# Inside U-he (Very Interesting Video) !



## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)




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## Richard Wilkinson (Feb 28, 2017)

Drum synth!!!


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## gsilbers (Feb 28, 2017)

that's very cool!


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## iobaaboi (Feb 28, 2017)

I would absolutely love a drumsynth from u-he, hopefully this year!? I plan to buy Repro V and Zebra 3 the second they're available. The Cat would surely be great as well.

The guys at u-he are the best, my favorite (non-sample-based) softsynth developer by far.

Thanks Urs and co.!


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## EvilDragon (Feb 28, 2017)

Drum synth probably won't happen this year, it's a pretty in-depth research on physical modeling going on by Sascha behind the scenes. Zebra 3 takes priority, while one part of the team is working on the Octave Cat.


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## synthpunk (Feb 28, 2017)

Until then both Chromaphone & uTonic are great.

And just a reminder you get a discounted Zebra3 license if you own Zebra2 and Z3 will be free if you own Dark Zebra HZ.



EvilDragon said:


> Drum synth probably won't happen this year, it's a pretty in-depth research on physical modeling going on by Sascha behind the scenes. Zebra 3 takes priority, while one part of the team is working on the Octave Cat.


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## JohnG (Feb 28, 2017)

awesome vid -- absolutely love their plugins


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Feb 28, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Until then both Chromaphone & uTonic are great.
> 
> And just a reminder you get a discounted Zebra3 license if you own Zebra2 and Z3 will be free if you own Dark Zebra HZ.


Nice one 
Guess It will be free for me then


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## iobaaboi (Feb 28, 2017)

I'll patiently await the u-he drumsynth, I'm sure it'll be well worth it! Until then, uTonic will do nicely. Chromaphone looks interesting, thanks for the heads up synthpunk. 

Anyone have any inside word on Zebra 3?


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## gsilbers (Feb 28, 2017)

I always forget about u-tonic. its soo good.


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## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Until then both Chromaphone & uTonic are great.
> 
> And just a reminder you get a discounted Zebra3 license if you own Zebra2 and Z3 will be free if you own Dark Zebra HZ.



Yes, I really like both Chromaphone, and µTonic, actually, Chromaphone is quite diverse in it's sonic diversity, you can create atmospheres, pads, and more with it, so it's not just for percussion modeling. I'm looking forward to get *Zebra 3* for Free as well  

*Diva 2 *should be amazing when it is ready.

A _Polyphonic_ *RePro 2* should be awesome, don't know much about the *Octave Cat*, what's that all about ? hehe.. at the end of the video, Urs says .. "_and we are working on the Cat_" ! 

I also would like to see Soft Synths utilize the GPU power of our computers as Urs mentioned this in the video. This will be a big advance for virtual instruments, especially in terms of sonic quality, and accuracy of emulating their HW counterparts, and much more.

Cheers,
Muziksculp


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## synthpunk (Feb 28, 2017)

Yep when it fits in the mix it fits. And the Patternarium is more addictive than pain killers.
https://soniccharge.com/patternarium



gsilbers said:


> I always forget about u-tonic. its soo good.


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## synthpunk (Feb 28, 2017)

The Octave Cat was made by Octave Plateau Electronics in New York it is very similar to the Arp Odessey and probably most remembered for being sued by ARP for stealing the design 

http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/octavecat.php

Not sure what all the fuss is about really I'd really like to see someone try and model the Octace Plateau Voyetra Eight one day that's the real gem.



muziksculp said:


> Yes, I really like both Chromaphone, and µTonic, actually, Chromaphone is quite diverse in it's sonic diversity, you can create atmospheres, pads, and more with it, so it's not just for percussion modeling. I'm looking forward to get *Zebra 3* for Free as well
> 
> *Diva 2 *should be amazing when it is ready.
> 
> ...


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Feb 28, 2017)

It's exciting to hear that they're limited by processing power (as opposed to having hit the limit of what's possible with soft synths).


