New kickdrum synthesizer: Audija KickDrum VST/AU

[swilow11]

Great news.
That was my first observation after moving the eq to 100Hz.
I'm happy to see that you can read between the lines. English is not my mother tongue. The devil is in the details

so true . To make it even better, it needs to preserve the timbre and now with the better pitch analysis that then will be able to recreate a wider variety of sounds.
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i kept a copy of kickdrum.vst3 again, this beta installer deleted it.
not sure why this happens, as you said they are named differently in finder and in Cubase

thank you for the feedback! yes, since it's two different setups and two different plugins in there. but it seems to be rare and since the setups merge together in 10 days anyway, let's skip this for now.
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If you have a clean sample there is strong reason to not need a bass drum synth analysis and to just use the sample you already have.

It would be good if all kick synths would now focus deeply on their ability to analyze bass drums that are not clean samples but in tracks with music surrounding. Code them to try and be able to discriminate musical information from bass drum info with greater accuracy.

Difficult, but that is the ultimate benefit of analyze.

totally, if you are happy with how the sample sits in your track there's no need to change that, but if the sample achieves only 80% of what you have in mind - you can enhance it.
I think you are referring to demixing capabilities, that rely on transformers (AI) - that is a really interesting topic.
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I've been following this thread since page 1 and bought KickDrum about 8 months ago. My ignorance is obviously on full display here. I thought the purpose of adding a sample layer to version 2 was to combine the best of both worlds- the transient from the sample and the body and the tail from the sine wave. But now, I am just so confused. You've added a sample import just so we can take it and emulate it with the sine wave, envelope and EQ? If I wanted my kick to sound like the sample... why wouldn't I just use the sample?

awesome you are here and hopefully we can clear things up again:
It's just we have more options now:
-you have an old project with a rendered kick you created in an old plugin you don't use anymore - now you can easily port it
-the sample is really nice, but the tempo of your project changed and the phase isn't aligned anymore, now you can quickly repair it
-you like the general direction the sample goes, but you want to have it sounding exactly like in your mind: then use the analyze result as starting point
-how was this kick created? - now you can analyze to learn

and also there are additional features coming that utilize this, that hopefully will be a little bit of a surprise

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[...] Personally, I'm finding Kick3 to be just easier to look at compared to Audjia but I like the featureset of Audija a bit more. Anyway, it's fun to make the same kick in both- really useful learning exercise. Audjia seems better at making ckicky/plastic kicks without using a transient sample, Kick3 better at rougher more acoustic sounding (but can do clicky plastic too). I'm mainly using the latter.

thank you for the feedback! I am looking forward to improve the gui, but features have been more important than looks for now - but yes, i want everyone using it to be maximally happy with it and looks are important for that as well.
can you pinpoint what you are missing to achieve more analogue sounding kicks?

It's probably related to Kick3 having a better variety of "click" samples, but also the volume envelope is easier to make less attacky. Don't get me wrong though, I'm mainly making psytrance and Kickdrum is basically what I need for that. But I also make some more progressive/minimal and just find it slightly more difficult to get a sort of dull, murky, organic kick from your product. Maybe I am just more used to Kick2/Kick3.

I haven't used your latest release so take my remarks with a grain of salt.

[oobesan]

What I would need is a list with things you'd like to see improved and I'd be happy to write them down

Well, I think I need to start with the Big Picture first. KickDrum appears to be feature-complete. If you can imagine it, you can make it in KickDrum. And for those that truly understand phase, tuning, and timing, KickDrum gives them all the tools they need to do that, and quicker and better that most other kick drum synths. I guess my point is, those users are a relatively small number of people. I would wager that there are many more people like me, who are not at that level, but want to grow and learn and have the option to become better and use all those tools in the future. But we need a GUI and workflow to get us started making great sounding kick drums quickly as well as to help us grow along the way. It’s no small task.

Should I send you an email about my specific thoughts on the GUI and workflow?

Thank you, I'd love to here your ideas - please share them here, so others can follow the train of thought and add their views.
that professional sound designers are not the majority is a fair premise. I can only speak for myself, but I learn the best from videos or hands on - so it is planned to make good videos, that explain everything, providing a good manual, extensive tool-tips and a good variety of presets for each genre to choose/learn from - these are the things planned or in the making so far.

Sorry for the delay in response. November has been a busy month!

First of all, I really appreciate your engagement! Second, I want to say what I think is great about the plugin! The hover-over tool tips are very helpful! The horizontal and vertical "lock" feature when adjusting the nodes is also very helpful! I like that you have the option to toggle certain displays on and off! Obviously, these are just my impressions and opinions. My hope is that these opinions are received as useful feedback, not unnecessary criticism or negativity!

When it comes to the GUI, I think it's important to start with first impressions. When you first load the plugin, almost everything in the plugin is on full display. Like that movie, "Everything, Everywhere. All At Once." It's a bit overwhelming.

Main Display.

