Minimal Audio Current…subscription

[Jac459]

Hey, I missed a lot of the drama since this Current synth was initially launched, under the now defunct 'subscription only' model. And so I have a few questions, after having watched the 'Current Pricing Update & Apology' video on YouTube.

Where are things 'currently' with this synth? (pun intended)

I presently own Minimal Audio's 'Effects Bundle', which includes, well, all their effects.

However, I have zero interest in signing up for either subscription or rent-to-own plans.

I would like to trial the new 'Current' synth and then, if I like it, I would like to purchase it outright with a perpetual licence. As I understand it, Minimal Audio are pricing it at around ~$200?

If all of that so far, is factually correct, then...

A) Where can I download and trial the 'Current' plugin, without having to sign up for the RTO plan? The website seems to only show the 'monthly / yearly' payment plan options. Is this due to be overhauled/updated any time soon?

B) If not, then where are the present download links and payment options to for me to trial and purchase the product outright (perpetual licence)?

C) When logged into my Minimal Audio account, I am being offered a personal upgrade plan from my owned 'Effects Bundle' to the 'Everything Bundle' for an Upgrade Price of $269.50. Would/Does that also include this new synth Current or not?

Thank you, any advice would be appreciated.

A: you can sign on the subscription for free and cancel immediately. You will have access for 1 month. That's what is advised by MA.

B. Na

C. No idea.

[Jac459]

I think there is a misunderstanding. I meant spectral not spatial.
Spectral is a transformation of any complex wave into a sum of sin waves. It is related to additive synthesis.

I know what you meant, and I know what I mean. Take a look at SkyDust3D. It's NOT just about "spatial". And all the others I mentioned also have a lot of "spectral" capabilities. BTW - what you described is analysis and resynthesis (usually connected to additive synthesis), not "spectral". Spectral is about the manipulation of the partials content (usually in real time).

I am sorry man, I can't find anything related to spectral in the description or specs, can you please help me to point me on the place they mention it?
Sorry if it is obvious but somehow I can't see.

[fmr]

I think there is a misunderstanding. I meant spectral not spatial.
Spectral is a transformation of any complex wave into a sum of sin waves. It is related to additive synthesis.

I know what you meant, and I know what I mean. Take a look at SkyDust3D. It's NOT just about "spatial". And all the others I mentioned also have a lot of "spectral" capabilities. BTW - what you described is analysis and resynthesis (usually connected to additive synthesis), not "spectral". Spectral is about the manipulation of the partials content (usually in real time).

I am sorry man, I can't find anything related to spectral in the description or specs, can you please help me to point me on the place they mention it?
Sorry if it is obvious but somehow I can't see.

Here is the link to the manual: https://soundparticles.com/assets/files ... manual.pdf

Read the chapter about the oscillators (page 14 onwards). Better yet: Download the trial and look for yourself. The manual is not updated with the new features (namely sampling support), which greatly enhance the sound capabilities of the synth.

Sound Particles put a great emphasis on the spatial capabilities, but that's not what's more interesting about the synth for me (especially because I just use stereo). What's interesting, IMO, is the many capabilities of the synth engine (which is an FM synth with 8 operators at its core, BTW). This means, for example, that when you use it as a regular subtractive synth, or sample-based synth, you have up to EIGHT oscillators.

[kraster]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

[fmr]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

Oh yeah... I totally forgot that. And it's unfair.

[kraster]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

Oh yeah... I totally forgot that. And it's unfair.

I think it's the UI that puts people off.

It's pretty utilitarian looking and has its own particular design language.

I was the same until I learned how to use it and it's actually super intuitive and quick once you get to it.

In terms of power, outside of reaktor, it's one of the deepest out there.

[Jac459]

I think there is a misunderstanding. I meant spectral not spatial.
Spectral is a transformation of any complex wave into a sum of sin waves. It is related to additive synthesis.

I know what you meant, and I know what I mean. Take a look at SkyDust3D. It's NOT just about "spatial". And all the others I mentioned also have a lot of "spectral" capabilities. BTW - what you described is analysis and resynthesis (usually connected to additive synthesis), not "spectral". Spectral is about the manipulation of the partials content (usually in real time).

I am sorry man, I can't find anything related to spectral in the description or specs, can you please help me to point me on the place they mention it?
Sorry if it is obvious but somehow I can't see.

Here is the link to the manual: https://soundparticles.com/assets/files ... manual.pdf

Read the chapter about the oscillators (page 14 onwards). Better yet: Download the trial and look for yourself. The manual is not updated with the new features (namely sampling support), which greatly enhance the sound capabilities of the synth.

Sound Particles put a great emphasis on the spatial capabilities, but that's not what's more interesting about the synth for me (especially because I just use stereo). What's interesting, IMO, is the many capabilities of the synth engine (which is an FM synth with 8 operators at its core, BTW). This means, for example, that when you use it as a regular subtractive synth, or sample-based synth, you have up to EIGHT oscillators.

Spent 15 minutes, can't see anything related to spectral synthesis.

[Jac459]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

Msoundfactory should not be authorized to compete, it does everything lol.

[DizzlerMusic]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

Msoundfactory is crazy powerful, but it doesnt matter when the UI is so bad. I own it but never use it, its not fun to use because of its UI. I think the developer should completly redesign it

[kraster]

Spent 15 minutes, can't see anything related to spectral synthesis.

Yeah.

I generally think of spectral resynthesis when someone mentions spectral.

