Poly-Ana 1.30 Beta 0: 25% off sale! Bug fix ready, Anti-Aliasing and Custom GUIs coming soon!

[AdmiralQuality]

Once again, we’re taking Poly-Ana back to Beta to add some major new features. This time however, we’re running the Beta in parallel with the current stable version, 1.21. If you’re not interested in testing the new features in the 1.30 Beta, or need L'il Poly-Ana or Poly-AnaFX (the effect version), then you can stick to version 1.21 for now. Or, just wait a little while longer. L'il and FX will be added by the final update in this Beta period (which we expect to only take a few weeks, not months) if not sooner.


We are currently (Feb 18, 2015) at 1.30 Beta 0:
Download : Poly-Ana 1.30 Beta 0 OS X 32 and 64 bit AU and VST. 22.7 MB http://www.admiralquality.com/download/ ... AU_VST.zip
Download : Poly-Ana 1.30 Beta 0 Windows 32 and 64 bit VST. 18.6 MB http://www.admiralquality.com/download/ ... in_VST.zip

What’s new:

1.30 Beta 0 has (probably) fixed a stability bug that was intermittently causing voices to hang, usually when playing notes while changing programs. We think that’s fixed now, but as it’s a very difficult bug to reproduce, we need your testing to make sure. Please let us know if anything like this happens while you’re using the 1.30 Beta, and what you were doing when it did.

We’ve also fixed another bug on OSX which didn’t adversely affect behavior, but had been causing some confusion. The double slash has been removed from the Warning Dialog that’s displayed when Poly-Ana can’t find its configuration folder. (OSX ignored this double slash so everything worked as it should, but as our dialog displayed it, many users were confused about how to create a seemingly impossible folder path.)

What’s coming:

Aside from the above bug fix, we have two very major features coming in the following updates of the 1.30 Beta. We’ve received a lot of requests for two things in particular:

1. Full skinability.

Poly-Ana's graphical user interface has been very polarizing. Some people love it (like we do) but many others don’t, in fact some tell us they absolutely hate it. Well, we’ve been listening! The 1.30 Beta will let anyone build their own custom GUI for Poly-Ana. Even better, if you submit a GUI to us and we like it, we’ll reward you with a complimentary Poly-Ana license! (Or for those who already own a Poly-Ana license, credit for the equivalent value.) We’re almost done this feature (we’re still working on completely rebuilding the keyboard, which is a very complex control) and expect to have it ready for testing in the coming next few weeks, if not days.

2. Antialiasing.

Poly-Ana uses a brute-force oversampling based solution to reduce aliasing frequencies from the oscillators, which has been very effective and is a big part of Poly’s famous sound that cuts through the mix unlike most other digital software and hardware synth products. Don’t worry, we’re keeping all of that as-is and you’ll still be able to make exactly the same sounds you’ve been making with Poly-Ana previously. But… we’re going to add an additional bandlimiting method to further reduce alias frequencies. You’ll be able to chose one method or the other, or even use both together!

Both of these features are just days away from being ready to test, but we wanted to get the stability bug fix out ASAP. (It’s easier to keep track of our testing results if we only add one major new feature or fix per Beta update.) So please give 1.30 Beta 0 the run-through, and stay tuned, as there’s going to be a very rapid succession of updates coming as we add the two big new features, start testing them, and fix any issues that we may discover during testing.

And as always, to help spread the word and get as many testers as possible, during this Beta period we're offering Poly-Ana at 25% off the regular price! We don't know how long this Beta will last (if things go well, we expect it to only be a few weeks) so act soon to catch this deal.

Follow this thread for more 1.30 Beta updates and discussion on the new features. I'll be describing how the new skinning system will work here shortly.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Great news! (about the new features and about the bugfix)

Can't wait to test and see what users come up with for skins! Looking forward to trying the new anti-aliasing as well.

[EvilDragon]

I'm genuinely interested in the GUIs that might emerge after this release!

[Daags]

kool, if I'm understanding this right you mean a proper bona-fide end user generated GUI ? not just tweaking of colour schemes etc ?

fantastic news if so. and it does appear so, but I really need to double check : )

[AdmiralQuality]

kool, if I'm understanding this right you mean a proper bona-fide end user generated GUI ? not just tweaking of colour schemes etc ?

Yes, fully skinnable!

There will be some restrictions. (For one example, control types will have to stay the same. You won't be able to, say, substitute a slider for a knob.) I'll be making another post in this thread very soon to describe how it's going to work, though there's still a few things that aren't quite finalized. (The keyboard is particularly troublesome and is requiring me to completely rewrite those controls from the ground up. But the product will be better for it when I do. I'm also going to have to do a demo skin, which, even though I plan to make it simple and ugly, will take a few days as there's just no way to deal with arranging 234 controls plus a 61 note keyboard without it taking a fair amount of time!)

