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

[Lotuzia]

The iLOK registration went pretty trouble free for me, I redeemed the licence.

To register the PolyKB III license on my iLOK I needed first to surrender the PolyKB II license I already had on it.

When that was done I registered both PolyKB II and III to the iLOK. Both products works afterwards.

The way it looks in iLOK manager:

PolyKB II & III (2) [Locked group]
-PolyKB III [Product]
-polyKB [Product]

PolyKB III sounds mighty fine, but I wonder if it uses a bit more CPU than PolyKB II ?

PolyKB III will use a similar CPU charge to PolyKB II for identical patches. However, using the second filter for some patches will add a CPU charge similar to using the same patch with unison set to factor 2 ( I'll take the opportunity to remind that PolyKB II & III have True Unison modes, ie real additional voices are generated, and you can thoroughly tweak individually these voices using the various Per Voice modulators, allowing precise and neverseen control over them)

Also, while beeing at least totally on pair with any other analog emulations quality wise, it uses less cpu than some other synths. And finally, to achieve this, the PolyKB always run in Supreme Mode : There are no 'low quality' modes in it.

16 voices uses about 50% CPU here (core i7 4970K @ 4,8 GHz). That is quite hefty. I am not complaining though. I love the 'almost' no compromise, best quality attitude. I wish more synth dev's would do this. This thing sounds amazing!

Yes. If some patches are too heavy, especially with a 16 voices polyphony, I'd recommand 1rst reducing the release, when it's possible ( I've seen quite a lot of patches where the VCA EV release was very short, and the filter EV(s) release time were too high, in a useless way). And/Or taming, as much as possible, the number of unison voices. As well as reducing the polyphony (as 16 notes polyphony is not always required).

My personal benchmark, for what its worth, is for a single Bass or Lead patch with not too high release 3% cpu charge on my antique Q9550 @ 2.8 Hrz ( 6 years old I think), wich I think is not lite by any way, but not very high as well.

The best thing though, I agree, is probably to demo the PolyKB III with the demo version. This way : No surprises.

[thetechnobear]

does it support MPE?

there is no mention of it, yet if it supports per voice modulators, why not support MPE?... tomorrows technology includes MPE

pity - for me, no MPE = no buy... there are now enough VSTs supporting MPE, to use it as a filtering criteria

[ZINO]

Btw : We hope everyone is happy with the pricing of the Upgrade. I used to refer at it as 'fair and very affordable' when it was discussed in toher threads before it was announced. I hope nobody will have been disapointed.

Regardless of the (end) price, the process was pretty silly. "Buy 2.5 now for a discount and then the next day buy the upgrade for a discount. Then you'll have it cheaper." My congratulations to whoever came up with it.

[Lotuzia]

Btw : We hope everyone is happy with the pricing of the Upgrade. I used to refer at it as 'fair and very affordable' when it was discussed in toher threads before it was announced. I hope nobody will have been disapointed.

Regardless of the (end) price, the process was pretty silly. "Buy 2.5 now for a discount and then the next day buy the upgrade for a discount. Then you'll have it cheaper." My congratulations to whoever came up with it.

Hundreds of people went with it, and until now, all of them seemed to be fully happy, just because well .... not a single complaint was received about that.

I however agree that people who did this were probably convinced 'in advance" that the PolyKB III would be worth it ( or maybe had enough with the PolyKB II.5 already) There btw no shame to want to save a few addtional bucks I think.

Anyway, for those who prefered to wait and wanted to judge the PolyKB III 'as it is', vs not 'as it was promised to be', the demo versions are now there.

[Lotuzia]

does it support MPE?

there is no mention of it, yet if it supports per voice modulators, why not support MPE?... tomorrows technology includes MPE

pity - for me, no MPE = no buy... there are now enough VSTs supporting MPE, to use it as a filtering criteria

I don't think it supports MPE. I'll ask to Xils to be sure. But it would be interesting to have it for sure.

My -basic, I might be wrong- understanding of MPE though is that the PolyKB can do things with the per voice modulators MPE can't do. Also, one dont need a 1000$ Linn instrument to use them, wich can possibly seen as an advantage for a lot of people.

[aMUSEd]

Will there be more PKBIII presets? - not finding many....

[Roman76]

Hello,
I tried to use the sequencer like in the tutorial video but it does not work for me by clicking in the editor. The box for note and velocity appears in the editor window but the green light from the voice button does not light up and there is no sound. I have to record a keystroke to get it working. What I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

Setup: Win7 64bit - Cubase 9

[thetechnobear]

I don't think it supports MPE. I'll ask to Xils to be sure. But it would be interesting to have it for sure.

My -basic, I might be wrong- understanding of MPE though is that the PolyKB can do things with the per voice modulators MPE can't do. Also, one dont need a 1000$ Linn instrument to use them, wich can possibly seen as an advantage for a lot of people.

the point of MPE its to allow expression from the player, you cannot 'automate' that...

there are lots of new MPE controllers out there, at a cheaper price... Roli Blocks, KMI K Pro 4 (next year) , there are iPad implementations (GeoShred, $25) ... sure new tech starts at a premium, buts its increasing coming down in price.

of course, its a certain (small) segment of the market just seemed it fitted with PolyKB 3 ideas.

