d16 Group LUSH-2 coming in June 2023

[SHall1000]

In todays market of $€£29 synths 45 for this upgrade feels expensive.

Name me a $29 synth that sounds as good as Lush 2 cause seriously I would like to know.

He means from recent sales... impOSCar2 & Hyperion and the like, probably.

Well fair enough if you want to argue that Cherry Audios offerings are sub par in sound. However I have picked up three Softube Model series synths for £45ish each recently which were not upgrades. You can try querying the sound quality of those on KVR if you like but expect to be challenged.

Another Illustration of today’s market. A brand new synth from Toneboosters for €24.

https://synthanatomy.com/2023/06/toneb ... -bass.html

Admittedly I have no idea how it sounds.

[bld]

Przemek from d16 here... Answering to some threads:

Yes, Lush 2 does sound better because the most crucial parts of DSP were rewritten.

We've been always obsessed with sound quality, and that's why with this update we changed a lot of dsp with all we have learned in the last 10+ years.

We have not prepared any "technical kind" of videos to prove that yet... but maybe Jacek will do it some day. Now we're pushing the drum machines.

GUI quality - the rating is always subjective - but more people like the new one.

Upgrade price - we think 45Eur is fair... Lush 2 will get much more features in further 2.x updates, with 2.0 we wanted to address most crucial aspects. And just to mention - our updates within the same version (1.x, 2.x, etc) are always free.

Yes, all our products have 30 days full trial available for free.

The automation: "Why you cannot immediately turn a knob with your DAW track/synth in write and the synth not be automated immediately is anyone's guess."

It's not a guess but the mystical world of DAWs.
Some DAWs can nicely show unlimited number of plugin's parameters and the others not.
That's why some plugins with huge amount of parameters use this approach with dynamic parameter automation, done in plugin to make parameter visible in DAW.
Lush 2 have something about 1000+ parameters and other plugins like Omnisphere (if I remember good) have much much more... That's why this approach is used.
Now with Lush 2 it's hell easy to first click RMB and toggle it on and then use it in DAW.
It's always a compromise between fast access to autmation and presentation huge number of parameters in DAW's list.

Thank you all for your voices - some ideas from here were already noted
However we are very open to listen to your feedback mainly on our helpdesk. We have discussed at d16 every single feature submitted there over the last 17 years.

Stay tuned

[zvenx]

I have been quiet about the gui to hear more feedback here.

I didnt even notice the gui had changed much till someone new on the beta team complained about it, it was then i a/bed the gui next to v1 and noticed that the background texture had been changed. By that time I was using lush 2 for over a month daily. Whereas that other tester found it steps backward and unusable, it was fine with me, even after he brought it to my attention a few times.

Then someone here said the browser was better in v1.
What the..
Taste really is a personal thing.

rsp

[dlandis]

Thanks for your replies! I have downloaded the demo and I have my own informed opinion, I just wanted to hear other people informed opinions as well It seems to me that Lush 2 sound is more on the softer side of the VA sound spectrum, meaning it's more gentle and polite, if compared to, say, Obsession or Repro-1, or even TAL Bassline 101. I guess that's determined mostly by the filter. I wonder if you agree with this or, if not, how would you describe the overall sound character?

"Softer" (especially when clarified by "gentle and polite") definitely works. I'd add to what you've said that it is "solid," but not in an obnoxious, strident, or "in your face" way. It has presence, but isn't overbearing.

[zvenx]

Thanks for your replies! I have downloaded the demo and I have my own informed opinion, I just wanted to hear other people informed opinions as well It seems to me that Lush 2 sound is more on the softer side of the VA sound spectrum, meaning it's more gentle and polite, if compared to, say, Obsession or Repro-1, or even TAL Bassline 101. I guess that's determined mostly by the filter. I wonder if you agree with this or, if not, how would you describe the overall sound character?

I can understand Repro-1 and to some extent Tal Bassline 101, but Obsession? it is softer than Obsession?
rsp

[SirKen]

I have been quiet about the gui to hear more feedback here.

I didnt even notice the gui had changed much till someone new on the beta team complained about it, it was then i a/bed the gui next to v1 and noticed that the background texture had been changed. By that time I was using lush 2 for over a month daily. Whereas that other tester found it steps backward and unusable, it was fine with me, even after he brought it to my attention a few times.

Then someone here said the browser was better in v1.
What the..
Taste really is a personal thing.

rsp

The new GUI is a step backwards if you believe in no pop-ups. That being said, it is now more touchscreen friendly, which is most welcome.

There should be no complaints about the browser though. Tag based browsers are always superior to folder based browsers as long as tags are properly entered.

[zvenx]

That's fair enough.. I am ok with pop ups which is why it didn't bother me (neither did the change in textured background).
rsp

[PanRaubichForever]

I don't know, Obsession CAN sound pretty raw to me. Listen to some factory brass patches. For example, "Gold French KS" has a really nice spit at the start. Anyway, there are as many opinion as there people

[neverbeeninariot]

There should be no complaints about the browser though. Tag based browsers are always superior to folder based browsers as long as tags are properly entered.

