Hive 2.0 is out!

[Hink]

Right. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet, got it installed this morning and then had to go to work. I was just going by the image on the first page. It's one of the things I like best about Hive - everything where I can see it so it's good to know that hasn't changed.

One of the biggest U-turns I've ever seen
How the mighty sometimes end on their proverbial knees choking on their own stupidity.

really? You're not going to derail a thread trying to crank things up, this isn't the first time you've done this but I am drawing the line right here, suspended.

[ubailey]

Played with this super beast for a few hours last night. I don't even know how to use the new features yet, but already made two songs. This is my new top synth hands down. Some presets are entire songs. Its a 1 page synth, but it can be as complicated as you want it to be.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

One thing I haven't figured out yet is the function tab. Read the manual to see if I could make out what it does but couldn't figure it out. Not saying the manual is poorly written, but I'm 100% sure it's because my synth skills are poorly developed If someone can explain this with something simple to understand, such as how it can be applied to cutoff, I would appreciate it! Tried using the cross hairs on the rise/still/env but failed miserably and it's gonna bother me all day at work.

Here's where I'm at with it. Hope you have Hive in front of you. If so, try following these steps to see if they help you make sense of the FG's.

Load up an Init patch (right click the preset name and select INIT). Let's ignore the Slope for a second. Keep Function 1 in "Envelope" mode, keep input to "None." Attach F1 "Env" to the Scope so you can see what's happening. What we have is a simple Attack/Decay envelope. Now each time you press a note, an envelope will trigger. With Attack and Decay at 0, these look like trigger signals: quick spikes. If the attack is 0 and decay is around 3 o'clock. It will look like a saw shape. If both are at 3 o'clock, it looks like a triangle shape (ramp up and ramp down). If Attack is slow and decay is at zero, it'll look like a reverse saw. So now you've got two extra, simple, A/D envelopes between F1 and F2 that you can use to modulate things as needed. Think of Roland synths that use A/D envelopes to modulate pitch as one example.

Now, change the Mode of F1 to Cylcle On/Off. Change Attack to 3 o'clock and Decay to 3 o'clock, and Slope to noon. Check out the Scope. You'll see that you've turned it from an envelope to a Triangle LFO. Now you've got a 2 extra LFO's in case you need them. Change the Attack/Decay/Slope to change the shape of your LFO. Notice how it's not a triangle any longer, and kind of ramps up and down with a curve. Fun, new modulation shape. Fun, new LFO's you can use to modulate whatever you want with by dragging F1 Env to a modulation target.

For now, let's go back to our triangle LFO shape (Attack and Decay at 3 o'clock, Slope at noon, Input at None, and Mode to Cycle On/Off). On the left of F1, there are options for Rise and Still. Click and drag each into the Scope to see what each does. Rise will send an On type signal whenever the triangle LFO increases, and send an Off signal whenever the triangle LFO is headed back downwards. This means your LFO or Envelope can also act as a Gate-type signal at the exact same time. So that one function generator can act as an Envelope/LFO and Gate signal at the same time.

Alright, but what about Still mode? Go back to your triangle LFO. Nothing is happening in the scope. What's that do? Still is kind of an anti-gate. If nothing in FG1 is moving, Still sends an On signal and as soon as something starts moving it sends an Off signal. So right now, our triangle LFO means something is constantly moving so Still is constantly sending an Off signal. So to see how Still works in action, let's go back to our Triangle LFO and add an Input signal. Use Gate as your Input on FG1. Now, when you're not pressing a note, our triangle LFO is off. As a result, you'll see Still sends a constant On signal. Press a note, and FG1 Env turns into our Triangle LFO shape (i.e. it's moving again), which causes Still to send an off signal. So as long as nothing else is happening in FG1, still is sending a full blast signal. As soon as modulation occurs, Still stops. It's just another way you can modulate other signals.

Note: at this point, you may want to go back to LFO mode. But hey, where is Input = None from before? "None" is not an option in the Input dropdown. Use Input = "Constant" instead.

I think that's the most basic way to wrap your head around the Function generators. Just keep the scope open and play with them until you get what's happening. Don't even worry too much about modulating anything with them until you get a grasp of what's going on. Once you get that figured out, you can then start combining modulations and/or using the modifiers in the matrix for crazy modulations based on the basic FG's.

Hope that helps!

[Butwug]

Hope you have Hive in front of you.

Hope that helps!

