Hive preview (April 1 update)

[Urs]

@Urs:

I made a Lemur template to control HIve, but it's only possible to map the first 127 parameters. Is there a way around this limitation?

I am trying to map another 127 parameters using another midi chanel but hive seems to only recognize CC's by number and not specific midi channels.

Thanks!

Hive's MIDI Learn is suppsoed to be channel aware, but we've messed a lot with this.

There will be a global preferences panel where you can edit the whole list of assignments. It's one of the big projects on global scale we want to finish before release.

[Urs]

anyone tell me where a master PAN is?

We figured because the oscillators are already easy to pan, we could just tuck the panning of filter outputs away in the ModMatrix. If anyone needs them

Conceptually, as the suboscillators inherit the pan position of the master osc, it is already down to 2 pan knobs. Therefore, adding two extra pan knobs to the filters seemed redundant for the majority of cases. Also, we already have a bit of overkill with the various volume and gain knobs, which was subject to heated discussions.

- Urs

[rod_zero]

[
Hive's MIDI Learn is suppsoed to be channel aware, but we've messed a lot with this.

There will be a global preferences panel where you can edit the whole list of assignments. It's one of the big projects on global scale we want to finish before release.

THat would be great.

In the meantime I suppose that something is messes up and can't recognize different midi channels and this will be sorted out in the future.

Thanks

[Tricky-Loops]

We figured because the oscillators are already easy to pan, we could just tuck the panning of filter outputs away in the ModMatrix. If anyone needs them

But instead of "tucking away" every advanced parameter into the ModMatrix (as same as PM and amp envelope slope), it would be more elegant (and user-friendly) to simply make an "expert view" where these parameter can be adjusted, i. e. all advanced parameters on ONE page.

I don't want to search every advanced parameter in the ModMatrix, otherwise the ModMatrix becomes totally overcrowded (it already is too complicated for me, and I'm not a beginner, so for a real beginner, the ModMatrix is overkill).

[Urs]

We figured because the oscillators are already easy to pan, we could just tuck the panning of filter outputs away in the ModMatrix. If anyone needs them

But instead of "tucking away" every advanced parameter into the ModMatrix (as same as PM and amp envelope slope), it would be more elegant (and user-friendly) to simply make an "expert view" where these parameter can be adjusted, i. e. all advanced parameters on ONE page.

I don't want to search every advanced parameter in the ModMatrix, otherwise the ModMatrix becomes totally overcrowded (it already is too complicated for me, and I'm not a beginner, so for a real beginner, the ModMatrix is overkill).

But then if a preset has those parameters adjusted someone using the "non-expert" page will be very confused, going "uh, I can't figure out why the sound is only on the left". This is a no-no in my opinion.

The idea is to put only such parameters into the ModMatrix that are rarely ever used and most likely to be "esoteric", i.e. do nothing. At the moment I think it's 5 parameters (2x PW, 2x Phase, Delay Wow). Plus, a few parameters that have drop downs have corresponding continuous Modtargets (Osc Tune, Delay Time, Filter Type, latter doesn't work yet). That's not really too much. (oops, I just saw that Filter Pan is not there… is it needed at all?)

I'm sure some things will be changed while the synth matures. We'll add stuff, we might even drop stuff (if no-one uses it). It's a matter of careful evaluation of feedback and experience.

- Urs

[Tricky-Loops]

But at least for the PW it would be better if it were on the OSC area. I've seen synths where the PW parameter only appears when you choose a Pulse wave - this would be an elegant solution.

[Sendy]

I'm guessing nobody thought much of my suggestion for setting the initial phase offsets of key-phase-synced oscillator stacks? Plus an option to lock the sub in a certain phase relationship to the main oscillator? These kinds of features are good for dubstep-type sounds The former is actually in the MicroKorg XL and it's good fun to mess about with. With detune set to zero you can even use it to create a new family of waveforms.

