Is Equator 2 worth it? And is it safe to buy it from splice.com?

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kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:34 amI guess their point is that if ROLI goes under, Equator2 will no longer receive updates/bugfixes/support? I don't know how big ROLI's financial trouble is today tho.
You'll still be able to use it, so I see no problem. It is a mature product that is extremely unlikely to give you any grief. When news broke of their bankruptcy, I went out and bought 6 Lightpad Blocks, just in case they did go under. Which is to say, if you like their products, surely you'd want to buy them now, while you can, rather than wait for them to go broke?
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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BONES wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:58 am
kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:34 amI guess their point is that if ROLI goes under, Equator2 will no longer receive updates/bugfixes/support? I don't know how big ROLI's financial trouble is today tho.
You'll still be able to use it, so I see no problem. It is a mature product that is extremely unlikely to give you any grief. When news broke of their bankruptcy, I went out and bought 6 Lightpad Blocks, just in case they did go under. Which is to say, if you like their products, surely you'd want to buy them now, while you can, rather than wait for them to go broke?
Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.

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If you're stupid enough to put up with that, there's not much I can do to help you.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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SamDi wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:01 pm
BONES wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:58 am
kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:34 amI guess their point is that if ROLI goes under, Equator2 will no longer receive updates/bugfixes/support? I don't know how big ROLI's financial trouble is today tho.
You'll still be able to use it, so I see no problem. It is a mature product that is extremely unlikely to give you any grief. When news broke of their bankruptcy, I went out and bought 6 Lightpad Blocks, just in case they did go under. Which is to say, if you like their products, surely you'd want to buy them now, while you can, rather than wait for them to go broke?
Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.
That’s Apple’s m.o. If you buy an Apple computer, you’re encouraging that. You may as well complain that Captain Crunch has sugar in it.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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BONES wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:10 pm If you're stupid enough to put up with that, there's not much I can do to help you.
& this is why you're the court jester of these forums. what's the point of that post? that macs suck? (what is this, 2002???)

my move from monterey to ventura was almost painless... as was my move to silicon. all my 3rd-party plugins work. the whole thing (the OS, the DAW, the plugins) are happy, and working... and so am i.

plus, aren't we discussing equator2? seriously, why is it so important for you to argue with everyone here, even after making some actually useful comments? what if you stopped there, and left the insults and condescension out? hmmmm

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kodra wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:58 pm
martiu wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:45 pm Splice are legit, not sure if the synth is worth it though.
What kind of sound and functions do you need from a synth?
It might sound a bit weird, but I got a used LinnStrument at a cheap price from a local second-hand market. I do play guitar (and a bit of piano), but I know rather little about digital music-making.
Not too weird. I started as a guitarist and went the same route, just a long time ago. Welcome. It’s a pretty vast world, but so fun.
The official guide says I should use a synth with MPE support like Surge XT. I tried it a bit, but the sounds sound quite... electronic. I'd like something more acoustic.
Equator 2 (which I think is awesome) has the capability to sound “acoustic” via samples or FM, but it also has other engines that can get you an electronic synth type sound.
If what I said doesn't make sense please call me out. As I said I'm rather new here, owning a LinnStrument feels like having a sword that I don't have the strength to wield lol.
It makes sense. I use Equator all the time. It’s good for many types of sounds, but the best MPE solution for traditional instruments is the SWAM physical modeling instruments. They’re really expensive, though. I only have SWAM Cello, but I hope to add the others as time goes by.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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zerocrossing wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:54 pm
SamDi wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:01 pm
BONES wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:58 am
kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:34 amI guess their point is that if ROLI goes under, Equator2 will no longer receive updates/bugfixes/support? I don't know how big ROLI's financial trouble is today tho.
You'll still be able to use it, so I see no problem. It is a mature product that is extremely unlikely to give you any grief. When news broke of their bankruptcy, I went out and bought 6 Lightpad Blocks, just in case they did go under. Which is to say, if you like their products, surely you'd want to buy them now, while you can, rather than wait for them to go broke?
Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.
That’s Apple’s m.o. If you buy an Apple computer, you’re encouraging that. You may as well complain that Captain Crunch has sugar in it.
Yes, indeed (and both is silly, but don't let us start this discussion and get OT :D ). Just wanted to mention that a certain amount of users needs actively maintained SW because of that. With Windows all these skips are half (or even not) that tragic.

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SamDi wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:26 pm
zerocrossing wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:54 pm
SamDi wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:01 pm
BONES wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:58 am
kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:34 amI guess their point is that if ROLI goes under, Equator2 will no longer receive updates/bugfixes/support? I don't know how big ROLI's financial trouble is today tho.
You'll still be able to use it, so I see no problem. It is a mature product that is extremely unlikely to give you any grief. When news broke of their bankruptcy, I went out and bought 6 Lightpad Blocks, just in case they did go under. Which is to say, if you like their products, surely you'd want to buy them now, while you can, rather than wait for them to go broke?
Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.
That’s Apple’s m.o. If you buy an Apple computer, you’re encouraging that. You may as well complain that Captain Crunch has sugar in it.
Yes, indeed (and both is silly, but don't let us start this discussion and get OT :D ). Just wanted to mention that a certain amount of users needs actively maintained SW because of that. With Windows all these skips are half (or even not) that tragic.
amazing that, in 2023, people still do the 'pc vs mac' thing. SO tiresome. but i will just go back to my new mac, logic, my hundred (working) 3rd-party plugins... and make music.

why is it that some people think the lifestyle/language/culture/car/computer/os/whatever that they use is, coincidentally... the right one? hmmmm :dog:

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Why the hell did this thread become Mac vs Win lmao. It's 2023 and everyone knows Linux is the best OS. (jk)

Anyway... thanks for everyone's answer. I saw Equator2 still get a new sound pack recently (https://roli.com/stories/create-a-vocal ... -ensembles), so the situation isn't that bad, right? I think I'll try it from splice at $11/mo.

