Sugar Bytes - Obscurium

[aMUSEd]

Custom scales? Scala import?

[chaosWyrM]

soooo....trying the demo now

scanning processes is painfully slow, and it seemed to miss a pretty sizable chunk of my plugins. directing the vst path right to specific folders doesnt work...it just doesnt see them.

also...why isnt there just a list? i dont like all these folders (which arent organized alphabetically...seems random). i feel like the way its organizing the plugins might be why its missing a bunch of them as it only seems to find the more "well known" ones and then makes a folder for them according to developer. just a guess though.

a simple list of actual plugins would be way easier to navigate.

some examples of plugins it doesnt see:

all hg fortune
all m-rgt
all mhc


hmmm....i think ill wait for the plugin hosting to be a bit more usable...since thats really the only thing id use this for.

it is pretty cool for the ones it does see though.

i like it...just wish it worked a little better.

[Numanoid]

all hg fortune
all m-rgt

So it doesn't like Synthedit/32 bit plugs?

[chaosWyrM]

all hg fortune
all m-rgt

So it doesn't like Synthedit/32 bit plugs?

yeah...looks like it. no ugo, no xoxos, no novakill, no algomusic.

lol...i wasnt seeing the forest for the trees.

[UncleAge]

Looks like my kind of plugin. Thing is, I do all of this right now with a bunch of other plugs. I usually use plugs like Numerology, Thesys and Quartz to send the cc's parameters and other sequencers like Guru/Geist, NORA, Numerology and Thesys to drive the note/arp data. Obscurium provides a better visual to work in versus the smaller area at the bottom of Thesys. Now the LFO as a mod source is a nice touch but it would have kicked it up a notch if they had found a way to implement the looping MSEGs like Artificial Audio did in Quartz. Either way, my old setup didn't work well under Ableton's Live because they have so far refused to address the issue (issue for me, obviously not for them) of combining midi channels when data is sent from track to track. So I bought Usine and solved all that nonsense.

Now Obscurium might provide a nice neat package for playing with the parameters but I'll have to wait to find out because everytime I load a vst into the standalone and try and change a preset in Obscurium it crashes. Truth be told, that loading of vst's serves no purpose for me I'd much rather have...

Implementing Midi CC assignment page right now, on the General page.
Should make it into the first update

...if they can make it work. Driving the parameters on one synth is nice. Driving them on multiple synths from a single source is even nicer. Much nicer. Also, I'd want the mods and parameter output assignable via cc msgs if possible.

Anyway, nice one Sugar Bytes. I look forward to buying it after I can give a proper test with my synths. I'll send the crash stuff to the support address as requested.

[synzh]

chaosWyrM - I'll agree it seems strange it not only lists them by developer, but not even alphabetically; My preference would also be to just list the plugin names, and alphabetically.
For me, using FL Studio 12, it did find, for example, using the single parent folder I have all plugs under:
all hg fortune
all m-rgt
all novakill

but similar to the "deep scan" in FL Studio 12, occasionally error popups appear for certain plugs (and old demos) which you can just close out.
I have so many plugs I eventually canceled the scan so I could try it.

[Orbit-50]

I do really have to give the developers down at Sugar Bytes major "insanity points" over the other developers for this one. They are a very unique company. I will say that with complete certainty.

.-.

[synzh]

One other thing I noticed, for some of the presets - if the LFO being used for one of the morph sliders has a frequency that is an integer factor of the number of steps (and the plug is using the standard clock setting), then even though the control points are moving as time progresses, they always wind up back at the same location for the same step anyway.
Personally I'm more interested in polyrhythmic kinds of evolutions, which also can be found using the random features (which are included in some of the other presets.)

[EagleZone]

Worth making it totally clear that you are expected to use 64-bit plugs in the 64-bit version and 32-bit plugs in the 32-bit version. You need to install both if you want to use all your stuff... or certainly if you want to run it in a simple "direct" way (i.e not jbridged or meta-plugged etc.)

I've not even tried the workarounds for using one type in the other, just been using both versions as required in Bitwig, but assume you can get around that if you have to... But yeah, with both installed- after scanning- you obviously end up with separate lists of available plugs in the two different types. One all 32 and the other all 64.

Agree with others that the plug scanning and listing is a bit unruly. My problem was that it was taking a while, as it scans the installation folder by default, I think... which is obviously where basically every single plug is, including stuff that I don't need to have available in Obscurium. I would cancel it and try to scan fresh, selecting my custom folder instead (I made a folder of a few DLLs just for this plug) but it would go back and try the big scan again. So in the end I just let it finish and have some needless stuff in the list now, but at least it works!

[chaosWyrM]

Worth making it totally clear that you are expected to use 64-bit plugs in the 64-bit version and 32-bit plugs in the 32-bit version. You need to install both if you want to use all your stuff... or certainly if you want to run it in a simple "direct" way (i.e not jbridged or meta-plugged etc.)

