Luxonix Purity reduced to $49.00!

[musikmachine]

So would this be well suited to dance pianos and strings, organs etc? I'm on the lookout for a rompler and this could fit the bill.

I think so. I guess both it and the M1 kind of break even on that, because even though the M1 was the original, it takes a bit of work to get that production-ready sound. I feel the M1 is kind of messy when it's raw.

The upside, though, is that the M1 gives you a stereo out for each of its 8 channels, so it's not like you'll have to bounce anything to audio.

I think a lot of Purity's sounds are perfect for that, but the M1 is the real deal, and I write video game music, not dance music, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

What I do think is that Purity is probably better at making other dance sounds, and has a built-in arp and sequencer. So you could theoretically use Purity for everything.

So this is how I feel: the M1 for purists, but Purity if you're not emotionally attached to the M1.

Get the 64bit of VSTHost.

Thanks. I will look into this.

Thanks! I need to take a look at both of these then, both $49. Are you saying Purity is more versatile then or better at other sounds? I asked cause you mentioned the quality of the strings and the praise you be giving Purity!

It's a question of how good they are compared to standalone instruments like the Kontakt stuff and if it has production ready sounds but sounds like has from what you're saying. Added to the list anyway.

[HaganeSteel]

I've honestly never heard the Kontakt stuff, so I can't really compare them. I would say these synths have absolutely nothing on Kontakt, but then I heard that Kontakt's stock libraries are awful.

I've avoided saying what I really think about Purity for the sake of objectivity and not wanting people to jump on me but...

The five soundsets I use other than Purity are:

Dimension Pro
Emu Proteus 2000/Virtuoso 2000 (for drums and percussion)
Korg M1
Edirol Hyper Canvas (Roland TTS-1)
Edirol Orchestral

Purity really doesn't hold a candle to Dimension Pro in terms of realism, and Dimension Pro's synth sounds are pretty amazing, but Purity surpasses DimPro in usability, and so it sees a lot more use. Dimension Pro has more realistic sounding instruments, but a lot more problems that lead to those instruments being more limited in how they can used. I find myself having to avoid or fix a lot of sounds in DimPro.

The Emu Proteus 2000 has my favorite drums and that won't change. The Proteus sounds natural, tight, and well-processed, but that's pretty much where it ends for me. I think Purity largely sounds better in every other area.

Roland TTS-1 seems to use some content from the Miroslav libraries, but it's all been stripped down. It still sounds really good. It and Purity are about the same, with Purity having more synthesis options and being more versatile overall. The same thing can be said about Purity versus the Edirol Orchestral.

Compared to the M1, Purity is also roughly the same, but the M1 is harder to use and its presets are more geared towards new agey/80's soundtrack stuff, while Purity is for really bright sounding synthpop. Maybe I think that because I come from a predominantly Roland background, where we have things like TVF and TVA - time variant filter and time variant amplifier - which still both felt self-explanatory to me when I was 17 and just starting out - and not Time Polarity. Seriously, it's been about two months since I've programmed sounds on the M1 and I've already forgotten what that did.

My argument against the M1 is that it's a pain in the ass, but it still sounds great.

[HaganeSteel]

I'm still trying to figure out how to use this thing, so I'm going to make a post here talking about what I feel are its strengths and weaknesses, and what I've discovered so far.

I've been messing around with it a lot, and the more I do, the more it reminds me of the Emu Proteus 2. That's really what this thing reminds me of most out of everything, minus the thin sound and all of the sample problems the original Proteus 2 had.

But I've never owned or even used a Proteus 2, and so I have no idea how to use this thing still, which I guess is to be expected having only owned it for about two weeks.

Rolands have these awesome string pads - you can create use them to play chords in the background of your song to make it really full and thick, and it creates a really nice foundation for your song.

But that is not the way Purity should be used. It can do that, and pretty well too, but it's not one of its main strengths.

I'm sitting here listening to the Lunar 2: Eternal Blue soundtrack, which used a Proteus 2 heavily and almost exclusively, and studying how Noriyuki Iwadare used his instruments and especially his strings.

His violins are used as the primary melodic instrument, with the woodwinds and trumpets mostly being used to add color: woodwinds and trumpets are used for creating crescendos, glissandi, trills, or doubling the violins. His mixes are also fairly empty, and he uses a combination of french horns, viola, cello and bass sections for harmony.

Iwadare uses woodwinds as lead instruments pretty rarely, mostly in the main theme, "Crowded Street Corner", and "Field to Tomorrow".

He also uses percussion very sparsely.

This is very - very - different from how Rolands are used. Rolands typically have brass and woodwinds in the foreground as the primary melodic instruments, and strings in the background.

