frisbeehead
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Aug 26, 2015 20:53
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It has definitely come a long way since it's release. The other not so flashy updates addressing the workflow were much needed.
Both Retro Synth and Alchemy pretty much complete the package: now there's some decent wavetable and granular and formant stuff. The seamless integration and easy exchange between ESX24 and Alchemy is a very good idea, as this new engines - specially the granular - really shine when you feed them some samples.
In all honesty, though, I think they ought to address some stuff that's been a shortcoming for long and it's really dragging the whole experience a bit down. First and foremost, I'd say that the Smart Snap just isn't Smart enough. Then it's quite silly nowadays that you can't simply transpose audio, non destructively, on the arrangement window, like you can in Cubase, Reaper, etc.
I know all about the "ctrl+e" to instantly convert regions to a new sampler track and adjusting the pitch there, but that's a very limited option, since it applies a "classic" pitch transpose - meaning that it does change the length, without the time correction/time stretch option. The other way to go, which was my favourite, implies making a new copy of the audio region (added a key command for it myself), opening the sample editor window, and using the time and pitch factory thing with a ctrl + p command. Problem is you can't really preview these changes with the project playing, you create much more material then you would if you add the non destructive pitch transpose option, project size gets huge fast, I was constantly having to use the delete non used samples, so forth and so on. And even so project size could get somewhere near 20GB quite fast for larger track counts - like 130-150. Later on you could use flex pitch to, which is better then nothing I suppose. This is the best way, as of today, to change pitch in audio regions on the go, but to be perfectly honest, it's still far from being a fast and convenient way of dealing with such a simple task.
This two things, were the deal breakers, after using this thing for 8 years or so.
What it's really good at, though, is handling midi and automation. The environment window, which should see a revamp (btw) is another one of its less known treasures and offers a wealth of functionality that's hard to find elsewhere. Still very good, maybe even the best for dealing with hardware instruments due to this two combined strengths. Not as good as Cubase or others for dealing with audio material, quick and painless editing. Plus, despite it being made by Apple for Apple computers, I can swear that Cubase 8 pro, despite being a bit buggy still, for the time being, can handle system resources much better on the mac. Feels much more stable and snappier then Logic does on my two mac computers - desktop and laptop.
Wonder how much influence the likes of Dr Dre are having on this recent updates, as you can clearly see that the tendency now is to offer better tools for Electronic Music and Hip Hop?!
Cheers
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