Filterscape 1.5.0 public preview 14785

[billcarroll]

The u-he team smiles on us today!

[pdxindy]

A few audio examples of Filterscape VA sounds... sometimes added reverb and/or making use of the Bitwig Note Expressions.

https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/F-VA-2.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/F-VA-21.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/F-VA-30.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/F-VA-31.mp3

[warcat]

now I'm dreaming of having such a random feature in all of your synths

[saint_william]

Aww! It's my 11th Anniversary! Thanks, u-he!

[zerocrossing]

We are very happy to share the first public preview of our upcoming Filterscape 2.0 update with you today.

Fixed that for you. With all those improvements and additions, that's clearly a full version update.

[pdxindy]

Filterscape VA 1.5 is a huge sonic improvement over the older version of the synth. It sounds great! A simple synth with a mostly 1 page interface. The filter sounds stellar! And with the Snapshot EQ, it is unique. A powerful sound design tool and very light on the CPU.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

One FR I always have for the save dialog: it would be nice if we could Save, enter the details, and tag all in one screen/step.

Maybe one for the future. Maybe even a themeable save window (or one that inherits the browser theme) rather than relying on the OS dialog. Just food for thought.

Playing around with Filterscape for the first time now and trying to wrap my mind around it all. Definitely need to dig into the manual. But very cool stuff so far.

[D Halgren]

I've been trying to get per note modulation of the VA filter using timbre in Bitwig, and not been successful. Using the CLAP version, which defaults to MPE, MIDI channel set to same, I have tried both the Expression modulator from Bitwig and Modulator A set to CC74. Neither seems to work. I have also tried turning MPE off and setting the channel to 1. Per note pitch is working fine. Am I misunderstanding something?

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm a bit confused by mpe not working but note expressions working. So in Bitwig, can I use my linnstrument or seaboard with it and do pitch bends and timbre y axis glides and stuff or no?

With such a big rewrite I'm surprised it doesn't have mpe support right off the bat.

[Urs]

I've been trying to get per note modulation of the VA filter using timbre in Bitwig, and not been successful. Using the CLAP version, which defaults to MPE, MIDI channel set to same, I have tried both the Expression modulator from Bitwig and Modulator A set to CC74. Neither seems to work. I have also tried turning MPE off and setting the channel to 1. Per note pitch is working fine. Am I misunderstanding something?

Have you set CTRL A as a modulation source to any target in FilterscapeVA?

The Timbre Note Expression in Bitwig (which actually maps to CLAP's Note Expression called "Brightness") does not do anything in our software by default, unlike Pitch, Pan or Volume. Instead, it is works as if the MIDI CC assigned to CTRL A (as set in our MIDI Preferences) was sent. Unike the MIDI CC though it is evaluated per Note.

In short: You might need to assign CTRL A to modulated Cutoff or something in FilterscapeVA.

[Urs]

I'm a bit confused by mpe not working but note expressions working.

It is quite simple: Each note knows its note number and channel, hence the handler for Expressions knows which expression to follow.

But the voice management does not have any means to play 16 notes in Mono or Legato mode. It only ever plays exactly one, regardless of what channel it is sent on. It also can't track which notes are held with a hold pedal in poly mode. So if we did multichannel MIDI in any way, releasing the hold pedal would release notes without any channel awareness, and thus a note that is still held on one channel might get the boot instead of a note that was released on another channel but kept alive by hold pedal.

For the same reasons the voice management can not reliably notify the host that a note on a certain channel has ended. Therefore we can not do per voice Parameter Modulation. Note Expressions however still work, as they do not require the feedback channel.

#-------

Voice management is very tricky stuff. When we originally refactored Diva to have multichannel MIDI, we had to deal with problems for many years to come, I think the last problem that was caused by it was something with the hold pedal that was fixed only few years ago.

[Urs]

(btw. there's no big rewrite here... most of not all bugfixes relate to issues that exist across our entire product range, such as the installer resolution issue on Windows. Most if not all of the *new* features are related to Zebra3 development, such as the upgraded equalizer algorithms and usability features, and the new 2/3/4 pole State Variable Filters. The Note Expression thing is of course related to CLAP development and thus will be available in all our synths, too)

[Hanz Meyzer]

GUI indeed looks very well designed, very clear and balanced, I think it is the best U-He skin so far... And the va sounds great. Cool that you also fixed the old select box problem in renoise. I guess this fix won't come to Zebra Legacy, correct?

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm a bit confused by mpe not working but note expressions working.

It is quite simple: Each note knows its note number and channel, hence the handler for Expressions knows which expression to follow.

But the voice management does not have any means to play 16 notes in Mono or Legato mode. It only ever plays exactly one, regardless of what channel it is sent on. It also can't track which notes are held with a hold pedal in poly mode. So if we did multichannel MIDI in any way, releasing the hold pedal would release notes without any channel awareness, and thus a note that is still held on one channel might get the boot instead of a note that was released on another channel but kept alive by hold pedal.

For the same reasons the voice management can not reliably notify the host that a note on a certain channel has ended. Therefore we can not do per voice Parameter Modulation. Note Expressions however still work, as they do not require the feedback channel.

Maybe simple for you but not for me!

Ok so I tried both the VST3 and CLAP. Seems the VST3 does not respond to per note anything, right? But CLAP automatically just worked with per note pitch bend according to my test (understood that you said mono/legato doesn't work). So when I tried to use Bitwig's modulation, it wasn't per voice (as expected as I think was explained already), so I tried setting the filter to be modulated by CTRL A (set to CC74 in Filterscape), and then modulated notes with Bitwig's timbre expression. But while this did not move the filter knob, it also was not per note, the filter modulation effected all notes playing at the same time. Is this expected?

[tasmaniandevil]

Cool that you also fixed the old select box problem in renoise. I guess this fix won't come to Zebra Legacy, correct?

Of course it will. It was a framework level issue, so it's fixed in all plugins, and the fix will be included in the next update, whenever that will arrive.
We always said that while Zebra Legacy might not get new features anymore, it will continue to get bug fix and maintenance updates for years to come.