Hive 1.1 latest build - revision 7485

[ionekvr]

Some additional facts about the roadmap for an official release of Hive 1.2:

• More Waveforms

Thanks, Urs, I've been waiting for this!

Just curious, are you contemplating wavetables for this update or is that further down the road?

Psst, don't give people ideas...

I've been hesitant to buy Hive until I saw these two posts and other comments you've made in this thread. Hive seems much more attractive now. I'm a big fan of your work, but Hive never made sense to add to my arsenal, but now I have much more interest. I was about to give up on Hive, but now I will buy it shortly.

I always hoped Hive would eventually be far more than, for example, a Sylenth replacement... no disrespect intended (and I have and still use and enjoy Sylenth), but Hive just seemed out of character for the level of innovation you guys normally exhibit in your other VSTi, most of which I have and love. Adding more waveforms is a start, then possibly wavetables and some of the other creative additions you've hinted at here... now we're talking! I'm ready to open up my wallet again.

For me, the U-he brand is about making something special in your plugins, and those careful, thoughtful design decisions, special sound and original thinking is what makes me pull up your plugins over and over. I think I "get" your original intentions for Hive, but Hive seemed to fall a bit short of your normal awesomeness IMO. Very happy to see you guys invest more time into it.

Thank you, and keep up the great work! Expect another sale!

[ionekvr]

And.... ka-ching, just bought Hive. Can't wait for 1.2! (and 1.3!)

[Shiek927]

Hive definitely shouldn't be underestimated. It's feature set may be somewhat basic, but it's raw character more than makes up for it. Even before these updates, it was absolutely a worthy addition to anyone's collection.

[ionekvr]

Hive definitely shouldn't be underestimated. It's feature set may be somewhat basic, but it's raw character more than makes up for it. Even before these updates, it was absolutely a worthy addition to anyone's collection.

No doubt -- anything U-he releases is usually great. Generally, his plugins are no-brainers for me. But in my case (and I know several composers/producers who felt the same way I did) I couldn't ever pull the trigger on Hive... that is until now.

I just have so many synths that I've purchased (and Hive will now be the 5th U-he VSTi -- and 8th total U-he plugin -- I've purchased if my count is correct), plus tons of synths from other developers (some of which are also very special), that Hive just didn't have that magical distinguishing characteristic U-he's other plugins usually have for me. Not to mention that I also have Sylenth1, and the developer came back from the dead and released a 64-bit version roughly around the time that Hive came out. So that really put a damper on my enthusiasm for Hive at the time. If anything, Hive seemed to wake up Lennard Addink (the developer of Sylenth1) and get him releasing updates again. So there was very little motivation in my case to buy Hive due to Sylenth1 and the many other excellent synths I have.

And IMO U-he's synths always have that "special something" -- I mean come on, Diva the beauty, Repro the Magnificent, Zebra the Wizard, even ACE the Little Beast. Before this thread and the new developments going on with Hive, how was I supposed to categorize Hive? I checked out the reviews and sound samples, etc... of course it was good. But was it the full U-he magic? Hive seemed like it was missing a bit of that Urs' magic fairy dust to me, and I had other plugins to buy.

Anyway, I bought Hive just now because the magic fairy dust looks like it's getting sprinkled in there quite well, and I'm enthusiastic. When Urs puts his mind to it, and gives it some love, I know it will be truly magical. I have a feeling that for many who passed on Hive before, like several people I know, will seriously reconsider when 1.2 comes out, and even more if Urs implements wavetables. In any case, I bought it now out of respect and excitement for the effort Urs is putting into Hive now.

[Urs]

The special thing about Hive is the way you get so much out of so little.

