GForce impOSCar 3 is here

[poonna]

v3 broke presets from v2 that use the custom partial sets. I reported the bug and I got a pretty hostile reaction, but the fact is, it's broken. You can kind of approximate it if you go in and custom edit the waveforms, but it's not easy. So if you rely on those, stick with v2. I do like v3, overall, though, but I wish they'd fix that bug.

I think I heard sometime back that they "fixed" the aliasing, too, such that it sounds cleaner now (which may not always be desirable). Can you confirm?

[MrJubbly]

Is it possible to run v2 and v3 on the same computer?

Yes. They can both be used simultaneously on the same device.
They have different plugin names and filenames to one another.

[tumface]

I think I heard sometime back that they "fixed" the aliasing, too, such that it sounds cleaner now (which may not always be desirable). Can you confirm?

It's pretty clean by default (two partials here...)

FL64_J5iKOQxAHv.png

But gets very dirty if you turn the amplitude of the partials up, causing distortion:

FL64_trXy8TBTTr.png

The distortion is part of the wavetable, so it tracks the note harmonically. The overload distortion in impOSCar 3's wavetable oscillator sounds, well, quite like square waveshaping, which you might expect. It's not really the same as low bit/rate depth aliasing artifacts.

It's a somewhat different sound from something like the Waldorf Microwave, where the aliasing is harmonically related to the fundamental, but come into being due to limited temporal and bit depth of the wavetables. The Microwave harmonics sound more like a wacky exciter. If you want *that* sound, get the Microwave 1 plugin.

[DrGonzo]

Is it possible to run v2 and v3 on the same computer?

Yes. They can both be used simultaneously on the same device.
They have different plugin names and filenames to one another.

Great. At least then your old projects will sound the same.

[mi-os]

Is there something wrong with wave table editor window? Moving it feels like 1fps here.

[zerocrossing]

v3 broke presets from v2 that use the custom partial sets. I reported the bug and I got a pretty hostile reaction, but the fact is, it's broken. You can kind of approximate it if you go in and custom edit the waveforms, but it's not easy. So if you rely on those, stick with v2. I do like v3, overall, though, but I wish they'd fix that bug.

I think I heard sometime back that they "fixed" the aliasing, too, such that it sounds cleaner now (which may not always be desirable). Can you confirm?

The basic waveforms in 2 and 3 sound identical, as far as I can tell.

v3 is a much better instrument, IMO, even with the bug. Just the new user interface alone makes it a lot easier to work with.

[zerocrossing]

OK... I tried to recreate the duller sounds I was experiencing with the custom partial sets... and I can't do it. Maybe I was hallucinating?

[tumface]

Is there something wrong with wave table editor window? Moving it feels like 1fps here.

That also happens to me. I think something is wrong with the GUI code for it. Whenever the wave table editor is visible, the entire GUI thread is trashed and the plugin and DAW redraw at 1fps. (Unless the plugin is bridged from a separate process, then the DAW's GUI is spared.)

OK... I tried to recreate the duller sounds I was experiencing with the custom partial sets... and I can't do it. Maybe I was hallucinating?

I thought it only happened when loading entire old presets, not just the partial sets?

[Korg Supporter]

I think I heard sometime back that they "fixed" the aliasing, too, such that it sounds cleaner now (which may not always be desirable). Can you confirm?

It's pretty clean by default (two partials here...)


FL64_J5iKOQxAHv.png


But gets very dirty if you turn the amplitude of the partials up, causing distortion:


FL64_trXy8TBTTr.png


The distortion is part of the wavetable, so it tracks the note harmonically. The overload distortion in impOSCar 3's wavetable oscillator sounds, well, quite like square waveshaping, which you might expect. It's not really the same as low bit/rate depth aliasing artifacts.

It's a somewhat different sound from something like the Waldorf Microwave, where the aliasing is harmonically related to the fundamental, but come into being due to limited temporal and bit depth of the wavetables. The Microwave harmonics sound more like a wacky exciter. If you want *that* sound, get the Microwave 1 plugin.

