E-Phonic Invader 2 v1.0.11 (WIN / OSX)

[Teksonik]

"Sounds very synthetic and electronic but like many other VST that are far more expansive. For $5 it seems to be a good beginner's choice and not a big risk on the financial side!"

For me, he compares it to hardware (mainly hardware videos on his channel)... so Invader sounds synthetic and electronic compared to hardware but sounds as good as expensive vst. So for him, even expensive vst sound synthetic.

Again that comment is not from the maker of the video but from someone who viewed the video then commented.

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[Clem4]

"Sounds very synthetic and electronic but like many other VST that are far more expansive. For $5 it seems to be a good beginner's choice and not a big risk on the financial side!"

For me, he compares it to hardware (mainly hardware videos on his channel)... so Invader sounds synthetic and electronic compared to hardware but sounds as good as expensive vst. So for him, even expensive vst sound synthetic.

Again that comment is not from the maker of the video but from someone who viewed the video then commented.


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I know. I'm talking about his channel. Lot of analog hardware..(behringer clones...)

[e-crooner]

But is the comment as such justified? Does it sound less analog than, say, Dune 3, Ana 2, or something in that league?

I hope the last issues will be resolved soon, then it will be a pretty decent synth in my view.

[Aloysius]

Maybe Analog sound is more detailed than an approximate smooth and curved digital emulation.

[crickey13]

But is the comment as such justified? Does it sound less analog than, say, Dune 3, Ana 2, or something in that league?

Few of these analog purists would be able to tell a difference in a blind A/B test and none of them would be able to tell a difference in a full mix.

[Teksonik]

Some people have the opinion that analog is superior to digital. I've owned both, sold all my analog gear and wouldn't go back.

Invader 2 is a great sounding synth. That's all that matters to me.

[Kees49]

Invader 2 is a great sounding synth. That's all that matters to me.

+1

[BONES]

But should there be any width with a single wave?!

Clearly they need to split it into a stereo signal at some point, otherwise it would only come out of one speaker or the other. i.e. It would have to be panned hard-left or hard-right and nothing in between.

On the subject of VSTi vs hardware, I have an interesting story to relate. Yesterday I spent the whole day with my Analog Keys, the biggest play I have had with it in a couple of years (after my initial burst of enthusiasm when I bought it), and do you know what I discovered? It's not nearly as good as I remember it being. I searched through 512 presets, trying to find sounds I like and it was really difficult. Most of them were so ordinary that I thought maybe the factory banks had been corrupted, so late in the afternoon I did factory reset. That didn't help, I still couldn't find anything I really liked.

If you don't know what AK is, it's basically 4 x analogue monosynths in a box with a sequencer and effects. I bought it off the back of a Youtube demo that I though sounded great, but that was back when we were still using Orion and mostly my SynthEdit freebies.

However, since I bought it we've moved to Cubase, bought into NI Komplete (via Maschie Mikro) and spent many hundreds of dollars on high quality commercial VSTi. So now AK has a lot more quality to compete with and, honestly, it doesn't really cut it in this company. Given that I had the same experience with Modal Skulpt - I thought it was great when I bought it, now I don't think it sounds very good at all - the obvious conclusion is that any perceived sound quality gap between software and hardware has well and truly been closed. Better still, I think synths like Invader show that you don't even have to spend hundreds to get hardware quality sound any more.

[e-phonic]

I'm currently working on the following:

New key assignment mode:
Currently it works like a prophet 5, already playing notes are reused. For sounds with long release times this is not always wanted behaviour. So, I'm adding a mode where a note is assigned to a new voice if possible.

Arp behaviour:
Currently the Arp is always monophonic. Polyphony and velocity response will be added.

Seq behaviour:
2 Play modes will be available.
Poly play: Plays the keys that are pressed. The pitch of the Seq is send to the playing voices. (current version)
Seq play: Plays sequence, polyphonic voices will 'overlap'.

Sustain pedal support.

Fix for midi controllers with endless potentiometers.

I'll keep you posted. It's quite a big update technically because of the changes I need to make to the note handling. It's complex stuff with the Arp / Seq 'pitch' options. It is coming along nicely so far.

[Teksonik]

Is 16 note (or more) Polyphony difficult to implement ?

[sinkmusic]

I'll keep you posted. It's quite a big update technically because of the changes I need to make to the note handling. It's complex stuff with the Arp / Seq 'pitch' options. It is coming along nicely so far.

Nice, thank you for letting us know about the roadmap, looking forward to seeing how it goes, and thank you for the ongoing development

[e-crooner]

Is 16 note (or more) Polyphony difficult to implement ?

Unlike what the default patch suggests, it is polyphonic already

On a serious note, 8 voices seems enough to me. Especially since that number also applies to unison, unlike with some hardware synths.

[e-phonic]

Is 16 note (or more) Polyphony difficult to implement ?

Unlike what the default patch suggests, it is polyphonic already

On a serious note, 8 voices seems enough to me. Especially since that number also applies to unison, unlike with some hardware synths.

I will keep it 8 voices for now. Maybe add it in a later update.

And... I'll change the default patch to 8 voices

[steb_osc]

Hi! Please feel free to shoot me down!

Are there any plans to incorporate OSC-based frequency modulation eg. OSC1 modulated by OSC2?

I love the harmonics from cross-mods, and it’s the only thing that stands out as being missing from Invader.

It’s a superb synth. I’m a bit of purist and it really does the job for me. Nord Lead-esque.

[BONES]

Hard Sync and Ring Mod are plenty for me, what would FM achieve?