Roland JVs have a much greater emphasis on creating these huge orchestrations and ensembles, with very loud percussion. The songs I've heard written on Emu Proteus 2 modules are similar to a Sound Canvas, but they (for obvious reasons) use orchestral instruments exclusively (Zelda, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II, Lunar 2). They use what is the equivalent of a much smaller orchestra than a Roland JV, with less in the way of harmony and color, but more in the way of melody and dynamism.

Purity seems to straddle a middleground there, encouraging you to use it like an Emu Proteus 2, but also capable of doing some of what an expanded Roland could do back in the day.

Basically, what this means is that I need to come out of my comfort zone and start using violins as melodic instruments and change my style to being even more string-centric than it already is.

[fluffy_little_something]

Odd, I was just doing a backup of all my important files to a pen drive, and while about 6GB were copied without any issue, just two files caused problems, among them the Purity exe. Windows said that it could not be copied without losing properties. I wonder what that is about, maybe the file is not complete or correct anymore

[HaganeSteel]

Might be some kind of copy protection.

Instead of backing up Purity in its entirety, I would backup the installer and the *.usr files only.

[fluffy_little_something]

I guess this might be it:

http://superuser.com/questions/548221/f ... w-location

Not sure if it has anything to do with Purity or not. I compared the file size, it is exactly the same. Maybe the file was created in Windows XP...

[musikmachine]

I've honestly never heard the Kontakt stuff, so I can't really compare them. I would say these synths have absolutely nothing on Kontakt, but then I heard that Kontakt's stock libraries are awful.

I've avoided saying what I really think about Purity for the sake of objectivity and not wanting people to jump on me but...

The five soundsets I use other than Purity are:

Dimension Pro
Emu Proteus 2000/Virtuoso 2000 (for drums and percussion)
Korg M1
Edirol Hyper Canvas (Roland TTS-1)
Edirol Orchestral

Purity really doesn't hold a candle to Dimension Pro in terms of realism, and Dimension Pro's synth sounds are pretty amazing, but Purity surpasses DimPro in usability, and so it sees a lot more use. Dimension Pro has more realistic sounding instruments, but a lot more problems that lead to those instruments being more limited in how they can used. I find myself having to avoid or fix a lot of sounds in DimPro.

The Emu Proteus 2000 has my favorite drums and that won't change. The Proteus sounds natural, tight, and well-processed, but that's pretty much where it ends for me. I think Purity largely sounds better in every other area.

Roland TTS-1 seems to use some content from the Miroslav libraries, but it's all been stripped down. It still sounds really good. It and Purity are about the same, with Purity having more synthesis options and being more versatile overall. The same thing can be said about Purity versus the Edirol Orchestral.

Compared to the M1, Purity is also roughly the same, but the M1 is harder to use and its presets are more geared towards new agey/80's soundtrack stuff, while Purity is for really bright sounding synthpop. Maybe I think that because I come from a predominantly Roland background, where we have things like TVF and TVA - time variant filter and time variant amplifier - which still both felt self-explanatory to me when I was 17 and just starting out - and not Time Polarity. Seriously, it's been about two months since I've programmed sounds on the M1 and I've already forgotten what that did.

My argument against the M1 is that it's a pain in the ass, but it still sounds great.

Thanks again. I'm assuming there are soundbanks for the M1 of those classic dance sounds around?

I'm doing synth based stuff so i'm covered for those types of sounds but sometimes i want a good sampled string or organ, or a flute or guitar for a more downtempo track and i haven't got a dedicated workstation or sampler apart from Maschine, FL has DW but most of the presets are to buy.

I've thought about investing a decent rack module or something, i suppose the other option is a good FM synth but i want something light on cpu but good quality even if it means programming your own sounds.

I'm just listening to the demos on the website and it sounds like it might be better for synth based stuff than acoustic stuff which the reviews seem to bear out as well. So maybe not the right thing for me but i'll check out DimPro, think i have LE from Project Studio 5 so could upgrade it if it's eligible.

Cheers!

[HaganeSteel]

Thanks again. I'm assuming there are soundbanks for the M1 of those classic dance sounds around?

Oh, for sure. I'm certain you can find something out there. M1's been around for a long~ time, so there is a very good chance.

I'm doing synth based stuff so i'm covered for those types of sounds but sometimes i want a good sampled string or organ, or a flute or guitar for a more downtempo track and i haven't got a dedicated workstation or sampler apart from Maschine, FL has DW but most of the presets are to buy.

Oh, I see. Well, I can say this objectively:

The M1's guitars are bad. The acoustic guitar sounds very MIDI-like, and so do the electric guitars. It can make some nice synthy strats and stuff, though.