You're totally describing a potential Zebra feature here. I had to read twice before I understood it :clown

I explained it more clearly the first time around, but I can understand it not fitting into Hive. I just figured, it was in the MicroKorg XL's oscillator-level unison engine, so it was worth a try A simple knob with "note-on phase scatter" would... ok I'm keeping on now Moving swiftly on...

I didn't know about the sub oscillator phase. Will have to check that out. I seem to remember the phasing being different from trigger to trigger, but I probably had drift on or something.

Looking forwards to future updates, especially that sync

[Sendy]

But at least for the PW it would be better if it were on the OSC area. I've seen synths where the PW parameter only appears when you choose a Pulse wave - this would be an elegant solution.

I tend to agree here. It's weird not having a PW knob and makes the synth seem at first glance not to even support PW waves and PWM. Sticking a PW knob on would instantly get one over on that certain other synth that doesn't support PWM

Something else that occurred to me is that it would be neat to have the decimation/bitrate effect as separate from and not mutually exclusive with the other types of distortion. It's not uncommon in modern styles to have bitrate reduction followed by some kind of saturation/distortion to bring out those right-angles. Seems bitcrush is being used like it's going out of style these days

I'm speaking strictly as thinking of the typical EDM punter here. If I want to do that, I've got Zebrify to cover all that and more, but they might not have

[ontrackp]

Hive reminds me a lot of my old Oberheim Xpander (especially it's sound in the Dirty mode which sounds very warm to me). It's very quick and easy to get great sounds, but the real power is in the modulation. That's why I would love to see additional modulation sources -- ramp, lag, some additional envelopes and lfo's, which would help with making more complex sounds. Keeping the other "expert" parameters in the mod matrix makes sense to me. As long as the matrix is easy to follow (visually) I don't see a problem with keeping a lot of the more "expert" level programming there. As a feature request it would be great if each modulation box had more than two destinations and if there was a third page of modulation matrix.

Thanks for another great sounding synth, though!

[Sendy]

Another thing, I think you're underselling the different engine modes; I think I read somewhere that the differences were "subtle" to "hardly noticable", but to me the difference is quite strong, they're in essence like a three completely different sets of filters."Dirty" is my favourite

[tedlogan]

I think I read somewhere that the differences were "subtle" to "hardly noticable", but to me the difference is quite strong, they're in essence like a three completely different sets of filters."Dirty" is my favourite

I agree. Dirty is also my favourite. It's got a lovely fuzz to it. The other two engines are great too, depending on what you want.

[BR393]

I really love the dirty filter, but I sometimes wish that it didn't have that stereo effect at high resonance settings. Any chance of getting an option tucked away somewhere to turn that aspect of the filter off?

[tedlogan]

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[Frantz]

But at least for the PW it would be better if it were on the OSC area. I've seen synths where the PW parameter only appears when you choose a Pulse wave - this would be an elegant solution.

I tend to agree here. It's weird not having a PW knob and makes the synth seem at first glance not to even support PW waves and PWM.

Yes, PW seems like a fundamental feature, not something that should be banished to the mod matrix. Even ultra-simple synths (Korg PolySix, TAL-U-NO-LX) with no mod matrix typically make this available as a knob.

[Sendy]

So, I found a way to get something similar to the "note-on phase spread" feature I was asking. It's not quite, but close enough

What you do is set phase reset on, detune to zero, then use a quick blip of an envelope to modulate detune amount. This disturbs the phases by a set amount, then freezes the result as the env snaps back to zero. Changing the mod amount will produce a variety of scattered wave patterns (ok, I'm really struggling with words here, lol). From there you can increase the detune amount, for animation, without having to start all the waves in phase, like is usually the case in phase reset mode.

Yeah, I know...

EDIT: If you're willing to waste/gang several mod matrix slots, you can get even more phase distribution, without having to use longer envelope times (which detract from the "instant scatter" effect). Sounds great with the narrow pulse wave, with a narrow pulse subosc one octave higher, then fed into distortion. Yummy!