KVR Audio

cranium · Post by **cranium** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:33 pm

Currently when tuning knobs (in particular fine-tuning using the right mouse button) it only makes adjustments when staying within StiX's GUI.

Is this something that will be improved as well?

JJ_Jettflow · Post by **JJ_Jettflow** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:37 pm

trimph1 wrote:
Numanoid wrote:Regular MRSP at €179

That is a lot to ask in the market nowadays
And Omnisphere is how much?

But Omnisphere is much more than a drum machine...a lot more.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:46 pm

szalonykp wrote:.......

For example you have three FREQ knobs in the advanced synthesis panel beside each other. The color-coding helps a little bit, but I had to check the header (or the help text on mouse over) every time to know which knob does what.

Under the FILTER header you have three PEV knobs - totally weird. There is a total lack of consistency of how you place the knobs/buttons for me. Is it by row? By column? I'm sorry, but it looks like software I write for myself, when I put a knob or a button on the GUI as I'm writing the code.

The envelopes are a good example of it. 12 unlabeled knobs... I have to check the row and the column label to know what I'm tweaking. I know it's a really basic knowledge that 4 knobs for env would be A, D, S and R. But with these 12 knobs I need to check what button does what every time. It takes a fraction of a second - but it's really slowing down the work. And is totally unnecessary.

The three EASY/ADVANCED buttons on the right of the XoX grid - what's that?! No labeling, no info, no nothing. And for me - I know it's totally subjective - it should be on the left side not the right side (the same with the EASY/ADVANCED synthesis tab button).

The FX SEND is per pad (which is logical and obvious), but the SWING that is next to it is (correct me if I'm wrong) global. It should be clearly distinguished graphically. What part is global, what part is per pad.

These are only few examples...

And it lacks for me a graphical division of parts in the GUI - the grey background without any borders adds to the unreadability (there are borders on the bottom part and that helps a lot). Add to that all the shortened labels on the knobs... Oh my... Oh my...

I really hope that it's beta GUI and it's not only polishing that it needs... It need IMHO - much more.

Me taking a big breathe .... let's go.

3 freqs knobs : One per osicllator. Each oscillator has its own *column*. Oscillator section is wuite complex. Labels Osc1/2 are actually toggles that will, let you switch to Sine. When Sine is selected, Waveform morphing becomes WaveShaping. And the 3rd oscillator can be noise and/or Samples. ANd you brwose samples wih the arrows, load a custom one, etc. Lot's of things in a small sections, but the row rather than column positionning did not work well.

PEV ( pitch envelope for each oscillator ) should not in a better world be placed under the filter section I agree, but belong to the Oscillator section, but the filter section required less place, and I dont know where we could have put them, because the osc section is already quite busy. It's really a challenge to put a complete synthesizer, with advanced modulators also, in such a small place like the Advanced Synthesis place. Then, the advanced synthesis place is only for those who want complete control, and know how to program their own sounds. StiX *base* concept is that you can operate it with only the macro controls on the eazy page, and, ONLY if you desire/need/want it, switch to the Advanced Synthesis page. StiX tries to follow and adapt itself to your workflow, and also tries to be efficient and usefull for both rookies and synthesis veterans. Then, with the color scheme, the PEV make the link between the oscillator and the envelope sections.( wich they actually are )

Envelopes *block* is organised per line/row : VCA, then Filter, then Pitch/Aux envelope. The knobs buttons are labelled in the 4th line : ADSR. As you said it's a very common structure, and I thought the eye (+ experience of people used to substractive synthesis) could be enough. Actually, you'll get used very quickly to them if you visit frequently the advanced page. Reading you, maybe labelling each row with ADSR could be better. Hmmm we'll see.

the 3 easy/advanced buttons to switch the sequencer pages are a complete miss from our part. Their exact names are ' XOX Multi' 'Step per beat' and 'XOX Single'. This is on the todo list for ages, and well, will be corrected in the next beta for sure. The size of the buttons is not correct as well, but here we have to consider the future functions that could be implemented on the Sequencer area. I will need room for it, and the problem is similar for the eazy synthesis page ( some additional functions are very likely to be implemented in the future, and they'll need some place ) We took the decision that some functions and concepts wont be implemented in the v1.0, because it would take far too much time, so we removed their controls for the UI, and that's also why some areas look like if some room have not been used properly.

