Acustica ALICE-9 synth

[Morty-C-137]

Some skeuomorphism is totally fine, but there is no good reason to make a GUI look 'worn' with faded spots, scratches and rust (for example). Another thing with TH8 (and Alice to a large degree) is the way that light and glare is used on the GUI that only serves to add a more cluttered look than is necessary.

That is my take on it, just my opinion, I know everyone has a different taste. But I avoid such GUI's with a passion not matter how good the plugin sounds. Because for me they make the UX unpleasant. And when then UX is unpleasant; why use it at all anymore?

This is not hardware, we interact with these instruments on a 2D surface. That changes a lot to what is comfortable to work with and what makes sense on a screen, controlling parameters with our mouse and not our two hands.

[Echoes in the Attic]

They didn't even add proper parameter ranges to the Thing AU (only the VST3) and they've been working on a whole other synth? Sorry but putting off such an easy but important fix, why? They fixed the VST3 parameter ranges in a few days after feedback. Shows poor attention to detail and moving on before finishing something.

There have already been a lot of improvements made to parameter ranges, and updates were released quite a while ago. On GS, the users who initially made those requests have since said they were satisfied. So which parameter ranges are you referring to specifically? Just trying to understand better.

For example, here are a few things that were done: parameters now include decimals where requested. Some parameters, like oscillator types, now display readable names (e.g., sine, square…).

Also worth mentioning—we’ve fully exposed MIDI functionality. It’s now possible to assign controls that weren’t assignable in the very first release, such as buttons.

To my knowledge there is no any difference between AU and VST3, they share the same code, and the same parametrization

Yes the VST3 is perfect now. But at least in the demo, the AU has not changed at all. It was my understanding that the demo functionality is the same as the full product. I updated the demo at every update. The AU does not have any real parameter ranges, always 0-1 for everything. Do at least as far as the demo goes, it is not true that vst and AU are the same. I submitted a ticket long ago with screenshots and was told you guys did not know when a fix would be there. And the AU was never fixed. So I didn’t buy it.

That plus the massive cpu spikes changing presets s is all that prevented me from buying it. I’ll be testing the same with Alice-9. They sound great. But won’t buy if it has the same problems.

[mangopango]

man look at that GUI

[db3]

Alice is available now.
https://www.acustica-audio.com/shop/products/ALICE9

4GB demo installer took some time to download. First impressions are similar to Thing. Acustica should probably contract professional sound designers to show off what Alice can do. There are far too many weak presets with levels all over the place. The jury's out.

*edit I was a little harsh on the presets. There are some decent ones in there, but also a lot of fillers. Finding some interesting tones.

[kritikon]

4GB? Doesn't make it in any way tempting, opposite TBH. Makes me think it must be sample based for that amount of bloat in any synth.

[miloszz]

Ableton Live 12, M1 Max MBP
changing presets spikes CPU to 400%+ with both VST3 and AU

[Geoff Grace]

4GB? Doesn't make it in any way tempting, opposite TBH. Makes me think it must be sample based for that amount of bloat in any synth.

It is sample based. Here is an excerpt from the email I received:

Introducing Alice-9, a next-generation sample-based synthesizer forged from the chaos of the unknown and built for creators who refuse to follow.

Built on the proprietary SCO (Sample-Controlled Oscillator) system, and infused with analog soul, AL9 isn’t here to emulate.

It’s here to change the rules.

Being sample based isn't a deal breaker for me, but any synth released today has an uphill battle because there are already so many great ones out there. Even so, I look forward to finding out more about this one.

Best,

Geoff

[Echoes in the Attic]

Ableton Live 12, M1 Max MBP
changing presets spikes CPU to 400%+ with both VST3 and AU

Great this again, just like Thing-8. Guess they didn’t figure that one out.

[kmonkey]

Now, they will tell you that it's an early release and that you can grab it cheaper because it's in beta. Something like that, that's how they operate. Insane. The fact that this one has the same issue as the previous one should tell you a thing or two.

