Xils-Lab PolyKB III -Official Thread- [v3.5]

[Lotuzia]

I just spent the last hour tweaking knobs and pushing buttons on the PolyKB III (at last! ), and I must say... what a marvelous synth! Many many congratulations to Xavier (and his team) for the amazing work on this one!

Version II was already great, but I must admit this one pushes things further thanks to the third oscillator, the second filter, and the many new modulations options. Now sky's the limit!

I always thought the PolyKB was probably (IMHO at last) the only valuable soft synth to have when one already has many hardware synths — because of its excellent sound but even more for its very own "personality", but now I feel this statement is truer than ever. None of my hardware synth can do some of these things ; and with a good MIDI controller, I can feel the same exquisite pleasure playing with the PKBIII (on this topic : will there soon be a NKS version of the PolyKBIII with the few new presets?).

So... many thanks, and well done guys — the wait issue of yesterday is just an old story

Thanks a lot Romain.

Xils-lab has always combined the best of both worlds : The absolute goodness and warmth of the venerable ancesters with exclusive and innovative features to bring these instruments into the future and a lot of R&D and ... imagination.

So that ... don't try the other Xils intruments You might end by loving them all

[Lotuzia]

While i had PoylKB II around 6 years I have only played with PolyKB III shortly now but i alraedy think this is really amazing. Both sound and feature wise i think it is quite easy to say that this is now one of the most advanced analog polysynth emulations (while it actually mostly surpasses what was found in real analog polysynths in the past).

Thanks Ingo. PolyKB III has nearly infinite depth. It's not just a very precise emulation though this part is crucial, because it's the base of everything) : It has been created to be a vast new world to explore and give access to brand new territories.

[tbritton]

PolyKB III has nearly infinite depth. It's not just a very precise emulation though this part is crucial, because it's the base of everything) : It has been created to be a vast new world to explore and give access to brand new territories.

So... I suppose your next sound set will have to be called "Analog Mansion" then!

Speaking of which, are there many patches specifically showing off the capabilities of the PolyKB III? I imagine so, but wondered if there is a way to differentiate those from the others coming from the KB II pedigree?

(I'm finally sitting down to get more than an initial 20 minutes play with this -- may be a late night!)

Terry

[tbritton]

Speaking of which, are there many patches specifically showing off the capabilities of the PolyKB III? I imagine so, but wondered if there is a way to differentiate those from the others coming from the KB II pedigree?

Terry

I just answered my own question!

If you sort on the left showing banks, then in the next slot there is a "Factory K3" choice, where all the PolyKB III factory presets are sitting!

(Lotuzia - your HyperBrass for PolyKB III just became my all-time favorite brass patch EVER! Just played it alone for fifteen minutes!)

Terry

[exmatproton]

PolyKB III:
We apologize for an error. Due to technical difficulties, we can't send your iLok License Code at the moment.
We will rectify this as soon as possible and you will receive the code in the next few days.
Again, apologies for any inconvenience caused.

[ZeePok]

 
I tried the demo. Works fine, only I found something is broken.

Whereas PolyKB II & 2.5 (full versions) do have Sustain Pedal support. In the demo of PolyKB III it doesn't seem to be working .

Is this a bug?

[Ingonator]

 
I tried the demo. Works fine, only I found something is broken.

Whereas PolyKB II & 2.5 (full versions) do have Sustain Pedal support. In the demo of PolyKB III it doesn't seem to be working .

Is this a bug?

The Sustain pedal seems to be working here in the PolyKB III full version for Windows (eLicenser version).
Tested here in Windows 10 64-bit using the 64-bit VST2 in Cubase Pro 9.0.1, Live 9.7.1 64-bit and Bitwig Studio 1.3.15 with a Sustain pedal connected to a NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MIDI controller.

[sacer]

I bought the upgrade with the iLok too, after having eLicencer before and it didn't work for me either. If you take a look in the iLok manager it is clear that you have to surrender your old PolyKB license in order to install the upgrade..., which we both have in eLicencer.

I have contacted Xils to see if we can work this out somehow. It was NOT clear, at least not to me, that you had to have an iLok license to surrender, but of course it might have been obvious...