Spectral resynthesis is usually analysis of the spectral content using FFT and then resynthesised using partials and residuals (filtered noise). As you said above the most common form of reconstruction is using additive synthesis.

I don't see anything like that in Skydust. It's a subtractive/FM hybrid with some fancy sound field capabilities (depending on the version)

You can do instantaneous spectral analysis in Msoundfactory with the additive oscillator and modal filter. But it's not dynamic.

Alchemy has a pretty good spectral engine.

I think the upcoming Sumu by Madrona labs (if it ever sees the light of day) looks like it will be the big Kahuna of spectral synths.

[kraster]

Msoundfactory can do spectral synthesis (including spectral analysis of samples), as well as additive, granular, subtractive, physical modelling, FM and multi layered sampling.

All at once if you want.

Everyone sleeps on Msoundfactory.

Msoundfactory is crazy powerful, but it doesnt matter when the UI is so bad. I own it but never use it, its not fun to use because of its UI. I think the developer should completly redesign it

I don't think the UI itself is bad per se. It's actually fine in terms of use.

It's just not very appealing and has its own specific design language.

Something like Current is more orthodox. It shares a lot of design aesthetics with things like Serum or Pigments so it's instantly more familiar.

Msoundfactory kind of looks like "work".

Current looks like "fun".

[Jac459]

Spent 15 minutes, can't see anything related to spectral synthesis.

Yeah.

I generally think of spectral resynthesis when someone mentions spectral.

Spectral resynthesis is usually analysis of the spectral content using FFT and then resynthesised using partials and residuals (filtered noise). As you said above the most common form of reconstruction is using additive synthesis.

I don't see anything like that in Skydust. It's a subtractive/FM hybrid with some fancy sound field capabilities (depending on the version)

You can do instantaneous spectral analysis in Msoundfactory with the additive oscillator and modal filter. But it's not dynamic.

Alchemy has a pretty good spectral engine.

I think the upcoming Sumu by Madrona labs (if it ever sees the light of day) looks like it will be the big Kahuna of spectral synths.

Interesting to know, thanks.

Back to current, the quality of the oscillators and effects makes it a no brainer for 100 bucks.
For 200 bucks it will depends on the number of presets.

[Jac459]

Msoundfactory kind of looks like "work".

Current looks like "fun".

100%

[DizzlerMusic]

The Subscription / RTO plan doesn't currently support PayPal, but our perpetual products all support PayPal. -- If you're interested in using PayPal it will be available when the perpetual plan is added. The reasons it doesn't currently support PayPal is simply because PayPal is very difficult to work with for subscriptions, and everything we have is custom built, we'll need more time to do integrations with PayPal for pricing plans

Lets hope there will be a paypal option ready for relaunch for RTO, or else you are gonna exclude many customers. (myself included). In the US most people seem to have a credit card, but outside the US, especially younger folks, its way less. (and younger people seem to be the main market here) .

For reference:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/675 ... y-country/

[fmr]

Spent 15 minutes, can't see anything related to spectral synthesis.

Yeah.

I generally think of spectral resynthesis when someone mentions spectral.

Spectral resynthesis is usually analysis of the spectral content using FFT and then resynthesised using partials and residuals (filtered noise). As you said above the most common form of reconstruction is using additive synthesis.

I don't see anything like that in Skydust. It's a subtractive/FM hybrid with some fancy sound field capabilities (depending on the version)

Neither do you see anything like that in Current, AFAIK. You need a very powerful and extensive Additive Synthesis Engine to do that.

You can do instantaneous spectral analysis in Msoundfactory with the additive oscillator and modal filter. But it's not dynamic.

Alchemy has a pretty good spectral engine.

I think the upcoming Sumu by Madrona labs (if it ever sees the light of day) looks like it will be the big Kahuna of spectral synths.

Alchemy is a good example of a synthesizer capable of Resynthesis, due to its powerful additive synthesis engine (that's its original synthesis engine). Some wavetable synthesizers also perform a kind of resynthesis (again, when their wavetable is additive based as was the case of the PPG/Waldorf. Tone 2 Icarus is a good example of a synthesizer that performs sample analysis and wavetable creation with very good quality. Serum also performs resynthesis through wavetable creation, as do Pigments, and almost all of the wavetable synthesizers. But I personally don't classify that as spectral synthesis.

Arturia Fairlight and Synclavier both perform resynthesis as well (these in a more traditional analysis and resynthesis through additive way). Virsyn Cube (unfortunaley now abandonware) was perhaps the most powerful analysis and resynthesis synth I ever knew. That's what I would classify as a fully featured spectral synth: https://www.virsyn.net/desktop/cube.html

Regarding SkyDust, it has Oscillator Modifiers, which alter the waveform spectrum and work in real-time. That's what brings SlyDust close to Current, IMO. Here's a description:

"Waveform modifiers, also known as waveform shaping, are techniques and tools that enable you to modify the shape and characteristics of a waveform generated by an oscillator. These modifiers provide the means to sculpt and manipulate the timbre of the waveform, allowing you to create complex and distinctive sounds that go beyond the standard waveforms. Within SkyDust, you have access to a variety of modifiers that greatly enhance your ability to manipulate and shape sounds. These modifiers include Silence, Amplitude Offset, Wave Folding, Positive Wave Folding, Clipping, Bit Crusher, Time Shift Up, and Time Shift Down. By utilizing these modifiers, you can expand your creative possibilities and explore new dimensions in sound manipulation."