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## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> It's exciting to hear that they're limited by processing power (as opposed to having hit the limit of what's possible with soft synths).



Yes, that's right. I wonder what makes it difficult for VST Synth programmers to utilize the GPU for extra processing power ? Is it technically possible, but difficult, or is it an OS related issue ? or Drivers ? or ... ? Because if it is technically possible, it would be a very big step forward in what we will be hearing from software Synths in the near future. It would just be a matter of time. Also let's not forget that computing power is also moving forward every year, with newer more powerful processors.


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## Tysmall (Feb 28, 2017)

muziksculp said:


> Yes, that's right. I wonder what makes it difficult for VST Synth programmers to utilize the GPU for extra processing power ? Is it technically possible, but difficult, or is it an OS related issue ? or Drivers ? or ... ?.



It would be immensely harder than it sounds. So many details you would have to work out to make a marketable product that works with everyone's cards / drivers. Truly an unfathomable job (at least to me), but such an inspiring idea on paper. We have graphics acceleration on vst plugins, but that's only for UIs - and that is a very basic concept compared to running samples through a gpu. I am fascinated that they feel they could achieve this in 5 years.

Imagine just buying a softsynth pcie card ... that had its own dedicated processing. This is the future.


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## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)

Tysmall said:


> Imagine just buying a softsynth pcie card ... that had its own dedicated processing. This is the future.



Yes, that would be a great solution, especially if developers can easily code their VSTs to use the PCie card's processing power. These could be dedicated VST-Processing PCIe Cards that work along the main CPU and GPU systems in a computer. Nothing is impossible, it just takes time, vision, investment, and hard work.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 28, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> The Octave Cat was made by Octave Plateau Electronics in New York it is very similar to the Arp Odessey and probably most remembered for being sued by ARP for stealing the design



Except it sounds pretty different to Odyssey. Don't take everything you read on VSE for granted. ARP sued regarding filter, even though the feature set resembles that of the Odyssey (having an ADSR and AR, for example). The sound more than makes up for it.

The irony is that Octave outlived ARP despite the lawsuit 





muziksculp said:


> I wonder what makes it difficult for VST Synth programmers to utilize the GPU for extra processing power ?



Latency! CPU talking to GPU and transfering the data over takes time, so it's not good for realtime usage (which softsynths are), at all! This probably won't change because it's fine as is for what GPUs are intended for - graphics.



muziksculp said:


> Also let's not forget that computing power is also moving forward every year, with newer more powerful processors.



Not really that powerful anymore. For the last few generations of Intel CPUs, performance gain on highest end i7s was not really that _wow. _Here's a video that talks about this more.





Tysmall said:


> Imagine just buying a softsynth pcie card ... that had its own dedicated processing. This is the future.



No, it's not, because native CPUs are faster and allow more plugin instances than any available DSP solution (like UAD, for example).


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## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)

@EvilDragon,

Thanks for the interesting video, it seems like Intel has reached a performance limit with their latest generations of Processors. But, imho. that doesn't mean that this will be the case for too long, there is always a technological/design breakthrough that will allow the manufacturing of faster, and more efficient processors, so we might just be going through a temporary transition period, where computing power will take off again as we transition out of this period. Again.. It's just a matter of time.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 28, 2017)

Sure there is, and Intel is having problems with that manufacturing process, which is why we have delays from them in switching to 10 nm technology.


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## muziksculp (Feb 28, 2017)

EvilDragon said:


> Sure there is, and Intel is having problems with that manufacturing process, which is why we have delays from them in switching to 10 nm technology.



These types of issues are expected, nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to manufacturing technologies, eventually they will find a feasible solution, and solve the issues, but again ... it's a matter of time.


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## synthpunk (Mar 1, 2017)

And Moog sued Arp for the 2600 ladder filter.  Those were the wild west days.

