Cytomic "The Drop" Resonant Filter

[andy-cytomic]

Bug report - the pad button has no effect unless audio is passing thru the plugin...

Example - I dropped an instance of The Drop on a track and set the pad to -12db right away, without pressing play on the project. The LED level indicator was flashing red as soon as I hit play (when it should be well in the blue at the -12db setting), and I could hear the clipping... I had to cycle the pad button thru all settings and back to -12db again for the setting to properly take effect (LED in the blue, no clipping audible)

OS X VST v1.04
Yosemite 10.10
Ableton Live 9.1.6

Thanks for the bug report! Should be very easily fixed. Can you please copy and paste this into an email to me so I can more easily keep track of it and also reply to you directly with any further questions? Thanks! www.cytomic.com/contact

[mustgroove]

Thanks for the bug report! Should be very easily fixed. Can you please copy and paste this into an email to me so I can more easily keep track of it and also reply to you directly with any further questions? Thanks! http://www.cytomic.com/contact

Emailed!

[moscom_electronics]

Hi Andy,

I have been testing the beta version of the drop, and although I love what I can get out of it, I noticed something that puzzles me.

I had a drumtrack in Live 9.1.5 (32-bit) whose general output I was filtering with the Drop. I was reading the part of the manual that deals with oversampling at the same time. I tested if I could hear a difference in terms of sound when changing the real-time oversampling rate, and I noticed that the behaviour was rather strongly depending on the oversampling rate.

Are you aware of this? Do other users here experience the same thing?

I am running Live under OSX 10.9.

Thanks!

Moscom

[andy-cytomic]

Hi Andy,

I have been testing the beta version of the drop, and although I love what I can get out of it, I noticed something that puzzles me.

I had a drumtrack in Live 9.1.5 (32-bit) whose general output I was filtering with the Drop. I was reading the part of the manual that deals with oversampling at the same time. I tested if I could hear a difference in terms of sound when changing the real-time oversampling rate, and I noticed that the behaviour was rather strongly depending on the oversampling rate.

Are you aware of this? Do other users here experience the same thing?

I am running Live under OSX 10.9.

Thanks!

Moscom

If you run your project at 44.1 / 48 khz then oversample to x2 to 88.2 / 96 khz there will be some differences depending on which settings you are using. For resonance < 100%, cutoff < 10 khz, and low drive (ie the LEDs are not in the red), and LFOs at < 5 khz then oversampling won't make much difference, which is why it is optional.

For projects at a base rate of 44.1 / 48 khz then oversampling will help as soon as you start pushing things harder, like having high cutoff frequencies with > 100% resonance and large amounts of drive, and this is completely expected and completely unavoidable. The difference between x2 to x4 will be less, but again depend on the particular settings.

In general higher sample rates will sound better, but take more cpu. The main benefits of running at 88.2 khz or faster are:

1) decramping - the frequency and phase response is more analog at high frequencies
2) less aliasing - there is more headroom to contain harmonics generated
3) more room for > 100% resonance to not alias, so resonance can remain stronger
4) smoother audio rate modulation - eg LFO > 5 khz in rate

[andy-cytomic]

A quick update for everyone here, the new copy protection system is working well and, as people reading this thread are aware, there have only been a few small operational bugs (ie not crashes) that have been reported with the current version of The Drop. Once I'm back from travelling in just under a week I'll fix those, finish the manual and then release the official 1st version of The Drop, including reviews and press releases etc.

The Drop is already hard at work in numerous high profile artists productions. Thanks for all the positive feedback from everyone here to do with not only the tone but also the modulation options and user interface.

I dare anyone that hasn't already given The Drop a go to load it up and compare it to your current favourite filter plugin, unless that is you don't want to be disappointed with your current filter!

[meloco_go]

I dare anyone that hasn't already given The Drop a go to load it up and compare it to your current favourite filter plugin, unless that is you don't want to be disappointed with your current filter!

And gate. And compressor.

[moscom_electronics]

If you run your project at 44.1 / 48 khz then oversample to x2 to 88.2 / 96 khz there will be some differences depending on which settings you are using. For resonance < 100%, cutoff < 10 khz, and low drive (ie the LEDs are not in the red), and LFOs at < 5 khz then oversampling won't make much difference, which is why it is optional.

