GHOST (beta) - New 6 osc wavetable FM synth

[Biome_Digital]

I see a new beta update is released. Exacoustics, you should stay on to of this thread. KVR is one of the best places to promote your new synth.

A man has to sleep! Honestly I'm not really looking to promote this at the moment because it's not ready for mass marketing. It's better that this is kept low key for now among people looking to try the next cool thing.

Oh I understand that!

[Biome_Digital]

I'll stop bumping your thread now then.

[OzoneJunkie]

First things first, what is the copy protection going to be?

The same as Vital. Login with your account info.
Similar to Ableton Live and NI Komplete, you can register up to two devices per license.

Hi exacoustics - was hoping to ask a couple of things. I'm considering buying early for the discount. However, I don't make purchases without certain information - namely around the copy protection and license transfers.

What will the license transfer policy be? I'm less concerned about this than the next - copy protection.

As far as I know, Vital uses a login in order for users to download the synth's content (wavetables/presets) based on the purchase level for their account. Vital does not require the user to be logged into their Vital account- you can work in offline mode. Additionally, as far as I can tell, there's no system ID being generated by Vital and no Challenge/Response mechanism built in. I could be wrong, but since one can work in Vital w/o being logged in, it would seem this is true.

Will GHOST require a persistent login? Will it use a C/R mechanism? Will licenses be user-manageable via a website?

I realize it's still early in the dev cycle for GHOST, but given that one can purchase the software now, I'm of the opinion that these things should be addressed at the same time the software is made available for purchase.

Thanks in advance for any response.

[PhaseTransition]

I like the concept! Getting FM sounds amazingly quick. I don't get a few things though. Usually FM-synths have at least one envelope per operator/carrier. Are the 3 envelopes of Ghost per operator/carrier or are there hidden envelopes or will there be an option to add more envelopes? And I had to turn up Operator B in the lower matrix row even if it was only meant to modulate A. Is the lower row of the FM Matrix the output volume or is it the amplitude of the Operator?
Thanks!

[exacoustics]

What will the license transfer policy be?

There currently isn't one, just because I haven't built in the functionality into the website.
I do plan to allow transfers however! With no limit on transfers. The server backend was built with this in mind and can already support this, there just isn't a frontend yet, or a written policy haha.

Will GHOST require a persistent login? Will it use a C/R mechanism? Will licenses be user-manageable via a website?

Persistent login: Yes.
C/R mechanism: Perhaps in future, but I won't make any promises there.
Licenses user-manageable via website?: Yes, so you can 'unregister' your device from your account page.

The reason I went with this model is so that I can offer users refunds within 30 days, should they ask for it. It isn't common for software companies to offer that, as consumer laws in many countries don't fully cover digital distribution, and so companies aren't forced to offer it. That trend may be slowly changing though.

I'm of the opinion that these things should be addressed at the same time the software is made available for purchase.

Yes I totally agree. I'll add this into my schedule and have this ready before a fully public release. Thank you

[exacoustics]

I like the concept! Getting FM sounds amazingly quick. I don't get a few things though. Usually FM-synths have at least one envelope per operator/carrier. Are the 3 envelopes of Ghost per operator/carrier or are there hidden envelopes or will there be an option to add more envelopes? And I had to turn up Operator B in the lower matrix row even if it was only meant to modulate A. Is the lower row of the FM Matrix the output volume or is it the amplitude of the Operator?
Thanks!

Currently all operators are synced to use ENV 1. I'm thinking of adding a button only to ENV 1 named "OSC SYNC" which will let you disable this syncing behaviour, and allow you to move the DAHDSR params independently. Either OSC B will instead be synced with ENV 2, or ENV 1 will just show different settings depending your active OSC tab, whichever is easier to understand.
Personally I think both ideas are kind of confusing. It's a design problem I'm struggling with.

As for the lower row in the FM Matrix, it controls the output volume.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Hi, I would love to test your synth, looks great! Love the reduced GUI, too. Might be I'll have an useful suggestion for you... Is this a fork of Vital?

[exacoustics]

What will the license transfer policy be?

One last note on transferring licenses. The transferee will need to have an account registered with their email, and the transferor will be able to use a simple form on their own account dashboard in which they enter the email of the transferee. If the email exists, the transfer happens, unregistering the transferors devices on the server, and both parties will be notified that the transfer was successful. If the email doesn't exist you'll simply get a failure message.

[exacoustics]

Hi, I would love to test your synth, looks great! Love the reduced GUI, too. Might be I'll have an useful suggestion for you... Is this a fork of Vital?

Thanks man. Download a demo from my website, or if you want to become a beta tester, send me an email. There's a contact form on my site.
No, it's not using anything from Vital.

[OzoneJunkie]

Thanks exacoustics for the replies on license transfer and copy protection.

Since GHOST will require a persistent connection, I have to pass on the synth, unfortunately. Although I am curious if there's a grace period - will GHOST run if there's no connection, and for how long - how many days before it will not run without calling home first?

I'm a bit disappointed, but I have to stick to my own personal standards. GHOST basically has things I've wanted for a long time. At the same time, most of my FM synthesis needs can be accomplished with 3 oscillators with the ability to modulate between them, which Vital can do.

The cost of GHOST is fine. For me, the real cost of a synth is the usage of it. I've had to abandon or sell synths that changed to copy protections that didn't work or weren't suitable for me. And the expense of the synth, in this case, comes with the time it takes to replace the synth within existing music projects that used it - especially if the synth was used extensively for original sound design within the project. Even spending a few hours to do this for a single project outweighs the real cost of the synth, for me. And much worse if the synth is used in multiple projects.

But again, let me compliment you on the synth itself. I only played with it for an hour, and I really like it a lot. It's got the depth that I look for but at the same time isn't overly complex.

[exacoustics]

how many days before it will not run without calling home first?

A few months.

[HiEnergy]

Guess I'm out. My studio computer doesn't have an Internet connection.

[exacoustics]

Guess I'm out. My studio computer doesn't have an Internet connection.

As of v0.3.0 you only need to do an online unlock once.

[SeBaer]

Much faster, noticeably very low CPU.

Hi,
I couldn't find infos on system requirements. How does it fare with old CPUs, like a AMD Phenom II X4? Does it work, or does it require more modern instruction sets?
I I cold get to run on my dated system, I'd like to join the beta.
On another note, when you really want a fierce beta testing, have you thought about approaching bjporter or RichardSemper of the KVR One Synth Challenge?

Edit: I verified that the demo version runs on my system, and already send a beta test request via your contact form.

[OzoneJunkie]

Guess I'm out. My studio computer doesn't have an Internet connection.

As of v0.3.0 you only need to do an online unlock once.

That. Is. Awesome. Thanks for making that change. I'm going to download again and play with this week. Cheers!