You can do both kinds of things in more advanced wavetable synths like Icarus and Serum. I can mimic the PPG's variable sample rate effect by keytracking the resampling filter in Icarus

[tumface]

You can do both kinds of things in more advanced wavetable synths like Icarus and Serum. I can mimic the PPG's variable sample rate effect by keytracking the resampling filter in Icarus

Sure. You can also mimic it in Phase Plant, Hive (using UHM), Dune 3, and others even better than Icarus or Serum. For Icarus, the resampling happens in the first filter, after the oscillators are summed, so you really can only mimic it if you use 1 oscillator, or if you keep all of the oscillators in exact sync. (Phase Plant, Hive, and Serum let you do it in each oscillator separately.) There is also a bit of extra stuff going on in the Microwave that generates some even harmonics, not just odd ones (maybe a bit of something like half-rectification?)

More importantly, Icarus doesn't really have any filters (to use in the second filter slot, after the resampling filter) that sound like the one in the Microwave. Icarus' 24db filters lose quite a bit of resonance when the cutoff is at lower frequencies, and I feel like they also tend to lose a lot of resonant energy if the cutoff sweeps too quickly. The Digital LP24 is the closest, but it's still not very close. This isn't a knock against Icarus. I like Icarus. I just think it happens to be not very good at this task.

On top of that, Microwave 1 also has a funky thing going on where its digital processor generates the signals for its envelopes and LFOs, and they're really steppy due to a low sampling rate. But then that signal gets filtered again to be smooth before being used as a control signal in the analog filter, so it ends up with a characteristic feel of being both really snappy, since it can transition quickly between two steps that are far apart through the smoothing filter, but also having a rumbly softly-stepped thing going on.

If you just want an analog filtered aliased digital wavetable thing, Microwave 1 is great. You can also mimic the wavetable+analog filter part, without the extra Microwave 1 character, in a variety of synths, with more or less success and annoyance. I think Dune 3 is good at it, since its wavetable osc will switch to lo-fi unfiltered mode if you load one that's low resolution enough, and it has really good filters. Serum is also pretty decent at it, but you have to fuss with the quantize osc warp effect a bit.

I don't think impOSCar 3 is great that specific sound, because its wavetable oscillators don't really alias in the same way. It's good at other stuff.

[mi-os]

Is there something wrong with wave table editor window? Moving it feels like 1fps here.

That also happens to me. I think something is wrong with the GUI code for it. Whenever the wave table editor is visible, the entire GUI thread is trashed and the plugin and DAW redraw at 1fps. (Unless the plugin is bridged from a separate process, then the DAW's GUI is spared.)

Have you report this issue to them? The 1.0 installer is from May 2024. It's strange they never optimized or fixed this plugin.

[vitocorleone123]

Is there something wrong with wave table editor window? Moving it feels like 1fps here.

That also happens to me. I think something is wrong with the GUI code for it. Whenever the wave table editor is visible, the entire GUI thread is trashed and the plugin and DAW redraw at 1fps. (Unless the plugin is bridged from a separate process, then the DAW's GUI is spared.)

Have you report this issue to them? The 1.0 installer is from May 2024. It's strange they never optimized or fixed this plugin.

More money in releasing new, ever-more-duplicative Oberheim synths than in improving anything they've already released. Never buy a Geforce synth expecting things to improve from release - they might, especially if they're truly broken, but be prepared for them to never be addressed.

[oscillik]

To be fair to GForce, they pretty quickly responded to customer requests for DMX to have multi outs.

To be fair to commenters, I can appreciate the frustration that this hasn't received any update at all since release, though.

[Uncle E]

It's actually a bit unusual for them. Oddity 3 has received 4 updates since release.

[HM]

A mixed bag for sure ,.. when taking a step back

Sure there is worse, there always is

But the pink glasses is not justified either IMHO

Thanks for all answers to my questions