When you look at their history records on Gearspace, it seems as if they are really the best in innovation and making weird acronyms on each release. Fixing bugs is not their strong side.

[Korg Supporter]

32% on my PC with Ryzen 3700X and 16 GB RAM. It's consistently better than Serum 2, which often reaches 50% (or near 100 on certain patches).

[Hyperbole]

Some skeuomorphism is totally fine, but there is no good reason to make a GUI look 'worn' with faded spots, scratches and rust (for example). Another thing with TH8 (and Alice to a large degree) is the way that light and glare is used on the GUI that only serves to add a more cluttered look than is necessary.

That is my take on it, just my opinion, I know everyone has a different taste. But I avoid such GUI's with a passion not matter how good the plugin sounds. Because for me they make the UX unpleasant. And when then UX is unpleasant; why use it at all anymore?

This is not hardware, we interact with these instruments on a 2D surface. That changes a lot to what is comfortable to work with and what makes sense on a screen, controlling parameters with our mouse and not our two hands.

Well said. The faded spots, scratches, rust, and labeling tape look seems to have started with Propellerheads Reason (or at least that was the first time I was aware of it in the context of music software). That was cool for about a minute. But VERY uncool in 2025.

I'm not saying everything has to look like Ableton Live, especially if it emulates a hardware synth. I think TAL Software strikes the right balance between evoking the hardware while using the screen real estate better and avoiding all the silly "aging" and "lighting" elements.

[Shalotta]

I hope some can shed some light on it:
Thing is missing what Alice has to offer,
fx on/off toggle that can be locked?

Got Thing pretty affordable on current sale & Alice is on trial
so I`m not very familiar with both.

[Morty-C-137]

I think TAL Software strikes the right balance between evoking the hardware while using the screen real estate better and avoiding all the silly "aging" and "lighting" elements.

I think TAL is indeed much cleaner, but I have other issues with their GUI's: The use of contrast. When you ahve a busey interface like the above example, the use of dark on dark on dark (pretty much all the slider controls have roughly the same luminosity as their background) makes it all blur into each other when you glance over it.

[Hyperbole]

I think TAL is indeed much cleaner, but I have other issues with their GUI's: The use of contrast. When you ahve a busey interface like the above example, the use of dark on dark on dark (pretty much all the slider controls have roughly the same luminosity as their background) makes it all blur into each other when you glance over it.

I get what you are saying. But if you could see my wardrobe and home furnishings, I swear it's "50 shades of gray." I like my gray tones, accented by really vibrant "Pop Art" colors, here and there.

So the TAL UIs don't bother me much. There is so much tacky hideousness out there that I don't mind things fading into the background a bit in the interest of keeping it clean and simple.

TAL's "Baseline" color scheme is better in this regard:



The new Waldorf Microwave 1 plugin UI is nice, IMO. It's clean and simple with sufficient contrast.



It's refreshing because the original Largo interface, while a "beautiful work of art," was too "designer" with too many gradients and heavy drop shadows (and too gray to your point).

[Hyperbole]

I'm new to Acustica plugins, having just discovered their "THING 8" Jupiter 8 emulation. That sounds very nice, but not mind-blowing enough for me to buy it given that I already own the Arturia, Roland, and TAL Juptier 8 emulations. In fairness to Acustic, I would have probably purchased THING 8 over all of them if it had been first out of the gate. But at this point, any Jupiter 8 emulation would have to sound indistinguishable from the hardware AND include a host of modern conveniences like a mod matrix for me to consider it.

Regardless, I had high hopes for ALICE-9, which might have the sound quality of THING 8 but offer something different in the oscillator department. While ALICE-9 does that, the results are surprisingly lackluster to my ears. ALICE-9, like THING 8, sounds super smooth. But it also sounds weirdly small and lifeless, IMO. It's almost too polished-sounding with no grit or edge. I already own a gazillion slick, glossy synth plugins. I don't need any more of that.