Your fave MIDI fx, arp, mapper, mangler, generator, chorder, controller, utility. VST or MFX

[dopet]

Hi!

Got the toybox synth bundle for Reaktor. Stay tuned for thoughts..... oh, I automated a number of settings in riffer 2 and got something I liked. It was pretty mild, so i may have gotten similar results just letting ‘infinity’ mode regenerate.

[fairlyclose]

Hi!

Got the toybox synth bundle for Reaktor. Stay tuned for thoughts..... oh, I automated a number of settings in riffer 2 and got something I liked. It was pretty mild, so i may have gotten similar results just letting ‘infinity’ mode regenerate.

With Riffer try fixing some steps so they dont change and letting other get randomised in the scale you want. Also set number of root notes to more than 1. They are the easiest ways to constrain the output

Toybox Synth looks pretty good though - for me a very different way to work than in the DAW, but I am enjoying learning that

[Kalamata Kid]

never mind

[UncleAge]

Check out Scaler 2!
To be released May 27, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGVrscd ... e=emb_logo

Thanks for posting this!
I owned and liked Harmony Improvisator. Eventually I sold my license. I really liked the chord substitions it suggested and the way it approached harmony. In the end it had a few quirks that did not sit well with me so I sold it.

I also owned/sold Harmony Navigator. This one I liked a lot. However, it's big brother Synfire was the piece of kit that I really wanted and simply could not afford to put out the money for it. In HN my main interest was the chord substitions that went vertically next to each chord position. Loved that part of it and I really like the UI on this one.

Rapid Composer was always something that I kept my eye on but I never found the UI to be compelling to use. And I have found over the years that when it come to the software I use the interface matters.

With that said I really like the interface of Scaler 1/2. And I really liked what I saw in the video starting with the Edit Mode and going forward. That feature set is powerful, and I don't think I am looking at HN, HI or RC the same again. I really like that someone gave it a lot of thought before they started just plugging stuff into it and making it feel patchy. I would buy an entire DAW if that was how it approached music on the inside. Dont get me wrong I'm glad this is a plugin. And I can't wait to get my hands on it! But I find it hard to believe that so many devs overlooked this part of making music at a computer for so many years. I guess until someone has a passion to create such a thing then nothing gets created.

Bravo to Plugin Boutique!

[dopet]

Hi!

I have the Toy Box piano roll loaded up in a song I'm working on. I haven't used really pushed the envelope with it yet, but wanted to point out a few things that I don't think were mentioned about it in this thread.... sorry if it is a repeat!

- You can have more than 1 measure of midi data.... not sure if that was obvious from the walk-thru videos as they always seemed to use 1 measure of material.

- There a few scale choices you can constrain the pitches to to keep the wild randomizations not quite so wild!

- You can also constrain the timing to a quantized amount (1/8, 1/4, etc). I found the buttons by hovering over every control and reading the pop up help file. Again, keeps the timing functions from getting too wild if needed.

- They mention this in one of the overview videos, but you can record midi input into the sequencer. I have used riffer to record some phrases into piano roll and mangled them from there. Toy Box mentions they will post a video on using some of their blocks to 'algorithmically' generate data into piano roll.

Just a note regarding the blocks in general from Toy Box..... I've never really used Reaktor as anything more than a preset player as i could never get their supplied blocks to work as expected. It always seemed i was missing something to get it to work. Definitely user error, but frustrating nonetheless. I have no other experience with other 3rd party block vendors, so I'm sure there are other 'ez to use' blocks created out there! (Most of) the blocks from toy box have 'built in' features (like clock generators, amp envelopes) to make the patching simple if needed and with a few clicks i had some of their modules connected and making sounds. A lot of the modules are still pretty esoteric for my feeble mind, but I have to give them kudos for making things so accessible.

I'm not a shill, just excited.

Take care everyone!

