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

[zerocrossing]

I 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 ). 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

Not so amazing to think that two different computer platforms, on a forum that's mostly about using software, get frequently brought up. There are differences. They get discussed. It would be weird if they didn't get brought up. As someone who uses hardware and software instruments, I often see "your software will break when the OS updates" arguments all the time. It isn't untrue, but happens much more rarely if you use the Windows operating system. That's fairly important information to someone who's just starting out using software instruments. You might decide that Apple has a lot of other benefits that make it a good choice (trust me, I have a ton of Apple stuff, including an M1 laptop) but knowing all the downsides helps make informed decisions.

[kodra]

Isn't Splice a subscription model that will get you Equator?

Splice claims it's a rent-to-own model for the plugins like Equator and Pigments (in other words, I can get a permanent license after 24 months). But a "permanent license" here, naturally, means an official license, so I'll still need to keep authorizing Equator with ROLI server. This is what I read so far, please point me out if I'm mistaken.

Anyway, I'm not fundamentally against subscription (I subscribe to Copilot/Rider/etc), as long as they make it obvious. I just don't like software that looks like X but is actually Y. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

[fisherKing]

Not so amazing to think that two different computer platforms, on a forum that's mostly about using software, get frequently brought up. There are differences. They get discussed. It would be weird if they didn't get brought up. As someone who uses hardware and software instruments, I often see "your software will break when the OS updates" arguments all the time. It isn't untrue, but happens much more rarely if you use the Windows operating system. That's fairly important information to someone who's just starting out using software instruments. You might decide that Apple has a lot of other benefits that make it a good choice (trust me, I have a ton of Apple stuff, including an M1 laptop) but knowing all the downsides helps make informed decisions.

i hear you. my issue is with people like bones, who just make stupid, juvenile posts, or people who insist that the platform they coincidentally use also happens to be 'the best'.

personally, i care about the music, and don't stress what tools someone used to make something i like (altho i might be curious). a good song done in, say, garageband beats a mediocre one done in pro tools at a state-of-the art studio, any day...

[BONES]

what's the point of that post? that macs suck? (what is this, 2002???)

What, pointing out the stupidity of putting up with Apple's shit? I wish it wasn't necessary but whilst there are stupid people, there is clearly a need for education.

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.

Good for you, you're probably so hidebound by now that you no longer notice the misery. But I wasn't responding to anything you said. The fact you still feel the need to get all defensive tells me there is more than a kernel (pun intended) of truth to what I said. It's like range anxiety in BEVs - just because one individual is will to put up with it, doesn't mean it's not a real concern for many others.

plus, aren't we discussing equator2? seriously, why is it so important for you to argue with everyone here

There was no argument until you piped up. If anyone is starting something, it ain't me, pal.

even after making some actually useful comments? what if you stopped there, and left the insults and condescension out? hmmmm

What made you feel it was necessary to inflate an off-hand comment into a full blown effort to derail the thread? We all do stuff. You might also notice that I wasn't the only person to point this out so why you single my comment out is very informative, don't you think? (No, of course you don't think, it's obvious from your choice of OS. [That wasn't necessary, either, but it made the post a lot more fun.])

[fisherKing]

what's the point of that post? that macs suck? (what is this, 2002???)

What, pointing out the stupidity of putting up with Apple's shit? I wish it wasn't necessary but whilst there are stupid people, there is clearly a need for education.

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.

Good for you, you're probably so hidebound by now that you no longer notice the misery. But I wasn't responding to anything you said. The fact you still feel the need to get all defensive tells me there is more than a kernel (pun intended) of truth to what I said. It's like range anxiety in BEVs - just because one individual is will to put up with it, doesn't mean it's not a real concern for many others.

plus, aren't we discussing equator2? seriously, why is it so important for you to argue with everyone here

There was no argument until you piped up. If anyone is starting something, it ain't me, pal.

even after making some actually useful comments? what if you stopped there, and left the insults and condescension out? hmmmm

What made you feel it was necessary to inflate an off-hand comment into a full blown effort to derail the thread? We all do stuff. You might also notice that I wasn't the only person to point this out so why you single my comment out is very informative, don't you think? (No, of course you don't think, it's obvious from your choice of OS. [That wasn't necessary, either, but it made the post a lot more fun.])

yeah, i stand by everything i said. but will let all the pros who use macs know that they're 'stupid'... and that you said so

[SamDi]

I 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 ). 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

You are getting something wrong here. Here my original statement:

Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.

Something wrong with that?
I guess, I have more Apple products than you in my household and I have also a Macbook Pro from 2017 and Logic and hundreds of working (maintained, because if not they would have got broken with Catalina or latest, when Rosetta will get dropped) plugins. And yes, I am pissed, since I wanted to reactivate it recently, I made it new and then such things happen, that scanner driver does not work. And has nothing to do that it's 32-Bit or could not get installed because of not signed or whatever, it's just because Apple does give a f**k about existing users and about keeping existing 3rd-party infrastructure running. So I DO criticize Apple for breaking regularly backwards-compatibility and it's my good right.

Has nothing to do with flame wars or a

lifestyle/language/culture/car/computer/os/whatever

thing.

And if I really would give a statement what is better (what I did not) then not ,because of me thinking that what I coincidentally use is better, but because I know and use both worlds.
Furthermore I would never say, that something is better than any other without any context or use-case. This just idiots do!

