GRM Tools updated to version 3.6

[Daags]

I certainly doubt you'll need a surround system to use Spaces, I just think to get the most out of it - to achieve the full spectrum of its usefulness and potential - you probably will need/want one, or at least the content created will be best appreciated when played on one.

That said I suspect it will be a lot like Flux/IRCAM's Spat in that for stereo output you can still achieve some interesting spatialization effects - particularly for headphone playback.

I wonder if it will have a similar price-tag to Spat. These kind of softwares targeted at producers of surround-sound content (post-production work) might typically be pitched at folks with deeper pockets. I certainly hope it comes in at a price tag in line with the rest of the collection. or cheaper

[WolfKay]

That said I suspect it will be a lot like Flux/IRCAM's Spat in that for stereo output you can still achieve some interesting spatialization effects - particularly for headphone playback.

Yes, I bought this one last year, when it cost half the normal price, but still use it for headphone playback.
I plan to use it with this kind of hardware though. (One day... )

I wonder if it will have a similar price-tag to Spat. These kind of softwares targeted at producers of surround-sound content (post-production work) might typically be pitched at folks with deeper pockets. I certainly hope it comes in at a price tag in line with the rest of the collection. or cheaper

While post-production industry is clearly in their sights, GRM historically designs tools for electro(acoustic) musicians, above all. So I guess we shouldn't worry too much about the asking price.

[Neon Breath]

Very interesting! Thanks a lot for sharing the info.

I asked them more info via they support forums. Hopefully they'll share more there. You can follow the thread here:

http://forums.plugivery.com/index.php?showtopic=142519

Really looking forward to this Space bundle. GRM Tools are very unique and creative tools, can't wait to try those.

[WolfKay]

Very interesting! Thanks a lot for sharing the info.

I asked them more info via they support forums. Hopefully they'll share more there. You can follow the thread here:

http://forums.plugivery.com/index.php?showtopic=142519

Great! We'll have to keep an eye on this thread too.

Well, I was informed of this new bundle indirectly via an interview with Senior developper of GRM Tools, Emmanuel Favreau, that was mentioned in the very last GRM newsletter.

This interesting interview from late last year is available here (in French, again).

Emmanuel Favreau talks about Spaces from 30:09.

He explains that the spatial experience has long been used in electroacoustic music, but that the development of software such as the new three plugins of the Spaces bundle was possible only recently, because DAWS are able to manage multichannel outputs for just a decade.

On 31:00, E. Favreau explains that multichannel DAWS allow you to work with 5.1 or 7.1 setups most of the time, but that 8 channels are the minimum for electroacoustic music use.

He says that recently some DAWS allow to overcome these limitations (I suppose he's referring to software such as Reaper). He adds that if most DAWS have a multichannel panning today, the development of such functions is still in a very primitive state, "especially when one wants to manipulate a multichannel signal in an already multichannel space", or when you want to draw and precisely program the trajectory of a sound.
He says that this kind of tools is useful both when composing electroacoustic pieces inside a DAW and while performing on large multichannel diffusion systems.

He finally speaks about the competitors of Spaces, such as Arboretum for the late Hyperprism, and of course IRCAM with Spat today. But unlike them, the Senior developper of GRM Tools feels free to do exactly what he wants, or what the musicians and the engineers at the GRM ask him to do. He concludes by saying that the kind of company where he works gives him all the time to develop the software he has in mind, which probably allows the GRM to be more creative than others.

It is true that the National Audiovisual Institute (INA), the parent company of the Musical Research Group (GRM), is a state-owned enterprise whose primary purpose is not to make profits directly.

For this reason, I'm confident that the new GRM bundle will be marketed with a price tag close to that of their previous bundles (around $ 300), and definitely not in the Flux/Ircam Tools Spat category (i.e. > $ 1000).

Apparently, a great evening was held on December 16th in Paris to launch the new products, with all the bells and whistles (JMJ, Air ...).
(Hey, I live in Paris too, and why I have not been informed of this event at that time is still a mystery to me... )

Well, the launch of GRM Tools Spaces was initially planned for early January 2015, but E. Favreau told me that "After several delays, the launch of Spaces has been postponed to the end of May. This time should be right!!".

So that's the whole story, gentlemen.

[Wanterkeelt]

When E. Favreau talks about Spaces, you can look at screenshots of the bundle (right next to the video) where it's said that the output allows between 2 and 32 channels. So it seems to also work in stereo.

[WolfKay]

Thanks!
I didn't see that

[Neon Breath]

Thanks WolfKay for this great post!

[Sampleconstruct]

In version 3.6 the handles of the sliders are missing, unless they intentionally redesigned that. PDC still doesn't work in LogicX when using high FFT values, but that might be Logics fault as it can only a certain amount of PDC and beyond that it falls (same with ProQ 2 in high latency mode).

Anyway, glad to see these great are still actively maintained.

[WolfKay]

Thanks WolfKay for this great post!

My pleasure

[aMUSEd]

He finally speaks about the competitors of Spaces, such as Arboretum for the late Hyperprism, and of course IRCAM with Spat today.

I think Arboretum was just the name of the company that developed Hyperprism, to me these just seemed a fairly ordinary set of standard fx plugins, I can't see how they compared in any way to GRM Tools.

[WolfKay]

WolfKay wrote:
He finally speaks about the competitors of Spaces, such as Arboretum for the late Hyperprism, and of course IRCAM with Spat today.

I think Arboretum was just the name of the company that developed Hyperprism, to me these just seemed a fairly ordinary set of standard fx plugins, I can't see how they compared in any way to GRM Tools.

Yes, sorry, the developper was talking about the competitors of the GRM Tools, not the competitors of this new Space bundle.
I guess he was referring to the competition back in the nineties, when the Hyperprism FX suite was one of the most used audio tools (along with Opcode Studio Vision).
Apparently. (I wasn't much into computers at that time.)
That said, Hyperprism wasn't too bad either (with FX such as Doppler, Formant Pitch Shifter, Frequency Shifter, Harmonic Exciter, HyperPhaser, HyperVerb and so on...).
I used it a few times in the 2000's when it became a free product, but then some better and more interesting FX plugins soon appeared.
But it's true that sonically and ergonomically, the GRM tools were and still are in a class of their own.

[WolfKay]

Seems like Space may come earlier than expected.

[Shabdahbriah]

I can't say what they changed

I hope the prices have gone down... (The bundles have some good plugins, but not all of the plugins are super useful...I guess I kind of wish they'd just sell individual plugins at a reasonable price. Currently the only sensible option financially would be to buy the complete 3 bundle set. Plus of course the iLok dongle. Sigh.)

I'm selling mine :
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=437648

[Daags]

I'm selling mine too
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=436654

[Sampleconstruct]

I'm getting flickering GRM-GUIs on Yosemite on both of my Retina monitors, must be the same graphic driver issue as with the Excalibur plugin, very disturbing to say the least. Most other plugins work perfectly fine.