KVR Audio

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:40 am

chk071 wrote:
Numanoid wrote:
xx JPRacer xx wrote:but the interface...
...looks a bit like Bitwig?
More than this?

What's wrong with that interface?

I can figure that layout pretty quick! If you want a hard interface. try this one...

I was interested in buying that synth because of the sound demo, but the interface looks ridiculous!

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 12:03 pm

V0RT3X wrote: What's wrong with that interface?

Nothing, but it naturally looks much more like Bitwig, as it's the same developer.

xamido · Post by **xamido** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:14 pm

zerocrossing wrote: And he UI? It's clean, intuitive, modern looking and clear. I can't quite get why there would be kickback on it for it's UI and as a UI designer I'm pretty sensitive to a bad UI.

Nah, you will see people on KVR repeatedly mention that they don't like the GUI. Since it happens quite a lot, then the problem is real for some people and it's detrimental for sales.

We're on KVR, we all know that diversion, spire, and tone 2 stuff can be bought a lot cheaper during their occasional sales. Even Zebra have dinosaur crossgrade. Another one of its competitor Z3ta 2 can sometime be bought for just 49$. Helix never have sales + the NFR makes people hesitant to buy it.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:21 pm

V0RT3X wrote:What's wrong with that interface?

Nothing at all, looks quite nice, I just find it a little funny that another swedish developer could "secretly" be involved in Bitwig, looks not a million miles apart to me these GUI's:

Helix:

Bitwig synth

xx JPRacer xx · Post by **xx JPRacer xx** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:54 pm

I think the interface of Surge is great! I hate the interface of Helix mainly because of the tiny horizontal sliders.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:57 pm

Yeah they are fiddly - then z3ta 2 does the same thing. I don't get it - luckily I have them all mapped to knobs in Kore but they are not very usable with a mouse.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:06 pm

xx JPRacer xx wrote:I think the interface of Surge is great! I hate the interface of Helix mainly because of the tiny horizontal sliders.

Yeah, I'll admit those are a bit problematic... but I can see why he used them to make better use of the space. Also, sliders are a better visual way of showing relative position.

You have to make a million little compromises when you design a UI for a complex piece of software. No UI on a synth like this is perfect. I was just demoing Electra 2 and I think Helix is a lot better in terms of UI.

Anyway, I'm not going to spend my time trying to convince anyone to buy Helix. I think it's a great little synth for the money. He's just a guy coding software trying to make a living. I'm sure he's not spending his evenings sipping Dom Perignon on his yacht. As for sales, I think they can hurt a little developer like Audjoo. They devalue the software and make people think, "Oh, I want this but I'll just wait until it goes on sale." Maybe you're all right though. Maybe if he did typical marketing stunts like sales and contests he'd sell more licenses. Maybe he should allow license transfers and try to instead sell sound sets to make up for the lost revenue when someone buys a used copy. Honestly, I think the whole thing turned a bit sour for him as the legions of KVRarians who made good use of his free beta turned their back on him when he asked for some money. It's why we can't have anything nice around here.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:18 pm

If i had to guess, then i would say he's doing something else for a living, and Audjoo is just a spare time project.

But even then, his business approach is his own thing. Some companies advertise, and make sales like mad, others are content not to have too many customers, also to keep support costs low. All up to your own preference. I agree though that Helix is somewhat of a insider tip, and with some marketing, it could probably be more than that.

What i didn't like at all, at least in the Helix beta, not sure if it's different in the full version, was the midi learn thing. Very fiddly, and difficult to understand. Also the unusual envelopes were a bit difficult to figure out at first. And i found the envelopes/filter lacked some "bang". I found it pretty hard to do good arps or plucky kind of things. That said, the oscillators sound very good though, especially in big unison, they really shine. And it's a joke how small the CPU hit is with many voices, best plugin by far regarding that i ever tried. I read somewhere there's some kind of trick the developer applied, not sure what it was though, and if i even understood it right.

Another thing was that the effects in the beta weren't syncable to the host tempo, again, not sure if that's different in the full version.

sinkmusic · Post by **sinkmusic** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:28 pm

Helix has the best [huge sound / low cpu footprint] ratio i know.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:13 pm

chk071 wrote:Also the unusual envelopes were a bit difficult to figure out at first. And i found the envelopes/filter lacked some "bang".

The amplitude envelope in Helix is excellent IMO. There is so much flexibility in the stages - linear or several types of curves.

Of course, the oscillators are great. But with the functional but bland GUI and the lack of high quality resonant filters, Helix is destined to be a minor player.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:18 pm

zerocrossing wrote:>snip< I don't know what went wrong... everyone here was so enamored with Helix when it was a free beta and as soon as he asked a fair price for the finished commercial version KVRians seemed to scatter like roaches from a pointy shoe.

you already answered your own question.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:24 pm

aMUSEd wrote:Yeah they are fiddly - then z3ta 2 does the same thing. I don't get it - luckily I have them all mapped to knobs in Kore but they are not very usable with a mouse.

in helix you have to get used to th big slider in the middle... as soon as you got used to it, helix is a breeze.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:59 pm

Whatever about the interface, I really like the sound of this thing...

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:03 pm

brok landers wrote:
aMUSEd wrote:Yeah they are fiddly - then z3ta 2 does the same thing. I don't get it - luckily I have them all mapped to knobs in Kore but they are not very usable with a mouse.
in helix you have to get used to th big slider in the middle... as soon as you got used to it, helix is a breeze.

How would that help?

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:40 pm

aMUSEd wrote:
brok landers wrote:
aMUSEd wrote:Yeah they are fiddly - then z3ta 2 does the same thing. I don't get it - luckily I have them all mapped to knobs in Kore but they are not very usable with a mouse.
in helix you have to get used to th big slider in the middle... as soon as you got used to it, helix is a breeze.
How would that help?

click on whatever parameter you´d want to adjust - the big fader is reflecting it. then use left mousebutton for normal, left mousebutton for fine adjustments.

Helix 64bit for Mac is out. Website also updated!