Poly-Ana 1.0 New VA softsynth. 1 week full functioning demo

[KingofBeers]

Are downloads working, I can't seem to download anything on your site??

I click download and the screen just refreshes.


Cheers.

[AdmiralQuality]

It is 100% free to try, for a week.

I'm completely broken right now - yes i have ~120$ but this is for new boots and pants which i absolutely have to buy, so i'm kinda afraid of falling in love with a synth no matter how good and having to walk around in old clothes

You may want to change "free" to "free for one week".

Nope. It says "try free". (I hate marketing B.S. as much as anybody, but I really don't think I'm even coming CLOSE with that title. )

New boots and panties, eh? Jealous! (Seriously!)

[AdmiralQuality]

Are downloads working, I can't seem to download anything on your site??

I click download and the screen just refreshes.


Cheers.

Check that you don't have sending of the HTTP_REFERRER header disabled in your webbrowser. We check that to make sure you're linked to the download from OUR site and not from some site trying to make it seem like they're serving you our downloads (as several sites attempt to do... link directly to the download .exe bypassing the license agreement and anything else I might want/need you to see.)

If you still can't get it, let me know and I'll make you a temporary link.

[Mutant]

Nope. It says "try free".

What i understood is "Try (Poly-Ana 1.0 free)."

New boots and panties, eh? Jealous! (Seriously!)

Hehehe old boots are falling apart (holes) and pants will very soon.

[KingofBeers]

Thanks for the reply, I managed to download the synth in the end, I had to disable my software firewall for a short time ...that was what was blocking the agreement page. Firewall classed that page as spyware or cookie control gumpf? anyways I have it now and will test this baby out.....Sounds great from the demos. Softsynths are certainly coming along fine these days , do you have access to real analog synths for side by side comparison and feel? I use a mixture of both for my productons..but VST's /AU softsynths are so darn quick to work with ...it makes me lazy! hehe.


All the best for this product.

Cheers.

[shamann]

This synth sounds very, very good, AQ.

It hurts my face to look at it for too long, as I find all the muscles around my eyes scrunch up as I read the controls, but nonetheless it sounds very, very good.

[Kingston]

It hurts my face to look at it for too long, as I find all the muscles around my eyes scrunch up as I read the controls, but nonetheless it sounds very, very good.

grab the parchement GUI/theme from AQ's website.

[AdmiralQuality]

Thanks for the reply, I managed to download the synth in the end, I had to disable my software firewall for a short time ...that was what was blocking the agreement page. Firewall classed that page as spyware or cookie control gumpf?

Hey KOB! (Or do you go by "Bud"? ) Glad you got it working.

Nothing on our site makes a cookie yet (though I've been thinking about it to help track first-time downloads vs. update-downloads). What's a "cookie control gumpf"? Can't imagine why your firewall would take offense, it's just a regular web form looking at regular HTTP headers and redirecting you to a download link if it's happy (all it checks is that you clicked OK on our page). What brand firewall is it?

anyways I have it now and will test this baby out.....Sounds great from the demos. Softsynths are certainly coming along fine these days , do you have access to real analog synths for side by side comparison and feel? I use a mixture of both for my productons..but VST's /AU softsynths are so darn quick to work with ...it makes me lazy! hehe.


All the best for this product.

Cheers.

I've been immersed in real-life analog synths since I was 14. (I'm currently 39.) I've been writing software for that long too, though the two pursuits only merged for me a couple of years ago when I got laid off from my dreary media/programming job (building better ways to spam people's eyeballs with video advertising in public! So evil! All I miss are the paycheques!) and decided, for lack of anything better to do because I was just not finding another good fit, to take the advice they usually give to new novelists... write what you know. So after some VERY encouraging early success (see Naive LPF) I gave up job hunting and went to work for all of you. Figured since I had the filter done that the rest of the synth would be EASY! (And it was, it just took a year and a half to type it all in! )

As far as real analog references: Within arm's reach right now I have a Roland JX-3P, Ensoniq ESQ-1, and there's a semi-broken Roland SH-101 up on the shelf that I'll fix up some weekend when I need a break from the virtual. (I also have a Korg CX-3, Yamaha DX-7, and Korg SP-200 that I use as a weighted piano controller but they're not analog synths. And I'm typing on a Creative Prodikeys! )

(BTW, this is all the stuff I'm going to have to sell to EAT in the next few months if things don't pick up! If you're in Toronto and see something you'd like and wanna make an offer, let me know. )

Back in the day I used to own a Moog MG-1 Concertmate (my first). Roland MC-202 Microcomposer (same as SH-101 voice). Yamaha CS-10. Roland TR-606. An Electro Harmonix Analog Delay (MAN I wish I still had that!) And I spent a lot of time with my buddy -momo-'s Korg Mono/Poly, Korg Poly-61, Roland Juno-106. Lots of digital stuff too but I'll spare you that.

