ACE vs. The Rest of u-He‘s portfolio

[j wazza]

ace is prob my favourite uhe synth, its modular like bazille but warm and analog like diva

I don’t think of ACE as being very “analog.” Definitely not the analog type behavior of Diva or Repro. I always felt it was a totally different animal, like Bazille.

I'll agree to disagree on that, it's definitely at least supposed to be analog. It gets pretty close to the real analog synths I've used imo, but not the closest out there. I think ace is one of the best for analog modelled audio rate modulation. It sounds similar to diva to me. Agree that bazille doesn't sound analog though

[Ploki]

Ace can be creamier than zilla , and cant be as aggro as zilla. Definitely has a spot.
I actually use it quite a lot

[pdxindy]

ACE also has very nice soft sync...

[lotus2035]

I owned ACE a few years back, I'm not really into the whole modular thing but my main memory of it is that it was very 'warm' and 'analogy' compared to a lot of vst synths at the time that sounded sterile and flat. Buzzwords ahoy.

[pdxindy]

Agree that bazille doesn't sound analog though

Bazille doesn't sound much like analog subtractive... but it comes closer to sounding like my analog hardware with complex osc's than most software.

[dune_rave]

i've also tried ace and bazille, but their modular nature was the problem, so i rather use the other non modular synths from uhe

[Ploki]

I made a skin for ACE to sort of shift the modular nature out of the way, that's geared towards a more "VA with a lot of mods" vibe.

I work completely different with this skin with ACE, and if i pick a preset i made with the skin, it looks like a mess i'd never ever do with the default

it's still "messy" but at least to me it makes more sense this way, and i've been using it more since
https://ploki.gumroad.com/l/acid?layout=profile

[pdxindy]

i've also tried ace and bazille, but their modular nature was the problem, so i rather use the other non modular synths from uhe

Of course use what you want... but ACE can do all sorts of sounds not possible with the non modular synths from u-he... because it is modular! Combine the soft sync with a bit of ring mod, modulate the gain into the filter along with resonance and a touch of feedback and these beautiful not quite stable sounds bubble out. Nothing else sounds like it.

ACE is especially great now with the CLAP version cause one can do PolyMod in Bitwig with various parameters that are not modulatable right in ACE.

https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/CLAP-Ace-17.mp3

[rod_zero]

I love ACE, I would like to see a version but don't know what I would include, i just want new shiny stuff

[pdxindy]

Here's another Ace patch (CLAP)... an LFO doing audio rate modulation of the filter and soft sync and ring mod and then a Bitwig MSEG sequence also on the filter... there's nothing else quite like Ace. It's an incredible synth.

https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/CLAP-Ace-18.mp3

[mevla]

ACE is especially great now with the CLAP version cause one can do PolyMod in Bitwig with various parameters that are not modulatable right in ACE.

Sounds great - can you technically explain how this is done and why CLAP plays a role in this ?

[Chris-S]

Do I see right that some of the presets are not working (maybe cause they've been created on an older version of the synth)?

Example: 07 - HS Phlubber.

[pdxindy]

ACE is especially great now with the CLAP version cause one can do PolyMod in Bitwig with various parameters that are not modulatable right in ACE.

Sounds great - can you technically explain how this is done and why CLAP plays a role in this ?

The CLAP version, when used in Bitwig, can use the Bitwig Modulators in per voice mode. In the case of that sound, I used a slow stepped Bitwig MSEG to modulate Cutoff. That works differently than ACE's Mapping Generator cause the Bitwig MSEG has a smoothing parameter so one has fine control over the smoothing from step to step. The MSEG is much easier to tempo sync too.

Also, the other advantage of using Bitwig modulators is that you can modulate parameters that cannot be modulated directly in ACE. For example, Amp Env Decay, Filter Gain, Ring Mod, Multiples Gain knobs, Ramp, Slop, Crosstalk, and so on. With CLAP those can all be modulated per voice which opens up a wider sonic territory.

[mevla]

Also, the other advantage of using Bitwig modulators is that you can modulate parameters that cannot be modulated directly in ACE. For example, Amp Env Decay, Filter Gain, Ring Mod, Multiples Gain knobs, Ramp, Slop, Crosstalk, and so on. With CLAP those can all be modulated per voice which opens up a wider sonic territory.

Thanks ! This is actually the first practical example about CLAP I read, very interesting.

Do you know if an ACE CLAP version works in the same way with the features of Btwig 4.4.10 ? Or is it only starting with version 5 ?

[pdxindy]

Do you know if an ACE CLAP version works in the same way with the features of Btwig 4.4.10 ? Or is it only starting with version 5 ?

PolyMod with Bitwig Modulators works the same in 4.4.10

However, there are other improvements supposed to be in V5 for CLAP. For example, the plugin presets showing up in the Bitwig Browser.