KVR Audio

Phuturetone · Post by **Phuturetone** » Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:50 pm

OzoneJunkie wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:27 pm I see BONES and linus_369 mentioned both of the things I came here to request: mousewheel for scrolling presets, and resizable GUI (for me, a 25% bump higher would be perfect). And of course, CPU optimization is always welcome.

GR-8 sounds awesome, and I love the user interface. I'm not really looking for any new synths these days, but I saw a video of someone playing around with it, and thought "wow, I like the interface and the sound..." and so figured I would try it out. Glad I did.

Cheers!

EDIT: Oh, what about MPE? Is that possible with Synth Edit? If so, is MPE something you're considering?

Hi OzoneJunkie,

Thank you for the comments! Some CPU improvements are on the way. The mouse wheel support is outside my reach. The 125% scale is probably manageable, but I'm currently too busy with the daily job to be able to do it.

I think that MPE is still not available in SE, but I may be wrong.

Cheers,
Sasha

OzoneJunkie · Post by **OzoneJunkie** » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:27 am

Thanks for the reply, Sasha. CPU improvements on the way sounds great, that's probably the most important to me anyway. Thanks for a great synth, and all of the work you put in.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:49 am

Honestly, I'd rather see some velocity modulation options than anything else. Now that I've been diving into GR-8 more deeply, this has became a real issue for me that limits what I can do with it. The issue with the depth of the env mod on cutoff is another thing I think should be a priority.

While MPE may not be achievable, the best part of an MPE controller - the "5D touch", as Roli call it, would definitely be achievable. All you need is a pitch-bend range of +/-48 semitones and to assign a MIDI cc or two. You can see how Rich has implemented it in Obsession, it's quite simple and means we can all use our MPE controllers with it, just without the polyphonic aspect of it, which is of limited use anyway.

Phuturetone · Post by **Phuturetone** » Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:37 pm

A new version is out:
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/gr-8-b ... /downloads

v1.0.2 - 2021-07-17:

Fixed wrong pitch caused by switching from Mono to Poly mode.

Various fixes to prevent excessive use of CPU.

Removed diffusion from Delay to reduce CPU usage.

Removed oversampling to reduce CPU usage.

Doubled Filter Env Depth range.

Assigned MIDI CCs to Init preset.

Enabled custom install folder on PC.

Added manual install for presets on Mac.

Thank you all for reporting the bugs and sharing your opinion and ideas. I appreciate your help!

Sorry for the slower update – it was a hard one. I've tried several options for oversampling and decided not to use it at all. I thought that partial oversampling will require less CPU, but it turned out that it required more CPU than the whole plugin oversampled. I've used 2x oversampling for oscillators and filters but figured out there's no need since they sound similar without oversampling. For distortion, I've used 4x oversampling. I assume only the presets with heavy distortion could sound cheaper than before. So, If you want a cleaner sound, increase the sampling rate on your DAW, it should sound excellent on 88.2kHz and above.

@Bones, I'm not allowed to add new options to the plugin until the voting is ended. After that, I will add the Velocity controls for Filter Cutoff and Amp Level. thank you for the review and for promoting GR-8.

Cheers,
Sasha

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:12 am

CPU usage is way, way down! Great work! The new env mod depth range is also a welcome and useful change. Thanks so much for being so responsive to our requests.

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 2:51 am

CPU usage is a LOT better.

Gets my 5 points easily (voted right now). Not only is this synth really great-sounding but also I must admit this is the only plugin from the entries I'll use for sure.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:13 am

Yeah, me too. Reduktion seems to have a few fans but it doesn't do anything for me. Same for WhispAir, which lacks any real bite from my limited playing around with it. But I really like the way GR-8 sounds and I enjoy using it, too. A little velocity modulation and this could easily become one of my go-to synths.

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:45 am

I just don't understand this hype around Whispair. To me it sounds more than basic, far from pro quality, I thought people wouldn't care. But they like it. Good that it's working for some of us, to each one his own taste.

As far as I'm concerned, Gr-8 is the only entry I'd use in productions.

Sinisterbr · Post by **Sinisterbr** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:52 am

Yeah, it gets my vote as well. It sounds fantastic. And you guys are right, the FX section is top notch.
Regarding Reduckion, I liked Deducktion better.. Besides, that GUI is terrible. Developers should pay more attention to their GUIs.

EdSfer · Post by **EdSfer** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:40 am

Phuturetone wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:37 pm A new version is out:
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/gr-8-b ... /downloads

v1.0.2 - 2021-07-17:
Fixed wrong pitch caused by switching from Mono to Poly mode.

Various fixes to prevent excessive use of CPU.

Removed diffusion from Delay to reduce CPU usage.

Removed oversampling to reduce CPU usage.

Doubled Filter Env Depth range.

Assigned MIDI CCs to Init preset.

Enabled custom install folder on PC.

Added manual install for presets on Mac.

Thank you all for reporting the bugs and sharing your opinion and ideas. I appreciate your help!

Sorry for the slower update – it was a hard one. I've tried several options for oversampling and decided not to use it at all. I thought that partial oversampling will require less CPU, but it turned out that it required more CPU than the whole plugin oversampled. I've used 2x oversampling for oscillators and filters but figured out there's no need since they sound similar without oversampling. For distortion, I've used 4x oversampling. I assume only the presets with heavy distortion could sound cheaper than before. So, If you want a cleaner sound, increase the sampling rate on your DAW, it should sound excellent on 88.2kHz and above.

@Bones, I'm not allowed to add new options to the plugin until the voting is ended. After that, I will add the Velocity controls for Filter Cutoff and Amp Level. thank you for the review and for promoting GR-8.

Cheers,
Sasha

Thanks for the update! Eagerly waiting for velocity options now

OzoneJunkie · Post by **OzoneJunkie** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:51 pm

Awesome, thanks for the update! Will the Oversampling return, perhaps as an option?

e-musician · Post by **e-musician** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:55 pm

Thanks for the update, I can confirm what BONES and DJEmac say regarding CPU usage.

As for a resizeable GUI, I think a 125% and a 150% option would be great.

Anyway, congratulations on this synth, Phuturetone!

Gabriel Garcia · Post by **Gabriel Garcia** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:58 pm

Hi Sasha, just tried the new version and the reduced cpu usage is a welcome improvement, thanks!

About the GUI size, I just wanted to report that here on my 4k display GR-8 looks sharp and the size is perfect (I believe it's using the "@2x" .png files). I'm using FL Studio, maybe other DAWs do not scale it properly?

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:47 pm

I would not mind to find also a Mac VST version.

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Sun Jul 18, 2021 11:22 pm

I've made a quick song to see if I could actually use GR-8 only in a production. The answer is yes.

Here is the short demo song I made quickly (drums and sound FX are external, the only synth you hear is GR-8) :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rm9hjO ... sp=sharing

Phuturetone GR-8