Le Masque :Delay: [Xils-Lab] [ Version 1.5 Released]

[Lotuzia]

If i needed a delay then i would definately buy this, Congrats on such a decent debut effect plug-in to all you at the XILS-Lab team

Obviously i have heard that about how good your instruments are being a somewhat regular here and magazine reviews have been in your favour also that i have read. I honestly do not use synthesizers often at all so i personally have not tried any of your offerings nor anybody else's for that matter on the commercial software synthesizer front fwiw.

That said it makes no difference at all as Le Masque has got an easy to follow GUI and sound wise worked really well on anything i threw at it as either an insert or return/aux effect.

So again well played on such a solid debut and anyone looking for a pretty dope delay for little cash really ought to try Le Masque out, Can not fault it at the price/quality. Hope that the team have some more effects and/or processors planned for the future as i will be sure to have a good look at them

All the best to all as always

Dean

Wow thanks a lot Dean what can I add ?

[Lotuzia]

Yes we've done it : You can now put the filter in the feedback loop

Here's a little audio clip wich shows the different character of the delay sound when it is in normal mode ( filter outside of the delay loop ) and inside.

This is just a new toggle on the GUI ( FB button ) and it opens a wide range of new sonic possibilities ( filters are very reactive in this new Masque mode, especially when the rez is pushed a bit ) :

Feedback or no feedback ?

First you hear the dry clip, the the clip with La Masque in normal mode ( Filter outside the delay loop ), then the same preset but the only change is that the filter is now in the delay loop. Finally you hear shortly only the WET signal ( ie delay only ) of the two previous clips, so that you canhear the different character of the sound in a more precise way.

We hope you will like this new feature of version 1.1

LtZ

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Lotuzia]

is version 1.1 enabled for demo yet? I tried 1.0 the other day and immediately got the nasty "all audio cut out" bug in studio one so I was hoping Xavier has fixed it so i can try the plug in again.

Hi Theo,

The V 1.1 will be available in a couple of days we're still waiting for the feedback of a few beta testers. It runs rock solid here, and is reported as such a lot of configs atm/.

EDIT : Now "thanks" to Studio 1 we can "see" this bug, that we could never reproduce, so it will be fixed in 1.1 and you should probaly wait for the 1.1 Theo ( Or use the demo in Logic meanwhile )

Cheers

[Lotuzia]

We're pleased to announce that : Le Masque Delay version 1.1 is released

If you have any previous version you can DL the new version there

It should fix a few remaining bugs ( including the last major one : the Studio One Bug.)

It adds new features :

1/ Filter in the delay feedback loop is now possible ( FB new button )
2/ New mod targets : Pan and Levels from both R,L Delay lines. Via Mask Level, mod Wheel etc
3/ Standard Delay Operation Mode is now possible with the new On/Off Mask toggle ( previously you had to create a single Mask covering the whole grid area to make Le Masque behaves like a standard delay, now a single click is enough )
4/ As its been often requested, when the SYNC button of the Delays is on, values are now displayed in musical notation rather than in tempo multiple/dividers ( ie "Tempo" is now displayed as 1/4th )

We hope you'll appreciate all these new features !

Here two quick new demos to illustrate some of the new features of Le Masque :

Stereo Masks

Feedback or no Feedback ?

Stereo demoes the ability to modulate the pan the delays ( in this demo its the Mask Level wich acts as the modulator there's no real time action ) Frist the dry clip, then the clip processed with Le Masque

Feedback no feedback shows the different sonic character of Le Masque when the delay is inserted or not in the feedback loop. First the dry clip, then processed without filter in feedback, then with the filter in the feedback loop, and finally the wet only signal of both versions.

For those who are new to Le Masque you can hear a lot more Audio Examples in the second post of this thread. I'll repost the videos links soon.

And then .... the intro price ( 39€ ) is still valid until Feb 28th

[Echoes in the Attic]

Nice. Looking forward to trying it out with the filter in the feedback loop! Now it just needs a limiter in the feedback loop and it'll get those perfect dub delays to push the filter!

Xils lab certainly is very responsive and quick about bugs and feature requests. I'd love to buy one or two of their synths if they ever lose the hardware dongle.

[Lotuzia]

Thanks Echoes,

Yes we do ...... all we can

Actually -invisible- limiter there is already, but you can always add your own one in insert and get some more precise settings. Its not like the delay in feedback wich would be really from cumbersome to nearly impossible to emulate with external routing.

Else -- The Xils 3 LE and PolyKBII enhanced player are dongleless, and more than affordable. At their price I can hardly see some other synths wich can really compete for the sound quality ( Biased opinion eventually )

I hope you'll get the Dub Delays you're after with Le Masque. Due to a lot of people wanting to use Le Masque as their go-to delay wwe have added in version 1.1 the possibility to bypass the masks with a single button, and therefore acts like a standard delay ( before you had to create a single mask covering the entire grid area to achieve the same results, so its now faster and maybe completely intuitive )

Cheers,

LtZ

[Echoes in the Attic]

Actually I noticed after trying le masque that it did seem to have some limiting going on to control the feedback. cool. Couldn't quite get the sound I was after but I'll play some more (I only tried for a couple minutes).

