Unify by PluginGuru; The next big thing?

[getdunne]

While I'm writing, have you had a look at Pendulate. As its got some cool sounds and free I think it would be great to have some of your presets for it in Unify.

Hold that thought, @heks, and watch this Saturday's PlugInGuru livestream...

[David]

How exactly does Unify handle .rx2 files, particularly ones that John didn't create?

OR—

Is there a way to load .rx2 files not created by John into Unify natively, or must one first load an .rx2 player?

[mrsugmad]

Sept 5 2020 livestream
Big Bad Beats

[mabian]

I hope they go on developing the core functionalities beside releasing libraries.
It's a great idea overall, but I think that the huge potential it has is still mostly unexpressed.
For example the UI is not exactly sexy, some kind of skin engine and a couple of alternate default skins would make it even more appealing (yes I know, eye candies...).
Also, adding more embedded freebies, with presets, would help even more. But I understand they're not keen about it.
I'll follow with interest what happens but as of now I'm not fully sold (yet)...

- Mario

[getdunne]

How exactly does Unify handle .rx2 files, particularly ones that John didn't create?

OR—

Is there a way to load .rx2 files not created by John into Unify natively, or must one first load an .rx2 player?

Unify does not handle .rx2 files. John has very laboriously converted certain .rx2 files to Guru Sampler maps, by using ReCycle to export the cut-up samples. If you have .rx2 files, you'll need to load an RX2 player plug-in of some kind. If you have a favorite, please let us know. I'm not aware of any free ones, but maybe I'm missing something?

[getdunne]

I hope they go on developing the core functionalities beside releasing libraries.
It's a great idea overall, but I think that the huge potential it has is still mostly unexpressed.
For example the UI is not exactly sexy, some kind of skin engine and a couple of alternate default skins would make it even more appealing (yes I know, eye candies...).
Also, adding more embedded freebies, with presets, would help even more. But I understand they're not keen about it.
I'll follow with interest what happens but as of now I'm not fully sold (yet)...

- Mario

I'm glad to hear you're interested in Unify, and I hope you may consider buying it at some point.

Adding a "skin engine" is a mountain of work. There are none available pre-built for JUCE (unless I'm mistaken); I have to write the code from scratch. It will happen eventually, but for now there are higher priorities.

As for adding more "embedded freebies", there is no upside to this, only risk. Every bundled third-party plug-in we include as a core component of Unify becomes a dependency we have to support forever. We already had to drop the wonderful PG-8x because the developer could not (or would not) update it for MacOS Catalina, and it's not open-source so I can't do it for him. Can you imagine the chaos that is coming when we need to support "Apple Silicon" ARM chips later this year? (Unify itself already runs on Apple Silicon.)

Unify users can use any plug-ins they like (free or paid) in Unify, and create combination Unify presets which use them. From time to time, John and other sound designers may create the occasional free set of patches using various third-party plug-ins, but these folks also need to earn a living, so commercial patch libraries will always be their priority.

[grdh20]

My Unify came unlicensed and my retail key no longer works?

[David]

How exactly does Unify handle .rx2 files, particularly ones that John didn't create?

OR—

Is there a way to load .rx2 files not created by John into Unify natively, or must one first load an .rx2 player?

Unify does not handle .rx2 files. John has very laboriously converted certain .rx2 files to Guru Sampler maps, by using ReCycle to export the cut-up samples. If you have .rx2 files, you'll need to load an RX2 player plug-in of some kind. If you have a favorite, please let us know. I'm not aware of any free ones, but maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks for clearing that up; I have a few .rx2 players/editors, but none that are free. Dr Rex (The Reason Rack), Vice, Nerve… No favorite.

There's Momentum, though, which IS free; it doesn't load .rx2 AFAIK, but it does similar slicing of wav/aiff files and offers lots of editing tools for the sliced files…fwiw.

[mabian]

I hope they go on developing the core functionalities beside releasing libraries.
It's a great idea overall, but I think that the huge potential it has is still mostly unexpressed.
For example the UI is not exactly sexy, some kind of skin engine and a couple of alternate default skins would make it even more appealing (yes I know, eye candies...).
Also, adding more embedded freebies, with presets, would help even more. But I understand they're not keen about it.
I'll follow with interest what happens but as of now I'm not fully sold (yet)...

- Mario

I'm glad to hear you're interested in Unify, and I hope you may consider buying it at some point.

