Spectral public beta / call for presets and sound/video demos

[Peter from LinPlug]

Thanks Pascal,
only now I came to reply to your helpful report! See your inbox

[Ingonator]

Hi,

as currently there does not seem to be a way to directly import single cycle waveforms into Spectral i currently try to import some waveforms "manually". For that i loaded the WAV files into the editor in the Diversion synth and try to transfer the partials as good as possible. Even if the transfer is maybe not 100% accurate the results are quite interesting so far.
The waveforms are also based on some of the Prophet VS waveforms that i had sampled from my Korg Wavesrtation EX (several of those are too complex to transfer the partials manually, maybe i'll try some of those later...). I'll also try to recreate some of those i had done myself with DNR Wave Designer.

Of course i'll also try to create patches based on those until the deadline at the 10th of November (= Sunday this week).


Ingo

[Spitfire31]

Waveform import into Spectral seems to me a major feature to wish for.

/Joachim

[Ingonator]

Waveform import into Spectral seems to me a major feature to wish for.

/Joachim

I agree. while doing waveforms "from scratch" is a very nice feature i already got tons of nice sounding single cycle waveforms including many that were done with e.g. DNR Wave Designer. Currently the way i mentioned (= manually transfer partials) seems to be the only way to transfer those to Spectral.

In Spectral it would be interesting to futher edit the imported waveforms with the editor. With the "Blend" feature in waveform editor of Spectral it is even püossible to create new waveforms from two others (besides using the "Mix" feature and/or layering oscillators).

UPDATE:
In Spectral i just played a bit with the advanced editor features for the waveforms. It's quite funny to create certain "shapes" of partials and some of those "shapes" even seem to make sense sound wise.


Ingo

[Gribs]

I have been playing with shapes and patterns of partials, too, making different types of stair case designs.

I am not personally feeling too much need to import wave forms. It might be fun, but I would say that adding layers of complexity to Spectral would detract from its appeal to me. The additive synth invites experimentation. However I can grok that some folks are not as interested in pure experimentation as am I.

[Peter from LinPlug]

Actually we have that on our list for an update, personally I not consider it an important features, but nice to have. As such it will probably take a while to make it into Spectral. The main argument for me is, that people might want to import otherwise created waveforms.

[Peter from LinPlug]

Beta 0.9.9 (or other might call that a RC1 release candidate), if nothing else comes up, thats how it will ship

[Ameyah Audio]

Actually we have that on our list for an update, personally I not consider it an important features, but nice to have. As such it will probably take a while to make it into Spectral. The main argument for me is, that people might want to import otherwise created waveforms.

yes i really want to import waveforms to spectral, my skills are a bit limited in the editor(but its still a nice tool to get some basic spectral waveforms you never heard before).
you have a roadmap for that?

Beta 0.9.9 (or other might call that a RC1 release candidate), if nothing else comes up, thats how it will ship

just updated and i will see if the bug is fixed i had here. fingers crossed.

im a bit unsure - is it possible to use 1 filter for all 4 OSCs?
(i tried to nail that, but i havnt found a way to get this done, because its really not that great to make a basic preset, where i want to mix only pulse and saw for example - it would be a waste of CPU cycles, not that i have enough )
so far have not found any other bugs or something.

[Peter from LinPlug]

im a bit unsure - is it possible to use 1 filter for all 4 OSCs?
(i tried to nail that, but i havnt found a way to get this done, because its really not that great to make a basic preset, where i want to mix only pulse and saw for example - it would be a waste of CPU cycles, not that i have enough )
so far have not found any other bugs or something.

No its not. To use Saw and Pulse (for example) you have two options:
1) Use the two Waveforms A and B (Mix can be modulated) or
2) Use the first Waveform and the Blend option in the Wave Editor to mix with the other (no realtime Mix modulation)

[Ingonator]

Hi Peter,

i found some "strange" orange buttons (5 of them) at the bottom of the Spectral GUI, next to the Spectral logo:



Those seem to slightly overlap with the "Prev" button.

I am not really sure for what those orange buttons are used and did not find them in the manual.

I am using the 32-bit plugin for Windows inside Windows 7 and Ableton Live 9 Suite.


Ingo

[Peter from LinPlug]

That was a faulty built of the installer, using a version that was not intended to go out to customers, including some functions which make sense in testing the plugin here, sorry for the confusion

[Ingonator]

That was a faulty built of the installer, using a version that was not intended to go out to customers, including some functions which make sense in testing the plugin here, sorry for the confusion

Hi Peter,

this explains why those are there. I already had an idea that somehow those were for testing purposes.


Ingo

[Ameyah Audio]

i noticed the button also - thought cool new features.
this installer created a folder "my sounds"!

im wondering which takes more CPU?
A Filter or an OSC?
so my idea there, make it possible to link all 4 OSCs to one Filter.
(maybe more linking between the OSC and the filters.)

@Peter my idea was to make a phat Trance Pad - thats why i was asking.
means double up the voices (in trance we dont like to look on the CPU usage ) and i would have more controller when using 1 filter over 2 OSCs.
anyway i will try your 2 ideas and then compare when layering 2 Spectrals( in abletons Rack)

[hollo]

I would like to share some of my thougt while working with Spectral.

As we have to use the matrix for a simple vibrato or key tracking,
i found many times the 16 slot is not enough.


-What if we could have key tracking in the volume env module just before the Pit scale?
It would fit there perfectly well.

-For vibrato i would like to have a pot (for amount) and a selector for choosing LFOs around the tuning in the osc module.
With a same style like you have the fx select drop down menu and the pot on the opposite filter side.
( i understand your logic is every modulation should be in the matrix, for modulation overview, and i appritiate that very much, -but it would be luxury

This way we could spare many valuable slot in the matrix.

-My biggest problem was the Reverb. I feel it's not in the same high quality level as the whole synth itself.
If i begin to hear it it's already too much in the low-mid spectrum.


Huge congrats:
The spectral editor is brilliant and working like a charm (anyway everything is working like a charm)
(it could have smoothing or sharpening in little repeatable steps, so if we repeat the the sharpening it will be deeper and deeper or smoother the differences)

The Fx selector is another winner, looks so simple but can do a lot - this why i would like the same style for vibratos.

After all i must say i'v got incredible nice sound quality from Spectral.

Any news with the beta sound contest?

[Peter from LinPlug]

Thank you for the feedback guys. Sound contest is over and I got in touch with everyone. Altogether we already have 700+ presets, some still need volume adjustments and sorting.