The *swing* global knob could be placed at the right, that's true . And the FX section could be placed just near the FX sends area. That would be more logical, it's true. We'll have to consider this.

Graphical divisions : I agree, especially in the Advanced Synthesis area, but possibly in other parts of the GUI too. Same thing, it's on the list for quite some time, but we had first to track a lot of bugs before that.

And finally, Xils graphic artist was late on delivery. To be honnest, we spent our days and nights fixing a considerable number of bugs during this time. We had the final GUI just around 10 days before the release of the beta. We tought it would be enough to fix a good part of the things quickly, but then we had more bugs that needed urgent fixes. ( especially the multi outputs took ten times more than what we thought it would take)

Hmmm so finally, there's a lot of work to do. We were aware of that, but maybe not to this point. It will be done, and StiX will shortly reach a more acceptable GUI.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:51 pm

To Ariston/Ingo : I'll have to investigate about the multi outs/fx etc more in depth before I can answer.

I just saw we seem to have a regression bug when muting/unmuting drumspads with a midi KB. Their sends are not muted. It worked OK before.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:56 pm

cranium wrote:Currently when tuning knobs (in particular fine-tuning using the right mouse button) it only makes adjustments when staying within StiX's GUI.

Is this something that will be improved as well?

You can use shift + mouse or right click to make fine adjustments. Works OK here when operating whithin StiX UI (Cubase 7/64b) . Then, Im not sure I really understand your question. Do you mean something like knobs/controls created by the host and tied to StiX parameters, and that you can operate outside of StiX GUI ?

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:58 pm

boombaxx wrote:Looks very interesting. Gotta a question i tried it with midi send to another drum vst Steve Slate. SSD received no midi from Stix. Is this possible ?.

Not in the current version. Midi out : It might -cant promise- be implemented in a future version, cos it seems there are a lot of demands for this particular feature.

electro · Post by **electro** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:06 pm

How likely at this point is the addition of mono multi outs?

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:13 pm

[DELETED]

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:22 pm

republik wrote:I just tried the demo and this drum machine has a lot of potential. Where is the best place to send bug reports or comments? I find the envelopes and white noise go a little haywire when flipping through the presets and playing the sequencer at the same time. Almost as if sometimes the envelopes don't decay/release when changing to another preset. Some of the drum levels in the preset are also way to hot and clipping. It seems odd because it's only one drum sound that will be too loud, so it seems like it's not deliberate and I'm not hearing the preset the way it's intended to sound. Possible bug, maybe? I get the impression that if I save a preset (in DAW or in the plugin preset manager) it may not sound the same the next time I open it.

You can send bugs reports to Xils via the form on Xils site. Or in Xils-Lab forum. Or to me by PM directly if you wish.

For the envelopes/drumpresets, its very important to observe their relation ship with the sequencer line GATE parameter of this sound. The sound of the drum will vastly vary according to this parameter. To ease this, I've tagged all drumpads presets with a 'recommended GATE TIME' criteria, and you can sort all drumpads with this criteria by using the 'sorft by' feature. A Drumpad intended with a 0% gate time will sound different is the gate time is say 50%;

I'd strongly recommend also that you read the Gate time and envelope sections of the manual, where all this is explained more in detail : In short StiX envelopes are ADSR models : This means that the release is dependant on the Sustain Level ( Sustain = 0, no release). Otoh, the DECAY stage is also directly tied to the GATE TIME : If the Gate Time is zero, Decay wont be used. So I 'd recomment to gang mode the GATE TIME parameter on the sequencer to quickly navigate between 0, 50 and 100% values for all steps.

So, how is it releated to your precise problem, to make the relation between theory and workflow : If you save a drumpreset while its sequence uses GATE TIME = 0, then reload it in a sequence time =50%, they will sound different.

The envelope segments/Gate Time parameter relationship is probably *the* complicated thing to understand when operating StiX at high level. But ... It's also one of the sources of it"s versatility and richness in modulating Sequence lines.

I'll make some tutorials about that. Well, i'm not 100% sure all the above is the answer to what you're describing, but it's very likely to be so. Just tell me if it helps.( Else it might be a bug, but I hope not : I've created/saved hnudreds of presets, and they always behaved as intended when reloaded, provided the gate time of the sequence was *properly* set - ( I say properly because sometimes when you dont observe the recommended gate time thing, you'll get sometimes very happy things as well )

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:32 pm

TheoM wrote: ......hmm and drumaxxx to me is super weak... so this is that sort of level?

