Sonic Academy new synth!

[nachenko]

Very nice work! You got ANA sounding super nice. Awesome!

Thanks! Really appreciated. You guys made a great tool.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm demoing ANA 2 again, and again I'm very impressed by the sound. I went to play around with the sample section because I remembered I had some issues with it, and yep still annoying. It's really not a good idea for some knob positions to be affected by other knob movements, it means you can't automate or assign to macros in your host those parameters that change base don others. The loop start changes when you move the sample start or loop end knobs, so it can not be assigned to anything in the daw like automation or a macro as that will cause the loop to collapse and be erratic. I understand that you guys were trying to make the loop start relative between start and loop end but I don't think this works well. I've made suggestions about this before, but looks to how something like Ableton simpler works or many others that have a start and loop start/end.

[Phil Sonic Academy]

I'm demoing ANA 2 again, and again I'm very impressed by the sound. I went to play around with the sample section because I remembered I had some issues with it, and yep still annoying. It's really not a good idea for some knob positions to be affected by other knob movements, it means you can't automate or assign to macros in your host those parameters that change base don others. The loop start changes when you move the sample start or loop end knobs, so it can not be assigned to anything in the daw like automation or a macro as that will cause the loop to collapse and be erratic. I understand that you guys were trying to make the loop start relative between start and loop end but I don't think this works well. I've made suggestions about this before, but looks to how something like Ableton simpler works or many others that have a start and loop start/end.

We are currently re-working the sampler section to include multi-sampling. So we are Defo open to suggestions for features etc.

[DavidCarlyon]

I'm demoing ANA 2 again, and again I'm very impressed by the sound. I went to play around with the sample section because I remembered I had some issues with it, and yep still annoying. It's really not a good idea for some knob positions to be affected by other knob movements, it means you can't automate or assign to macros in your host those parameters that change base don others. The loop start changes when you move the sample start or loop end knobs, so it can not be assigned to anything in the daw like automation or a macro as that will cause the loop to collapse and be erratic. I understand that you guys were trying to make the loop start relative between start and loop end but I don't think this works well. I've made suggestions about this before, but looks to how something like Ableton simpler works or many others that have a start and loop start/end.

We are currently re-working the sampler section to include multi-sampling. So we are Defo open to suggestions for features etc.

This is awesome news. I have made so many multi sampled recordings of my analog synths recently - would LOVE to load them in!
My personal thing with the sampler is, most of the time i want to use a separate ADSR. In avenger you can select 'amp' per layer, so you can choose the same amp for all layers, or switch them out freely. Quite useful and speedy workflow.

[Stefken]

Agreed on the ease of use. And there is more:

I wrote the soundtrack for a retro videogame this weekend (I were in a contest: make a videogame in 48 hours). I decided to go half Chiptune, half Synthwave. Considering how little time we had, I went for ANA 2 for the entire Synthwave palette due to its interface, so fast to program any sound with it.

It delivered that classic Synthwave sound with almost no effort.

If you are curious, have a listen: everything Synthwave is ANA 2, four tracks (downmixed here) produced in just six hours with no presets. ANA 2 user experience at its best:

https://soundcloud.com/ignoranceisstrength/dont-panic

Impressive work! In 6 hours... well done.

[sircuit]

We are currently re-working the sampler section to include multi-sampling. So we are Defo open to suggestions for features etc.

So far I found ANA extremely reliable and I'm using multiple instances of it in all my projects. The most important two things I found lacking, concerning my own workflow:

- when dragging a sample into sampler, please offer the option to skip importing sample. more often than not, I'd change several samples until I find the right one for my project and I'd rather not import them (and create duplicates of my existing samples). my current workaround is to add folder in samples browser and load them from there - but I have to copy them first in said folder.

- all large windows that can be closed by clicking the X in the upper right would benefit of closing them using a right click anywhere on the top header. it so incredibly annoying to go each time at the X spot because most of the time my mouse is in the opposite part of the popup window

[nachenko]

Thanks, Stefken, much appreciated.

Phil Sonic Academy, regarding the sample, this is something I wish I could do with the integrated sampler and I currently have to go for other options:

I like to take random sound sources, such as recording stuff from radio stations, make tiny slices of sound from them and use those slices as wave sources. That way, I obtain unusual timbres. ANA 2 let me do this, but as I can't zoom into the wave and select the area I want to use with sample perfect precision (in order to find zero-crossing points), I have to use Ableton's Sampler instead, but Ableton's sampler has those limitations:

• No Unison. I have to stack many layers and then detune and alter phase of every layer by hand.

• Modulation options are far, far, far behind those offered by ANA 2.

• I can't stack my sampled waveform with other synth waveforms directly. In order to do that, I have to put the Sampler into an instrument rack, then load a synth to run in parallel with the sampler, etc, etc. Compared with ANA's slick interface, this is quite a cumbersome way of working.

That's it. That's what I'd like to do.

PD: Please, add a Delete button, or right-click-delete for user presets. Any method is good. Even a button to show me the users folder in Finder. I save everything I do, and days later I notice some of my presets don't deserve to exist.

