Sandman - yet another cool new delay that doesn't cost $299

[stardustmedia]

It doesn't state anywhere on the page...

Sorry... now I see it... Grey in grey in the buy section

Sounds like a need to redesign that page

Could help. Usually I look for a section "Requirements"


Had some cool fun with it yesterday. Funky nasty little tool.

Here are some points I think would make Sandman 1.00 even better:
- Higher range for the LFOs. Ideally from 0 to 500 Hz
- Show values for the modulation amount
- Automation for not whole numbers. E.g. (n Logic X) I couldn't automate values for sample rate like 21.2 to 23.4, only 21 to 23
- GUI: A little aliasing for the graphics. Because of black and white "stairs" are highly visible. It didn't hurt my eyes but would make it look better.
- "Dirt" feeding back into the sound engine. At the moment I think it's just noise added to the output, but I'm not sure about that.

Maybe they are already included in 1.02beta. I have tested only 1.00

[wesleyt]

Cool; thanks. So fast! I'll keep an eye here for the next update.

[thelizard]

Here are some points I think would make Sandman 1.00 even better:
- Higher range for the LFOs. Ideally from 0 to 500 Hz
- Show values for the modulation amount
- Automation for not whole numbers. E.g. (n Logic X) I couldn't automate values for sample rate like 21.2 to 23.4, only 21 to 23
- GUI: A little aliasing for the graphics. Because of black and white "stairs" are highly visible. It didn't hurt my eyes but would make it look better.
- "Dirt" feeding back into the sound engine. At the moment I think it's just noise added to the output, but I'm not sure about that.

Maybe they are already included in 1.02beta. I have tested only 1.00

1.0.2 doesn't have any new features. It's mainly to fix installation issues on Windows 32-bit and performance issues on Core 2 Duo OS X computers.

-For the LFOs, as someone who spends a lot of their time in front of a modular synth, I really, really want more audio-rate modulation in plug-ins. However, I tested them on Sandman, and they just weren't useful past about 5 Hz. What happens is that modulating the Delay at that speed is hampered by the delay's interpolation amount. For start and end points, a cycle has to finish before the new points is used. Extremely fast sine waves basically have the same effect as regular S+H modulation for those parameters. For feedback, it's too fast to have an appreciable effect. I think Sample Rate was the only parameter that had any value with audio-rate modulation.

-Agreed. I've been toying with visual ideas for that. It might be best to do something like Massive, where the modulation amount is highlighted around the knob.

-That's odd. I'll look into why that's happening on Logic.

-Agreed again! I did the entire interface in Adobe Illustrator and exported it as vector graphics. I need to look deeper into the JUCE API to see if there are better aliasing options for that. Are you on a Retina screen?

-Dirt does feedback. You can use Sandman with no inputs if you're so inclined. It's added to your input signal, so it's pretty hard to notice that it feeds back. It's also worth noting that the noise generation volume and timbre is affected by the sample rate. At lower sample rates, it's much louder and sounds very digital. At 100% Sample Rate, it's inaudible.

[lnikj]

-For the LFOs, as someone who spends a lot of their time in front of a modular synth, I really, really want more audio-rate modulation in plug-ins. However, I tested them on Sandman, and they just weren't useful past about 5 Hz. What happens is that modulating the Delay at that speed is hampered by the delay's interpolation amount. For start and end points, a cycle has to finish before the new points is used. Extremely fast sine waves basically have the same effect as regular S+H modulation for those parameters. For feedback, it's too fast to have an appreciable effect. I think Sample Rate was the only parameter that had any value with audio-rate modulation.

I've found myself wanting greater range in the other direction a few times - up to 4 bars maybe.

[stardustmedia]

1.0.2 doesn't have any new features. It's mainly to fix installation issues on Windows 32-bit and performance issues on Core 2 Duo OS X computers.

-For the LFOs, as someone who spends a lot of their time in front of a modular synth, I really, really want more audio-rate modulation in plug-ins. However, I tested them on Sandman, and they just weren't useful past about 5 Hz. What happens is that modulating the Delay at that speed is hampered by the delay's interpolation amount. For start and end points, a cycle has to finish before the new points is used. Extremely fast sine waves basically have the same effect as regular S+H modulation for those parameters. For feedback, it's too fast to have an appreciable effect. I think Sample Rate was the only parameter that had any value with audio-rate modulation.

-Agreed. I've been toying with visual ideas for that. It might be best to do something like Massive, where the modulation amount is highlighted around the knob.

-That's odd. I'll look into why that's happening on Logic.

-Agreed again! I did the entire interface in Adobe Illustrator and exported it as vector graphics. I need to look deeper into the JUCE API to see if there are better aliasing options for that. Are you on a Retina screen?