I prefer tag-based, but it's entirely subjective.

And that said, here are my repeated complaints about the new browser;

1; It can't read presets from subfolders.

I have several (untagged) 3rd party sound banks for L101 that I can import to L2 (which is great), but when they are imported and converted to the new format they are also dumped into the same folder as my own presets. Preset name clashes are now a thing, and it's messy af.

2; Adding new tags and tag groups could be less clunky.

3; The browser window could be taller.

4; 'Author' and 'Bank' should be included as default top-level tag groups.

[bite_me]

Hi Przemek,
thx for the insights and keep it up. Like always a hell of negativity here by the nitpickers.

[SirKen]

There should be no complaints about the browser though. Tag based browsers are always superior to folder based browsers as long as tags are properly entered.

I prefer tag-based, but it's entirely subjective.

And that said, here are my repeated complaints about the new browser;

1; It can't read presets from subfolders.

I have several (untagged) 3rd party sound banks for L101 that I can import to L2 (which is great), but when they are imported and converted to the new format they are also dumped into the same folder as my own presets. Preset name clashes are now a thing, and it's messy af.

2; Adding new tags and tag groups could be less clunky.

3; The browser window could be taller.

4; 'Author' and 'Bank' should be included as default top-level tag groups.

Those are fair complaints. My argument is that a properly functioning and properly tagged, tag based browser with multi-tags per preset will always be more useful than a folder based preset browser. The advantage of folder based systems as opposed to tag based is that they are much less intensive to set up.

[sacer]

Przemek from d16 here... Answering to some threads:

Yes, Lush 2 does sound better because the most crucial parts of DSP were rewritten.

We've been always obsessed with sound quality, and that's why with this update we changed a lot of dsp with all we have learned in the last 10+ years.

We have not prepared any "technical kind" of videos to prove that yet... but maybe Jacek will do it some day. Now we're pushing the drum machines.

GUI quality - the rating is always subjective - but more people like the new one.

Upgrade price - we think 45Eur is fair... Lush 2 will get much more features in further 2.x updates, with 2.0 we wanted to address most crucial aspects. And just to mention - our updates within the same version (1.x, 2.x, etc) are always free.

Yes, all our products have 30 days full trial available for free.

The automation: "Why you cannot immediately turn a knob with your DAW track/synth in write and the synth not be automated immediately is anyone's guess."

It's not a guess but the mystical world of DAWs.
Some DAWs can nicely show unlimited number of plugin's parameters and the others not.
That's why some plugins with huge amount of parameters use this approach with dynamic parameter automation, done in plugin to make parameter visible in DAW.
Lush 2 have something about 1000+ parameters and other plugins like Omnisphere (if I remember good) have much much more... That's why this approach is used.
Now with Lush 2 it's hell easy to first click RMB and toggle it on and then use it in DAW.
It's always a compromise between fast access to autmation and presentation huge number of parameters in DAW's list.

Thank you all for your voices - some ideas from here were already noted
However we are very open to listen to your feedback mainly on our helpdesk. We have discussed at d16 every single feature submitted there over the last 17 years.

Stay tuned

For me it’s a solid update, especially midi mapping in V1 was a real timekiller and the new solution is quick and easy. I was also hoping to see some more features like phosycon 2 - more fx from Silverline and an advanced baseline editor.
When lush1 was released it was an outstanding synth and together with diva my two favourite Synths. In the last years I hardly used lush, because midi mapping was frustrating, there was no vst3 and no new presets. For diva I got a lot of new sound expansions like Luftrum, AZS, Plughugger, Audiotent and u-he.
For lush there was only a AZS soundpack with not many layerd and sequenced sounds. So maybe you can sell some new sound pack in near future. Your sequenced, Arps and splitted presets are outstanding and are an USP. What is also really cool is to layer these presets, something that you can’t do in refx Nexus.

[anttimaatteri]

anyone else has these digit quirks on the gui no matter which zoom level chosen?
its the "bend section the arp rate digit and the layer 1 transpose digit. the last digit is halfway outside of the box. and thres a black smiley icon right side of the pitch range box

edit// seems to be a problem within ableton. no issues in renoise nor bitwig

[akira2]

Will give it a try...

[hurricaneaudiolab]

Przemek from d16 here... Answering to some threads:

Upgrade price - we think 45Eur is fair... Lush 2 will get much more features in further 2.x updates, with 2.0 we wanted to address most crucial aspects. And just to mention - our updates within the same version (1.x, 2.x, etc) are always free.

I stopped using Lush in 2020 because it stopped working on my OS. Yes, my fault for using a Mac and updating my OS, blah blah, but Lush stopped working for me in 2020, didn't work all of 2021, couldn't use it all of 2022, and now 6 months into 2023 you come around wanting me to spring $45 to be able to use it again. Not fair, bruh. Yeah I'm a little bitter about that. And how long until it breaks again?