I don't like the demo's so far much and i don't like the gui pics but i still hold hope.

I seem to use metrum for kicks, punch for a couple things, idrum for a couple, microtonic, etc.

I wish i could just have a drum machine plugin that let me use samples or synth, with REALLY good synthesis that covers everything, and a killer sequencer. At this stage it doesn't seem styx would replace much so will wait for V1.

I won't pay 179 euros for it though that's 300 AUD so hopefully it gets really good whilst 99 still active.

Sorry Laurent i am unimpressed so far and you know you are a mate so i would never say that lightly.

No probs, Theo. You know how I think : I dont think StiX will ever replace 'all drum machines', I have never believed in the concept of 'one that erase all others, I Prefer by far the concept of diversity. But I think it will become their number one DM for some users, and compliment the sonic arsenal of some other people who already have other weapons very well.

Now, StiX is a VA drum machine. In another thread someone said that one exemple sounded like the Vermona ( which he hated btw

), but actually I think StiX has many arrows, and can be rather versatile, with its multi synthesis abilities. And its sequencer features, and the way you can tie them to the synthesis engines, have no equivalent. That doesnt mean that everybody should love it btw. It's just an instrument that I think is 'really' new. And a possibility that DM lovers might consider.

JJ_Jettflow · Post by **JJ_Jettflow** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:34 pm

TheoM wrote:
JJ_Jettflow wrote:
trimph1 wrote:
Numanoid wrote:Regular MRSP at €179

That is a lot to ask in the market nowadays
And Omnisphere is how much?

But Omnisphere is much more than a drum machine...a lot more.

i didn't think it was a drum machine at all.

Drums are one of the most important parts of any song.. probably the exact ying to omni's yang - if you had just omni, you would still need styx (for example) for a complete song.

Well many ambient songs do not use drums at all. I have written a few songs like that as well as some that derive the rhythm from a sequenced synth line (or two) but my point was that comparing Omnisphere's price to Styx's price was not a fair comparison because one is a very deep, full featured synth that has few competitors (maybe Falcon) while Styx is an average drum machine with competition from Image Line, Softube, D 16, Sonic Charge, NI, FXpansion, Rob Papen (and a few I must be forgetting) that come in a lot cheaper.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:37 pm

electro wrote:How likely at this point is the addition of mono multi outs?

At this point (i.e until 1.0) it's not on the radar. And I honnestly can tell if this will change in the future. I think it's always possible to get mono from stereo within the daw, if you want to process sounds with mono comps for exemple. Better place all sounds in center position in this case I think. So there seems to be a workaround in every daw if I'm not mistaken. What's your opinion/experience on that ?

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:38 pm

JPQ wrote:Sounds nice... what i quickly listened.

Thanks

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:45 pm

Lotuzia wrote:
Lotuzia wrote:I've compiled some of the *Single Drumpad* audio demos in one longer clip.
StiX Single Drumpad Demo A

What you hear in a Single Drumpad demo is just ONE line of StiX sequencer, playing ONE drum sound, and cycling on ONE bar.

(For the record the first example in this clip was created in 7 mouse clicks, including loading the drumsound, and writing the sequence ! That's how fast StiX can be in the workflow.)
Here the second 'Single Drumpad demos' compilation.

StiX single Drumpad Demo B

for example : You can make HH Closed and Open within a single sequencer line with Stix ....

+ Merry Xmas to all

A bit of sound ? A collection of some Stix *pattern*s, cycling on one bar. Some evolve automatically, some less.

One pattern, One Bar

PALU · Post by **PALU** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:42 pm

Hey, Lotuzia - thanks for answering my rant in depth

I really respect that

.

I tried to make some demo of more experimental rhythms, but every time I tried to record the output of the plugin (on Reaper 4.x 32 bit, OSX, VST version) I was unable to. I tried recording the output, I tried sending the output to another track and recording that. I even tried to bounce the whole Reaper output to disk. Every time StiX stopped responding to - I think - transport messages. Playing the track and using the play button in the plugin - the XoX grid wasn't "playing" (I mean the animation) and there was no sound. When I wanted to change the pattern - it was blinking forever, never changed to the pattern I chose.

I tried it twice and since there is no saving in the demo - I won't repeat it for the third time from the scratch

.

StiX : MultiSynthesis Drum Machine (v1.6 Released + Flash sales)