done with other tools. Because I produce music, and so long as that's my hobby (it has been for about 10 years now), I'll always be developing Cycle and producing content for it. And taking it through the whole software life cycle was no small amount of effort, several years and perhaps with an opportunity cost of a few $100k at IBM, so trust that this isn't a fire and forget type project.


Fourth! Some more cool features in the pipeline. One drawback I noticed was the time-finite nature of the sounds in Cycle, just by design, meshes are finite in length.
The 'scratch' envelope which distorts the timeline of all meshes is redesigned. Each layer of each domain (waveshape, harmonic magnitude, harmonic phase) can be mapped to a selectable scratch channel, and there are now unlimited such channels. The envelopes support looping so this is equivalent to infinite LFOs -- you can get some really cool evolving sounds.

[manducator]

What's the copy protection?

I'm not too keen on c/r stuff.

[DavenH]

No C/R just a serial key and no connection requirement.
It's easily keygen-able frankly, but one consolation is users without keys that don't associate with a purchase won't be able to access community presets. After like 256 factory presets I intend to publish the rest via the community sharing so paying users will be rewarded with content the illegitimate users can't access.

[Spitfire31]

Daven, how about putting your website in a sig?

Eagerly awaiting the Mac demo. Btw, what's the minimum Mac OS requirment? 10.6.8?

/Joachim

[DavenH]

Good idea!


The OS requirement, not sure yet.

[aMUSEd]

Hey everyone, going to address a few things here.


First just a reminder that there's ~2 weeks on the intro offer of free updates. A couple have brought up the issue of dual licensing for Mac and PC. So after some consideration, the following is what's on offer:



Buying a license before Nov 1 means you'll get the PC license up front and the Mac edition as soon as it's available (if you want it).

You'll notice there's a small "fee" for dual licensing during the period where lifetime updates are applicable only for the Mac release. That's because they will also benefit from updates to the PC edition, and so the fee is to make it fair for the early PC adopters who took the plunge before Nov 1.
After the free update period for Mac there's no fee.


Second, to the skeptics about whether there's anything other than Cycle in the demos, there isn't. I'll be publishing the FLPs that created them on the audio demo page soon. Now, there's some automation, but in most of the cases it's 1 parameter only- the mod wheel. Sound modulation is an integral part of Cycle, so if you're demoing presets, see what the mod wheel does.


Third, are lifetime updates a good investment. I can't guarantee anything of course, but let me set the stage for you to see what will logically happen. I developed Cycle mostly for my own purposes, to accomplish what can't be done with other tools. Because I produce music, and so long as that's my hobby (it has been for about 10 years now), I'll always be developing Cycle and producing content for it. And taking it through the whole software life cycle was no small amount of effort, several years and perhaps with an opportunity cost of a few $100k at IBM, so trust that this isn't a fire and forget type project.


Fourth! Some more cool features in the pipeline. One drawback I noticed was the time-finite nature of the sounds in Cycle, just by design, meshes are finite in length.
The 'scratch' envelope which distorts the timeline of all meshes is redesigned. Each layer of each domain (waveshape, harmonic magnitude, harmonic phase) can be mapped to a selectable scratch channel, and there are now unlimited such channels. The envelopes support looping so this is equivalent to infinite LFOs -- you can get some really cool evolving sounds.

The problem with this is Windows users got the benefit of being able to demo before buying it - as a Mac user if I want to buy it now to get the free updates I would have to do so blind, and after it comes out the price goes up. I don't see how it is any "fairer" to Windows users to do this and it is certainly not fairer to dual and Mac users.

[DavenH]

But you don't have to buy it now as a Mac user to get the free update offer. The period from Mac release to Jan 1 is when you can demo it and still take advantage of the offer.

[aMUSEd]

But you don't have to buy it now as a Mac user to get the free update offer. The period from Mac release to Jan 1 is when you can demo it and still take advantage of the offer.

Yeah but the dual price goes up straight after the release, before Mac users will have had a chance to test it on their systems.

[Spitfire31]

But you don't have to buy it now as a Mac user to get the free update offer. The period from Mac release to Jan 1 is when you can demo it and still take advantage of the offer.

Yeah but the dual price goes up straight after the release, before Mac users will have had a chance to test it on their systems.

Not so fast. Daven wrote "The period from Mac release to Jan 1…", not "…Mac release on Jan 1…".

As a Mac user, I confidently assume that Daven will release the Mac Cycle demo well in advance of Jan 1.

So…

/Joachim

[aMUSEd]

But you don't have to buy it now as a Mac user to get the free update offer. The period from Mac release to Jan 1 is when you can demo it and still take advantage of the offer.

Yeah but the dual price goes up straight after the release, before Mac users will have had a chance to test it on their systems.

Not so fast. Daven wrote "The period from Mac release to Jan 1…", not "…Mac release on Jan 1…".

As a Mac user, I confidently assume that Daven will release the Mac Cycle demo well in advance of Jan 1.

So…

/Joachim

You're misreading my post, I didn't say Mac release was on 1st, just that the dual price goes up on Mac release when Win users have had months to test it but we haven't.

[DavenH]

It's like this Amused- a concert ticket is sold for 10$, 12$ at the door. Then at the door, the if the organizers decide well, let's keep it at 10$ anyway, the guy who planned ahead and forked over the cash in advance, perhaps forgoing other things, got screwed.

In this situation that's as reasonable as it can be. There's no obligation to buy a dual license, so if you're only a Mac user, for all intents and purposes you can pretend it doesn't exist.

[aMUSEd]

I'm not only a Mac user, I'm just primarily a Mac user. So I would be interested in a dual license and always buy for both platforms just in case I switch back (as I'm also a relatively recent convert), but since I am primarily a Mac user at the moment at least I would like to test it works on my primary platform, Mac, before I buy a dual license, as Windows users have been able to do on their primary platform for a while now (even those buying the dual license). I don't see why that is unreasonable, or why you think it is "unfair" to Windows users for the price not to go up the instant the Mac version is out.