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kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:45 pm Anyway... thanks for everyone's answer. I saw Equator2 still get a new sound pack recently (https://roli.com/stories/create-a-vocal ... -ensembles), so the situation isn't that bad, right? I think I'll try it from splice at $11/mo.
Cannot go wrong with Equator as a ready made MPE synth. Good starting point for MPE!

I do lots of MPE stuff and I don't use Equator, but that is because I enjoy making my own presets in other MPE synths. Once you get your feet wet and are comfortable with both the Linnstrument (amazing controller!) and Equator, you can start to branch out to some other options.

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Well, I found this on their website (https://support.roli.com/support/soluti ... ator2-faqs):
Once authorisation has completed, Equator2 can run without requiring ROLI Connect to be running for up to 4 weeks before needing to "phone home" again. Should this occur, you'll be prompted to launch ROLI Connect again.
So it basically means if ROLI went under you wouldn't be able to use Equator2 any more (unless you crack it). It's a big no-no for me. I'll never consider buying software with "strings attached". If it's a subscription model it's fine, but I'll not tolerate something that disguises itself as a permanent license when it's actually not. (I'm a software developer)

Is pigments like this too? If it's the norm of MPE synths market I'd rather just stick with SurgeXT...
Last edited by kodra on Tue Mar 28, 2023 6:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:45 pm Why the hell did this thread become Mac vs Win lmao. It's 2023 and everyone knows Linux is the best OS. (jk)

when you've been here longer, you may realise, all threads eventually become mac vs pc. 8)

good luck on your quest, i don't use mpe myself (atm) so can't help.

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kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 6:39 pm Well, I found this on their website (https://support.roli.com/support/soluti ... ator2-faqs):
Once authorisation has completed, Equator2 can run without requiring ROLI Connect to be running for up to 4 weeks before needing to "phone home" again. Should this occur, you'll be prompted to launch ROLI Connect again.
So it basically means if ROLI went under you wouldn't be able to use Equator2 any more (unless you crack it). It's a big no-no for me. I'll never consider buying software with "strings attached". If it's a subscription model it's fine, but I'll not tolerate something that disguises itself as a permanent license when it's actually not. (I'm a software developer)

Is pigments like this too? If it's the norm of MPE synths market I'd rather just stick with SurgeXT...
so ridiculous. you could have said that in 2021, and 2 years later, still be using EQ2.

everything is a crapshoot; developers big & small can shut down their businesses (and sometimes do). and since i can't control that, i use what i like. if something no longer worked... i'd find something else, and get back to the music.

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I appreciate your opinion. I'm not trying to stop you or anyone from buying and using Equator2, I'm just saying I'm not going to buy it.

I understand people from different background care about different things. Maybe in the music-making realm people just don't care that, and it's totally okay. (There was even someone in this thread who claims he bought *more* ROLI hardware just in case they go under...)

But I do. This is abusive software practice to me. Just for the record, I don't buy games from Steam either, unless I know they're DRM-free. I usually use GoG.

According to Arturia's site (https://support.arturia.com/hc/en-us/ar ... -computer-), it seems that they don't have this problem. So I guess I'll go for Pigments.

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kodra wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 6:39 pm Well, I found this on their website (https://support.roli.com/support/soluti ... ator2-faqs):
Once authorisation has completed, Equator2 can run without requiring ROLI Connect to be running for up to 4 weeks before needing to "phone home" again. Should this occur, you'll be prompted to launch ROLI Connect again.
So it basically means if ROLI went under you wouldn't be able to use Equator2 any more (unless you crack it).
Not necessarily. There are companies who've gone out of business who've made their software free, or changed to a different license system, like serial number or keyfile. I'm not saying that it isn't possible to become unusable, but I also can't think of a single time that it's happened, and I own a lot of software.
I'll never consider buying software with "strings attached". If it's a subscription model it's fine, but I'll not tolerate something that disguises itself as a permanent license when it's actually not. (I'm a software developer)
Isn't Splice a subscription model that will get you Equator?

Anyway, do what you like, I don't care. I've owned Roli hardware and software for a decade or so, and I've never once had an issue with it. Other than the SWAM instruments, I'm not sure if there is a better way of getting realistic sounding MPE instruments... oh, there's Falcon too. I forgot that one. It's a bit more complicated though, with some scripts you need to use... I'm not sure how it actually works but it's not automatic and easy like Roli software. Another freebee that's MPE is Vital, but it doesn't really come with realistic samples either. Good luck.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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