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

[KingofBeers]

My God ..your enthusiasm is so HIGH....it's rubbing off on me!! I Thank you.

Yeah my firewall is Zone Alarm...I had to disable it for it to work..( It's not even getting to the Terms and Conditions page with it on.. just refreshes to the same products page if I don't turn it off) ..fist time I've encountered this sort of problem ..other than your day to day firewall stuff ..must be one of whose things??

I too have worked with the golden oldies throughout my life...I think 14 seems to be a coming of age or something in the SYNTH WORLD! as I started out at that age ..I'm 31 now...been a professional (well working in the industry at least ) since I was 20...worked in a few studio's programming and such ..but my big-ish break came when I worked for a Film, TV composer for a few years as a ghost writer/synth sound designer and what not...that enabled me to start my own business with a fellow composer about 7-8 years ago...(I know how you feel about the money side of things running your own venture though!! can be real scraping the bottom of the barral type stuff!!)

But yeah, will try this synth out asap ..looks great, and the feature set is also impressive, I bought NI Massive recently which is great for quick ideas and the modulation is amazing..all be it a few major features have been left out ..but I wont go there though! ...Hardware side I just got a MFB-Synth II (moog-ish clone..real moog is bit thicker though)..but it has an amazingly raw sound for such a great price. Other synths include a SH09, SH101, Juno60, Virus B, Yam SY85 to name a few, ....died synths ...Minimoog ...when I have the bugdet for a new moog I may get the Phatty..but who knows....I also have access to some other vintage stuff but I never like out staying my welcome ...anyways must stop ranting and try your synth!!


All the best.

Bud if you like! ....enjoying my IPA though of late.

[AdmiralQuality]

Oh I forgot I spent a few weeks with an Arp 2600 a couple of years ago too.

I have an .MPG of me fiddling with it too somewhere. Maybe I'll dig it up. I'm using the microphone input as a modulator to the filter, just like you can do with Poly-AnaFX! I also bought a bunch of Y adaptors so I could mix modulator signals together (hence Poly-Ana's modulation mixer.)

Yup, there's more than a little Arp in Poly.

And apologies for the exclamation marks and HIGH enthusiam. I DO love my work, at least I can say that.

[disturb]

WOW, this thing sounds great !

The optical illusion-ish GUI made me overlook it, but it sounds so gorgeous...
I know i'm gonna love a synth when i can compress it a lot.

I'd buy it in a heartbeat, if there were a 2d skin (or at least no weird perspectives), and maybe a reduced cpu tag.

Maybe i missed this, but a param for controlling both filter's freq in absolute or relative mode could be a cool idea..


cheers

edit : just had a bug (cool sounding though ahah) when toggling white noise on osc 1, looks like a denormal problem.

[Mr. Tingle]

AQ - you should definitely put the below quote onto your website somewhere (about page?) its a great resume (french word) and conveys an infectious enthusiasm.

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!

[Urs]

Hehe AQ, great read! Reminds me to, uhm, myself

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.

Gotta bring you back to earth here, Zebra had it for years and so does (to some extent) Vanguard.

Now bring on the Mac version, I wanna hear it!

[fabi]

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?

soundwise i'd say yes. at least as far as i'm concerned it's the only vst-synth to ever have blown me away like this!
i was absolutely mesmerized by the sounds that came out of my speakers - some soft synths' sounds are pretty one-dimensional.
then there are some that are really cool, actually.

but this one really made me feel utterly amazed.

ymmv

[brambos]

Congratulations on releasing this instrument, AQ! After playing with it for a while I have to agree with the rest that this is one stunning sounding VST

A minor niggle is that the UI doesn't fit on my (quite standard) 1280x800 laptop screen but it's just a few pixels at the bottom I'm missing.

You seem to be a perfectionist - it shows!

[thecontrolcentre]

Totally inspirational synth ... I love it!
Every time I load it up I write a new tune.

Thanks again for my "special" version, AQ

[WOK]

I can't agree to the hype here.
OK, Poly-Ana has big modulation options, but it uses BIG resources for that. On my Athlon 2500, I get only 4 note polyphony out of it in the highest quality - and even with this setting I can clearly hear aliasing in the high notes. Even the (donation ware) DAEDALUS sounds better and is not THAT CPU hungry.
The GUI looks nice, but is not very clear to spot. And after I choose a preset beyond #123, it crashed my computer completely.

[jplanet]

I tried the synth and absolutely love the sound. I must confess, though, that the GUI proved terribly difficult for me. With my screen as 1280x1024, I found that it was impossible to read the names of the controls. I couldn't help thinking that it was such a shame, I kept wanting to program it and it got a little bit easier as I kept at it, but a day or two away from it and I would need to hover over the controls to see them again. I could only bear it for 15 minutes at the most, my eyes instantly straining, and I have very healthy 20/20 vision.

Let me continue to say that I desperately want this synth to work for me. Sound-wise it is right there, but I think that the approach to the GUI is unfortunate.

As a web developer, I have encountered many clients who wanted interfaces that somehow mimicked actual objects. For example, I worked on an educational application where they wanted it to look and feel like a 3D notebook, etc. In every single one of these cases, without exception, users responded very poorly to interfaces that tried to mimic hardware. In some cases it was the central reason why the project failed.

[phattslagg]

For me, there is a lot to like about the sound - certainly some of the presets sounded pretty phat. However, the interface is, I'm afraid, so utterly horrible that I never want to see it again. As someone who likes to dabble in sound-design, I have nothing but admiration for those sound-designers who managed to figure out what the controls were in order to provide this thing with presets.