Purity's acoustic instruments sound very usable, and the global sound quality of its acoustic instruments is a step or two up from the M1.

Dimension Pro probably has the most realistic and full bodied sounds, though. It has flutes taken directly from the Garritan libraries, and they actually sound good. It also has some excellent organs, including a very extensive B3 emulation in the first of three expansions packs that you get for free.

The problem with Dimension Pro is many of the samples are very sloppily edited. To make it usable, you have to go into the MIDI Matrix and link "Sample Offset All" to a MIDI CC. You shouldn't need to do this for the organs, but for the strings and some of the guitars, it is almost required.

Purity sees a lot more use by me as a result of the hassles that come with Dimension Pro, but Dimension Pro's sound is undeniably fantastic.

[tapper mike]

This is the thing about DimPro's B3 sounds. They aren't editable like modeled B3 vst's. It drives me insane. What you have In the samples are a few close but no cigar sounds. Sometimes I just wish I could make the needed drawbar adjustment and it's not there. I am not as impressed with GPO as I was many years ago when I first tried it. The DSF orchestral instruments are so far superior to gpo for what I do it isn't even funny.

In regards to Purity. It's a lot of fun and...the GM sounds are identical to Coyote Forte dxi. Coyote Forte is the gm soundset used by guitar pro for the non guitar sounds and is/was sold as an add on for band in a box. This is a plus for me when trying to get a song down that I have in biab format as the instruments are identical in character. I was working on some quick horn sections and after some fighting with Purity I ran quickly to M1 to finish the job.

Anyway I've got a new B3 emulator to try out. So I can put this on the shelf.

[fluffy_little_something]

I never had any other such synth or rompler, so I can't compare. But I still like Purity, no regret so far.
I could play with those strings for hours. Drop some effects into the effects slots and you have an entire orchestra that sounds like straight from a romantic movie soundtrack

[jsp1979]

The DSF orchestral instruments are so far superior to gpo for what I do it isn't even funny.

Just curious, which DSF orchestral instruments do you use? The HD pack?

[HaganeSteel]

Probably the Studio Orchestra. I was thinking about getting that, but I didn't want another Virtuoso 2000. I learned that there is usually a reason people don't use something. But after learning that someone does use it, it might be worth another look.

The problem with these things is that you never know exactly what you're getting, and that's why I never shut up in this thread. I have spent way too much money on crap that has seen very limited use.

The M1's brass definitely is better than Purity's too. Purity is still capable, though.

To this day, I am blown away by the quality of the M1's sounds (and its FX) for the time. In a blind test, if you had sat me next to an SC-88, an Emu Proteus 1/2/3, and an expertly programmed M1, before I was as familiar with these synths as I am now, I probably would've said the M1 sounded the best.

I say "expertly programmed" M1 because up to this point I haven't heard anyone use it well (in video games*). It wasn't until I heard Naoshi Mizuta's music with it that I realized how good it was. In fact, I pretty much did say that because Naoshi Mizuta used one, along with other synths and samples, in Blood of Bahamut to achieve this near perfect MIDI sound that I thought was the coolest thing ever when I heard this soundtrack:



Wish I could find a stereo recording of it, but I can't.

What I've started doing is: the Hyper Canvas has stayed as the centerpiece of my rig. I also have a bunch of instances of Dimension Pro with Emu Proteus 2000 drums and strings, because the Hyper Canvas' strings are still really bad. The beauty of this is that I can switch out the Emu Proteus stuff for stock Dimension Pro sounds any time I want, so it's good if I need more watery strings.

Then I have Purity filling in everything else, and trust me, there is a lot of material left to fill in for me.

I've decided I don't really like Purity's violas/violins very much, but that's not knocking their quality - they are incredibly good - I was just having trouble because I was trying to make them sound like the Section patch from the Proteus 2000 and was disappointed when they didn't.

I just have to start learning to EQ those Proteus strings.

[HaganeSteel]

For a while, I've been wanting to do a demo song that I could show people.

I did this tonight. It's 100% Purity, and raw at that, with only a minor touch of EQ on the flutes to make them less harsh.

https://soundcloud.com/haganesteel/vill ... moon-elves

If the mix has any issues, please tell me. My listening environment is not the best.

[Teksonik]

Cool tune! I like your Battle Theme 2 as well.......

I got a message from Sky Cha today and Yeap is not able to work any further on Purity 64 bit. They are looking for a new programmer but to be honest it doesn't sound too promising. Sounds like Luxonix is more interested in creating new sample content for Kontakt etc which is not a bad thing but I don't own it.......

So I'm going to uninstall the 64 bit beta and move on.......shame as it has such potential.....

[Aloysius]

Excellent music HaganeSteel.