Announcing the launch of ULTRA

[Tj Shredder]

There is something wrong with the interpolation on the x-axis. I get weird behaviour between some of the points resulting in chords or kind of bluenotes into a chord. Switching it off is fine then. It might be related to non syncronized cycles because the attacks can be quite different in length and sounds can have multiple zero crossings in one cycle… As the aim is interpolation and not a crossfade, it can be tricky to align those correctly…

[liquidsound]

Maybe the Share button in your User library?

That's not an export. That's sharing a patch using their cloud service, and it's limited to 10 people.

Yes. I noticed that too after posting.
What was the logic behind that feature?

[teilo]

Maybe the Share button in your User library?

That's not an export. That's sharing a patch using their cloud service, and it's limited to 10 people.

Yes. I noticed that too after posting.
What was the logic behind that feature?

I have a suspicion that I hope is not correct. They may not want people freely sharing high-quality patches because they believe it will make people less likely to buy packs on their integrated patch store. I hope that is not the case.

I already have a problem with the fact that your patches are only stored in the cloud. Yes, they are cached locally. But I want the option as to whether or not I participate in cloud storage. I should be able to install Ultra and restore all my patches from a local backup.

I have a serious problem when a dev has direct access to every single patch I make with their synth. And these guys do. As it is, we must trust them not to take our patches and monetize them without our authorization. Right now we have to take their word for it.

If they are going down this path, I hope they realize this will not end well, and pivot.

[audiojunkie]

Agreed

[liquidsound]

I've been busy exploring the synth without much attention to the presets management...
well, this is not the way I use my tools.

This "presets" aspect, buried in the Ultra.data file (inaccessible by the user under the pretext(?) of synchronization due to the "one floating activation per account) is not for me.

I'm OK (+-) with the floating "one activation" thing, but leave the preset management to the user.

[ultra_audio]

Maybe the Share button in your User library?

That's not an export. That's sharing a patch using their cloud service, and it's limited to 10 people.

Yes. I noticed that too after posting.
What was the logic behind that feature?

I have a suspicion that I hope is not correct. They may not want people freely sharing high-quality patches because they believe it will make people less likely to buy packs on their integrated patch store. I hope that is not the case.

I already have a problem with the fact that your patches are only stored in the cloud. Yes, they are cached locally. But I want the option as to whether or not I participate in cloud storage. I should be able to install Ultra and restore all my patches from a local backup.

I have a serious problem when a dev has direct access to every single patch I make with their synth. And these guys do. As it is, we must trust them not to take our patches and monetize them without our authorization. Right now we have to take their word for it.

If they are going down this path, I hope they realize this will not end well, and pivot.

We're happy for people to share as much as they like. We have decided to build a file based system for this which will allow you to post patches online for people to download.
Leveraging the existing store / sync system was a quick way for us to enable sharing, but it's not really enough.

[ultra_audio]

Playing around with the automatic mode, I often get pretty glitchy results, also it seems that a noisy recording confuses the detection.

tried to recreate pianos, acoustic guitar, harpsichords,... if there is not a strong repeating pattern for the OSC to cycle through all I got was very unnatural, glitchy sounds, full of artefacts. I´m mediocre at synth programming, so maybe that´s that. eager to be proven wrong, though.
too bad as the concept is quite interesting, genuinely new and the GUI is just stunning. will wait to see how this one develops.

I need to make a lot more video content on the Automatic import...
As some have noticed, sound where there is a huge amount of complexity in the cycles and there is not a lot of repetition, can be problematic.

A piano is a great example, there are multiple strings per note, each making complex waveforms that are overlapping. There aren't going to be a lot of obvious repeating cycles.
Lots of reverb makes things difficult. Chords / multiple notes would be very difficult!

So some sounds are not really possible to recreate accurately without having all of the cycle information. At that point, samples are a better option.

Having said that, you can get decent results with a piano.

Here is a low piano note on default import settings - it sounds glitchy.

import-1.jpg

If you change the wavetable cycles mode to evenly spaced, and start reducing the number of cycles, it starts to sound a lot better.

import-2.jpg

Having less cycles means that the engine can smoothly crossfade between cycles.
This works best if they are in phase with each other.
In some cases you'd be better off switching to a manual import for the difficult notes.

[Download SOphist]

thanks for the explanations, guys, there appreciated. some more videos would definitely help. this is a synth I´d really like to succeed.

[audiojunkie]

Regarding your copy protection:

Let’s say that a hard drive failed, or that you wanted to upgrade to a new machine. Many companies allow the user to log into their account on the company site, and release the previous machine from the license, so that a user can easily use the license with a different machine. Is this possible with your company? How does your company manage a common situation like this?

Also, if we don’t want to have our studio computer connected to the internet, how would the copy protection work in this case? I personally don’t like challenge / response copy protection and prefer something like a keyfile copy protection method that doesn’t “call home”. Developers, like AudioThing, for example, do both copy protection methods, and let the user choose what they prefer.

I would prefer to have the ability to back up my install file and the keyfile, so that I don’t have to involve a vendor to access the software I licensed and paid for. Can you do this as well?

[ultra_audio]

Regarding your copy protection:

FYI we are making changes in this area, which will allow people to sign in to multiple machines. At the moment, you can have ultra on any number of machines but only one can be signed in at any one time.

Let’s say that a hard drive failed, or that you wanted to upgrade to a new machine. Many companies allow the user to log into their account on the company site, and release the previous machine from the license, so that a user can easily use the license with a different machine. Is this possible with your company? How does your company manage a common situation like this?

You simply sign in to the new machine.

Also, if we don’t want to have our studio computer connected to the internet, how would the copy protection work in this case? I personally don’t like challenge / response copy protection and prefer something like a keyfile copy protection method that doesn’t “call home”. Developers, like AudioThing, for example, do both copy protection methods, and let the user choose what they prefer.

At the moment, it requires you to be online to sign in.

I would prefer to have the ability to back up my install file and the keyfile, so that I don’t have to involve a vendor to access the software I licensed and paid for. Can you do this as well?

There's no keyfile as such. You can copy the entire Ultra folder to a location for backup, and it would work again if you recovered it to that location.

[audiojunkie]

Thank you for the information!

[teilo]

We're happy for people to share as much as they like. We have decided to build a file based system for this which will allow you to post patches online for people to download.
Leveraging the existing store / sync system was a quick way for us to enable sharing, but it's not really enough.

That's great to hear!

[Velden]

What about the packs and presets shared by users? Will they generate income for them? What's Ultra Audio cut?

Absolutely, that this the whole point of the store.

Smoooth...

So, what's the cut anyway?

[Sid Francis]

Hi Nigel
One small annoying "bug": I resized Ultra because I am on 4K, everything smooth so far. But everytime I reopen Ultra it says "resizing" for about 2-3 seconds . As short as this time span is: it is quite annoying if you are in the middle of sound design and open and close the GUI often to also change things in the arrangement. And there are very few other vst synths which do the same, Acustika Audio´s synth have the same problem for example. But I have 100 synths and that behaviour is rare. Room for improvement... Otherwise: Ultra is still has become one of my gotos and favorite synths. Bought some new sounds lately but still would welcome some more in the basic version.♥

[ultra_audio]

So, what's the cut anyway?

The cut is 70% to the artist, 30% to the store