jim
06-06-2010, 03:58 PM
Hi everyone, I have just about finished what I've been referring to internally as "phase 1" of Numerology 3 development, so I wanted to post an update listing all the new stuff along with the news that once I finish a few more things I will be putting out a preview release prior to diving into phase 2.
Before I go on, I should mention that phase 2 will be all the AU stuff that has been covered before, and phase 3 will be another round of features, mostly focused on extending the synthesis and sampling options available in Numerology now.
Here is a list of the new stuff that is running now in the 3.0 Pro build:
Evolve :
This is a biggie, and was mentioned earlier on the forum, with a demo video on Vimeo. Evolve allows you to apply useful musical transformations on a sequence in a randomized but constrained manner. It can be used as a smart randomizer, as a generative sequencing engine, or subtle 'humanize' function. It is both flexible but super-easy to use. One tweak I'll be adding is an 'auto' function....
Updated UI :
Although everything is pretty much in the same place, all the UI controls have been updated to look nicer and more professional. I'll be doing another 'refinement' pass on the UI in phase 3.
Module Settings :
This is a way to save and load preset settings for individual modules. It is extremely useful both for the synth modules (AudioSample & DrumKit) as well as sequencing modules.
Stack Library :
This is another "tent pole" feature : a centralized spot for importing and exporting stacks, sorted by categories, and including a simple tagging system. There are actually two library locations: one for factory stacks (i.e. examples and demos), and one for user-created materials.
Multi-channel support for AUs :
Pretty self-explanatory: if an AU supports multiple busses or mono vs. stereo options, these are now available.
Monophonic Audio Routing :
You can now more-easily work with mono audio streams within a stack.
Per-Stack Audio Recording :
Just like the current recording option on the Main and Alt mix busses, but now available for all stacks.
MIDI Recording :
Just like audio recording: a per stack, semi-automatic recording feature, but in this case for MIDI. Just to clarify: there's no editing or piano-roll option yet, just capture to a MIDI file. Nonetheless, it makes it really easy to transfer Numerology sequences into other programs.
OSC Learn :
This works just like MIDI learn, but for OSC sources.
New Modules:
Clock Offset :
One of those things that I thought would be very difficult to get working properly, but really wasn't. This module allows you to offset the timing of sequencers in a stack forward or backward in time by a small amount, thus making it easy to account for many types of latency problems. This module is turning out to be so useful I will probably be building it directly into the AUs.
Custom Scale :
A simple but very powerful programmable quantizer. It is flexible enough that it can also be used as an interesting filter / transposer for streams of notes.
Button Box :
Just like the FaderBox, but with 8 buttons. Very handy for building semi-custom control panels for AU's and complex patches.
Audio Delay :
A simple, flexible, mono or stereo audio delay with delay time specified in musical units, with glitch-free length changes. I'll add ping-pong and multi-tap variants later on.
CV Delay :
Similar to the Audio delay, but for CV signals.
VCA :
The first in a series of synthesis-specific modules, it works just like a VCA on an analog modular.
Audio Mixer :
A 4-channel mixer module (w/ pan and mute) for intra-stack mixing.
Gate Generator :
Tweaky but super-powerful : it allows you to generate gate signals with user-definable pre-delay and gate length, with a 'trigger divide' on its input.
Unary Op :
This module's name is short for "unary operator", and covers 40 mathematical, trigonometric and logic operations that take a single argument (such as absolute value, invert, sine, etc) -- pretty much everything available to C programmers.
Binary Op :
Just like the Unary Op, but for operations that have two arguments. Twenty-three operations total, including multiply, divide, modulo, min, max, and so on.
Ternary Conditional :
This name is going to be unfamiliar to pretty much everyone that isn't a programmer, but is an efficient way to handle an "if-then-else" situation, such as "if the input is greater than zero, output value A, otherwise output value B".
The MonoNote and Numerology AU's:
A quick update on the plugin situation: As most of you know, I've had a nearly-functional MonoNote plugin for a while, but due to several internal changes and new information I have learned, I have refrained from putting it out to all but a select few. Phase 2 development is all about updating the MonoNote AU with new stuff from the 3.0 development branch, as well as making more sequencing plugins and hopefully a full-Numerology plugin. One limitation I plan to adhere to is to *not* try to host AUs within a Numerology plugin.
Availability and Pricing:
I have several features to tweak in the current 3.0 build, as well as some bugs to fix, and detailed things like demo mode, the installer and so on. Also, over the next couple weeks, I will be involved with some artsy projects in Santa Fe which will require a significant portion of my time. So the preview release will happen sometime after June 21st -- how soon after I can't say yet, but starting the 21st it will be my top priority. The upgrade price for the preview release of N3 Pro will be $65 US -- nearly 20% less than the final upgrade amount of $80.
A preview release of the "standard edition" of Numerology 3 will follow the pro version by about a month. Anyone that purchased Numerology 2 after Oct 15th, 2009 is eligible for a free upgrade to the N3 Standard, but the price for the pro upgrade is the same. If you are eligible, all you will need to do is contact me via email with your full name and Numerology 2 serial number. Most of the focus for N3 development is on the pro-level features, but there are still many goodies coming for the standard version, including the new UI, MIDI recording, the stack library, and some new synthesis stuff.
