KVR Audio

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 8:31 pm

Hey all.

I wanted to share a new plugin/standalone app we've been working on for a while. We're a new company called "Modalics" that has myself, as well my partner Or Lubianiker pretty much doing everything in it, including designing, programming, etc.

Beat Scholar is essentially a drum sequencer/sampler, but with a few twists. For example, it's visually a bit different, and based on circles (or "Pizzas") that you can slice in interesting ways to get any kind of subdivision. We also have special swing modes like "negative swing", and support changing time signatures, writing drums in a linear way (without opening a channel for each drum) and other fun stuff.

In terms of sounds, we have a bunch of samples and effects built in, but you can also drag your own samples, send MIDI out, drag MIDI to the DAW or mix multi channel audio.

I would love to know what you think!
Of course, there's a 14-day free trial!

https://www.modalics.com/products

fairlyclose · Post by **fairlyclose** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 9:38 pm

Definitely will give this a try - looks like an approach I will find very natural and productive

raiderpdog · Post by **raiderpdog** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 10:25 pm

Nice job guys! Interested to try it out.

charlesalbert · Post by **charlesalbert** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 4:11 pm

It is really an amazing app. So sad that I’ve promised myself not to buy apps due to crazy increase in electricity prices

Let’s see if I will resist the temptation

D Halgren · Post by **D Halgren** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:58 pm

Any chance you guys will release a sequencer only version? I don't really need another sampler or anymore drum sounds. Just a thought.

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:05 pm

D Halgren wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:58 pm Any chance you guys will release a sequencer only version? I don't really need another sampler or anymore drum sounds. Just a thought.

Good question!

Beat Scholar can also work as a sequencer only, which is actually how we hope many people will use it. It will output MIDI into any other instrument directly, and you can also drag MIDI patterns from it into the DAW timeline.

If you do that, you might want turn the sampler section and FX off completely so it doesn't take any CPU, which you can do by opening the preset menu and clicking "Sampler".

D Halgren · Post by **D Halgren** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:25 pm

steff3 · Post by **steff3** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 7:36 am

Hi, can we have more of the instrument icons and make slots assignable (like choose icon per slot)?

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 7:59 am

steff3 wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 7:36 am Hi, can we have more of the instrument icons and make slots assignable (like choose icon per slot)?

Not yet, but it’s definitely something we’d love to add as an update! It’s technically very possible but I need to talk to my partner, Or, and see if he can do his design magic to make it work in the UI.

For a start, something we can maybe add within the next few weeks is to be able to choose a sound category(and icon) on each pad so you can have 5 different kicks for example or any other combination you like.

Will that work?

charlesalbert · Post by **charlesalbert** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:26 pm

When you export midi track, is there a way to stop the vst3 app playback? In order only midi to play the samples of the app. If I export midi now the sounds got doubled since it plays midi lane and also sound of the app.

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:29 pm

What I really miss are some randomisation options especially for the sequencer (whole pattern, single lane). I think this is really standard today, especially for something that has so many new ideas.

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:38 pm

charlesalbert wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:26 pm When you export midi track, is there a way to stop the vst3 app playback? In order only midi to play the samples of the app. If I export midi now the sounds got doubled since it plays midi lane and also sound of the app.

Absolutely.
Click on the preset menu and turn off the sequencer, and it would stop playing and act as a sampler only.

What I sometimes do is have another instance or just the standalone version as a "sketch pad" and then drag midi patterns to the timeline of the "sampler-only" track which I sometimes toggle between Beat Scholar and something like BFD3, Ableton Drum Rack, Logic's Drumsynth, etc.

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:41 pm

tatanka wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:29 pm What I really miss are some randomisation options especially for the sequencer (whole pattern, single lane). I think this is really standard today, especially for something that has so many new ideas.

Yes, I agree. We're discussing options to make it happen in a future (free) update which would hopefully not be too long from now.

The challenge with something like that is how to expose the things that are unique to this plugin like strange subdivisions or swing settings, while still keeping a musical structure that doesn't sound too random.

With a traditional step sequencer that only plays 1/16 notes, it's slightly easier to create things that would sound good with a randomizer.

Anyway - challenge accepted, let's see what Or and I can come up with!

wasagn · Post by **wasagn** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:17 pm

I just downloaded and installed the trial version of Beat scholar. I ran it in Logic Pro and played around with it a little bit. Here are my first impressions and suggestions for improvements:

- it is an excellent app and very well done. the GUI is excellent. It is the best drum sequencing app the I have used so far. The workflow is intuitive and it is very simple to get something done that is a little bit (or even more than a little bit) out of the ordinary.
- in Logic Pro it would be nice to have a MIDI FX version of Beat scholar available.
- when there are a lot of lanes in the sequencer, it happens that the individual „mute“ and „solo“ buttons disappear, even though there is still enough space (real estate) left for them to still be visible (you can bring them back by zooming in vertically, but it would be nice, if that wasn’t necessary).
- it would useful to be able to assign probabilities to individual steps of a sequence.

My overall impression is: great app, very well done!

innervisions · Post by **innervisions** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:23 pm

wasagn wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:17 pm it is an excellent app and very well done. the GUI is excellent. It is the best drum sequencing app the I have used so far. The workflow is intuitive and it is very simple to get something done that is a little bit (or even more than a little bit) out of the ordinary.

Woah, thank you so much!

wasagn wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:17 pm in Logic Pro it would be nice to have a MIDI FX version of Beat scholar available.

I was just working on that today! Hoping to get it out (in a free update) in the next few days.

wasagn wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:17 pm when there are a lot of lanes in the sequencer, it happens that the individual „mute“ and „solo“ buttons disappear, even though there is still enough space (real estate) left for them to still be visible (you can bring them back by zooming in vertically, but it would be nice, if that wasn’t necessary).

Yes, that's a good point. We should probably fix that in that in an upcoming update really soon.

wasagn wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:17 pm it would useful to be able to assign probabilities to individual steps of a sequence.

It definitely seems like a a lot of people are into randomizers and probabilities.

We got our work cut out for us to make those happen in Beat Scholar!

Again, thank you so much for this amazing review.

Modalics - Beat Scholar/New drum sequencer