• 1.The waveform goes edge-to-edge on all four sides. It would be much cleaner if the Main Display was a window within a window. Like a canvas is separated from its frame by a matte in a painting. It's hard to visualize the transient of the waveform and the first and last envelope nodes with the way it is.
  
  2. Right now, the default waveform display is a filed-drawn oscillogram surrounded by a contour line. There is the option to change the oscillogram to stroke-drawn. But it's all very busy looking. I think it would be cleaner to display the entire thing as a color-filled shape. The sine wave would be best left as a stroke-drawn line within this color-filled waveform shape, but it doesn't even need to be displayed unless you are editing the envelope. it could just disappear when not actively engaging the envelope, but the option to leave the sine wave displayed could be toggled in Settings.
  
  3. The nodes are unnecessarily large. Again, I would make the nodes opaque, so they look more like nodes and less "busy" graphics.
  
  4. The text boxes for each node are unnecessary and add to the clutter on the main display. It could be an option in Settings to leave the node information always on display (without a textbox color border), but a good default would be to only display the information on hover over the node.
  
  5. There are 6 nodes for the envelope. Experienced kick drum synthesists will immediately appreciate and understand the role each node plays in making the kick drum they have in their head. But less experienced users, say those making kick drums in Serum or Vital, really only understand 4 of these nodes. Would it be possible to give each node a name based on its role? Maybe just when hovering over the node?

Menus.

• 1. There are currently 20 buttons/options to click on in the Left Bar Menu. I would reduce this as much as possible. Personally, I would start the left side of the plugin with the keyboard instead of using it as a bar menu.
  
  2. I would create a Top Bar Menu. On the left would be your Audija icon. Clicking that would provide contact information and plugin information. Next to it would be the A/B/C options. In the middle would be your preset title bar. Clicking on that would take you to the preset menu. On the right would be a new Output slider and then lastly a new hamburger Settings menu. This type of layout is just a universal language and immediately helps a user get oriented.
  
  3. I would move all the user preference things from the Left Bar Menu to the new Settings menu. Those types of options are almost always "set it and forget it", so they don't need toggles switches on the GUI.
  
  4. In the new Main Display Window, it could be framed on the top and bottom to contain all the pertinent options. Across the top would be Undo/Redo on the left, the Pitch/Gain toggle, in the middle, followed by Velocity and then Audition button on the right. Across the bottom is the EQ toggle on the left, The Kick Length setting in the middle, and Wave Export on the right. Above the top Main Display frame would sit the Phase Adjustment handle.
  
  5. The Kick Length toggle could be a more universal icon symbol, such a Eighth note sync/free toggle icon with a dial and box to type in the exact value

Other:

• 1. I know you have a User Manual coming. But I would also try to expand the hover-over tool tips whenever possible. Also, is there any way to make these tool tips snappier? There is a fairly significant delay in the tip being displayed after hovering right now.
  
  2. Pipe Dream idea: Introduction tutorial on how to "Make Your First Kick Drum", similar to how Arturia does this with their synths like Pigments and Mini V.

[sqigls]

i look forward to an overhaul towards an inviting and orderly GUI.
presently i find it is not

[M1st]

I've just installed the 2.0 demo and it immediately crashed both Bitwig and Ableton.

[Dznwpplp]

I've just installed the 2.0 demo and it immediately crashed both Bitwig and Ableton.

Hi M1st,

if you are using Windows - since Beta 8 you can enable logging.

Copied from Audija's site (Jan, hope you won't be offended):
- new feature (WIN only): Logging system: to log a known plugin crash create "Audija.log" file in user Documents/Audija/ folder. During start the plugin will detect that the file is present and will start logging (indicated by "logging..." in the upper left corner of the plugin) - Please use the logging only for recording a crash, because the data written to drive is quite detailed and can amount to large sizes. To deactivate the logging, remove the Audija.log file while the plugin is not loaded.

If you manage to crash Live and Bitwig, Zip the two files and send them to the developer. That's what I did myself. Sometimes the first launch in a DAW is problematic. Finish scanning for new plugins and restart.

Regards,
Dznwpplp

[Jan_Audija]

I've just installed the 2.0 demo and it immediately crashed both Bitwig and Ableton.

Thank you for reporting and sry for the inconvinience. There was an issue with the permissions set for the .vst3 and .component files in the setup and this caused the daw to crash because it did not have the permission to load the plugin.
That issue is resolved now and cannot happen again. If you redownload the setup that should work now

[Jan_Audija]

i look forward to an overhaul towards an inviting and orderly GUI.
presently i find it is not

that is yet to come - sry, if there was a misunderstanding

[sqigls]

sorry too, if i came across as mean. that wasn't my intention
i just think a super sound deserves a super GUI

[Jan_Audija]

sorry too, if i came across as mean. that wasn't my intention
i just think a super sound deserves a super GUI

we need a high five emoji
totally agreed!
nice dub btw. man

[Jan_Audija]

This thread has grown close to my heart - thanks everyone for sharing!
2.0 is released and a new thread is open (viewtopic.php?t=616431)