If there ever was a textbook on "The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth", it would appear the designers of Sylenth have followed it letter by letter (but the chapter on PWM was ripped out by someone else). So my incentive was "how can I make it better by throwing things out?". We took things away to make space for tiny little additions. It's all about sharing resources. Two out of four oscillators became subs - full oscillators which "inherit" a few settings from their main osc. The global sections got dumped, so that everything fit into a single page. We removed the restriction of ModMatrix to only selected parameters. We added multipliers. We made the sequencer a regular mod source. We made the effects swappable and filter routing flexible. That kind of stuff.

I think we ended up with maybe 10% fewer synth parameters than suggested by The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth, while still covering 99% of its sounds. But then, Hive does a gazillion sounds which latter can't, due to the extended flexibility.

The reason we made Hive in the first place was to explore fast unison waveform playback with various detune laws for Zebra3 oscillators. So today it makes a lot of sense to add a bit of Zebra3 tech back into Hive - and repurpose it to do something unique and utterly useful. I'm very excited about this. In fact, I can hardly sleep lately. In a few days we'll be able to fully test the new oscillator additions and maybe reveal a bit more about it.

While I certainly got a bit sad over the years that Hive wasn't perceived as an advancement or even "not a u-he synth", I think that might change a little...

[tasmaniandevil]

i've installed latest beta. OS X 10.12.6 - Cubase 9.5.30 - Cubase 9.5.30 started to crash upon loading projects created with hive 1.1.

Might just be an installation issue. Either try a fresh installation of the Hive beta (remove version 1.1 completely before installation), or, if this doesn't help, please contact our support so we can figure out what the problem is.

[ionekvr]

The special thing about Hive is the way you get so much out of so little.

If there ever was a textbook on "The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth", it would appear the designers of Sylenth have followed it letter by letter (but the chapter on PWM was ripped out by someone else). So my incentive was "how can I make it better by throwing things out?". We took things away to make space for tiny little additions. It's all about sharing resources. Two out of four oscillators became subs - full oscillators which "inherit" a few settings from their main osc. The global sections got dumped, so that everything fit into a single page. We removed the restriction of ModMatrix to only selected parameters. We added multipliers. We made the sequencer a regular mod source. We made the effects swappable and filter routing flexible. That kind of stuff.

I think we ended up with maybe 10% fewer synth parameters than suggested by The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth, while still covering 99% of its sounds. But then, Hive does a gazillion sounds which latter can't, due to the extended flexibility.

The reason we made Hive in the first place was to explore fast unison waveform playback with various detune laws for Zebra3 oscillators. So today it makes a lot of sense to add a bit of Zebra3 tech back into Hive - and repurpose it to do something unique and utterly useful. I'm very excited about this. In fact, I can hardly sleep lately. In a few days we'll be able to fully test the new oscillator additions and maybe reveal a bit more about it.

While I certainly got a bit sad over the years that Hive wasn't perceived as an advancement or even "not a u-he synth", I think that might change a little...

Very classy response, Urs! And thank you for giving us some insight, not only into Hive, but into your thinking process in general. I'm very glad to finally be on board with Hive, but more importantly, I'm glad to be on board with you over the years as a customer and fan. You've contributed many inspired moments to my work with your plugins over the years.

And BTW, there are many of us that think that in the book, "The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth," you've single-handedly written many pages over the many years. You are not just a great developer, but you are also an artist. Hats off, sir! Can't wait to see what you bring us in the future, and I'm not just talking about Hive, now that I finally bought it.

[wilx]

While I certainly got a bit sad over the years that Hive wasn't perceived as an advancement or even "not a u-he synth", I think that might change a little...

It's been my go-to for bread and butter & dance-orientated sounds since release, with zebra covering for everything else. Much crossover between the two, of course. Many people I know use it a lot and love it - so there definitely is an appreciation for Hive!

My only real criticism is the GUI is too fussy - there's a lot of over-designed and contrasty stuff that makes it less user-friendly than it could be, and osc, filter, lfo sections are not distinguished in any way - all neon blue against black, no differentiation. Some of the mockups posted earlier look like a step in the right direction, so I'm excited to see the new design! Side note - I'd quite like the hexagon to stay, and be a responsive control/info section depending on what you're doing. Tooltips, modulation feedback, oscilloscope etc.

