** An official announcement about BionicFX latency **

[griels]

[Sonar:
Yes, Cakewalk was nice enough to send us a copy of Sonar to test the plug-ins. So, we will make sure it runs well in Sonar.

Why could you not try with the demo version of Sonar ?

No VST<->DX adapter, one would assume.

JamesOne - $200 doesn't sound so bad... Sadly my mobo has no PCI Express slots (was too impatient to wait for PCI-X Socket 939 boards after my old machine died). Incidentally, are there any laptop graphics chips that support your plugins?

Last time I spoke with their product manager we were tossing around the merits of the DX native vs. just running through the adapter. No decision was made, but they are convinced that it will run flawlessly through the built-in adapter.

They happen to be in the same city I am, so I will be spending some time in their office to make sure it runs well.

I just checked and the 6600 can be purchased through mail-order for less than $140+shipping. These will be even cheaper in the future.

I have not started testing the engine on laptops yet. But, I will find out from NVIDIA which chips have the hardware support and post it on our website at some point.

Great, thanks! Wonder how important the AGP bandwidth problems are in practical terms (compared to the symmetric PCI-Xpress)? I mean, the PCI-based UAD/Powercore seem to handle a decent number of tracks.

In any case, I won't be shelling out for a new card in the near future, maybe some time next year.

[jamesOne]

By AGP bandwidth problems are you talking about the slow readback? We have found ways to resolve that issue and getting very good performance over AGP.

The PCI Express video cards are appealing, because of the bi-directional rates. But, if I am not mistaken they also use faster memory and that is where you might see even higher performance.

[griels]

By AGP bandwidth problems are you talking about the slow readback?

Yes.

We have found ways to resolve that issue and getting very good performance over AGP.

Cool

The PCI Express video cards are appealing, because of the bi-directional rates. But, if I am not mistaken they also use faster memory and that is where you might see even higher performance.

[Kingston]

jamesOne,

I know the benefits of true convolution vs fft based solutions.

Still it would be nice to hear short demo examples on the same IR using bionic reverb vs. maybe SIR or Voxengo Pristine Space.

Could you maybe arrange something like this? I'm sure most of us would be very interested to hear them.

Not going to happen.

Our goal is to put out a great reverb as a demonstration of the AVEX technology and a glimpse of the future. There are a lot of plug-ins planned.

The guys that made those products (Christian and Aleksey) have made important contributions to the small studio market. I would rather see AVEX help their products at some point.

Are you saying you won't do the comparisons because you want to be friendly with other developers and not compete with them?

Funny thing, I would've thought even christian and aleksey would like to hear some comparisons (if they haven't already)?

[jamesOne]

Hi Kingston-

From the E-mail response, I think a lot of people are going to be interested in how the plug-ins sound. This announcement is about latency.

You have requested that we post audio comparisons between our products and potential competitors or partners. I can't think of a single plug-in maker that offers this: here is how our product sounds and here are some links to files we made from our competitors' products.

You are welcome to make such comparisons yourself in the future. We will also be interested in the feedback from everyone on how to improve our products.

My sentiments are not about friendliness and/or competition. I do have a lot of respect for everyone doing DSP programming --- even making simple plug-ins is not a trivial undertaking.

If you have any additional questions about latency or performance of the BionicFX engine ask away, and thanks for the continued interest.

jamesOne,

I know the benefits of true convolution vs fft based solutions.

Still it would be nice to hear short demo examples on the same IR using bionic reverb vs. maybe SIR or Voxengo Pristine Space.

Could you maybe arrange something like this? I'm sure most of us would be very interested to hear them.

Not going to happen.

Our goal is to put out a great reverb as a demonstration of the AVEX technology and a glimpse of the future. There are a lot of plug-ins planned.

The guys that made those products (Christian and Aleksey) have made important contributions to the small studio market. I would rather see AVEX help their products at some point.

Are you saying you won't do the comparisons because you want to be friendly with other developers and not compete with them?