(Oh and I feel like I know the Yamaha CS-80 too because they had one in the music store across the street from my highschool when I was 15 and I must have spent about 100 lunchhours on it. )

Um... Some highschool music store time on a Roland Jupiter 4 and SH-2000. And used to play Roland Saturn-09 (electronic organ), SH-101, and Wurlitzer EP in a band circa late 90s.

I've actually never touched a Minimoog, though I know the sound. Did a throrough check-out of the Minimoog Voyager at a music store a couple years ago too. (This is why I'm proud my envelopes can be set fast enough click! So can the Moog's!)

There's more too but I'm forgetting.

Anyway, to answer your question. Yes, I have them on hand but I really didn't do much "side to side" cuz I know what they're supposed to sound like. (There was some oscilloscope A-Bing though.) Also, Poly-Ana, while intentionally limited to 70s features (or at least features that were POSSIBLE in the 70s) it is far more complex than any synth of that time. So my goal wasn't to merely match the capabilities of typical poly-synths of that period, but to EXCEED them as well. This is the best synth they NEVER made (but could have). I've been designing it in my head since I was about 16.

I think one thing that really stands out about Poly-Ana is that it's very PLAYABLE. I'm an old fashioned hands-on player and I think that comes across in the product. When I try other softsynths, even the big boys' products, I'm continually amazed by the lack of responsiveness and difficult playability of most of the preset sounds. Just simple things like the envelope timings being awkward, velocity control absent or not adjusted well, lack of triggering options... stupid stuff like that. Playing one note alone it might sound interesting, but you can't play a SONG with them. Poly-Ana inspires me to PLAY, and even better, to COMPOSE, so I know I've done something right.

The other thing that should jump out at you about Poly is there's NO EFFECTS SECTION but you're still getting LUSH STEREO SOUNDS. That's because Poly-Ana is one of very few (or maybe it's even the first?) analog model softsynths that have a STEREO SIGNALPATH throughout the ENTIRE VOICE ARCITECTURE.

Most every other softsynth drenches itself in some combination of chorus/flange/phaser/echo. You have to turn all those effects off to get a sense of what they really sound like. But Poly-Ana is proudly DRY. (Of course, feel free to get her as wet as you want. Who doesn't have a delay or chorus effect already? And who needs yet another crappy one tacked onto every one of their softsynths?)

Basically, I've just made the product *I* always wanted. It was a very coherent vision, not messed up by a bunch of marketing weasels trying to make it seem like all things for everyone. So it's really been a great relief to see that others "get it" too (though it's certainly not for everybody). But if I could live off the fan mail and praise I've been getting from those who do "get it", my problems would be solved because a LOT of you have had some REALLY nice things to say (much of it in this thread too!)

Thanks!

[shamann]

grab the parchement GUI/theme from AQ's website.

That one is a bit better on the eyes. I'd been using the blue one, instead. I think it is the angle that kills me though, rather than the colours or labels. I seem to be straining my eyes to see around things (for knob position mostly), even though I know I can't.

All that said, if I were a synth guy, this would be the one at the top of my list, even with the face pain. I know I'm not allowed to say these kinds of things since some forum punter will be along to say the two can't be compared at all (boohoo), but I tried the demo of the JupiterV recently and was bored shitless. I tried this one and thought the JupiterV should have tried to be more like this.

[LiteOn]

Hi shamann,

do you know, that you can switch the mod input selectors to be displayed as pulldown-lists?


cheers,
LiteOn

[AdmiralQuality]

grab the parchement GUI/theme from AQ's website.

