u-he Hive 1.2 - free update - adds wavetables and more

[THE INTRANCER]

We're aiming at an update around March/April which will include a revised UI, a few more frequently requested features, a whole lot more presets and NKS support. I can not yet say if we're going to throw in an FX version, new engines, new filter modes or new effects, neither of those seem likely.

I still think you need more filters, just look at all the possible ones you could add.... you only really have a choice of 6 in a practical sense.... (The clean, normal and dirty modes, don't count as that's a global choice of really one mode). These are all filter types from one drop down menu, so I'm excluding the different filters from within the Hexagon such as those associated to Chorus (Classic, Dramatic, Ensemble) and Phaser (Stoned, Flanged). There may be a little overlap here..but really, there's a big difference in numbers, variations and types of filters.




My first post of 2019, Happy New Year everyone

[pdxindy]

IMO 30 is too many for any synth... but especially for Hive which is intended to be a simple synth. I can imagine 2 additions to Hive. A morphable multimode filter like Diva's Uhbie. An Allpass or Comb filter which could be sweet sounding with the wavetables.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

We're aiming at an update around March/April which will include a revised UI, a few more frequently requested features, a whole lot more presets and NKS support. I can not yet say if we're going to throw in an FX version, new engines, new filter modes or new effects, neither of those seem likely.

I still think you need more filters, just look at all the possible ones you could add.... you only really have a choice of 6 in a practical sense.... (The clean, normal and dirty modes, don't count as that's a global choice of really one mode). These are all filter types from one drop down menu, so I'm excluding the different filters from within the Hexagon such as those associated to Chorus (Classic, Dramatic, Ensemble) and Phaser (Stoned, Flanged). There may be a little overlap here..but really, there's a big difference in numbers, variations and types of filters.




My first post of 2019, Happy New Year everyone

1. The things you describe in Zebralette are FX, not filters. They're basically the Zebra OscFX.

2. Hive has 6 filters per engine times 3 engines for a total of 18 unique filters. Yes, the filter types are the same, but the filters themselves are different. Kind of like how Dune 3 has multiple versions of a 24db lowpass that you counted multiple times. If you did the same thing for Hive, the difference is much smaller.

So...not the best first post of 2019 IMO.

[THE INTRANCER]

1. The things you describe in Zebralette are FX, not filters. They're basically the Zebra OscFX.

2. Hive has 6 filters per engine times 3 engines for a total of 18 unique filters. Yes, the filter types are the same, but the filters themselves are different. Kind of like how Dune 3 has multiple versions of a 24db lowpass that you counted multiple times. If you did the same thing for Hive, the difference is much smaller.

So...not the best first post of 2019 IMO.

It doesn't matter what they are called with Zebralette, they behave like filters, and no, saying there are 18 filters is a cop out. You can only access one of 6 from the dropdown menu at a time per oscillator, that's a big difference between Hive and Dune 3 where you can access all 30 of them at any time.

As for my post, it's on point.

[Delta Sign]

I don't know, I think a plethora of filter types wouldn't really fit Hive's concept. Not every synth has to do it all.

That said, as I already mentioned, I would like to see some "exotic" "filters" like a lofi thingy (cutoff controls sample rate and resonance controls bit depth), a ring modulator (cutoff controls the modulator frequency and resonance maybe blends between a sine and a square for the modulator) and, probably most importantly, a simple comb filter (cutoff controls delay time and resonance controls feedback). All of those would work really well with the wavetables, and would open up some new possibilities without adding unnecessary complexity to the workflow and GUI.

More variants of classic subtractive filters would only make Hive less streamlined, in my opinion.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

1. The things you describe in Zebralette are FX, not filters. They're basically the Zebra OscFX.

2. Hive has 6 filters per engine times 3 engines for a total of 18 unique filters. Yes, the filter types are the same, but the filters themselves are different. Kind of like how Dune 3 has multiple versions of a 24db lowpass that you counted multiple times. If you did the same thing for Hive, the difference is much smaller.

