Sugar Bytes - Factory

[mcnelson]

Looks like there's an 8-part tutorial series on youtube - part 1 below:

[ere2learn]

Biggish download - 191mb - 2 hour download for me

[Numanoid]

Doesn't sound bad but I don't hear anything that makes it stand out neither nor anything I haven't heard before.

Sound better than Andromeda ?

[zerocrossing]

Doesn't sound bad but I don't hear anything that makes it stand out neither nor anything I haven't heard before.

Sound better than Andromeda ?

You must mean the galaxy, eh? Because, well that's in space and we all know about space and hearing and what not. No one can, yadda yadda.

I've only played with it for a few minutes and here's what I've gathered. Audio rate modulation sounds tops. Effects are interesting and high quality, not just some chorus or reverb thrown in to make the demo patches sound better. Modulatable parameters as well. Nice. Decent amount of wavetables but more importantly some cool wavetable modes like formant and waveglide. Low CPU use seem overly greedy. Very low aliasing. Filters beef up nice when you up the drive.

Overall a solid "B+" in my book. Mostly UI issues. Shades of blue and maroon don't really communicate amount to the people from my planet. How about something like a potentiometer graphic, you know, the kind we all have grown up with forever? The overall UI does seem a bit confusing in places... looking. Seems to operate as you'd expect in most places. Overall there are some UI elements that are not intuitive. What's a triangle button pointing to something mean or do? (don't tell me, I figured it out but it could have been more clear) I know all of this is probably in a manual or tutorial video, but a well designed UI would make it clear.

I could maybe use some more wavetables as well. I'm a sucker for wavetables. If you can import wavetables that would be excellent.

Am I missing that the Morph function isn't part of the mod matrix? How did that happen?

Presets are not my cup of tea, but more importantly some barely even make sound (Warm Pad Mw) until you tweak them. Some are distorting the channel. I could forgive presets I personally don't like but functionally bad ones are just lame.

So, I think if they did some UI tweaks, brushed up some of the badly behaving patches and added Morph as a mod target, I'd easily give it an A+. I'm sure I'll pick this one up at some point.

[Numanoid]

Overall a solid "B+" in my book.

For 139 bucks I would want A/A-

[wagtunes]

Doesn't sound bad but I don't hear anything that makes it stand out neither nor anything I haven't heard before.

Sound better than Andromeda ?

You must mean the galaxy, eh? Because, well that's in space and we all know about space and hearing and what not. No one can, yadda yadda.

I've only played with it for a few minutes and here's what I've gathered. Audio rate modulation sounds tops. Effects are interesting and high quality, not just some chorus or reverb thrown in to make the demo patches sound better. Modulatable parameters as well. Nice. Decent amount of wavetables but more importantly some cool wavetable modes like formant and waveglide. Low CPU use seem overly greedy. Very low aliasing. Filters beef up nice when you up the drive.

Overall a solid "B+" in my book. Mostly UI issues. Shades of blue and maroon don't really communicate amount to the people from my planet. How about something like a potentiometer graphic, you know, the kind we all have grown up with forever? The overall UI does seem a bit confusing in places... looking. Seems to operate as you'd expect in most places. Overall there are some UI elements that are not intuitive. What's a triangle button pointing to something mean or do? (don't tell me, I figured it out but it could have been more clear) I know all of this is probably in a manual or tutorial video, but a well designed UI would make it clear.

I could maybe use some more wavetables as well. I'm a sucker for wavetables. If you can import wavetables that would be excellent.

Am I missing that the Morph function isn't part of the mod matrix? How did that happen?

Presets are not my cup of tea, but more importantly some barely even make sound (Warm Pad Mw) until you tweak them. Some are distorting the channel. I could forgive presets I personally don't like but functionally bad ones are just lame.

So, I think if they did some UI tweaks, brushed up some of the badly behaving patches and added Morph as a mod target, I'd easily give it an A+. I'm sure I'll pick this one up at some point.

Hey Z, you can target the morph. It's in the manual.

I am absolutely loving this thing and getting totally lost in it.

This is Cyclop to the next level.

[fisherKing]

Hey Z, you can target the morph. It's in the manual.

I am absolutely loving this thing and getting totally lost in it.

This is Cyclop to the next level.

probably not a good reference, considering all the hate that Cyclop has gotten on kvr...

[wagtunes]

Hey Z, you can target the morph. It's in the manual.

I am absolutely loving this thing and getting totally lost in it.

This is Cyclop to the next level.

probably not a good reference, considering all the hate that Cyclop has gotten on kvr...

Well, I may be in the minority but I really like Cyclop. You can do some really crazy shit with it.

[Numanoid]

probably not a good reference, considering all the hate that Cyclop has gotten on kvr...

Hate?

Users gotta make up their own mind, I like Cyclop

[fisherKing]

not my opinion, lol...i used cyclop a lot; great for deep, squelchy basslines. but did not seem to be popular on this forum...

[zerocrossing]

Overall a solid "B+" in my book.

For 139 bucks I would want A/A-

Your dad also said you never wanted to wait for an Oompa Loompa either. YOU WANT IT NOW!

Whenever I grade something I do take into account price, so my B+ is based on the $139 price. Considering how much Serum is. After watching some of that demo video and seeing you can add wav files for sample fun, I'm definitely going to pick this up. Not now because I'm broke, but at some point for sure. I really like it.

[Numanoid]

Your dad also said you never wanted to wait for an Oompa Loompa either. YOU WANT IT NOW!

Alas, I stand corrected

[JoeCat]

I gotta say this is SugarBytes niche - it's more about "how you get there" than the sound, and while I'm liking the sound, I'm sure the more generic patches can be easily achieved elsewhere. It's the surprise element I love. This feels (like Obscuirum) as more of a "track starter" synth - come up with something unique and build from there. Gonna be great for some evolving ambient textures.

And yeah - as always with the Sugars, the interface is a bit, um, obscure. But I think it's their best to date, and certainly less gimmicky ("Twerk" not withstanding)

My only complaint was going to be lack of a second filter - a lot to ask, but when you have a synth like this and you often use the a filter for vowel effects, etc. (like Razor), it's nice to have another on board. And low and behold, there's one available in the FX slot.

I'm hoping for a $99 sale; regardless, it's a strong buy for me at some point. I got enough bread-butter stuff.

[nordickvr]

Hey Z, you can target the morph. It's in the manual.

I am absolutely loving this thing and getting totally lost in it.

This is Cyclop to the next level.

probably not a good reference, considering all the hate that Cyclop has gotten on kvr...

Well, I may be in the minority but I really like Cyclop. You can do some really crazy shit with it.

One more for the minority over here!

[db3]

I'm enjoying Factory more than I expected. It has an interesting and varied sound and the slick GUI demands playful experimentation. So far totally solid and not demanding.