[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

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.

Are there any news ? i switched my synths from elicenser to ilok and only xils 3 and 4 are working in 64 bit daw, the rest (stix, polykb, vocoder and syn'x) are only working in a 32 bit daw. I tried to install, delete all registry, activate / deactivate bit nothing works

[MFXxx]

Will there be more PKBIII presets? - not finding many....

I had the same thought. Not into many preset packs (incidentally a lot of the pack links on the website seem to be dead now anyway), but always nice to have a decent array of patches as starting points. Really helps with understanding the programming and tweaking. None the less will have a play as upgraded.
Incidentally the CPU hit seems high on y first random patch selection(is it gladiator drum or Goliath something along those lines).
Will dig a little deeper and see what the new features bring.

[Lotuzia]

I don't think it supports MPE. I'll ask to Xils to be sure. But it would be interesting to have it for sure.

My -basic, I might be wrong- understanding of MPE though is that the PolyKB can do things with the per voice modulators MPE can't do. Also, one dont need a 1000$ Linn instrument to use them, wich can possibly seen as an advantage for a lot of people.

the point of MPE its to allow expression from the player, you cannot 'automate' that...

there are lots of new MPE controllers out there, at a cheaper price... Roli Blocks, KMI K Pro 4 (next year) , there are iPad implementations (GeoShred, $25) ... sure new tech starts at a premium, buts its increasing coming down in price.

of course, its a certain (small) segment of the market just seemed it fitted with PolyKB 3 ideas.

Yes it seems interesting (mpe) Xils-Lab per voice modulations though are different (it's not automation neither), and allow things that Mpe cant make. The opposite is probably true also. Well, you might want to try it to find out if its usefull for you. There are thousands of things possible with the Per Voice modulations.

[Lotuzia]

Will there be more PKBIII presets? - not finding many....

I had the same thought. Not into many preset packs (incidentally a lot of the pack links on the website seem to be dead now anyway), but always nice to have a decent array of patches as starting points. Really helps with understanding the programming and tweaking. None the less will have a play as upgraded.
Incidentally the CPU hit seems high on y first random patch selection(is it gladiator drum or Goliath something along those lines).
Will dig a little deeper and see what the new features bring.

More patches there will be, at a point. How much ? I dont know. (Dont expect millions though) When ? Maybe in the next .0x update.

The PolyKB III comes with nearly 300 presets atm iirc.

As a -personal- side note, Xils recently told me that my AnalogVille soundbank sells like hot cakes. As it seems it's still on sale, well, that's an easy way to add around 230 -very nice imh&verybiased_o - presets, or starting points, as one see it fit.

[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.

Are there any news ? i switched my synths from elicenser to ilok and only xils 3 and 4 are working in 64 bit daw, the rest (stix, polykb, vocoder and syn'x) are only working in a 32 bit daw. I tried to install, delete all registry, activate / deactivate bit nothing works

Maybe Xmas slowed a bit the investigations regarding this. Please, rest assured that a solution will be found, and proposed to you anyway.

[aMUSEd]

Will there be more PKBIII presets? - not finding many....

I had the same thought. Not into many preset packs (incidentally a lot of the pack links on the website seem to be dead now anyway), but always nice to have a decent array of patches as starting points. Really helps with understanding the programming and tweaking. None the less will have a play as upgraded.
Incidentally the CPU hit seems high on y first random patch selection(is it gladiator drum or Goliath something along those lines).
Will dig a little deeper and see what the new features bring.

More patches there will be, at a point. How much ? I dont know. (Dont expect millions though) When ? Maybe in the next .0x update.

The PolyKB III comes with nearly 300 presets atm iirc.

As a -personal- side note, Xils recently told me that my AnalogVille soundbank sells like hot cakes. As it seems it's still on sale, well, that's an easy way to add around 230 -very nice imh&verybiased_o - presets, or starting points, as one see it fit.

Yeah but we meant PKB3 specific ones. I have plenty of presets from earlier versions already. How many of those should I be seeing?

[Lotuzia]

Hello,
I tried to use the sequencer like in the tutorial video but it does not work for me by clicking in the editor. The box for note and velocity appears in the editor window but the green light from the voice button does not light up and there is no sound. I have to record a keystroke to get it working. What I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

Setup: Win7 64bit - Cubase 9

Hello Roman,

I'll assume you want to enter notes with the mouse.

A common mistake ( that happened to myself several times) is to record only velocities, and not notes. ( because when you 1st open the PolySequencer editor, sometimes it's the Velocity record box that is checked/active) So you think you write notes, when actually, you write velocities not tied to ... non existing notes. So maybe its what you're confronted too. Then, of course, the sequencer must be in Play Mode (and not in 'Step Play mode', in wich case you trigger each new step with a key stroke)

In any case, if it's not one of the above mentioned cases, please find one of the Sequencer presets, checks it plays ok, possibly modify it to see how the sequencer works, and if the state of the different buttons are identical to what you do. And if you still think it doesnt work properly, please feel free to report here. Thanks.