And I do already have the Xils LE since it went on sale at audiomidi. I don't really click with it though unfortuantely, just don't find the sound too interesting. I do really like the demos of the other two though. I've heard of the polyKB player but never the polyKB enhanced player. What's the difference? More controls? I may check it out.

[Lotuzia]

Actually I noticed after trying le masque that it did seem to have some limiting going on to control the feedback. cool. Couldn't quite get the sound I was after but I'll play some more (I only tried for a couple minutes).

And I do already have the Xils LE since it went on sale at audiomidi. I don't really click with it though unfortuantely, just don't find the sound too interesting. I do really like the demos of the other two though. I've heard of the polyKB player but never the polyKB enhanced player. What's the difference? More controls? I may check it out.

Well The PolyKB II Player has the same audio engine and presets than its big brother, but as you said more limited control. And its the same one you refer to

So iirc in the PKII player, you can control the arpeggios settings and effects settings to adapt to context, and additionally you can control 8 parameters to choose from a big list including filter's cutoff, rez, drive, enveloppes segments etc. That's why I always refer to it as "advanced player" because well imho its "more than a player", its a "lite" synth. I think we made a commercial mistake by calling him " Player" instead of something like "Easy PolyBK II". This said tbh if you like total control on a synthesizer its definitely not for you. I think its more an unit for people who want to play music with good presets for a very good price, while still wanting to preserve a crucial minimum of adaptation possibilities to track context, ie some intermediate control. I was thinking of the possibility to increasing the number of slots recently, maybe it could be a cool idea and drive more attention to " the Lite oe easy PolyKB " ?

PKB II Features

[bbaggins]

In The_Mask_Soul_Func.mp3, at 1:21 I hear some non-musical clicks. Could this be an artifact coinciding with some CC automation?



One of the reasons I'm shopping for a new delay is that many of the ones in my current toolkit are prone to clicks, especially during tempo transitions when synced to tempo.

[Lotuzia]

In The_Mask_Soul_Func.mp3, at 1:21 I hear some non-musical clicks. Could this be an artifact coinciding with some CC automation?



One of the reasons I'm shopping for a new delay is that many of the ones in my current toolkit are prone to clicks, especially during tempo transitions when synced to tempo.

Hi bbaggins,

Yes thanks for your interest.

Yes There are a lot of automations in this demo, often 5/6 running simultaneously. Its the only one for wich I made automation of controllers via/CC and you can see the result on the video under, where you see the knobs turn in real time. When you see a knob moving its because I'm performing a real time automation on it



Btw you can try Le Masque demo but one of the restrictions is that : midi cc assignations are disabled But well you can see how it reacts by turning knob manually while playing.

LtZ

[ezelkow1]

Any word on when audiomidi might receive more serials? I placed an order earlier and they told me it was on hold because they were waiting to get some more from xils

[zerocrossing]

Crap, I wish I'd a known you'd be putting the filter inside the delay loop so soon. I blew cash this month, so I guess I'll miss out on the special price. I'll still revisit it though as I thought the filter sounded really good.

[bbaggins]

In The_Mask_Soul_Func.mp3, at 1:21 I hear some non-musical clicks. Could this be an artifact coinciding with some CC automation?



One of the reasons I'm shopping for a new delay is that many of the ones in my current toolkit are prone to clicks, especially during tempo transitions when synced to tempo.

Hi bbaggins,

Yes thanks for your interest.

Yes There are a lot of automations in this demo, often 5/6 running simultaneously. Its the only one for wich I made automation of controllers via/CC and you can see the result on the video under, where you see the knobs turn in real time. When you see a knob moving its because I'm performing a real time automation on it



Btw you can try Le Masque demo but one of the restrictions is that : midi cc assignations are disabled But well you can see how it reacts by turning knob manually while playing.

LtZ

I am aware that this plugin supports CC automation, and I think that's very cool - but not if it introduces artifacts into the audio. I was hoping you'd take a look at your demo project and see if those clicks do correspond to CC automation changes, or if they're just random noise in the recording from something else.

[xavier]

Hi bbaggins,

For this particular point (automation of the delay time) there isn't any clicks but when changing large delay values, a sort of stepping : The automation doesn't send its informations every samples but in a frame basis. You can check it by moving the knob (The automation does the same action but automatized)

When, in a further version, the delay time is available for the wheel destination menu, this will be a new story (the modulation will be calculated every samples), and then you will get a pitch change when the time is moving.



Best regards
Xavier