No it's activated correct and in bitwig my 32 Bit version still works, but my 64 bit version stays ilok locked and wants to be activated but it already is. I still wrote xavier, but I ll have to wait, because yesterday was the release, so i have to be patient. I have around 100 plugs activated in ilok and never such a problem before, i reinstalled, reactivated and also moved my xils lab folder in public documents. I bet it results of my elicenser, maybe i have to touch some registries

[exmatproton]

Received a fresh code

[exmatproton]

Played with PKB3 for a while, and although i really enjoy this synth, there are is 2 1 "bugs" i found;

The delay unit (left and Right) outputs the left and right output reversed. Left is right, and right is left. <--- i think this was on a particular patch/instance.... I loaded a new instance and left was left and right was right on the same patch...weird.

When changing the ADSR on filter2 (ADSR2 CTRL), it is actually ADSR3 that is hardwired to filter2. So the name is incorrect beneath filter 2:

PolyKB3.JPG

[Lotuzia]

PolyKB III:
We apologize for an error. Due to technical difficulties, we can't send your iLok License Code at the moment.
We will rectify this as soon as possible and you will receive the code in the next few days.
Again, apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Sorry for this. I can see you got your code now, so happy end.

Getting some new licences from Ilok is more complicated/slow during hollydays time. To be honnest, we did not expect at all such a fast & big success for the PolyKB III, and Xils had to buy and stock a lot of new licences very quickly. Again, sorry for this. Glad you can use it now.

[Lotuzia]

Played with PKB3 for a while, and although i really enjoy this synth, there are is 2 1 "bugs" i found;

The delay unit (left and Right) outputs the left and right output reversed. Left is right, and right is left. <--- i think this was on a particular patch/instance.... I loaded a new instance and left was left and right was right on the same patch...weird.

When changing the ADSR on filter2 (ADSR2 CTRL), it is actually ADSR3 that is hardwired to filter2. So the name is incorrect beneath filter 2:

PolyKB3.JPG

Awsome ! Good find and thanks a lot.

Sometimes you look at a gui several thousands times, and you don't see anymore such obvious details It will be fixed in the next .0x update.

[Lotuzia]

I bought the upgrade with the iLok too, after having eLicencer before and it didn't work for me either. If you take a look in the iLok manager it is clear that you have to surrender your old PolyKB license in order to install the upgrade..., which we both have in eLicencer.

I have contacted Xils to see if we can work this out somehow. It was NOT clear, at least not to me, that you had to have an iLok license to surrender, but of course it might have been obvious...

No it's activated correct and in bitwig my 32 Bit version still works, but my 64 bit version stays ilok locked and wants to be activated but it already is. I still wrote xavier, but I ll have to wait, because yesterday was the release, so i have to be patient. I have around 100 plugs activated in ilok and never such a problem before, i reinstalled, reactivated and also moved my xils lab folder in public documents. I bet it results of my elicenser, maybe i have to touch some registries

Xils is working on this at the moment. If you have filled a report file, you'll be informed directly, else, I'll try to post news regarding this problem when it's solved. Thanks for your patience.

[Lotuzia]

 
I tried the demo. Works fine, only I found something is broken.

Whereas PolyKB II & 2.5 (full versions) do have Sustain Pedal support. In the demo of PolyKB III it doesn't seem to be working .

Is this a bug?

The Sustain pedal seems to be working here in the PolyKB III full version for Windows (eLicenser version).
Tested here in Windows 10 64-bit using the 64-bit VST2 in Cubase Pro 9.0.1, Live 9.7.1 64-bit and Bitwig Studio 1.3.15 with a Sustain pedal connected to a NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MIDI controller.

Works here too -on full versions-. Maybe it's a demo limitation. I'll ask and report here.

[Lotuzia]

Speaking of which, are there many patches specifically showing off the capabilities of the PolyKB III? I imagine so, but wondered if there is a way to differentiate those from the others coming from the KB II pedigree?

Terry

I just answered my own question!

If you sort on the left showing banks, then in the next slot there is a "Factory K3" choice, where all the PolyKB III factory presets are sitting!

(Lotuzia - your HyperBrass for PolyKB III just became my all-time favorite brass patch EVER! Just played it alone for fifteen minutes!)

Terry

Thanks a lot Terry

New presets : before I transmitted them to Xils, I tagged them with 'PKBIII' in the PROJECT criteria, so that one could find them quickly. It might be a good thing to create such a tag, in any criteria, to separate PKB III only patches that one creates.

For the HyperBrass patch, I included it in the PKB III factory because it shows what the 3rd oscillator can add. Also it uses the harwired Velocity/Neg-AttackTime hardwired modulation of the PolyKB III (The kind of subtle details that make a difference for expressive patches) It's quite easy to overdo Brass Patches, but I hope this one has a good balance between power/impact, and a more emotional part as soon as the sustain stage is engaged, making it suitable for chordal or solo works.