Vital - Released

[Andreya_Autumn]

It's not me, it's my client who needs a patch for a remix in 7 years time. Without knowing it's being developed, I don't have that certainty, and I don't want to invest my time on abandonware when there's a plethora of great alternatives.

I see what you're saying, but you never fully have that guarantee. Anything could happen. Which doesn't mean not to try to invest your time wisely, just that even if you do you can't count on software staying the same. And that's fine. If you're doing serious work in this field, and stay in practice, you'll usually be able to *somehow* solve a situation like you described, without accessing the same software you had 7 years ago. From this perspective, Vital doesn't seem like the most dangerous investment at this point.

[Jac459]

I just discovered Surge XT, very nice synth, using it to feed EFX Fragments. More power to the Surge team!

I'll stop being reasonable now, it's not appropriate for KVR any more.

Surge XT is great ! And as far as I know, it is the synth implementing the most of the CLAP spec (a part from bitwig instruments of course). So basically you get polyphonic modulation FROM your DAW (like U-He plugins) BUT you also get full support of voice stacking (contrary to u-he).
So you are basically in for crazy lush pads and giant saw tooth leads....

[digitalboytn]

It's not me, it's my client who needs a patch for a remix in 7 years time. Without knowing it's being developed, I don't have that certainty, and I don't want to invest my time on abandonware when there's a plethora of great alternatives.

If you're doing serious work in this field, and stay in practice, you'll usually be able to *somehow* solve a situation like you described, without accessing the same software you had 7 years ago.

There's no need to build up the anxiety and the stress levels unnecessarily

[zvenx]

I am not saying Vital is abandonware, but like jobinho, professionally I have to open older projects often enough. I would have to be an idiot (especially since I use both mac and pc) to not pay attention to which software is eol. Once a plugin becomes eol, I remove it plugin collections list that I use in Cubendo. They will of course, still be available for use in older projects but they are never used again in new/current projects.
rsp

[digitalboytn]

The reports of Vital's death are greatly exaggerated

[N__K]

I am not saying Vital is abandonware, but like jobinho, professionally I have to open older projects often enough. I would have to be an idiot (especially since I use both mac and pc) to not pay attention to which software is eol. Once a plugin becomes eol, I remove it plugin collections list that I use in Cubendo. They will of course, still be available for use in older projects but they are never used again in new/current projects.
rsp

I do something of an opposite, at least to a degree.

Once an app or plugin [version] is long-term stable or even EOL as such, I know that I can rely on it to just work on its intended platform versions, without risk of updates bringing incompatibility with patches/projects/frameworks/OS/whatever.

Similarly, when a DAW computer is dedicated to specific tasks, is well configured for them and just works, I prefer for it to remain in that state. That includes keeping it forever offline, never updating the OS, and being careful about how file transfers to/from it are done.

Of course, such a DAW setup ends up frozen in time eventually, but as long as it functions, it remains very reliable for the tasks it was meant for.


Which brings to this...

It's not me, it's my client who needs a patch for a remix in 7 years time. Without knowing it's being developed, I don't have that certainty, and I don't want to invest my time on abandonware when there's a plethora of great alternatives.

My solution is to keep previous workstations (with their software configurations) stored and safe. If upgrading to a new computer+software configuration breaks compatibility with older projects, I use the old DAW computer(s) for them.

[LFO8]

Do people really expect to be able to go back to a project from 7 years ago and every single plugin to just work? Save yourself the anxiety and bounce every single stem in a finished project to audio for the archive. Commit.

[El°HYM]

Vital has some good Aliasing implemented. I hope Development will continue to make it even more crunchy & crispy.

[egbert101]

Would be funny if a free version of Vital 2 is suddenly announced.

[N__K]

Do people really expect to be able to go back to a project from 7 years ago and every single plugin to just work?

I do, at least via old DAW setups. And it goes back way further than 7 years. In the big picture, comparing to entire history of music, seven years is a really, really short time window.

Save yourself the anxiety and bounce every single stem in a finished project to audio for the archive. Commit.

From perspective of composition and synthesis, committed audio is "dead". Of course nowadays we have ML/AI for demixing, audio-to-MIDI and even synth patch replication, but still I'd rather have all of the original "source code" (MIDI, automation, patches etc.) editable - and, ideally, transferable/portable.

Good thing is that as long the original hardware and software work, and data are backed up, there's a good chance of maintaining access to that information. And emulation of deprecated/abandonware platforms and tools goes a long way too, if done well.

The obvious comparison is music from previous centuries. Sheets of notation, some remaining original instruments and historical information about them are [as close as we have to] the "source code". That material cannot be replaced by mere audio recordings, and same goes for DAW projects, plugin patches, automation etc. - and obviously, the hardware and software itself.


***


Another comparison is the retro videogame scene. Last I checked, things like decompiling N64 games have become possible (if still nontrivial). And regarding music of those games, as far as I know, there are tools to convert to MIDI (and .dls or soundfonts) the sequencing and sample data formats of everything up to the Gamecube (which is when games started to rely more on "dead audio"). The long-term value of close-to-original MIDI (and samples) of those game scores being available is significant.


***


Sorry for this slightly offtopical essay. The on-topic points, I suppose, are:

• Vital v1 being open source and available as a free-as-in-beverage version is likely a good thing in the big picture
• there not being updates for Vital in last few months is likely not even a tempest in a thimble

[Tj Shredder]

As its open source, it can't really die. Just compile it if necessary...
The other option is always to keep virtual machines with ancient software. I still have some PPC Apple OS 9 code running in Sheepshaver... On my Mac Pro is Windows and a Snow Leopard virtual machine... I might keep also Monterey on that one for the future, to keep old 32-bit programs alive.
But in reality I almost never need to go there...

[FigBug]

As its open source, it can't really die. Just compile it if necessary...

It's not really open source, only one code dump was made in of Feb 2021. No updates to the code have been released since then.

I don't think Vital was ever supposed to be open source, people just assumed it would be because his previous synth was open source. Then there was backlash when it wasn't, he was accused of bait and switch, etc. Then there was one code dump and now it was technically 'open source' and that shut everybody up, because almost nobody actually wanted the source code, they just wanted it to be free (money wise) to use. Now it's gone back to being closed source.

[chk071]

As its open source, it can't really die.

There are loads of Open Source projects which are dead though. The vast majority of them are, actually. Just because someone can pick up on the code doesn't mean that there will be someone picking up on it.

Apart from that, I really don't think we should declare this dead, abandonware, or whatever yet.

[chk071]

As its open source, it can't really die. Just compile it if necessary...

It's not really open source, only one code dump was made in of Feb 2021. No updates to the code have been released since then.

I don't think Vital was ever supposed to be open source, people just assumed it would be because his previous synth was open source. Then there was backlash when it wasn't, he was accused of bait and switch, etc.

The joy and happiness of "freedom".

[Rastkovic]

Would be funny if a free version of Vital 2 is suddenly announced.

That's would not be very smart, I think that's Vital's main problem. Too many users, only use the free version and I guess, Matt Tytel can't really make a living from it. Just speculation, of course.