I guess it's synth month because U-HE is finishing the new Hive synth

[martingifford]

Here's a quick sequence noodling with just one osc/sub/filter and some filter/resonance modulation tweaking (12dB lowpass, to unveil character and show how it doesn't "fall apart").

http://www.u-he.com/songs/Hive/HiveSeqNoodle.mp3

(starts very quiet, becomes louder towards the middle)

Ah, that sounds good. Not frosty like the other two demo sounds, and it also has an intriguing originality to it.

[rustman]

I would be quite satisfied with the UI as shown in the example. As someone mentioned...kids sitting in the dark pretending they're in a spaceship twiddling synth knobs...I'm getting kind of old, yet I see nothing wrong with that. I occasionally snark about "beat makahs", but this doesn't scream to that audience like some products do. Just don't EVER use the word "urban", ever, ever. Your environment (an the GUI's you stare at) effect your mood, which can trickle down into inspiration (for me anyway). So there are fifteen million patches who's names were drawn from an astronomy 101 textbook. This says that there are a lot of us geeks who sit in the dark and dig the mood while we create. I'm shameless, I guess. I'll take this any day over sylenth or the horrid DCAM synth squad UI's. They're functional, but ugly.
Jmtc.

[ghettosynth]

I would be quite satisfied with the UI as shown in the example. As someone mentioned...kids sitting in the dark pretending they're in a spaceship twiddling synth knobs...I'm getting kind of old, yet I see nothing wrong with that. I occasionally snark about "beat makahs", but this doesn't scream to that audience like some products do. Just don't EVER use the word "urban", ever, ever. Your environment (an the GUI's you stare at) effect your mood, which can trickle down into inspiration (for me anyway). So there are fifteen million patches who's names were drawn from an astronomy 101 textbook. This says that there are a lot of us geeks who sit in the dark and dig the mood while we create. I'm shameless, I guess. I'll take this any day over sylenth or the horrid DCAM synth squad UI's. They're functional, but ugly.
Jmtc.

Yeah man, I like having a bit of fun online, so sometimes it might seem like my comments are only meant to be a joke, but in this case, I was a bit serious.

I don't like dark interfaces and it is mostly to do with them being harder to see, my eyes aren't that great to begin with. I think that hive looks fine, although, it wouldn't be my first choice for a synth design, bu that's neither here nor there. That said, I would really like to see a really clean white skin with paper white scope, I think it would compliment the design and I think that a previous poster really did nail with SEM meets storm trooper.

I suppose a few laser blast marks on the surface would be apropos, but I could do without them, YMMV.

[Urs]

What might make sense with such a parallel architecture is adding a lock and/or copy feature for those cases when you want exactly the same settings for, say, both amp envelopes.

I take it the Width control in the osc section is not for pw? Is direct pw control missing like with Sylenth?

The oscillators have Pulse Width, Phase and an additional continuous tune parameter. They're available from the ModMatrix. It'll be a single click to assign, say, LFO1 to Pulse Width for both Oscs by loading a preset called, say, "PWM [LFO1]" into any of the Matrix Slots.

If people insist on a representation for knobbage, we will consider it. At the moment we however want so see how people do without. It's still pretty accessible, really.

Each module has copy/paste and a drop down with presets. You can save your own presets. Copying settings from left to right is a maximum of 5 copy and paste actions (Osc, Filter, 2 x Env, LFO). Again, we'll offer a quicker way if people find it to be a necessity.

We're currently evaluating a new and comfortable way to link parameters in Presswerk. This seems to work very well. It's pretty cool because it preserves the relative parameter differences between the linked sections. We're also going to implement shortcuts to quickly set the remote controlled knob to the same setting, e.g. by double click. I think we'll add this as an option so that the left side controls the right hand side, but the right hand side stays independent when editing. This might be the ultimately fastest way to set up & control those big sounds (it basically improves on the "meta filter section" found in e.g. Sylenth, but puts it onto a different level - without sacrificing UI space)

We have also recently almost-finished a new level of MIDI and keyboard control. This won't be available in the first beta, but it ought to be finished before release. If everything pans out well, an alphanumerical keyboard and two knobs on a MIDI-Controller will allow for completely mouse-less programming. Of course this will seamlessly integrate with the mouse as well (and you don't want to live without the mouse when you've started drag'n'drop for ModMatrix targets!). Unfortunately, people with Logic and some other hosts are screwed for this because the plug-in doesn't get numbers from the keyboard. They can still do the MIDI stuff, but they can't just type numbers and bang. in Logic, they end up switching screensets. Which is a real bummer. Because this could be huge.

But I digress...

[Urs]

I suppose a few laser blast marks on the surface would be apropos, but I could do without them, YMMV.

Actually, drag'n'drop of ModMatrix targets is visualized by a line that might slightly resemble light sabers. The original ones.

[fluffy_little_something]

The oscillators have Pulse Width, Phase and an additional continuous tune parameter. They're available from the ModMatrix. It'll be a single click to assign, say, LFO1 to Pulse Width for both Oscs by loading a preset called, say, "PWM [LFO1]" into any of the Matrix Slots.

