One Synth Challenge #119: Waverazor 2 by Tracktion (Jasinski Wins!)

[] Peter:H []

The UI on this thing looks...uhhh...I mean it's visually kinda cool but they actually expect people to use this thing right?

It's a complex synth which has a great variety of parameters - a GUI cannot make complexity vanish. And I think the "context sensitive" GUI which shows context to the left and the right to what is in the focus in the middle part quite a well thought out approach to handle the complexity. Watching some of the videos introducing the editor mode sounded logical to me.
Regarding the color theme - from a simple search I took away that there are actually some color schemes available through the settings dialog. Have you tried that out?

Fiddling around like a noob, he he he...this synth reminds me in it's complexity of HrastProgrsammers Tranzistow / Diodow...what the freaking hell is the "ExLog4" attack curve and what is the difference to "LogEx4"? I love it, it's so...so unbelievably nerdy.

[Daru925]

Bah, i will have to pass on this one, the activation doesn't work, nor the offline method on their broken website.
Maybe i installed a demo 2 years ago for 10 minutes, had a seizure and uninstalled...since i dont live in farcry 3 blood dragon universe....

Until next freeware synth.
Have fun

[ontrackp]

The UI on this thing looks...uhhh...I mean it's visually kinda cool but they actually expect people to use this thing right?

It's a complex synth which has a great variety of parameters - a GUI cannot make complexity vanish. And I think the "context sensitive" GUI which shows context to the left and the right to what is in the focus in the middle part quite a well thought out approach to handle the complexity. Watching some of the videos introducing the editor mode sounded logical to me.
Regarding the color theme - from a simple search I took away that there are actually some color schemes available through the settings dialog. Have you tried that out?

Fiddling around like a noob, he he he...this synth reminds me in it's complexity of HrastProgrsammers Tranzistow / Diodow...what the freaking hell is the "ExLog4" attack curve and what is the difference to "LogEx4"? I love it, it's so...so unbelievably nerdy.

Re: ExLog4 attack -- on more user friendly synths (i.e. that you don't have to go thru 100 items to find a sawtooth wave for instance) there is usually a way to grab a segment of an envelope and change it's curve - and you get a visual indicator, to something that might technically be defined as ExLog4, or 5, or 17. So this is kind of backwards. If it would let us grab the segment, make the curve, I would be fine with it telling me what the curve is called. This is hugely deep but it's as if they took everything that normally happens behind the scenes and made it so we have to choose things that nobody actually knows in order to make sounds. The structure is logical (although graphically abysmal), and after an hour of poking around I think I've kind of figured out the basic structure and can control sound-making, but it's super inefficient.

Also -- not being able to click on a parameter value to change it is just dumb. Fortunately holding control limits values to their minimum values, but it still takes way too long to dial in settings. Multiply it by the thousands of tweaks that we end up doing over the course of a production and it's irritating.

As an academic exercise in understanding and defining how digital sounds are made this works, as a practical "get the sound made" synth, it's terrible. Also - I get the whole multi-wave oscillator thing - but it would be great if they made some examples of that in the demos that are musically useful. They play a lot of ugly sounds. To be politically correct, I don't mean to dump on noisy, chaotic, useless sounds - if someone wants to make a song of ugly noise, they are fully entitled to, and at the end of the day it might be beautiful....

Also -- why is there 0% and -0% !!!! Isn't zero = zero?

This synth is the poster child for when tech geniuses decide to get creative. They need a GUI designer who understands user experience.

[functionform]

Looks like an interesting synth. I just took the first step and downloaded it. We'll see if I make it all the way to completed track before the end of the month.

^ this is me. no time lately, so just start tracks and then whimper when I miss the deadline.

[Mechanought]

Ontrackp summed up my thoughts quite nicely. I don't know if I have the patience for this synth. We'll see.

[ubailey]

I just downloaded the bundle and their is no waverazor 2 anywhere. a bunch of other plugins, and when i go back to dl the free trial it says i already downloaded it. Wasted too much time on this already, i wanted to play with it though

[] Peter:H []

I just downloaded the bundle and their is no waverazor 2 anywhere. a bunch of other plugins, and when i go back to dl the free trial it says i already downloaded it. Wasted too much time on this already, i wanted to play with it though

I was puzzled by that as well - The Waverazor download is to the bottom of the page! Don`t download the tracktion bundle, go to the bottom and grab the Waverazor download.