Adding a "skin engine" is a mountain of work. There are none available pre-built for JUCE (unless I'm mistaken); I have to write the code from scratch. It will happen eventually, but for now there are higher priorities.

As for adding more "embedded freebies", there is no upside to this, only risk. Every bundled third-party plug-in we include as a core component of Unify becomes a dependency we have to support forever. We already had to drop the wonderful PG-8x because the developer could not (or would not) update it for MacOS Catalina, and it's not open-source so I can't do it for him. Can you imagine the chaos that is coming when we need to support "Apple Silicon" ARM chips later this year? (Unify itself already runs on Apple Silicon.)

Unify users can use any plug-ins they like (free or paid) in Unify, and create combination Unify presets which use them. From time to time, John and other sound designers may create the occasional free set of patches using various third-party plug-ins, but these folks also need to earn a living, so commercial patch libraries will always be their priority.

Thanks getdunne, I see. Even though no skin engine can be sustainably implemented, maybe an alternate one could be available at least? I know it sounds odd (use your ears, not your eyes, it's all about sounds...) but for me the GUI *does* matter, considering I spend so much time looking at it. And I'm not in love with the current one, sadly.

Also, if not additional stock freebies, please consider increasing the default sounds in guru. Guru is a beast, simple, streamlined and powerful, and I can envision how the standard Unify with a fairly expanded sound set could cover most bases and become the perfect startup companion to REAPER (that comes with no default sounds). Furthermore, being open source, including Surge should be future-proof enough

Of course, the inherent ability of Unify to blend and mix sounds from different sources, and combine them with processing "boxes" like arpeggiators and other MIDI tools, would be the killer feature.
Anyway, I'm still "undecided", because I already have more than needed for me, but I'm tremendously intrigued by the layering mayhem that Unify embodies - the unspoken secret of so many signature sounds around... I will follow with interest what happens in the next weeks.

Thanks,
Mario

[zzz00m]

I was wondering about any future plans for "Unifying" other synths?

There will definitely be new PlugInGuru patch libraries for Unify + various third-party plug-ins. A few are in the works now, and many are planned for the future, but these are not what we call "Unified" libraries.

A "Unified" library is just the factory patches of a third-party instrument, re-saved as single-layer Unify patches, so they be quickly and easily called up in Unify and combined with other sounds. Because we don't own those factory patches, we can only do this if we get permission from the third-party vendor. Some vendors allow it, others don't.

However, individual Unify users are free to "Unify" some or all of the factory patches for any plug-in they own; it's quick and easy to do. But this is just a starting point. The real fun begins when you add your own patches, create cool combinations using other plug-ins and built-in Unify sounds, and program Unify's macro knobs to take those sounds to crazy new places!

I tried an interesting experiment today with the Unify Demo. Running VIP as a plugin in Unify!

I have AKAI VIP 3.1 with over 20,000+ patches for 3rd party synths installed and working. It's capable of 8 instrument layers, with up to 4 insert effects on each, plus 4 buses, so I'm already aware of the power of layering sounds.

My concern with AKAI is that their apparent lack of ongoing development on this product could lead to a dead end, still without support for VST3. I am starting to see new plugins released in VST3 only.

VIP 3.1 seems to fully function when hosted in Unify running either as a standalone or plugin in a DAW. I set up a multi layer in Unify with a couple of my VST3 plugins and one instance of VIP hosting some VST2 plugins and effects. Very interesting! Best of both worlds.

And best thing of all, my computer didn't halt and catch fire!

[getdunne]

My Unify came unlicensed and my retail key no longer works?

Major Windows updates can cause the license to need re-activation. Please send a note describing what happened to UnifySupport@PlugInGuru.com (include your license key, please) and John will update your activation-count so your key will work again.

[grdh20]

Still doesn't validate after I got the reset email. There has to be a better way of hiding the auth file other than in a cache folder. I wouldn't have purchased this if I had known registering it would be so much trouble. There has to be a better way!

[grdh20]

.................

[getdunne]

Still doesn't validate after I got the reset email. There has to be a better way of hiding the auth file other than in a cache folder. I wouldn't have purchased this if I had known registering it would be so much trouble. There has to be a better way!

I'm sorry to hear you're having such trouble. I will take this up with John (we are thousands of miles apart), but I can't tell who you are from your KVR name alone. Hopefully he will know.

[Kalamata Kid]

I saw this Combo Box in a video.
Is it a Unify software?
Anything modular interests me.