If people insist on a representation for knobbage, we will consider it. At the moment we however want so see how people do without. It's still pretty accessible, really.

Each module has copy/paste and a drop down with presets. You can save your own presets. Copying settings from left to right is a maximum of 5 copy and paste actions (Osc, Filter, 2 x Env, LFO). Again, we'll offer a quicker way if people find it to be a necessity.

We're currently evaluating a new and comfortable way to link parameters in Presswerk. This seems to work very well. It's pretty cool because it preserves the relative parameter differences between the linked sections. We're also going to implement shortcuts to quickly set the remote controlled knob to the same setting, e.g. by double click. I think we'll add this as an option so that the left side controls the right hand side, but the right hand side stays independent when editing. This might be the ultimately fastest way to set up & control those big sounds (it basically improves on the "meta filter section" found in e.g. Sylenth, but puts it onto a different level - without sacrificing UI space)

In my view static parameters should not be in the modulation matrix. PW is a static parameter, the modulation of the PW should indeed be in the matrix, though, because it is dynamic.

Regarding the envelopes, you might give each of the four envelopes a "Slave to" button, where you can select A1/A2/M1/M2. A slave env would get bipolar sliders where the center position means the same value as on the master, whereas deviating values mean an offset, i.e. lower values mean shorter/quieter and higher values mean longer/louder than the corresponding parameters on the master env


Roughly, what will CPU usage be like compared to Diva when doing similar things?

[Naenyn]

I suppose a few laser blast marks on the surface would be apropos, but I could do without them, YMMV.

Actually, drag'n'drop of ModMatrix targets is visualized by a line that might slightly resemble light sabers. The original ones.

Coolest feature ever.

[pdxindy]

Roughly, what will CPU usage be like compared to Diva when doing similar things?

way less...

[Urs]

In my view static parameters should not be in the modulation matrix. PW is a static parameter, the modulation of the PW should indeed be in the matrix, though, because it is dynamic.

Normally I would completely agree, but we're trying a different approach here. We populate the UI only with parameters that usually do something. Parameters like pulse width and oscillator phase often - if not most of the time in a supersaw synth - do nothing. All potential "do nothings" have been moved elsewhere, either in the mod matrix or into the synth engine switch. We'll see how this goes, but it's not an irreversible decision.

Regarding the envelopes, you might give each of the four envelopes a "Slave to" button, where you can select A1/A2/M1/M2. A slave env would get bipolar sliders where the center position means the same value as on the master, whereas deviating values mean an offset, i.e. lower values mean shorter/quieter and higher values mean longer/louder than the corresponding parameters on the master env

I find bipolar sliders for envelopes most disturbing. I'd like to experiment with that one day, but I don't want to dare such an experiment with Hive.

Roughly, what will CPU usage be like compared to Diva when doing similar things?

I had to set the max of our internal CPU meter to 50% in order to get a visible spike. I thought it was broken because it didn't reach the first bar on my computer.

[Kriminal]

Getting about 3% here on my 3 yr old AMD machine using some big unison numbers and multi fx....playing 3 note chords.

[fluffy_little_something]

Oh, so it is a supersaw synth I thought the supersaw aspect was just one of many properties, didn't know it was the main character of the synth I never liked the typical supersaw sound as such, there is no place for it in my music. Except when it is used so sparsely that one would not guess it is a supersaw You know, just to create several slightly detuned waves to avoid the thin pad sound two single-wave osc's of a normal synth tend to bring about (think of Element pads ).

That is why I still use the old Superwave P80 and for simpler sounds even the Professional/Trance-Pro synths. Their features are perfect for me, but their SynthEdit osc's and filters don't sound that good and the P80's GUI sucks, which is why I am looking for a modern replacement with similar features and possibilities as the P80's

I probably would have bought Sylenth a long time ago, but the missing direct PW controls were deal breakers for me as I use pulse a whole lot to emulate real instruments.

Good news there on the CPU load

[fluffy_little_something]

Getting about 3% here on my 3 yr old AMD machine using some big unison numbers and multi fx....playing 3 note chords.

Are you a beta tester?

AMD sufferer myself here

[Kriminal]

Getting about 3% here on my 3 yr old AMD machine using some big unison numbers and multi fx....playing 3 note chords.

Are you a beta tester?

AMD sufferer myself here

Yes, im a beta tester, and an AMD user, not sufferer

[fluffy_little_something]

Getting about 3% here on my 3 yr old AMD machine using some big unison numbers and multi fx....playing 3 note chords.

Are you a beta tester?

AMD sufferer myself here

Yes, im a beta tester, and an AMD user, not sufferer

I have a AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (their best processor just 2 years or so ago) and it doesn't seem to be enough for most modern quality synth

[valerian_777]

I have a AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (their best processor just 2 years or so ago) and it doesn't seem to be enough for most modern quality synth

I have the same processor (very easy overlocked to 3.8Ghz) with 6 threads. Enough for Diva.