Sonic Academy ANA 2

[flonky]

@bones
I did click on the update tab on Ana2 2.098 It gave a message saying It is up to date....weird.

Same here…

[MTorn]

《 ^^^^
Exactly.....i am really hoping. I havent done much more but load it up but am hoping to find one also. Twx16x is perfect but so unstable I refuse to use it. Mulab is close. Waveform is close. Love Tal for simple stuff....but still searching.

Good to know that I’m not alone. The upcoming Synthmaster 3 will presumably have enhanced SfZ capabilities, but who knows…
When you say Waveform, do you mean the Tracktion multi sampler?

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

《 ^^^^
Exactly.....i am really hoping. I havent done much more but load it up but am hoping to find one also. Twx16x is perfect but so unstable I refuse to use it. Mulab is close. Waveform is close. Love Tal for simple stuff....but still searching.

Good to know that I’m not alone. The upcoming Synthmaster 3 will presumably have enhanced SfZ capabilities, but who knows…
When you say Waveform, do you mean the Tracktion multi sampler?

Yes.
It is so strange that most samplers lack something that another has.
If i could combine Reaper Rs5k,Tal with drag n drop sfz support I would be happy. Rs5k auto detects velocity but is terrible for melodic instruments and you need 1000 instances. Tal is easy and sounds good but slow and tedious with multi samples.....all the others are some variation. Again Txw16X is perfect but a nightmare at the same time.

[BONES]

If you think clogging up a project with a bunch of unnecessary plugins that could be eliminated by simply using a single synth to its fullest potential is efficient then by all means keep working that way.

OTOH, clogging up a synth with all sorts of features nobody really needs seems like a much worse solution to me becaus eit's baggage you have to deal with every time. It makes far more sense ot add complexity as you need to, rather than having to deal with it from the get-go. DUNE has proved this to me pretty much every time I have tried to use it, which is why I haven't bothered at all for the last couple of years.

But again since the Multi-Sample Oscs have already been added, complaining about them or arguing about their usefulness is pointless (and an utter waste of time).

There is a whole world of sound out there beyond Saw,Square,Sine, Triangle, and Pulse waves.

I have Kontakt for that, which tends to utilise those other things in a different way, which ultimately broadens that world well beyond what you're likely to get from ANA. It's horses for courses but your point about Sonic Academy doing it so they can sell us sample packs, whilst a bit cynical, makes good sense for them.

If you think developers trying to make their synths (their products) the best they can be is "wrong headed" then there is no reasoning with that level of myopia.

If you think adding features is the same as making a product better, then you and I have very different ideas of what "better' means.

[Teksonik]

Thanks for reporting on that. I've considered giving it a go as a solution to my never-ending quest for a multi-sampler that I actually enjoy using. I've done a lot of this lately - going through the process of registering with a company, downloading and installing the demo, only to get annoyed and disappointed in a half-assed multisample implementation.

I'm guessing that if Ana 2 won't use standard loop points predictably, chances are low that it'll do a good job reading root notes from WAV headers and/or file names? And almost certainly will ignore any fine tuning data in the header.
I watched a bit of a tutorial for this, and the guy had to manually enter all the root note data for his piano patch, even though the filenames all had the root key clearly in them.
Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I suspect that my search will go on.

Well this is an initial release so there are bound to be issues. It's just a matter of if and when those issues are addressed. This update has the potential to be a nice three layer multi-sampler and then of course you can add in the VA Oscs, Filters, and use the CMD/Arp functions etc.

I worked with ANA 2 some more and got the same results. It's not reading loop points in samples, even third party samples I tried that are read when importing those samples in other plugins. The fact that it's not reading root notes as well is also troubling.

It could be ANA 2 is picky on what kind of samples it likes to import but the samples do import and play fine, they just don't show loop points and the built in looping is a bit clunky compared to the other tools I have to work with.

I've never had to contact Sonic Academy support so don't know how responsive they are to reports of issues.

EDIT: I've run the tests again on the same samples with the same results. However I did find some samples where ANA 2 did read the loop points:

ANA 2 Loop 1.png

So ANA 2 can read some loop points just not all. The question is why? If I were to make a wild guess I'd say it has something to do with the software used when creating the loop points in the sample.

That might explain why some loop points are read and some are not.....

[Buckster]

is Drift disabled in the demo ?

I own Hive 2, Avenger etc and have to say still Ana 2/2.5 sounds quite different (in a good different way) - seems to have it's own character

[bryansonic]

Thanks for reporting on that. I've considered giving it a go as a solution to my never-ending quest for a multi-sampler that I actually enjoy using. I've done a lot of this lately - going through the process of registering with a company, downloading and installing the demo, only to get annoyed and disappointed in a half-assed multisample implementation.

I'm guessing that if Ana 2 won't use standard loop points predictably, chances are low that it'll do a good job reading root notes from WAV headers and/or file names? And almost certainly will ignore any fine tuning data in the header.
I watched a bit of a tutorial for this, and the guy had to manually enter all the root note data for his piano patch, even though the filenames all had the root key clearly in them.
Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I suspect that my search will go on.

Well this is an initial release so there are bound to be issues. It's just a matter of if and when those issues are addressed. This update has the potential to be a nice three layer multi-sampler and then of course you can add in the VA Oscs, Filters, and use the CMD/Arp functions etc.

I worked with ANA 2 some more and got the same results. It's not reading loop points in samples, even third party samples I tried that are read when importing those samples in other plugins. The fact that it's not reading root notes as well is also troubling.