No one said anything about believing VSE, it's just a quick reference as most people have never heard of The Cat or OE. You have a habit of putting words in peoples mouths Mario.



EvilDragon said:


> Except it sounds pretty different to Odyssey. Don't take everything you read on VSE for granted. ARP sued regarding filter, even though the feature set resembles that of the Odyssey (having an ADSR and AR, for example). The sound more than makes up for it.
> 
> The irony is that Octave outlived ARP despite the lawsuit


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## Fab (Mar 1, 2017)

So that's what Urs Looks like


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## creativeforge (Mar 31, 2017)

Are you working on this too, EvilDragon?


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## chimuelo (Apr 1, 2017)

Tysmall said:


> Imagine just buying a softsynth pcie card ... that had its own dedicated processing. This is the future.



Actually it's the past. I still have 3 of them and a DSP Rack.
Way ahead of their time, fortunately their FX and mixers are still quite good so in that respect others are playing catch up.
I would love to see FPGA or DSP Processors return as that could be a great way to avoid the endless upgrade cycles.
A DAW on a card would greatly enhance real time capabilities.
Until x64 came along we had VDAT Recorders that sounded fantastic, once they left the project they lost their magic, but for backing tracks in a live venue, especially vocal harmonies, etc. it was such a simple pleasure. We also lost the S5000 sampler which was heartbreaking.
It was a gem too. Much like an Akai hardware sampler and sound quality was fantastic.
Sometimes I come an inch away from going Mac just to have Mainstage and ESX.

Voyetra would be fantastic.
Can't wait to see what u-He does.
I've given as much revenue as possible to u-He, but not a fan of Bazille, Hive, etc.
Just Zebra2 HZ and Diva and Satin. Strictly a meat & potatoes kind of guy.
Itching to hand more cash over.
Especially if pesky ED is involved....


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## EvilDragon (Apr 1, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> as that could be a great way to avoid the endless upgrade cycles.



Or so you'd wish. Ports on computers change with years. Remember UAD on PCI? Then you had to upgrade to PCIe once mobos ditched PCI ports. OS support withers. Remember TC PowerCore?

It's not a good solution if hardware DSP card vendors can't keep up with times, which happened in TC's case. UAD is just an arm-and-a-leg ripoff IMHO. :D


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## synthpunk (Apr 1, 2017)

As opposed to the coding that Umalat did ?



EvilDragon said:


> UAD is just an arm-and-a-leg ripoff IMHO. :D


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## chimuelo (Apr 1, 2017)

I'm so old I went from GSIF and ISA to PCI 32bit now to PCI-e 1x.

But I've got an idea.
Turn CPUs into a powerhouse by coding your own OS.
Having a Cloud sounds cool like your part of Heaven, etc.
But imagine what synth coders could do if they could skip permissions and stream instructions w/o interrupts.

Yes, that requires resources, so pie in the sky.


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## synthpunk (Apr 1, 2017)

Mario and I disagree vehemently about UA. It is a quality, honorable, and good company started by Bill Putnam, run by Gannon Kashiwa and anything from a ripoff.



EvilDragon said:


> Not sure what you're implying by "my company" though.





EvilDragon said:


> Not sure what you're implying by "my company" though.


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## Tysmall (Apr 1, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Keep telling lies about other people Mario and I'll keep telling the truth about you


We could have our own reality tv show on this forum.


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## creativeforge (Apr 1, 2017)




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## chimuelo (Apr 1, 2017)

FWIW Consumer motherboards ditched PCI.
Many Industrial boards still carry ISA, and PCI.
Here's a Scope/UAD Combo board that holds 50 x SHARC Processors.
3 x Scope 15 chippers and 2 x UAD Duos.

http://www.aaeon.com/en/p/atx-imba-q87a


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## lp59burst (Apr 1, 2017)

Shad0wLandsUK said:


> Nice one
> Guess It will be free for me then


Ditto...


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