[spunkmuffin]

I'm very excited about this. In fact, I can hardly sleep lately.

OMG Urs remember to look both ways when you cross the road. Or take somebody with you if you need to go out. Geez...and get some sleep...please!

[chk071]

It's always great to see someone so passionate about his work.

[Shiek927]

The special thing about Hive is the way you get so much out of so little.

If there ever was a textbook on "The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth", it would appear the designers of Sylenth have followed it letter by letter (but the chapter on PWM was ripped out by someone else). So my incentive was "how can I make it better by throwing things out?". We took things away to make space for tiny little additions. It's all about sharing resources. Two out of four oscillators became subs - full oscillators which "inherit" a few settings from their main osc. The global sections got dumped, so that everything fit into a single page. We removed the restriction of ModMatrix to only selected parameters. We added multipliers. We made the sequencer a regular mod source. We made the effects swappable and filter routing flexible. That kind of stuff.

I think we ended up with maybe 10% fewer synth parameters than suggested by The Design Of A Perfect Softsynth, while still covering 99% of its sounds. But then, Hive does a gazillion sounds which latter can't, due to the extended flexibility.

The reason we made Hive in the first place was to explore fast unison waveform playback with various detune laws for Zebra3 oscillators. So today it makes a lot of sense to add a bit of Zebra3 tech back into Hive - and repurpose it to do something unique and utterly useful. I'm very excited about this. In fact, I can hardly sleep lately. In a few days we'll be able to fully test the new oscillator additions and maybe reveal a bit more about it.

While I certainly got a bit sad over the years that Hive wasn't perceived as an advancement or even "not a u-he synth", I think that might change a little...

Very good response!! one of the things that have made the wait for Zebra3 easier is that we've already seen little hints of it for many years now and Hive itself is an example of it .

[Beamboom]

While I certainly got a bit sad over the years that Hive wasn't perceived as an advancement or even "not a u-he synth", I think that might change a little...

It's been my go-to for bread and butter & dance-orientated sounds since release, with zebra covering for everything else. Much crossover between the two, of course. Many people I know use it a lot and love it - so there definitely is an appreciation for Hive!

Yup, me too.
It's my #1 synth. Never a single project without it. In fact, often when I use other synths, including other u-he ones, it's cause I feel I have to, just to "spread out" a little.

I could easily have lived with Hive as my only synth.

[phreaque]

@Urs

Some questions if you don't mind:
- I sense that Lennard was one of U-He team in the past, there's a little indication I got from what you wrote above.
- Hive is a daring and yet a misleading product that certainly doesn't have much in common with the rest of U-He products and the reasons are known: It's just a good copy of Sylenth1. Perhaps changing its GUI would trick the people sense and makes it more appealing.
- How relevant to your scope is this: A U-He wrapper combiner that hosts certain (or better yet all) U-He VSTs and work as soft-modular synth?

[EvilDragon]

- I sense that Lennard was one of U-He team in the past, there's a little indication I got from what you wrote above.

Nope.


Also Hive is much more than a copy of Sylenth. It takes SOME hints from it, but goes much, much further.

[Urs]

- I sense that Lennard was one of U-He team in the past, there's a little indication I got from what you wrote above.

Hehehe, EvilDragon is right, how do you read that out of what I wrote?

Many synths bear a lot of resemblance with Sylenth (and vice versa), but most have tried to "add more" to the game. More layers, more tabs, more waveforms, more unison voices. But this hasn't necessarily made them better. More interesting maybe, more this, more that, but hardly ever better, at least not at the things Sylenth is loved for. When people asked us to "make a synth like Sylenth", they meant its simplicity, the low CPU usage and a certain variety of presets other than "just prog, vintage and cinematic". Any attempt to go there will look like Sylenth, simply because Sylenth is the archetype of that.