It could be ANA 2 is picky on what kind of samples it likes to import but the samples do import and play fine, they just don't show loop points and the built in looping is a bit clunky compared to the other tools I have to work with.

I've never had to contact Sonic Academy support so don't know how responsive they are to reports of issues.

EDIT: I've run the tests again on the same samples with the same results. However I did find some samples where ANA 2 did read the loop points:


ANA 2 Loop 1.png


So ANA 2 can read some loop points just not all. The question is why? If I were to make a wild guess I'd say it has something to do with the software used when creating the loop points in the sample.

That might explain why some loop points are read and some are not.....

Be interested to know what samples are not picking up loop points as we do indeed have loop point data being detected (in WAVs)

Root note data is detected as the last info in the file name Piano_A3, Piano_A#3 etc.

[Teksonik]

Be interested to know what samples are not picking up loop points as we do indeed have loop point data being detected (in WAVs)
Root note data is detected as the last info in the file name Piano_A3, Piano_A#3 etc.

I assume you work for Sonic Academy? Sorry I don't recognize your user name.

Here's a visual example.

Sample in DUNE 3, Loop points are read:

Dune 3 Loop.png

Same sample loaded in ANA. No Loop points read:

Ana Loop 3.png

The samples come from a free pack called "Zampler Demo Library" which can be download from:

https://www.zampler.de/

Same result with the samples I have created and then looped using Image-Line's Edison. Loop points are read in DUNE 3 but not in ANA 2.

As for the root notes, the following sample from that same pack shows g#2 at the end as root key but shows as C3 in ANA 2 after choosing the option "Do you want to Map the samples around their root keys". Selecting Cancel for that option yields the same results:

Ana Loop 4.png

[bryansonic]

Be interested to know what samples are not picking up loop points as we do indeed have loop point data being detected (in WAVs)
Root note data is detected as the last info in the file name Piano_A3, Piano_A#3 etc.

I assume you work for Sonic Academy? Sorry I don't recognize your user name.

Here's a visual example.

Sample in DUNE 3, Loop points are read:


Dune 3 Loop.png


Same sample loaded in ANA. No Loop points read:


Ana Loop 3.png


The samples come from a free pack called "Zampler Demo Library" which can be download from:

https://www.zampler.de/

Same result with the samples I have created and then looped using Image-Line's Edison. Loop points are read in DUNE 3 but not in ANA 2.

As for the root notes, the following sample from that same pack shows g#2 at the end as root key but shows as C3 in ANA 2 after choosing the option "Do you want to Map the samples around their root keys". Selecting Cancel for that option yields the same results:


Ana Loop 4.png

Yes - co-founder along with Phil !
I’ll check those samples out later - are they mp3, wav, or aif ? We should be detecting wav …

As for the root detection - it’s an underscore it’s looking for not a hyphen but a simple fix ..

[Teksonik]

Yes - co-founder along with Phil !

Oh cool! Sorry I didn't recognize your user name.

I’ll check those samples out later - are they mp3, wav, or aif ? We should be detecting wav …

They are .wav files.

As for the root detection - it’s an underscore it’s looking for not a hyphen but a simple fix

Excellent.

[MTorn]

Yes - co-founder along with Phil !
I’ll check those samples out later - are they mp3, wav, or aif ? We should be detecting wav …

As for the root detection - it’s an underscore it’s looking for not a hyphen but a simple fix ..

Wow, nice to have a pipeline straight to the makers!

With that in mind I'd like to take the opportunity to put in a request to also read root note from the WAV header - it's pretty standard.
But also (and important to me personally) make sure to read fine tune data (when present) in the WAV header. This is a little less of a standard - it can sit either in the SMPL chunk (same as root note and loop point data), under "MIDI Pitch Fraction", or sometimes in the INST chunk, under "Fine Tune".
Thanks!

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Hi Folks,

Regarding loop points... currently it only picks up the "ACID" style loop points. If anyone has info on what other loop points formats there are we will try to include in a future update.

[bryansonic]

Yes - co-founder along with Phil !
I’ll check those samples out later - are they mp3, wav, or aif ? We should be detecting wav …

As for the root detection - it’s an underscore it’s looking for not a hyphen but a simple fix ..

Wow, nice to have a pipeline straight to the makers!

With that in mind I'd like to take the opportunity to put in a request to also read root note from the WAV header - it's pretty standard.
But also (and important to me personally) make sure to read fine tune data (when present) in the WAV header. This is a little less of a standard - it can sit either in the SMPL chunk (same as root note and loop point data), under "MIDI Pitch Fraction", or sometimes in the INST chunk, under "Fine Tune".
Thanks!

Leave it with me

[MTorn]

Hi Folks,

Regarding loop points... currently it only picks up the "ACID" style loop points. If anyone has info on what other loop points formats there are we will try to include in a future update.

Are you sure? That would be very odd, since "Acidiced" files are quite uncommon, while WAVs with bog standard loop point definitions have been very common for over 20 years.

Here's a picture of a WAV header. At the bottom of the SMPL chunk you can see the data for loop 1 (multiple loops are supported, but rare).
You can also see the MIDI Pitch Fraction (-15 cents, in this case) that I'm so adamant should be recognized.

Screen Shot 2022-11-23 at 8.12.20 AM.png

[chagzuki]

Picked this up yesterday with the great BF deal. It appears that having added a few ANA parts in a project in Logic M1, after re-opening the project playback is silent/dead. Deleting all instances of ANA and re-saving solves the problem. Anyone else here using ANA in Logic on an M1 machine?