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

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c_voltage wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 3:38 pm
Lotuzia wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 8:08 am Sounds from the PolyKB III v3.5, and why one might want to demo it. Sometimes sounds speaks better than words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2exCtVmYwM
4:05 not bad.
Ahah :) Violent -single- Oscillator Morphing controlled by rageous Mod Wheel movements 8)
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets

77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there

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boombaxx wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 11:25 pm After trying out the paths it gives the synth a totaly different sound and the reverb :tu:
My feeling also. Still have to finish a wip video with Path examples, but it seems I'm late for everything atm .. :?
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets

77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there

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Knowing GUI:s is a matter of taste and personal preferences. I'd like to ask a question to all PKB 3 users:

How do you feel about the look and, visual, usability of the preset browser ?

I'd like to have a general perception of user's preferences in this matter.

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sfd wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 11:19 am Knowing GUI:s is a matter of taste and personal preferences. I'd like to ask a question to all PKB 3 users:

How do you feel about the look and, visual, usability of the preset browser ?

I'd like to have a general perception of user's preferences in this matter.
Well... I’d say overall... not good. Part of the problem is, I think, the synth that’s being emulated is a bit weird. I do not like the weird flow of PolyKB. I’m a fan of oscs on the upper left, then filters, modulators, (maybe on the next row). Look at Massive X for an example of how a synth should be laid out. It’s just based on convention and how people read left to right, up to down. So, right off the bat Xavier is confronted with an uphill battle. Emulate the look and layout of the original, or go your own way? Frankly, I wish he’d just abandon the original’s layout.

The browser... not a big fan, but it’s OK. I think it could be supplemented with a separate dedicated browser window.

The look is fine. Much better than prior versions with the shadow on the knobs. I miss the look of the old wood, but who really cares? It’s fine.

Anyway, in my opinion, all of the above issues are minor. You’ll figure it out quickly enough and the longer you work with it the more it will become second nature. The point of PolyKB is the sound, which is right up there with Legend, RePro and the Roland Cloud synths.
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sfd wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 11:19 am Knowing GUI:s is a matter of taste and personal preferences. I'd like to ask a question to all PKB 3 users:

How do you feel about the look and, visual, usability of the preset browser ?

I'd like to have a general perception of user's preferences in this matter.
It's not my favourite. It's a style that dates back to the old Arturia days (where Xavier was beforehand IIRC). But it's functional enough. It's not something that makes me tear my hair out but there are others that are easier to navigate.

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The GUI is what keeps me from pulling the trigger on this one honestly. I find software that emulates the layout of synths really unfortunate.

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Gamma-UT wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 1:46 pm
sfd wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 11:19 am Knowing GUI:s is a matter of taste and personal preferences. I'd like to ask a question to all PKB 3 users:

How do you feel about the look and, visual, usability of the preset browser ?

I'd like to have a general perception of user's preferences in this matter.
It's not my favourite. It's a style that dates back to the old Arturia days (where Xavier was beforehand IIRC). But it's functional enough. It's not something that makes me tear my hair out but there are others that are easier to navigate.
Its still hard to move presets around.

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Gamma-UT wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 1:46 pm
sfd wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 11:19 am Knowing GUI:s is a matter of taste and personal preferences. I'd like to ask a question to all PKB 3 users:

How do you feel about the look and, visual, usability of the preset browser ?

I'd like to have a general perception of user's preferences in this matter.
It's not my favourite. It's a style that dates back to the old Arturia days (where Xavier was beforehand IIRC). But it's functional enough. It's not something that makes me tear my hair out but there are others that are easier to navigate.
Are you guys sure that you talk about the same editor ? There are 2 editors now, the old traditional hierarchical menu onthe front panel, inherited as you say from the Arturia days, and the new one window integrated preset manager, wich opens in its own window. (let's call that NPM)

When I first audited the Xils preset manager, many many moons ago, I pointed out a couple of structural weaknesses :

1/ Impossible to multi select items. Wich made for example multitag, multiexport, mulit criteria selection, multimove impossible
2/ The hierarchical tree view was limited : No multi criteria, and you had to manage the two criterias very often.
3/ The endless tree view lists, wich made browsing from sometimes very cumbersome to nearly impossible in extreme cases.

But it had/has some strenghts too : Custom tags were allowed, , and the hierarchical 2 criterias view was powerful enough in a number of cases, should people actually have a minimal good knowledge of it, which could not however be taken for granted. Also ... you never loose a preset.(And in my case, this is a great plus)

All these limitations more/less remain on the front GUI/UI, but ...
now you also have the NPM.

In the NPM, you can perform multitagging, multi selections of items, true multi criterias research, including multislection of criterias in each 'column', and multimove/export etc. For example, moving any number of presets to a new 'bank' : Select any number of criterias and containers (banks) to sort presets, possibly make a select all, or select a subset of presets, simply create a new container (bank) on the fly and it's done in one click. You can always export this new bank with a simple click again, and this is usefull to make a special 'bank' dedicated to a project, a live gig, a customer project, or your next cd/album. You can also favorite/hide presets, hide/view favorites/hidden etc.

There's certainly still room for improvements (at least imo), and we'll see if/when it gets some in the future (but atm Xils is mostly busy implementing NPM on all their instruments one after another), but 'as it' I think it's already quite capable and very powerful. (Atm I'm fighing with my JD-990 to only browse the presets on the vintage card, and well ... I can only dream of the Jedi having npm, or tbh even any much less powerful preset manager ...)
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets

77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there

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Clarification:

Apologize if I turned this thread into a discussion about the general GUI.

It was not my intention.

What I was / am asking about is people's opinions and views regarding the new preset browser / manager.

Since this is new in this version of PolyKB V 3.5

And so, where there's still some work being done to this versions new features I thought it may be good to hear what people thinks about them. So it's about the new preset manager / browser.

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My criticism is: it's not entirely obvious it's there. :oops:

The newer Rob Papen synths suffer from this a bit as well.

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Gamma-UT wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 10:46 am My criticism is: it's not entirely obvious it's there. :oops:

The newer Rob Papen synths suffer from this a bit as well.
Would a tool-tip "bubble" help ?

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Not really. The trouble with tooltip buttons is you have to read them instead of thinking "how do I get rid of this tooltip button?"

As with something like Predator 2, it's just a matter of discovering it. I haven't had much time with the new PolyKB as it took a day or two to get it up and running.

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It's up in the toolbar.
Anyway, would you prefer a different icon. What would make it more obvious for you - any suggestions ?

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Gamma-UT wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 10:46 am My criticism is: it's not entirely obvious it's there. :oops:

The newer Rob Papen synths suffer from this a bit as well.
:) This was my perception when I read your post.(but wasn't totally sure...)

Now I think Sfd and you are talking of the same thing

Once you'll be familiar with the ... NEW preset manager, I hope you'll find it useful.

Maybe a tutorial would help, but tutorials, tooltips .... are a bit in the same boat. If people don't watch them ...
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets

77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there

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There's a new beta up on their site (3.5.1).

Now it, should, be possible to open the new preset browser by hitting right / left arrow key.

One should also be able to browse the presets in the browser using up / down arrow key.

and, finally, one can load a selected preset by hitting the Enter key.

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