Funny thing, I would've thought even christian and aleksey would like to hear some comparisons (if they haven't already)?

[pitchdrifter]

How will bionicfx work in general? Is it a wrapper or chainer type container that loads normal native VSTi plugins? Or does it require special bionicFX-made effect plugs?

thanks

Markus

[jamesOne]

How will bionicfx work in general? Is it a wrapper or chainer type container that loads normal native VSTi plugins? Or does it require special bionicFX-made effect plugs?

thanks

Markus

BionicFX runs audio algorithms directly on the GPU of your video card. This is an important distinction from DSP cards that employ the DSP chips as co-processors. Think of it as an external piece of hardware, but only has a 2ms response time and potentially 40+ GFlops of processing capability (although the observed is lower).

Plug-ins are being created by BionicFX. You can not simply port existing code, it must be reworked from the ground up. We will pursue partnerships at some point with existing plug-ins that we like and you recommend.

[pitchdrifter]

Have you thought about making an SDK available for plugin developers, so they can offer bionicFX versions directly?

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I honestly hope the quality of the plugins offered will not make people fall back on using native versions, because these might sound better.
IR1 takes very little CPU on a grown up DAW, also there are very fine compressors and EQs available by elemental audio and sonalksis natively that eat little CPU.

I hope you guys will make some sort of SDK available to already established plugin developers for purchase.
An entirely proprietary approach would be a waste of the technology. I'm not saying you shouldn't get rich with this technology, I'm saying I hope you guys are getting rich in a way that leaves the user with a very wide choice of plugins to run on your technology, even when the plugins might not be bought via bionicFX.


best

Markus

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Kingston]

We will pursue partnerships at some point with existing plug-ins that we like and you recommend.

This is just about the best news since the initial announcement. As if it wasn't exciting already. I can hardly wait.



Best of luck getting the good ones onboard.

*cough* Universal Audio *cough*

[olafmol]

How will bionicfx work in general? Is it a wrapper or chainer type container that loads normal native VSTi plugins? Or does it require special bionicFX-made effect plugs?

thanks

Markus

BionicFX runs audio algorithms directly on the GPU of your video card. This is an important distinction from DSP cards that employ the DSP chips as co-processors. Think of it as an external piece of hardware, but only has a 2ms response time and potentially 40+ GFlops of processing capability (although the observed is lower).

Plug-ins are being created by BionicFX. You can not simply port existing code, it must be reworked from the ground up. We will pursue partnerships at some point with existing plug-ins that we like and you recommend.

one word comes to mind: Voxengo ... jeez if UAD doesn't snatch up Alexey real soon they will have a serious problem

[egbert]

well there goes the initial announcement of ALL FX series Nvidia cards being supported. screw this. I'm not gonna spend 1000 AU on a 6800,+ whatever each plugin costs

Yes - I just checked out the Green Guide for prices on 6800 cards. My eyes popped at the 4 figure prices. I just did a search on some Oz sites for the lower models 6200 etc and could find almost nothing.

I guess these procesors will trickle down to lower price points in time. Here was me thinking my GeForce 4200 card was going to be my passport to audio heaven LOL.

The fan noise issue is a big one too.

Eg

[JonnySun 2.0]

JamesOne: When will the first synths be released? Tassman is a special candidate for AVEX ... or the waldorf synths. Do you have asked some of the developers?


Urs plan to release his plugs to the native platform. What's about asking him for porting his plugs also on AVEX platform? www.ursplugins.com

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[bk]

James,
Please ignore all the naysayers here, and continue on with this fascinating work.

People: these are preliminary results of newly emerging technology. Just to prove that it really can work. Give the guy a break. I wouldn't blame him if he stopped posting here until he has solid final stats, but I hope that's not the case.

What many of you don't seem to realize is that the processing power in todays $500.00 vid card will be available in a year or two for $150.00 or less, and generate much less heat than today's offerings. It happens all the time.