Thanks!

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Thanks, Stefken, much appreciated.

Phil Sonic Academy, regarding the sample, this is something I wish I could do with the integrated sampler and I currently have to go for other options:

I like to take random sound sources, such as recording stuff from radio stations, make tiny slices of sound from them and use those slices as wave sources. That way, I obtain unusual timbres. ANA 2 let me do this, but as I can't zoom into the wave and select the area I want to use with sample perfect precision (in order to find zero-crossing points), I have to use Ableton's Sampler instead, but Ableton's sampler has those limitations:

• No Unison. I have to stack many layers and then detune and alter phase of every layer by hand.

• Modulation options are far, far, far behind those offered by ANA 2.

• I can't stack my sampled waveform with other synth waveforms directly. In order to do that, I have to put the Sampler into an instrument rack, then load a synth to run in parallel with the sampler, etc, etc. Compared with ANA's slick interface, this is quite a cumbersome way of working.

That's it. That's what I'd like to do.

PD: Please, add a Delete button, or right-click-delete for user presets. Any method is good. Even a button to show me the users folder in Finder. I save everything I do, and days later I notice some of my presets don't deserve to exist.

Thanks!

We are working on a app / plugin that might be of interest to you for creating waveforms.

It’s called NODE.. you can drop samples into one of 8 slots... you can select which part of the sample you want to use with some resampling there too so you can zoom in / out etc.

Then you can morph between each “frame” in different ways. Then you can export to ANA (or serum) as a 256 frame wavetable.

It’s extremely powerfull as you can mix raster (samples) with node based or drawn waveforms.

Regarding the preset management... if you click on the menu button in the top bar you can select “open user preset folder”

[nachenko]

It’s called NODE.. you can drop samples into one of 8 slots... you can select which part of the sample you want to use with some resampling there too so you can zoom in / out etc.

Then you can morph between each “frame” in different ways. Then you can export to ANA (or serum) as a 256 frame wavetable.

Oh, captain, my captain!

[emCar]

- all large windows that can be closed by clicking the X in the upper right would benefit of closing them using a right click anywhere on the top header. it so incredibly annoying to go each time at the X spot because most of the time my mouse is in the opposite part of the popup window

I have this issue with many synths. It's so frustrating having to have to click on a little place on the UI to close windows. Slows down my workflow and is just annoying. Fortunately you did make it so left clicking the ANA or Sonic Academy logos does close the windows but making it so even more of the UI (e.g. all/most blank areas) could be used to close windows would be even better.

[v1o]

Agreed on the ease of use. And there is more:

I wrote the soundtrack for a retro videogame this weekend (I were in a contest: make a videogame in 48 hours). I decided to go half Chiptune, half Synthwave. Considering how little time we had, I went for ANA 2 for the entire Synthwave palette due to its interface, so fast to program any sound with it.

It delivered that classic Synthwave sound with almost no effort.

If you are curious, have a listen: everything Synthwave is ANA 2, four tracks (downmixed here) produced in just six hours with no presets. ANA 2 user experience at its best:

https://soundcloud.com/ignoranceisstrength/dont-panic

Nice tune. What does the game look like?

[ATS]

Agreed on the ease of use. And there is more:

I wrote the soundtrack for a retro videogame this weekend (I were in a contest: make a videogame in 48 hours). I decided to go half Chiptune, half Synthwave. Considering how little time we had, I went for ANA 2 for the entire Synthwave palette due to its interface, so fast to program any sound with it.

It delivered that classic Synthwave sound with almost no effort.

If you are curious, have a listen: everything Synthwave is ANA 2, four tracks (downmixed here) produced in just six hours with no presets. ANA 2 user experience at its best:

https://soundcloud.com/ignoranceisstrength/dont-panic

nice job!

[nachenko]

Thanks ATS and v1o. Much appreciated.

v1o, the game looks rough, at it was made in 48 hours. It's just a braindead shooter for the sake of shooting and hearing punchy gunshots. For the moment it's available on Global Game Jam site (https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games/back-home-15).

BTW, three members of the team are super-smart high-school students which did great and dealt with pressure much better than many adults, and we also had Alessandro, author of the game "Of guards and thieves" doing a great job and mentoring everything Unity. Amazing talented people, all them.

[greedy.mf]

Very nice synth overall, IO and soundwise. Although one thing bugs me quite hard - absence of dedicated volume control for filters.
Using drive might be a crass workaround, because it changes harmonics and dynamics. Which is very cool on it's own but no substitute for "digital" gain.

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Very nice synth overall, IO and soundwise. Although one thing bugs me quite hard - absence of dedicated volume control for filters.
Using drive might be a crass workaround, because it changes harmonics and dynamics. Which is very cool on it's own but no substitute for "digital" gain.

We have Filter Pre-Gain in testing at the minute.. should make the next major update.

Its especially useful for the modeled plugins... you can get some quite different tones by modifying the input gain.