[Kalamata Kid]

The Synth Bundle which includes the Piano Roll is still 25% off.
https://www.toyboxaudio.com/
Tempting but will likely pass it up in the hope that the Piano Roll will one day be available separately for less. My focus now has shifted to the release of Scaler 2!

[dopet]

Hi,

Scaler 2 definitely brings a few things to the table. I passed on version 1, but will follow this one.

[Toby Pearce]

I love the players in Reason. They really changed the way I make music, and they work really simply.

[Kalamata Kid]

^^^
The stock players or did you also get the third party Players?
Which are your favorite?

I had a chance to get the Reason Intro which included the Rack on sale for $49.
The third party Players looked very interesting but expensive.
So to avoid bankruptcy I avoided the purchase of the Reason Intro.

[SirkusPi]

Despite what I said above (about walking away from Orb Producer due to the developer's questionable promotion period policy), I went ahead and tested the fixed version of Hexachords' Orb Producer Suite. What can I say; sitting around the house makes a person desperate for diversion. And to be honest, I like it....

I take back everything nice I said about Hexachords' Orb Producer in my post from last month (the first paragraph of which is quoted above). I actually tried using it in a song this past week (as opposed to playing around with it and just generating progressions and melodies), and realized that there is a fundamental bug: the MidiFX state does not save in Logic once you close the session.

So, for example, you can spend a ton of time generating the perfect chord progression, bass line, arp and melody, but then if you exit Logic and restart later, all the Orb Producer plugins go back to the init state and do not keep everything you worked on.

There is a useful midi drag and drop that works, so you can drag your progressions to the piano roll during the same session as you make them, and the piano roll obviously will save. But the bug means you cannot make a chord progression in session #1, then save it to create the bass line, etc., in session #2, as the plugins all reset to the default state and lose the progressions you created. Nor can you use the program to adjust / try out new progressions in subsequent sessions without starting from scratch. For me, this undermines one of the whole points of Orb Producer.

I'd seen warnings that Hexachords software is very buggy with regard to Orb Composer, but I foolishly disregarded when I made my Orb Producer purchase (luckily at a good discount), and now I have personal confirmation that Orb Producer is no better in the bug department. It astounds me that they release plugins and software with such fundamental problems. And amazingly, there has been no update fixing this critical issue yet.

I'm done - no more Hexachords purchases for me, ever.

[David]

REALLY interesting new MIDI FX inside pluginguru's Unify, being demoed right now in today's live stream starting about 20 minutes in. Specifically, these are about ways to surgically modify MIDI files in realtime. With rhythmic files especially, Unify is shaping up to be a really powerful MIDI play-back device.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAs7Uvd8v6w

…along with its already there MIDI FX routing powers, which were always unique and way cool.

[David]

^^^
The stock players or did you also get the third party Players?
Which are your favorite?

I had a chance to get the Reason Intro which included the Rack on sale for $49.
The third party Players looked very interesting but expensive.
So to avoid bankruptcy I avoided the purchase of the Reason Intro.

I guess you're opposed to subscriptions? Because you can access all, or certainly most, of the best ones, up to a total retail value of $400, for $10 a month. And check out any and everything for free for a full month, too.

[Kalamata Kid]

^^^
Interesting idea, thanks.

Most if not all midi purchases are on hold until Scaler 2 is released and had a chance to play with it.

I need to check out the midi in Unify.

I said this before that I should check out the midi in Reaktor before spending any more money.

Still would like to know which Players musicians prefer.

[David]

I'd choose the Delta MIDI Computer first.
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... -computer/

Then the renowned BeatMap:
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... /beat-map/

Then, these two, probably:
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... generator/
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... alematrix/

But there's lots of less expensive MIDI utilities that are pretty interesting…
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/brow ... ote-player

[Kalamata Kid]

^^^
Totally agree on #1
Yes, all of the ones you like and a few others were on my list to get.
All are very expensive. Perhaps next black Friday they may discount them.
Looks like both of us have expensive taste.
I do not like subscriptions.

But now that I know you found them useful it will help me decide which to get.