Stuck at work for now but will open this baby up as soon as I get home. Going to follow what you posted and whats Urs posted step by step. I know it should be easy, just need it to click or have the “a-ha moment” as Urs stated. Thanks once again!

[Mystic]

Kinda bummed they didn't do an intro price. I didn'y buy during the sale in winter because of that.

[Stefken]

Hope you have Hive in front of you.

Hope that helps!

Thanks once again!

+1 Thanks for your explanation.

[SparkySpark]

Kinda bummed they didn't do an intro price. I didn'y buy during the sale in winter because of that.

A bit unusual maybe, but at the same time the upgrade price and the grace periods are thumbs up. I think they did a grace period instead of a new intro price, kind of makes sense.

In any case, this looks like a great update to an already great synth!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Kinda bummed they didn't do an intro price. I didn'y buy during the sale in winter because of that.

I think they've been very transparent about how the pricing of Hive 2 was going to work. I remember reading "Price stays $149, upgrade is $20, free if you bought after 1/22/2019" a few times. The idea was not to kill sales of Hive 1.0 completely. If they released 2.0 and sold it with a discount, anyone who bought recently would've felt slighted by not waiting. This was the best compromise and they told anyone who was interested how it was going to work. I mean, they could've raised the price to $175 then done a $149 intro price, but that's not ideal either and you're paying the same price in the end.

If you happen to know of any third-party resellers that offer discounts, you might be able to find Hive for a few bucks less than the U-he regular price. I know of a small US retailer that offers something like 15% discounts to KVR members for most purchases.

[Mystic]

I'm not complaining. They did a sale in January I think for Hive that came with the free upgrade. I just held off because I expected an intro price like they did with their other products. Not really a huge deal, just wanted to save a couple bucks on it.

[DuX]

I'm just going to say this: u-he is the only soft-synth company that has never made a synth that I was disappointed with. From sound, stability, memory usage, to GUI and usability, that's just how things should be. Most of the soft-synth companies should learn a thing or a dozen from u-he. I think that should be praised. The effort, the expertise, devotion and professionalism like this deserves to be praised.

Cheers!

[DJErmac]

I'll get this one.

[BONES]

One of the biggest U-turns I've ever seen
How the mighty sometimes end on their proverbial knees choking on their own stupidity.

That's simply altering your opinion as new facts become available. It's what any sane person does.

Played with this super beast for a few hours last night. I don't even know how to use the new features yet, but already made two songs.

Me, too. I was just previewing presets and an idea fell out of my head that I will have no trouble turning into a song.

What I noticed last night was how, unlike say DUNE, Hive presets don't lean on the effects section nearly as much. Most of the time they sound great with or without effects and being able to disable them right in the preset browser is a stroke of genius!

I'm just going to say this: u-he is the only soft-synth company that has never made a synth that I was disappointed with. From sound, stability, memory usage, to GUI and usability, that's just how things should be. Most of the soft-synth companies should learn a thing or a dozen from u-he. I think that should be praised. The effort, the expertise, devotion and professionalism like this deserves to be praised.

I'll come at it from a different angle. I always had respect for their sound quality but didn't find any of their earlier instruments in any way tempting. However, as they have gone on they have improved usability enormously and their last few instruments are as good as, or better than, anything else out there. Hive, in particular, combines the amazing sound quality of their earlier synths with an ease of usability that few others come close to. It's a combination no-one else can match right now and a new benchmark for the industry, IMHO.

[Niowiad]

I'm not into Hive, but seeing the improvements to 2.0 made me super-horny for Zebra3

[Joe Leidigkeit]

I'm just going to say this: u-he is the only soft-synth company that has never made a synth that I was disappointed with. From sound, stability, memory usage, to GUI and usability, that's just how things should be. Most of the soft-synth companies should learn a thing or a dozen from u-he. I think that should be praised. The effort, the expertise, devotion and professionalism like this deserves to be praised.

Cheers!

This!

+ the perfect customer support and their price policy. (fair intro prices, free massive updates (e.g. Diva 1.3 and Zebra 2.7) and no ridiculous sales, that make the loyal customers look like fools.)

The only thing you could blame them for - they only release 1 or 2 new plugins a year.

[Joe Leidigkeit]

I'm not into Hive, but seeing the improvements to 2.0 made me super-horny for Zebra3

Try the Demo!
Hive was the only u-he synth I had also no use for. But now all I can say is, this thing is indeed a milestone. Lined up with impOscar1, Reaktor and Zebra. So fast, so sophisticated, so easy, so versatile. Pure enjoyment. Totally stunned.