Cheers,
Jim
Before I go on, I should mention that phase 2 will be all the AU stuff that has been covered before, and phase 3 will be another round of features, mostly focused on extending the synthesis and sampling options available in Numerology now.
Here is a list of the new stuff that is running now in the 3.0 Pro build:
Evolve :
This is a biggie, and was mentioned earlier on the forum, with a demo video on Vimeo. Evolve allows you to apply useful musical transformations on a sequence in a randomized but constrained manner. It can be used as a smart randomizer, as a generative sequencing engine, or subtle 'humanize' function. It is both flexible but super-easy to use. One tweak I'll be adding is an 'auto' function....
Updated UI :
Although everything is pretty much in the same place, all the UI controls have been updated to look nicer and more professional. I'll be doing another 'refinement' pass on the UI in phase 3.
Module Settings :
This is a way to save and load preset settings for individual modules. It is extremely useful both for the synth modules (AudioSample & DrumKit) as well as sequencing modules.
Stack Library :
This is another "tent pole" feature : a centralized spot for importing and exporting stacks, sorted by categories, and including a simple tagging system. There are actually two library locations: one for factory stacks (i.e. examples and demos), and one for user-created materials.
Multi-channel support for AUs :
Pretty self-explanatory: if an AU supports multiple busses or mono vs. stereo options, these are now available.
Monophonic Audio Routing :
You can now more-easily work with mono audio streams within a stack.
Per-Stack Audio Recording :
Just like the current recording option on the Main and Alt mix busses, but now available for all stacks.
MIDI Recording :
Just like audio recording: a per stack, semi-automatic recording feature, but in this case for MIDI. Just to clarify: there's no editing or piano-roll option yet, just capture to a MIDI file. Nonetheless, it makes it really easy to transfer Numerology sequences into other programs.
OSC Learn :
This works just like MIDI learn, but for OSC sources.
New Modules:
Clock Offset :
One of those things that I thought would be very difficult to get working properly, but really wasn't. This module allows you to offset the timing of sequencers in a stack forward or backward in time by a small amount, thus making it easy to account for many types of latency problems. This module is turning out to be so useful I will probably be building it directly into the AUs.
Custom Scale :
A simple but very powerful programmable quantizer. It is flexible enough that it can also be used as an interesting filter / transposer for streams of notes.
Button Box :
Just like the FaderBox, but with 8 buttons. Very handy for building semi-custom control panels for AU's and complex patches.
Audio Delay :
A simple, flexible, mono or stereo audio delay with delay time specified in musical units, with glitch-free length changes. I'll add ping-pong and multi-tap variants later on.
CV Delay :
Similar to the Audio delay, but for CV signals.
VCA :
The first in a series of synthesis-specific modules, it works just like a VCA on an analog modular.
Audio Mixer :
A 4-channel mixer module (w/ pan and mute) for intra-stack mixing.
Gate Generator :
Tweaky but super-powerful : it allows you to generate gate signals with user-definable pre-delay and gate length, with a 'trigger divide' on its input.
Unary Op :
This module's name is short for "unary operator", and covers 40 mathematical, trigonometric and logic operations that take a single argument (such as absolute value, invert, sine, etc) -- pretty much everything available to C programmers.
Binary Op :
Just like the Unary Op, but for operations that have two arguments. Twenty-three operations total, including multiply, divide, modulo, min, max, and so on.
Ternary Conditional :
This name is going to be unfamiliar to pretty much everyone that isn't a programmer, but is an efficient way to handle an "if-then-else" situation, such as "if the input is greater than zero, output value A, otherwise output value B".
The MonoNote and Numerology AU's:
A quick update on the plugin situation: As most of you know, I've had a nearly-functional MonoNote plugin for a while, but due to several internal changes and new information I have learned, I have refrained from putting it out to all but a select few. Phase 2 development is all about updating the MonoNote AU with new stuff from the 3.0 development branch, as well as making more sequencing plugins and hopefully a full-Numerology plugin. One limitation I plan to adhere to is to *not* try to host AUs within a Numerology plugin.
Availability and Pricing:
I have several features to tweak in the current 3.0 build, as well as some bugs to fix, and detailed things like demo mode, the installer and so on. Also, over the next couple weeks, I will be involved with some artsy projects in Santa Fe which will require a significant portion of my time. So the preview release will happen sometime after June 21st -- how soon after I can't say yet, but starting the 21st it will be my top priority. The upgrade price for the preview release of N3 Pro will be $65 US -- nearly 20% less than the final upgrade amount of $80.
A preview release of the "standard edition" of Numerology 3 will follow the pro version by about a month. Anyone that purchased Numerology 2 after Oct 15th, 2009 is eligible for a free upgrade to the N3 Standard, but the price for the pro upgrade is the same. If you are eligible, all you will need to do is contact me via email with your full name and Numerology 2 serial number. Most of the focus for N3 development is on the pro-level features, but there are still many goodies coming for the standard version, including the new UI, MIDI recording, the stack library, and some new synthesis stuff.
Cheers,
Jim