Sitala drum sampler going into alpha, looking for feedback!

[luzifer]

Hi folks --

We've got a new free drum plugin that's now hit alpha, and I wanted to see if we could get a few people here to give it a test drive and let us know what they think. We're trying to figure out which features to prioritize for 1.0.

sitala-screenshot.png

[/url]
Download for macOS / Windows: https://decomposer.de/sitala.html

Basically it's a sample-based drum plugin with 4 main controls:

- Shape
- Compression
- Tuning
- Volume

The shape control sweeps across from a short glitchy envelope, over to one with the attack rolled off. What the others do is pretty obvious. Though both the shape and compression do gain compensation by restoring the RMS peak of the processed sample -- basically so that you can tweak them without having to rework the mix.

Right now there are just a couple of kits, but that's something that we also intend to increase once we get closer to a 1.0 version.

Here's a slightly cheesy demo track created just using Sitala:
https://soundcloud.com/sitala/sitala-demo

[Halonmusic]

Going to test it right away.

[Halonmusic]

Works perfectly on my machine. Will there be a vst version too?

[scotchi]

Hi Halonmusic --

(I work together with the guy that posted this.)

We realized after doing this build that we should prompt folks for where VSTs should be installed on Windows, as they're not as standardized as they are on Mac.

The VST should have been dropped in:

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins\Sitala.dll

In the next alpha we'll add a prompt in the installer to ask where the user would like the plugin to be copied to.

Any thoughts on the interface? Did you get a chance to play around with things a little bit?

[Halonmusic]

Hi Halonmusic --

(I work together with the guy that posted this.)

We realized after doing this build that we should prompt folks for where VSTs should be installed on Windows, as they're not as standardized as they are on Mac.

The VST should have been dropped in:

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins\Sitala.dll

In the next alpha we'll add a prompt in the installer to ask where the user would like the plugin to be copied to.

Any thoughts on the interface? Did you get a chance to play around with things a little bit?

Ok thanks. I like the interface a lot. I've been playing around with it and I really like it. I love the shape feature. Looking forward to the final release

[tesselode]

I like the idea of a simple sampler with 4 main controls that aim to be expressive. Presumably, this is not meant to replace a DAW's built-in sampling tools, because if so, it would need to be much more comprehensive (and my feedback won't make sense). But if you are in fact aiming to make 4 big knobs that are as interesting as possible, I have some unorganized thoughts:

• The shape knob is the most interesting by far; good work on that!
• Volume probably shouldn't be one of the "main 4" controls, since it's not so much for expression and more for mixing. It could go at the bottom of the interface, under each drum pad.
• The pitch control also isn't the most interesting, but in combination with some modulations it could be a lot more fun. Speaking of which:
• I think a global LFO and velocity linking would add a lot of expressive options to the plugin. Whether or not that's in scope is up to you.
• The closed hi hat should probably cut the open hi hat.
• You could put the velocity to volume link before the compressor so you get different dynamics depending on the velocity.
• The ability to send each sample to a different output would be nice, but I'm not sure how hard that is to implement.
• Some lo-fi options might be cool?

I'm really glad I'm not the only person trying to create plugins that aim for a high level of expressiveness with a small set of controls. I think that's the best way to make music tools for people. If you can push the expressiveness farther without adding a lot of cognitive load, I think the plugin will start to really shine.

[devilnishy]

Nice offering. However on installing it asked me to stop I-Lok as it was using a service sitala wished to use, I pressed ignore and it worked OK. I think too much work has gone into this software for it to be any intentional form of malware, However people are not going to like any message requesting they stop I-Lok.

[Turello]

Like!
Could you put a version without installer please?

[Drew Lake]

This is a great plugin and it works OK on REAPER 5.80 x64 (Windows 10 x64) but I have one question?

Is the VST gonna have multiple audio outputs?

Apart from that it sounds great, looks great and does a great job!

Thanks!

[Michael L]

Like! Could you put a version without installer please?

Yes, that would make me more comfortable when testing an alpha version!

[Stefken]

It's a really nice concept ! Less is more.

[*]Volume probably shouldn't be one of the "main 4" controls, since it's not so much for expression and more for mixing. It could go at the bottom of the interface, under each drum pad.

I concur.
You could replace it with resonance which is also a simple way to change sounds but can introduce a lot of extra colors with just one simple knob.

With regard to placing knobs in accordance to eye movement priority, I would swap resonance with the tuning knob (so resonance on the left; tuning on the right;(volume knobs at the bottom; ).

[thecontrolcentre]

Thanks for this. Will check it out.

[Stefken]

Extra idea : you could introduce some analog drift/behavior.
Again a (functional) simple way to introduce some more variance and colors.

You could apply the drift by default, provide a setting in the menu, or put a control on the GUI (but the GUI is so nice and clean now).

[onerob]

Will there be an AU version?

[fisherKing]

AU +1...