Roli: Equator 2 is here !

[zvenx]

Interesting. I will take a first stab.
Equator is much easier to navigate, the interface and method of creating patches are much more traditional.
Falcon's library to me is much more esoteric (even more so than Omnisphere to me), Equator has some out of the world sounds but quite a lot of traditional synth sounds.
Equator 2 has Himalaya, imho no one doing any UVI Falcon bank (that I have heard anyway) is as good for my taste... Himalaya understands (as I said earlier) real time expression of a keyboardist, and him and I have a very compatible sound aesthetic.

If I was making a pop record, and had to choose one, I would use Equator. For film work I would use Falcon with a few patches from Equator as lead sounds. (Although I should add that the Bank of Expressive E sounds on Falcon are really up my street, even though I don't currently own an Expressive E)

Falcon can do a million things more than Equator.

My two cents.

ymmv.

rsp

[Gribs]

I just sent a request to their support for an upgrade from my FXpansion Cypher2 and Strobe2 licenses. I never received an email from FXpansion with a coupon, or if I did it got lost in the ebb and flow of the email tides and floods.

I need this like I need a hole in my head, but I want it anyway. I am still resisting a couple of the other hybrid super-synths out there.

I don't have an MPE controller (yet). I do have a Hydrasynth KB which has poly-AT, but there is no glide or slide or whatever it they are called. I guess the poly-AT would get mapped to "press" on Equator? Oh wait, I just realized the pad array on my Polyend Medusa has pressure, x, and y motion per pad and it can be used as a MPE controller.

[LoveEnigma18]

I had recently reported an issue where aftertouch was not working with VST3 plugins in FL Studio and it's been fixed in 20.8 RC2. Since Equator2 is only VST3, it was very important. IL proved again their speedy support in resolving customer issues. Also, aftertouch will work on all MIDI channels now as per what I read on the forum.

Just need to install and test this out with all my VST3 plugins, but just thought to share here.

[whannel]

Can anyone who has it please make a video showing off al the oscillator features, and the filters, maybe even show off the effects after?

Asking again now that a few more users have bought it. Still not seeing a lot of content, had hoped the developers might have shared more by now?

Videos like this are encouraging, expect Roli will do a full series. Am I right in thinking the granular engine can then be one of the six sources or destinations for FM?



I'd missed this one too, bit of a deeper dive, those Math sections look good, had hoped they might be for the Oscs when it mentions Sources but think it's modulation sources only there. Might take this on since Novation treated us to Roli Studio which gives the discount.

[fceramic]

Really wish there was a demo! I have a few questions.
- Does it have polyphonic effects like Massive and Phase Plant?
- Does it allow cross oscillator modulation?
- Will Studio Player be updated with Equator 2 patches? (That's to the devs)
- Is it stable in Reason?

[Angus_FX]

Really wish there was a demo! I have a few questions.
- Does it have polyphonic effects like Massive and Phase Plant?

Not really. It does have polyphonic FX sends.

- Does it allow cross oscillator modulation?

Yes, it has some limited cross-oscillator FM capabilities. But it doesn't really go front-and-centre with this. Cross-osc stuff really needs oversampling to sound good (especially if the oscs you're XMing have complex harmonics and even inharmonics to begin with - like wavetable, granular, samples...), and with Equator2 we focused on maximum depth and lushness at 1x.

- Will Studio Player be updated with Equator 2 patches? (That's to the devs)

Yes. The plan is for all Equator2 patches to be available in Studio Player for people who have both; RSP-only users will have a small selection of Equator2 patches, future sound-pack content built on the Equator2 engine, and an upgrade path.

[wilx]

@Angus - any plans for scope visualisation per focused parameter as per Cypher? And Cypher's Euclidian modulation would be ace, as would some subtle visualisation (for speed/polarity) in the mod matrix window.

[himalaya]

- Does it allow cross oscillator modulation?

You can use the FM engine to add modulation in these ways:

1. Traditional FM, by using sinewaves (or any VA waveform, for more complex sounds)
2. FM a VA waveform with a sample
3. FM wavetable with a wavetable
4. FM wavetable with a sample.

I just tried modulating a sine waveform with a Nylon Guitar sample. Sounds so fat! Like a complex DX7 sound that would require all 6 operators.

Than, you can add ring-modulation to the same combination of sounds.

[himalaya]

Am I right in thinking the granular engine can then be one of the six sources or destinations for FM?

The granular engine, just like the sample engine can be the source for FM. They can FM the VA waveforms and the wavetables. If you choose one of the specific-granular samples (Granular folder), say vocoder speech, it makes for very cool FM motion at low FM levels (low, since higher FM levels always get too messy, noisy, as is the case with using samples for FM). This can be really great for drones.

[himalaya]

Can anyone who has it please make a video showing off al the oscillator features, and the filters, maybe even show off the effects after?

More videos will be made. In the meantime here is a few screen shots of the wavetable and granular osc detail page:

[Angus_FX]

@Angus - any plans for scope visualisation per focused parameter as per Cypher? And Cypher's Euclidian modulation would be ace, as would some subtle visualisation (for speed/polarity) in the mod matrix window.

Will note all of these. Thanks for the feedback!

[LoveEnigma18]

@Angus: Any update on the GUI point we discussed earlier? I am Windows 10. Just to remind about the issue, when Equator2 GUI is maximised, the knobs and text look small and there's a lot of wasted space.

Thank you.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Of here is a weird annoying thing. So cliking an oscillator shows a bigger waveform view and additional controls in the middle box. But why can you click on the waveform display only for the wavetable osc to select it and not the sample/granular oscs? For the sample/granular osc, we have to click some little bit of empty space in between controls beside the waveform box in order to select it to show the controls for that in the middle part. Is this a bug? It doesn't make sense.

Any thoughts on this? Is this a bug? Why can we not select the sample osc by clicking it in the big waveform area like with the wavetable? Why do we need to select the number or a little area in between controls?

[himalaya]

Is this a bug?

Yes. Unfortunately, it got through in the release build. A team of bug assassins is hunting it as we speak.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Is this a bug?

Yes. Unfortunately, it got through in the release build. A team of bug assassins is hunting it as we speak.

Cool, good to know!