-Dirt does feedback. You can use Sandman with no inputs if you're so inclined. It's added to your input signal, so it's pretty hard to notice that it feeds back. It's also worth noting that the noise generation volume and timbre is affected by the sample rate. At lower sample rates, it's much louder and sounds very digital. At 100% Sample Rate, it's inaudible.

- No, no retina. Just an old plain MBpro, Duo Core at 2.53 GHz, just about enough to run 2-3 tracks
BTW: MacOS 10.9.5, Logic X 10.0.7

- Addendum to the automation issue: I wasn't also able to record automation via "Touch", "Write" nor "Latch" mode. Maybe there is the clue. For some plugin that helps to write values, that cannot be drawn. In Sandman's case neither worked.

- LFO: True, that makes no sense then Thanks for the explanation

- Visual feedback as in Massive would even better. But what I still miss there is that no values are shown. In some cases that's even better because it forces you to listen and not to look. But in Sandman's case where very little steps can make big differences, it'd be helpful to see them if you want to go back to that value. Maybe this could made to be optional: "Values On/Off"

- Just remembering another thing: Overwriting an existing preset is not possible without opening the window, choosing the preset and then confirming. If you work on new presets that it a hassle. Maybe two different buttons could help, one = "Save/Overwrite", two = "Save as". The factory presets can be made read only then to protect them from overwriting.

[Ah_Dziz]

Any chance of midi learn and a way to switch off interpolation? Still totally worth a few bucks. Played with it in conjunction with spectrumworx for a couple hours after I downloaded it. Good work.

[jens]

when it comes to digital delays (or even physical tape delays), think of it like a circle. A read head is placed somewhere, and a record head is placed some distance away from that. You shouldn't really think of one head coming "before" the other, since you could arbitrarily think of one coming before or after the other.

Yes, I know of course - I just used these words in my description in an attempt to illustrate the concept I had in mind (a concept which afaik so far has neither been implemented in software nor hardware yet). Your reply made it clear to me however that this attempt of mine was a complete fail.

When I come around to it, I'll use a clearer and more mathematical terminology to explain what I have in mind.

[GaryG]

-Agreed. I've been toying with visual ideas for that. It might be best to do something like Massive, where the modulation amount is highlighted around the knob.

-Agreed again! I did the entire interface in Adobe Illustrator and exported it as vector graphics. I need to look deeper into the JUCE API to see if there are better aliasing options for that. Are you on a Retina screen?

-Yes, visual feedback would be great, a simple line around/under the control would be fine for me.

- The valhalla plugs are based on JUCE and look pretty good so I guess this is possible. Not much help to you, consider this a cheerleading comment.

Anyway, bought Sandman last night, great stuff. Surprised how long I actually spent with it making 'regular' delays, I hope that aspect doesn't get overshadowed by the more attention grabbing granular/loopy stuff, would be a shame.

[foosnark]

A way to quickly zero the mod depths on LFOs would be great.

[stardustmedia]

Just left-click & CMD (or was it ALT) and instant reset

[Ah_Dziz]

A way to quickly zero the mod depths on LFOs would be great.

Double click resets values to their default on my system.

[Norkoastal]

Hi, Never received my confirmation after paying with PayPal. Email sent to Humble Bumble with Transaction ID. Can you please resend to address provided?

Thanks!

[thelizard]

Hi, Never received my confirmation after paying with PayPal. Email sent to Humble Bumble with Transaction ID. Can you please resend to address provided?

Thanks!

Hello! Send me a PM through KVR or an email to contact at unfilteredaudio dot com. Please include the e-mail address that you purchased Sandman on. I will send you your link.

Edit: Nevermind, I saw your username on the purchase list. I've sent you an e-mail. Check your spam box!

[thelizard]

Any chance of midi learn and a way to switch off interpolation? Still totally worth a few bucks. Played with it in conjunction with spectrumworx for a couple hours after I downloaded it. Good work.

For interpolation: An early beta of Sandman had a switch to turn it off, but it was click-and-pop city. There might be a happy medium though, between zero and the current amount. I'll do some research after the kill switch is taken care of. Our next plug-in uses four delay lines, so it would be beneficial for us to improve the algorithm even more.

MIDI Learn: I haven't used MIDI Learn on a plug-in ever, so if somebody who uses it frequently could explain their use cases, I would really appreciate it! We're already planning on re-programming our knobs and sliders to show modulation amounts, so it'd be easiest to add in MIDI learn functionality then, and I want to make sure that it's done correctly. I know most plugs simply have a right-click menu to do this. I pretty much only use Live, Max, and Bitwig for my own music. Which hosts do not allow you to attach host automation to MIDI signals?

[xx JPRacer xx]

Since you use the JUCE API, can you make the UI resizable too please? Like someone else mentioned, check the Valhalla DSP plugins for some UI direction. Great plugin BTW!