So...not the best first post of 2019 IMO.

It doesn't matter what they are called with Zebralette, they behave like filters, and no, saying there are 18 filters is a cop out. You can only access one of 6 from the dropdown menu at a time per oscillator, that's a big difference between Hive and Dune 3 where you can access all 30 of them at any time.

As for my post, it's on point.

Let's say Hive never had 3 "engine" modes but U-He instead tripled the number of filters with the other engine changes happening discretely behind the scenes. Lowpass 24 1, lowpass 24 2, lowpass24 3, etc. Would they count as 18 filters then? I think most people would never know the difference and just think "18 filter modules." Would anything actually be different than the current implementation other than how the GUI displays these different modes? Nope. Not really.

Also OscFX and filters are not the same. Some OsxFX can be filters, but they do fundamentally different things. But if you want to argue all FX are some kind of filter, then that's your perogative.

[THE INTRANCER]

I could argue my point but given that it's almost 3am, I'm busy doing other things. There is another aspect I mentioned, and that's the old sequencer section. There's only 16 steps, and whilst expecting another duplicate sequencer would be a leap of faith as Dune 3 has, I would hope that it would be at least extended 32 steps. 16 steps is pretty long in the tooth software wise these days... but alass even Dune 3 has 32.

[Teksonik]

What is the maximum number of filters that each Hive Patch can have ? Two ? Dune 3 can have 16 Different Filters Per Patch. Not that you'd often need 16 different filters but better to have and not need than need and not have.

Not saying that Hive needs more filters or filter types but as long as we're counting.

I love Hive just as it is but if someone added more filters I wouldn't turn them down just as I wouldn't turn down another 30 in Dune........

[Urs]

Hmmm, it's a silly argument in my view. Hive excells at oscillator unison and wavetable synthesis. Those types of synthesis do not match well with filters which have overly much character. This is why the most characterful filter in Hive is in an engine called "Dirty". In latter you can easily spot the problems, such a scratchy overdrive and out-of-phase stereo image with high resonance. That's why most presets use Normal or Clean modes.

Hence, in my view, adding a lot of different fiter modes is synonymous to adding Dirty2, Dirty3, Dirty4 engines.

It surely makes for great marketing, but it doesn't improve the synth.

[PieBerger]

A lot of the suggested "enhancements" are just make Hive more like Dune. Why? If you want a synth like Dune, you can just buy and use Dune... Adding features from another synth just because isn't good design imo. Hive's strength lies in its simple, streamlined/focused workflow, of which 30 filter types doesn't really have a place in this. If I want an overwhelming choice of filter types, I'll turn to another synth. I expect many other Hive users are the same. I would be interested in a small number of more esoteric filter types, to increase the synths sonic palette but having 10 slightly different flavours of LP filters doesn't make for a better synth. I mean it looks good on paper and it great for marketing teams, but in practical reality, not so much, imo.

[Urs]

you only really have a choice of 6 in a practical sense.... (The clean, normal and dirty modes, don't count as that's a global choice of really one mode).

It's the other way round. Hive has only 3 filter algorithms: Normal, Dirty and Clean.

Each of those filter algorithms is capable of generating various responses (HP/LP/BP) *simultaneously*, and the actual result is a mix of those. Hence, 12dB, 18dB, 24dB almost freely combinable with HP, BP, LP, BR, Peaking responses. We can expand the list of responses to 20, maybe 30.

But it's nonsense. It really is. The difference of e.g. a bandpass with 6dB LP and 12dB HP to a common 6dB/6dB one is so neglectable, it would slow people down trying to figure out what's what.

[AnX]

bigger is better
less is more
silence is golden
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

[Lotuzia]

Quantity, quality, and their possible interactions. What an interesting debate ....

[Delta Sign]

Number of filters / number of LFOs + number of oscillators * thickness of the wood side panels = quality of the synth, everyone knows that.

[martinjuenke]

This current argument reminds me of
„I want it all and I want it now!“
Well, I‘m not in that age anymore...