At the end, I just wanted to complete Bones' statement, that one can use Equator 2 without any problems, even if it once would get dropped, that this might be not true for Apple users.

[fisherKing]

Not for Mac users, where each OS cycle breaks some SW, if not maintained.

Something wrong with that?
I guess, I have more Apple products than you in my household and I have also a Macbook Pro from 2017 and Logic and hundreds of working (maintained, because if not they would have got broken with Catalina or latest, when Rosetta will get dropped) plugins. And yes, I am pissed, since I wanted to reactivate it recently, I made it new and then such things happen, that scanner driver does not work. And has nothing to do that it's 32-Bit or could not get installed because of not signed or whatever, it's just because Apple does give a f**k about existing users and about keeping existing 3rd-party infrastructure running. So I DO criticize Apple for breaking regularly backwards-compatibility and it's my good right.

Has nothing to do with flame wars or a

lifestyle/language/culture/car/computer/os/whatever

thing.

And if I really would give a statement what is better (what I did not) then not ,because of me thinking that what I coincidentally use is better, but because I know and use both worlds.
Furthermore I would never say, that something is better than any other without any context or use-case. This just idiots do!
[/quote]

---------------------------------------------------------------

sorry about your experiences, which, fwiw, are not universal. if you were running windows and had issues you could rant about that. or linux. or a tesla...

apple moves its tech forward, and i for one appreciate that... as do many other mac users. and it's the developers job to keep up (some do, some arrive late, some never do).

otherwise we'd all be running old OSes, and waiting for our 32-bit-software printers to finish that one page, so we can open our DAW again...

[kodra]

This thread has become a "culture shock" to me, to say the least.

Maybe you guys could fight somewhere else: viewtopic.php?t=593297

[fisherKing]

This thread has become a "culture shock" to me, to say the least.

Maybe you guys could fight somewhere else: viewtopic.php?t=593297

i for one will stop now.

meanwhile, on topic: i use equator 2 sporadically, but it is a singular thing, very different from other synth plugins. and it works great with MP3 (using it with the roli lumi)...

[zerocrossing]

Isn't Splice a subscription model that will get you Equator?

Splice claims it's a rent-to-own model for the plugins like Equator and Pigments (in other words, I can get a permanent license after 24 months). But a "permanent license" here, naturally, means an official license, so I'll still need to keep authorizing Equator with ROLI server. This is what I read so far, please point me out if I'm mistaken.

Anyway, I'm not fundamentally against subscription (I subscribe to Copilot/Rider/etc), as long as they make it obvious. I just don't like software that looks like X but is actually Y. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I honestly don’t know what Splice is. I thought it was just a way to rent software.

I get your point, though. Things can go south, but it’s not like Roli’s some new and unknown quantity. They already made it though some rough times and came back with a Rise 49 2. Never once did I go to use Equator or Equator 2 and have it not work. I’m not saying it’s outside the realm of possibilities, but on a list of things to worry about, it’s pretty low.

[zerocrossing]

Not so amazing to think that two different computer platforms, on a forum that's mostly about using software, get frequently brought up. There are differences. They get discussed. It would be weird if they didn't get brought up. As someone who uses hardware and software instruments, I often see "your software will break when the OS updates" arguments all the time. It isn't untrue, but happens much more rarely if you use the Windows operating system. That's fairly important information to someone who's just starting out using software instruments. You might decide that Apple has a lot of other benefits that make it a good choice (trust me, I have a ton of Apple stuff, including an M1 laptop) but knowing all the downsides helps make informed decisions.

i hear you. my issue is with people like bones, who just make stupid, juvenile posts, or people who insist that the platform they coincidentally use also happens to be 'the best'.

personally, i care about the music, and don't stress what tools someone used to make something i like (altho i might be curious). a good song done in, say, garageband beats a mediocre one done in pro tools at a state-of-the art studio, any day...

Oh bones? Pfft. You should have put that guy on ignore years ago. It definitely helps.

[RikkShow]

Equator2 is hands down the most competent MPE synth imo. Great visualization of MPE modulation curves. FXpansion designed it are area know fire the great filters. E2 has a huge number of MPE presets.
Super deep for sound designers of you do that.
Maybe try a month of Splice rental and then decide.

[BBFG#]

Equator2 is hands down the most competent MPE synth imo. Great visualization of MPE modulation curves. FXpansion designed it are area know fire the great filters. E2 has a huge number of MPE presets.
Super deep for sound designers of you do that.
Maybe try a month of Splice rental and then decide.

Is there no demo to try it?

[kodra]

Ok, maybe I'm a bit overreacting to its authorization method...

Considering I'm very new to digital music production, and Equator2 has a quite nice visualization of waveform and envelop (from what I saw), I guess it's not too crazy to rent it for several months as a learning tool.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Equator2 is hands down the most competent MPE synth imo. Great visualization of MPE modulation curves. FXpansion designed it are area know fire the great filters. E2 has a huge number of MPE presets.
Super deep for sound designers of you do that.
Maybe try a month of Splice rental and then decide.

Equator was designed by the Roli team, not fxpansion. The equator filters are nowhere near as good as on the fxpansion synths. But the equator layout and mpe modulation system is the best there is.