I've not even tried the workarounds for using one type in the other, just been using both versions as required in Bitwig, but assume you can get around that if you have to... But yeah, with both installed- after scanning- you obviously end up with separate lists of available plugs in the two different types. One all 32 and the other all 64.

ohhhh....thanks for that. installing the 32-bit version helped. that info would have been nice to have when installing it...maybe i just missed it. also...its pretty annoying to have to install 2 versions of the same thing.

still, the scanning process is torturous. not only is it slow (i canceled it after 20 mins because i just didnt care anymore, whatever it got by then would be plenty for a demo)...but god help you if you have a corrupt file it comes across.

i recently experienced a major loss of data, and my 32-bit vst folder got shredded. in an attempt to recover the lost data i ran a recovery program that found and restored the entire folder. problem is some of the files are broken. ive been slowly going through it and fixing them manually...but its time consuming and i havent got them all yet.

anyway...when obscurium comes across one of these bad ones...if it happens to be a synthedit plugin...well it throws up a warning pop up telling me that its a bad file...my only option is to click ok...it then proceeds to throw up warning pop ups for every single module in the synth...so for every bad plugin i have to click through 50-150 individual pop up windows.

why? what is the point of a pop up window with no action to take other than clicking ok??

just skip them and make a log at the end of the ones that werent any good.

ugh.

still...it seems pretty cool. i dont know if its cool enough to fight with it though.

maybe if they can implement a more elegant plugin hosting process in an update ill give it another try. and that random list of dev folders has got to go.

[lnikj]

Had no problems with scanning my VSTs but very few of them have presets in the format Obscurium expects. Linplug Spectral & GForce Oddity/Imposcar do.

Can anybody who has bought it confirm that saving saves the state of the loaded VST? (and which host(s) you are using).

Cheers.

[EagleZone]

If you go to Documents-Sugar bytes- Obscurium- Assignments, there is a list of about 50 plugs which have ready-made "sbpa" files. So those ones will have parameters mapped correctly already. Other ones you will have to map yourself, or press the dice button underneath the list of "unassigned" ones, to assign automatically (which may or may not have desired results, it's very quick, but will be a guess.)

Saving with Obscurium saves the state of the plug in Bitwig just fine, along with the project file. Can not confirm if demo states translate to working official states, due to the 32/64 thing... I originally installed the demo in a different place to the bought 32/64 versions, hence the issue, but assume it will recall everything OK if you just update/overwrite. The demo version obviously doesn't reload with your custom settings in demo mode, but the info claims that the settings are actually saved and will reload if you buy. So, need someone who installed in the same place properly to confirm/deny that one!

so for every bad plugin i have to click through 50-150 individual pop up windows.

why? what is the point of a pop up window with no action to take other than clicking ok??

just skip them and make a log at the end of the ones that werent any good.

I encountered something similar, though not quite as bad! But agree. My main VST folder goes back years, so there are some problem files in there and some things with bits missing now etc. Only defence of Sugar Bytes here is that some DAWs sorta do the same... Where you basically have to babysit the scan, and click some notifications, else it will stick at a particular point.

Not major issues, but all these things worth knowing ahead of time! Installing both versions properly first run, in folders with a manageable amount of plugs, should eliminate most headaches.

[lnikj]

If you go to Documents-Sugar bytes- Obscurium- Assignments, there is a list of about 50 plugs which have ready-made "sbpa" files. So those ones will have parameters mapped correctly already. Other ones you will have to map yourself, or press the dice button underneath the list of "unassigned" ones, to assign automatically (which may or may not have desired results, it's very quick, but will be a guess.)

Thanks. I'd missed this.

Saving with Obscurium saves the state of the plug in Bitwig just fine, along with the project file. Can not confirm if demo states translate to working official states, due to the 32/64 thing... I originally installed the demo in a different place to the bought 32/64 versions, hence the issue, but assume it will recall everything OK if you just update/overwrite. The demo version obviously doesn't reload with your custom settings in demo mode, but the info claims that the settings are actually saved and will reload if you buy. So, need someone who installed in the same place properly to confirm/deny that one!

Just the info I needed. Many thanks. I trust it will be the same in Live & Logic (I see no reason why it shouldn't be).

Cheers.

[Perimeter Sound]

Seems like an interesting concept. But....The video demos didn't really thrill me. Maybe they will explain it better in the future, or I'll just have to demo it when I have the free time.

[lnikj]

It is much better than the video demos suggest.

Well, in some ways anyway. At least everything is smooth and polished there, whereas the reality is that this feels like an alpha software release at times.

Part of the problem with the videos (and indeed the plugin) is that the onboard sound engine really doesn't cut it. However, once you get your own VSTs running with it, it instantly becomes far more interesting. It can do much much more than 'plink plink plonk' sounds (though it tends to have to be steered away from doing these).

Definitely worth a demo.