For projects at a base rate of 44.1 / 48 khz then oversampling will help as soon as you start pushing things harder, like having high cutoff frequencies with > 100% resonance and large amounts of drive, and this is completely expected and completely unavoidable. The difference between x2 to x4 will be less, but again depend on the particular settings.

In general higher sample rates will sound better, but take more cpu. The main benefits of running at 88.2 khz or faster are:

1) decramping - the frequency and phase response is more analog at high frequencies
2) less aliasing - there is more headroom to contain harmonics generated
3) more room for > 100% resonance to not alias, so resonance can remain stronger
4) smoother audio rate modulation - eg LFO > 5 khz in rate

thanks a lot for the precise answer! This helps a lot!

Cheers

Moscom

[zvenx]

I havent found any bugs in my usage, but certainly wish the modulation was implented differently (serum, guitar rig 5, massive etc). Alas i doubt that any change of how modulation is implemented would occur in version1 if ever, but what i certainly wish for soon is more parameters to be available as modulation targets.

Thanks
Rsp

[greententacle]

I would love to modulate lfo 1 with lfo 2 , or modulate whatever with whatever... more like a modular system...

But it is what it is, and its sounds fantastic !!!!

[andy-cytomic]

I havent found any bugs in my usage, but certainly wish the modulation was implented differently (serum, guitar rig 5, massive etc). Alas i doubt that any change of how modulation is implemented would occur in version1 if ever, but what i certainly wish for soon is more parameters to be available as modulation targets.

Thanks
Rsp

All modulation in The Drop is at audio rate, which means each modulation source outputs an audio rate signal, and all modulation destinations update every sample.

The plugins you mention don't feature audio rate modulation - it is all "control rate", which is the same as automating the parameters of the plugin. There are multiple ways to use "control rate" modulators in different hosts to achieve what you are after (eg Max for Live, Reaper, FL Studio etc etc), so I felt it best to keep The Drop as clean as possible and only feature audio rate modulation options which hosts can't do.

[zvenx]

I havent found any bugs in my usage, but certainly wish the modulation was implented differently (serum, guitar rig 5, massive etc). Alas i doubt that any change of how modulation is implemented would occur in version1 if ever, but what i certainly wish for soon is more parameters to be available as modulation targets.

Thanks
Rsp

All modulation in The Drop is at audio rate, which means each modulation source outputs an audio rate signal, and all modulation destinations update every sample.

The plugins you mention don't feature audio rate modulation - it is all "control rate", which is the same as automating the parameters of the plugin. There are multiple ways to use "control rate" modulators in different hosts to achieve what you are after (eg Max for Live, Reaper, FL Studio etc etc), so I felt it best to keep The Drop as clean as possible and only feature audio rate modulation options which hosts can't do.

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense.

rsp

[mustgroove]

Whoaaaaaaa that ID change has all my existing projects with The Drop not finding the new plugin... Is it 100% necessary to do the ID change? Having the old version around for legacy reasons is gonna be a bit annoying to deal with... I'm using the OS X VST version

[andy-cytomic]

Whoaaaaaaa that ID change has all my existing projects with The Drop not finding the new plugin... Is it 100% necessary to do the ID change? Having the old version around for legacy reasons is gonna be a bit annoying to deal with... I'm using the OS X VST version

If you check back a few posts you can read the reasons behind the change. Please rename the older version of the plugin (eg: The Drop.vst -> The Drop legacy.vst) and then copy the new version v1.0.6 to your plugin folder, both plugins can co-exist and all old projects load just fine.

[olikana]

played with it yesterday feeding it with sawtooths from obxd (which are my fav) and had a lot of fun.
if you make a synth out of this i'd be superinterested.
in any case stellar work on this

[Kaboom75]

I've combined DIVA and The Drop into a super JP-80000 synthesizer far more filter options with around the same sound quality. Another thing I like is I can have two lots of DIVA MS20 oscilaltors combined and fed into one filter using The Drop what a superb sound.