That one is a bit better on the eyes. I'd been using the blue one, instead. I think it is the angle that kills me though, rather than the colours or labels. I seem to be straining my eyes to see around things (for knob position mostly), even though I know I can't.

All that said, if I were a synth guy, this would be the one at the top of my list, even with the face pain. I know I'm not allowed to say these kinds of things since some forum punter will be along to say the two can't be compared at all (boohoo), but I tried the demo of the JupiterV recently and was bored shitless. I tried this one and thought the JupiterV should have tried to be more like this.

Thanks Shamann!

Man, that GUI polarizes people. They either love it or hate it. (And there's no "right" opinion, it's purely subjective.) But I'm happy to report that at least a few of those who hated it originally changed their minds after a day or two of using it.

I've loved it from the start. I built the GUI before writing any of the sound code so I'd be forced to actually use the final controls myself, right from the start. Doing it in reverse essentially turned all the dev time into a LOT of GUI testing time as well.

There's also a lot in that GUI that you won't find in many other products. Knobs with DETENTS at the sweet spots or center positions. And all three knob modes (Circular, *Relative Circular*, and Linear) are supported and it provides an option to force the mode you prefer if your host doesn't communicate that correctly (many don't). You can also switch between all three modes on the fly by pressing the SHIFT or CTRL keys before clicking onto a knob.

OH YEAH, and what LiteOn said! If you don't like the dials, switch em to dropdowns in the Options Dialog (click the product name to bring up the About, then click Options... and yes, a single-click way to get to the options has already been promised, soon. )

[snooky]

I must ask...didn't this project come to be as admiral quality said all softsynths sucked and he could make the best one ever?

...well, did he?

[AdmiralQuality]

I must ask...didn't this project come to be as admiral quality said all softsynths sucked and he could make the best one ever?

...well, did he?

I made the mistake in my very first post on this board of asking if there were any good Jupiter-8 softsynths out there and how badly people thought I'd get sued if I made one without paying off Roland.

Then a bunch of people pointed out various "products" that were made in Synthedit and I explained that I didn't think they sounded good, used inordinate amounts of CPU for their unspectacular sound, and that I was planning to use C++ as I was already a professional programmer and well qualified to dive into this stuff, even though I hadn't written a single bit of audio code since I was 18.

When I dared to use the word "professional", a whole bunch of the SE people, lead by nuffink, jumped on me and told me how I'd never be able to make anything.

Then I discovered the Developer board to be a much friendlier and genuinely helpful place and stopped posting in Instruments until I was done! And I'm SO glad I didn't limit myself to a JP-8 architecture, or even a close rip-off of it... actually I'd have done MKS-80 as it had velocity response. Which reminds me... is there really NO VELOCITY RESPONSE on the JP-8V???? I couldn't find it.

So instead of a rip-off, I went for my "dream synth". A MUCH better idea I think. But I will leave the answering of your question to others.

Cheers.

[polyslax]

Congratulations AQ! Don't take this the wrong way... I'm just amazed that a one-man operation from Canada seems to have found the holy grail of analog!... I'm very happy for you and look forward to checking out the AU version some day.

[AdmiralQuality]

Congratulations AQ! Don't take this the wrong way... I'm just amazed that a one-man operation from Canada seems to have found the holy grail of analog!... I'm very happy for you and look forward to checking out the AU version some day.

Never underestimate the power of small teams! The time lost in not having 5 extra sets of hands was saved in all the meetings I didn't have to have with those people. But I'm lucky, my skillset spans music, graphics AND computer science. So the idea was to D.I.Y. and then pass the savings from my low overhead (literally, if I jump I bump my head) on to the customers while making products that are as good as any.

But don't get me wrong, I do want to grow this company and that's part of why I use the "royal we" when talking about it (so when I do get my first employee I don't have to go changing all the copy!) I want to grow it to serve you better (at some point I'll have more customers than I can support directly myself, though we're still a long ways off from that point!) and to get more than one product out a year! (I have at least 3 good ideas buring a hole in my head right now. ) So sorry again that there's no Mac version yet (you'd prefer AU over VST? Noted.) but believe me, it's the highest priority right after food, rent, new boots and panties, moving out of this basement apt I've ended up in, and a new Wintel box (current box is 6+ years old, ashtrays are full!) If I can just get those taken care of first, the Mac store is my next stop.