The anti-aliasing feature however is mere hours away. (I hope anyway, probably more like a few days given that even changing one line of code takes me most of a day to compile, document, package, release and announce.) But I've sworn to never hold off on fixes, so as I got that voice hanging bug fixed (again, I think it's fixed) I wanted to get that out immediately.

So, sorry for the tease but it won't be very long now, and I'll make another post here very soon to describe the broad strokes of how the customizeable GUI will work, so those who are interested can get a head start on designing theirs.

[EvilDragon]

You won't be able to, say, substitute a slider for a knob.

How so? Sliders are operated linearly (up-down motion), just like a knob. So what prevents us from making a, say, 32x32 px "slider"?

[AdmiralQuality]

You won't be able to, say, substitute a slider for a knob.

How so? Sliders are operated linearly (up-down motion), just like a knob. So what prevents us from making a, say, 32x32 px "slider"?

Poly-Ana's knobs aren't necessarily linearly controlled. Poly-Ana supports all three VST knob modes (the ONLY product I know of that actually does!) Linear, Circular, and Relative Circular, and also allows you to override the host preference (as not all VST hosts have the feature to set the preference, and no AU hosts do). So that's why they have to be knobs. (We actually don't implement a slider control anywhere in Poly-Ana.)

Sorry, but rules are required in this software development business. Anything is not possible.

Nothing will prevent you from doing anything, graphically. Obviously the plug-in won't be able to "see" what your control animations look like. But you will have to stick to certain standards that the product is designed around or it simply won't be useable, and for cases it can detect, it won't even accept the custom GUI. (For example, you won't be able to leave out any controls, or place them offscreen.) But if you want to share the GUI on our site (and earn a free Poly-Ana license) you'll have to obey certain other requirements (like displaying the product name and branding).

Anyway, hang on another day or two, as I'll soon be describing how it's all going to work. I'd like to get the AA feature out first though before going back down the GUI rabbit hole, so that's the priority.

[david.beholder]

Yes, fully skinnable!

[Teksonik]

Wow ! This is exciting news ! I'm stuck at work now but I'll download the Beta the second I get home.

[AdmiralQuality]

Wow ! This is exciting news ! I'm stuck at work now but I'll download the Beta the second I get home.

Note that it's just the voice hanging bug fix right now. (Which not everybody experiences. It's a rare and hard to reproduce but very annoying bug that usually requires a host restart to fix. That's why I need to submit it to mass user testing immediately, to make sure I actually fixed it and haven't just been lucky/unlucky enough to not be able to run into it during our internal testing.)

AA and Custom GUI will be added in the coming updates to the 1.30 Beta. Days and weeks from now, not months.

(One more thing... do not underestimate the time and effort it will take to build a GUI for a product with 234 controls and 61 virtual keys! It's like work!)

[Teksonik]

Note that it's just the voice hanging bug fix right now.

Yes, understood. I'm going to download and test this bug fix version...........the real exciting stuff is coming.

I'm sure the GUI is actually a lot of hard work...........

[AdmiralQuality]

Note that it's just the voice hanging bug fix right now.

Yes, understood. I'm going to download and test this bug fix version...........the real exciting stuff is coming.

I'm sure the GUI is actually a lot of hard work...........

Cool, thanks. And yes, a Poly-Ana GUI is a big job. (Even the simple one I'm building to demo the skinning system is a daunting task.)

By the way, were you experiencing the voice-hanging bug? I'm particularly interested in the results of anybody who was. Lots of people weren't, including myself, until I found the right combination of host and actions to make it happen, and even then I could only get it to happen sometimes. The best way to make it happen seemed to be changing programs while holding notes down or rapidly playing notes, so torture test that if you get a chance.

[Teksonik]

No, I've never had the hanging notes probelm but I'll torture test it on this machine. I assume this will over write my existing version ?

[AdmiralQuality]

No, I've never had the hanging notes probelm but I'll torture test it on this machine. I assume this will over write my existing version ?

There's no installer, so you will overwrite your existing version. Back it up if you're concerned. And we're still distributing 1.21 as the official stable release during this 1.30 Beta, as things are probably going to get a little crazy when the two big new features are added. Only when the Beta is finished and we're confident it's working well will we take 1.21 down. So for now you're backed up anyway. (And in the event that any customers had trouble with a newer version, they can always contact us directly and I can get you earlier versions. We've done that before. Once or twice I've even done one-off compilations for customers who had unique problems that nobody else did, to get them going before we were able to get the fix out in an official update. I do NOT like having unsatisfied customers!)

[Teksonik]

Oh ok so I can just move the current .dll and replace it with the Beta ? I'll do that right now......

EDIT: The Beta runs in Demo mode and has silence drop outs. Any way to get it to read my old license ? I never updated to the new key file system or whatever is is..... I guess I should do that.

Anyway tortured the beta pretty good in Orion so far. Playing fast notes and switching patches, holding a fist full of notes and fast switching patches with no hung notes. I'll test with FL Studio and Reaper next............