[RichardSemper]

Here are a couple of patches I have created from scratch for waverazor:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jisuqmfnxpkrv ... r.zip?dl=0

The main one is a kick patch, I have put some controls on the macro buttons so you can shape it without going into the editor, hopefully they will be self explanatory.
I also created an INIT patch with basic sounds for each oscillator, and their pitch controls work.
Hoping this is useful, off to make some more now

[doctorbob]

Thanks @Richard - will check the patches out.

A complex beast for sure - I need to find my way round it to see what patches I can make and use them to guide the type of track I can/will make!

Definitely a challenge!!!

dB

[ubailey]

I just downloaded the bundle and their is no waverazor 2 anywhere. a bunch of other plugins, and when i go back to dl the free trial it says i already downloaded it. Wasted too much time on this already, i wanted to play with it though

I was puzzled by that as well - The Waverazor download is to the bottom of the page! Don`t download the tracktion bundle, go to the bottom and grab the Waverazor download.

Thanks for the tip, but that says MOK WAVERAZOR LE. I thought we were using the full trial version for this contest.

[RichardSemper]

I thought we were using the full trial version for this contest.

Same download works for both LE and trial version. You have to activate the one you want.

[ubailey]

I thought we were using the full trial version for this contest.

Same download works for both LE and trial version. You have to activate the one you want.

Thanks

[Taron]

First thing I wonder if I'm seeing right, but they didn't put a license of it up as a price? Really? Kind of weak, if that's the case.
Second thing is the unpleasantness of this thing UI wise and designing anything with it. There is a massive "hidden" section that is neither showcased nor explained in any immediate find of videos about it. I suppose, somewhere in there you'd have to make the assignments for those "macro" knobs and matrix controller. Couldn't make sense of it thus far.
I imagine it has potential, but currently it feels a bit like we're riding a free promotion for them without any obvious "thank you" to those, who managed to make a winning track with it, which they may surely want to use to promote the synth further. Just feels awkward.
Maybe I'm wrong, though, and somehow I can't see the announcement for the price up there, yet?
Anyway, maybe, maybe, maybe I'll spend a few more moments with it, but I'm not entirely inspired just yet. Could be a good sign, too. Happened before where the first impression was total horror only to reveal some magical beauty later on. Circumstances, though, make it not too appealing to put up the effort.

[Local Man]

I don't really like to download demos when I know I am not going to buy the full product but I am pleased to find that there is a lot of variety that can be produced from the preset macros on the LE version. It's kind of working in the dark, but there's nothing wrong with letting your ear guide you.
Hopefully tracks made with the LE version will be accepted.

[ontrackp]

First thing I wonder if I'm seeing right, but they didn't put a license of it up as a price? Really? Kind of weak, if that's the case.
Second thing is the unpleasantness of this thing UI wise and designing anything with it. There is a massive "hidden" section that is neither showcased nor explained in any immediate find of videos about it. I suppose, somewhere in there you'd have to make the assignments for those "macro" knobs and matrix controller. Couldn't make sense of it thus far.
I imagine it has potential, but currently it feels a bit like we're riding a free promotion for them without any obvious "thank you" to those, who managed to make a winning track with it, which they may surely want to use to promote the synth further. Just feels awkward.
Maybe I'm wrong, though, and somehow I can't see the announcement for the price up there, yet?
Anyway, maybe, maybe, maybe I'll spend a few more moments with it, but I'm not entirely inspired just yet. Could be a good sign, too. Happened before where the first impression was total horror only to reveal some magical beauty later on. Circumstances, though, make it not too appealing to put up the effort.

I think the price is $ 150US for the full version. It takes a little digging to make it work but it seems capable. Sound is kind of harsh and it's really easy to make ugly noises. 95% of the work is done on the second page. Setting up modulations is clunky and requires having to really think about what you want to do as it's multiple steps. Definitely a challenge -- especially if there is not a reward for figuring it out. I think they should trade a license for OSC tracks that they can then use on their website as demos. Or at least a big discount for OSC'rs who enter this month.

One other thing -- possibly the worst UI ever.....