Plans for making Absynth a "true" VSTi?

I'm mystified by this thread. Isn't having the absynth engine running in the background a good thing? Isn't having access to all the windows a positive? I use absynth a lot and this setup has caused zero problems for me. In fact I often wish I could have a Kontakt engine running in the background so that too could have mutliple windows. The only valid complaint I see is that absynth doesn't sync to tempo. And NI has already said they are going to fix this.

 

Hi Cement!

I don't think there is anything mystifying about finding the way Absynth integrates with a host sequencer odd.

It is odd, I know of no other VSTi that runs itself in 2 paralell instances, 1 of them a virtual standalone soft synth.

All the best,

Magnus

 

Hello Magnus,

I suppose it is odd. But it's not clear to me why anyone would consider it a problem that needs to be addressed. One shortcoming of absynth vst implementation is that all instantiations can only draw from one program bank. This is only a minor inconvenience. A more serious limitation is that envelopes don't sync to tempo. But for all I know, this could be a completely different technical issue altogether. In any case, this would be an improvement truly worth clamoring for.

Regards,

cement

 

Hi Cement!

I agree with your general comments above. Also, sync to tempo is mentioned by me in my 2nd posting in this thread.

I hope you don't think I'm merely clamoring. I do like Absynth. However, Absynth is a bit quirky, and I would like to know if NI is going to address these quirks. Tempo sync is one such quirk. Absynth Engine is another.

All the best,

Magnus

 

Magnus,

Merely clamoring? Not at all. Clamoring is good - it's a sign of love. Absynth Engine has been very solid for me. But if it's quirky for you then you have my support in urging NI to make it more reliable.

cement

 

I have again posted at the Absynth Yahoo group, asking Brian Clevinger to reply...

I must admit that the level of NI commitment on this forum is somewhat disappointing.

Magnus

 

Hmmm...

Still no reply.

I've had a really bad day with Absynth crashing my sx/xp home setup many times on a song using one Absynth patch. See http://forum.cubase.net/forum/Forum4/HTML/006677.html

Am I the only one who finds Absynth a bit unstable on sx/xp?

Still waiting for what seems to be Godot.

Magnus

 

Posting errors and wishes to NI is like praying to god: You will never know if you are beeing heard ...

A little official NI response would help here.

 

Note that the Reaktor editor also runs as a separate process, e.g. a separate window down in the task bar..

 

I read in an old post at Yahoo Groups that the main reason for separating the engine had something to do with the fact that Absynths patch files are very large. Some hosts don't provide enough room to store the bank info.

 

Hi all!

Brian Clevinger has been in touch with me via e-mail regarding the crashes.

The only thing that seems to work at the moment is not to apply the 1.3.3 update. This way, I could work on the offending song tonight for about 2 hours without crashing. In 1.3.3 it crashed within minutes.

Cross my fingers and hope, wish, pray...

Magnus

 

Hi Magnus,

now that you are in email contact with mr. clevinger, what does he personally mean regarding our subject (Absynth as a "true" VSTi)??

There are many serious music magazines, who also complained about Absynth not beeing "streamlined" like FM7 for example. The amount of patch data cannot be the cause, because FM7 or Kontakt also consume much disc place.

Kind regards
- Alexander

 

Hi Alexander!

At the moment, Brian and I are not discussing the contents of this thread... Unfortunately, we are trying to get our heads around my crashes.

One of the magazines that commented on the less than slick VSTi integration of Absynth Engine was SOS, I believe.

I am still very interested to hear from NI what their plans for the future are. I too find it hard to believe that patch data size can differ that much from other high end VSTis.

I do in fact have FM7, which I think is a perfectly brilliant VSTi.

All the best,

Magnus

 

Indeed. I have been creating looped patches with Absynth tonight, and I must say it would be f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c if you could record gradually evolving loops like you can in FM7, with each and every single breakpoint automated...

 

Yes, FM7 is the mother of all VSTi's in all aspects: sound, user interface, performance, stability!

But I love that organic sound of Absynth. I will buy it at the moment as it becomes a true VSTi like FM7 ...

 

Hi all, again...

So, I'm stuck on v 1.3 for stability's sake. 1.3.3 throws a wobbley, 1-3 does not. I'm going through a very slow e-mail support process with NI, too. Brian Clevinger was very helpful, but I haven't heard from him for a couple of days now. Bless him!

Anyhow: Regarding the original subject of this thread, it's odd noone from NI can comment on the way Absynth is constructed. AFAIK, VSTis usually consist of one dll file - and that's it, that file contains the whole code. As it turns out, my v 1.3.3 problems may be due to the 1.3.3 installer mucking around, not doing a thorough job, leaving my system with conflicting versions of several files that have to correspond, version wise, since all of them are called upon when Absynth is running. Interestingly, Absynth actually seems to be built around this whole subset of dlls and other files, not one single dll.

Even more interesting would be to hear NI's take on why this plenitude is necessary...

Still looking forward to a stabile and usable update from 1.3.

Magnus

 

Magnus,

apart from many reasons (like full sequencer integration) THIS is exactly the main cause, why I only would purchase Absynth as a "true" VSTi: one single .dll-file!

I think this file conclomerat comes from the pre-NI time of Mr. Clevinger, when Absynth was shareware. So he would have to rewrite the whole code, and he has to decide if this is worth it.

Best regards
- Alexander

 

Hi Alexander and everybody else!

Still no joy - that is, v 1.3 is seemingly stable, 1.3.3 is not. And the NI support person hasn't come up with one useful suggestion yet, but mainly seems to spin off an e-mail every other day with whatever is uppermost in his mind at that specific moment. I am not impressed...

And Brian Clevinger seems to have let NI take care of me for now. I must say I miss him and his help, since he at least tried to understand what was going on...

Personally, I think there is something the matter with the 1.3.3 installer/updater (rather than with Absynth or the 1.3.3 update per se). NI should look into this.

For me, then, the original questions of this topic are still rather far off on the horizon.

As far as I'm concerned, Absynth is my least stable piece of music software. Nice sounding, but rickety...

All the best,

Magnus

 

I pesonally like the way Absynth is done. The VST standard has the disadvantage, that you can only have one window per plug-in. Many plug-ins workaround this problem by giving kind of a menu, like FM7.

However, I'd more appreciate to have new features ona nd OS X AU version than cosmetical corrections.

Best

Ray

 

Hi Ray!

I like Absynth too. However, I don't think making Absynth more VSTi-like is merely a question of cosmetics.

Obviously, it has a lot to do with making all the code fit into a (one) dll-file. Absynth is more like a separate application now, consisting of a lot of separate files, among them dlls.

All the best,

Magnus