[AdmiralQuality]

Hehe AQ, great read! Reminds me to, uhm, myself

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.

Gotta bring you back to earth here, Zebra had it for years and so does (to some extent) Vanguard.

Now bring on the Mac version, I wanna hear it!

Thanks for that Urs, I'll check out Zebra and Vanguard. I certainly don't want to claim to be first at anything I'm not, though I assure you I came up with it independently.

Actually I'm looking at Vanguard's GUI now and I don't see a pan control anywhere, only one oscillator, and only one filter. So I wouldn't call that voice architecture "stereo" (unless there's something hidden under the front panel I'm missing).

Looking at Zebra's GUI now... (OW! My eyes! Now I know how half of you guys feel! ) Oh dear... scrollbars and hidden stuff (a major principle in building Poly-Ana was to put EVERY voice paramater in clear view on the front panel, nothing under the hood. I stuck to this 99.5% but the Quality/Oversampling control ended up under the hood -- it's coming out though at Kingston's request!)

Anyway...does it have 2 filters that can each take any combination of the oscillators as input and be run in parallel and panned independently to separate VCAs? If so, then you beat me to it. But I'm not seeing it. I do see the pan controls http://www.u-he.com/zebra/images/Synthesis.png but the routing in that patch looks like the oscillators dump straight into the VCAs? Anyway... I'll have to try it and get back to you.

And yes, I need to hype up the website bigtime and soon. It's just soooo hard to work on stuff that doesn't make the product any better nor make any new products. "Me me me me me me meeeeeeeeeeeeee..." WHO CARES? This is about Poly! (And about all of YOU and what you'll do with her.) She's free to evaluate so try her and write your own hype! So, thanks to everyone here who have done pretty much exactly that. Keep it coming, love to hear your comments, good or bad! And I'm listening on the GUI stuff. Though as I just showed from my reaction to Zebra, different people like different things.

Cheers!

[bmanic]

FabFilter Twin has true stereo path throughout..

Careful with those kind of claims.. it's not that unique really.

I think poly-ana sounds pretty good but it doesn't make me go "omg! wtf!" nor does it make me reach for my visa. Sorry.

Cheers!
bManic

[Hellbilly]

I own Poly-ana and looove the sound from it, but i have to start agreeing with others here, the interface is starting to annoy me a bit.

I really wish there would be an option of choosing between a simpler more accessible GUI and the current one.

[AdmiralQuality]

FabFilter Twin has true stereo path throughout..

Careful with those kind of claims.. it's not that unique really.

I think poly-ana sounds pretty good but it doesn't make me go "omg! wtf!" nor does it make me reach for my visa. Sorry.

Cheers!
bManic

I just retried FabFilter twin (seems to have been an eval reset? I thought I was expired.)

Why do the filter pans seem to affect the cutoff frequency? Also, are those actually 2 STEREO filters or 2 mono filters. Seems if the oscillators have Left/Right pans that each filter must be stereo (and therefore it's actually 4 filter per voice.) But I can't seem to isolate the cutoff from the pan, and the pans aren't going where I try to place them (for example, I can't get a square wave in one ear and a saw in the other.) Am I not getting something?

Oh wait, are the filter pans actually a bias of the left/right cutoff freqs? I guess so. OK, I think I get it now. I still don't understand the oscillator pans... why can't I put everything in one ear for example? (Oh, just figured it out, it's that strange output "STEREO" control. I guess it's stereo enhancing when set beyond the mid-point)

Poly-Ana's architecture is different (and to my thinking and real-world synth experience, a lot more intuitive) so I think both products are somewhat unique. Each of Poly's 3 oscillators "pan" (DEST) between the two filters. And the 2 filters (regular mono filters) can be panned independently from the 2 VCAs OR run in parallel to create a single multimode filter of virtually any combination (that's also why the filters have phase inversion, to assist in rolling your own multimode filters). Poly's two filters can also run into the same VCA if you want a normal mono synth sound. Or you can pan the two VCAs closer together to get a milder stereo image.

So fabfilter twin is actually a 4 filter per voice design. That's fine, but Poly-Ana's biggest CPU hit is the filters so I capped it at two. Different paradigms, similar results.

Can't say I like the interface much. It's tidy and ultimately works, but I don't like small targets to click on... find it tedious. That's why Poly had big fat knobs... easier to grab (and once you've grabbed it there's nothing left to look at, that's when it's time to LISTEN. Seriously, I close my eyes.) This is why I like the Poly-Ana interface. Anyway, this GUI preference is obviously a matter of personal opinion. I really sense there's a 50/50 split. So yes, I will continue to think about the priority of adding another GUI look/feel.

Poly-Ana has 18 modulation sources where FFT has 11, and in Poly every possible destination has it's own individual mod source dial and mod amount knob but in FFT you have to pick and choose which 8 you're going to use. Also, in Poly the mod controls are next to the things they mod. Intuitive. And then there's 2 mod mixers for doing even more complex combinations of the vaious modulators, then you can run THAT combined signal through the mod-mixer's filter (LAG control) and/or Sample and Hold.

Exact same price as Poly. I dunno, I don't hate this synth, perfectly acceptable sound (though to my ears not as "dangerous", or "warm" or "airy" or "hairy" as Poly). And I do appreciate the stereo aspect of FFT's voice architecture. And I also like that they too dared to have no effects. WTFG!!! I don't like chocolate in my peanut butter!

Thanks for your input, all. I'll look at re-prioritizing providing another GUI look option for Poly-Ana but it won't be pretty. You've already got the pretty one.

Cheerz.