Does anyone have any experience of the Atmosphere Dream Synth Module from Spectrasonics please?
If so, my catalogue says that the CPU load is moderate - how moderate?
Atmosphere Dream Synth Module
Yes I have this. There are some great sounds in it...beautiful..rich..dark....definitely geared towards the more electronic side of things. As a quick & easy sound source it's certainly worth thinking about. Seems to work fine on my system (2.8 PIV). I have had 2 0r 3 running at once, and I'm sure I could have more (depending on the amount of extra fries in your chords) so its good if you want polyphony without eating up valuable dsp in Scope.
That said, I find I haven't actually used it all that much (yet), purely because I've been working on some fairly organic-sounding, down-tempo stuff recently which doesn't demand that kind of thing. All depends what your into.
For Ambient/Trance/D&B/anything requiring warmth or gloss its very cool.....not as tweakable as many synths, but all the main parameters are there, should you feel the need to tamper.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-17 06:33 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-17 06:36 ]</font>
That said, I find I haven't actually used it all that much (yet), purely because I've been working on some fairly organic-sounding, down-tempo stuff recently which doesn't demand that kind of thing. All depends what your into.
For Ambient/Trance/D&B/anything requiring warmth or gloss its very cool.....not as tweakable as many synths, but all the main parameters are there, should you feel the need to tamper.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-17 06:33 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-17 06:36 ]</font>
Neil, I considered Atmosphere for a long time, but finally decided against it since it seemed reasonably untweakable sample content.
I thought that maybe there would be a lot of pad crossover with Absynth2, although they are two very different creatures.
But lately I got "Eve" by Dash and it does mellow analog (and nasty analog) and "keys" extremely well. Amazingly well in fact with very low CPU.
I used to own some of the synths that are sampled on it and the reproduction is excellent.
I thought that maybe there would be a lot of pad crossover with Absynth2, although they are two very different creatures.
But lately I got "Eve" by Dash and it does mellow analog (and nasty analog) and "keys" extremely well. Amazingly well in fact with very low CPU.
I used to own some of the synths that are sampled on it and the reproduction is excellent.
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Neil B
Thanks for the rapid response folks.
Plato - sounds like the sort of thing I'm moving into or dabbling with.
Spirit - I've not heard of Eve - have you a web link please?
I'm more of a patch user than programmer so something with a bit of tweaking is usually fine for me. As always I intend to get into the programming side "when I have the time".!
AM Jones (Andy) - You'd make a good salesman for Spectrasonics
The write up in Time & Space Catalogue is very enticing and I think you've more or less convinced me.
My big problem is the clockwork PIII 700 with 512Mb that I use. The minimum spec is a PIII 600 with 512 so I'm inside that.
Is anyone (Andy, Plato) willing to run a comparison for me.
I use the Superwave free VST that Quifster (I think) recommended.
This is really CPU hungry on my pc so a comparison would help me.
The link for the Superwave is:
http://home.btconnect.com/christopherg/main.htm
I'd really appreciate your help before I trade in my JV1080 for somethings that don't run well on my pc.
Thanks.
_________________
Neil B
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Neil B on 2004-03-18 02:07 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Neil B on 2004-03-18 02:08 ]</font>
Plato - sounds like the sort of thing I'm moving into or dabbling with.
Spirit - I've not heard of Eve - have you a web link please?
I'm more of a patch user than programmer so something with a bit of tweaking is usually fine for me. As always I intend to get into the programming side "when I have the time".!
AM Jones (Andy) - You'd make a good salesman for Spectrasonics
The write up in Time & Space Catalogue is very enticing and I think you've more or less convinced me.
My big problem is the clockwork PIII 700 with 512Mb that I use. The minimum spec is a PIII 600 with 512 so I'm inside that.
Is anyone (Andy, Plato) willing to run a comparison for me.
I use the Superwave free VST that Quifster (I think) recommended.
This is really CPU hungry on my pc so a comparison would help me.
The link for the Superwave is:
http://home.btconnect.com/christopherg/main.htm
I'd really appreciate your help before I trade in my JV1080 for somethings that don't run well on my pc.
Thanks.
_________________
Neil B
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Neil B on 2004-03-18 02:07 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Neil B on 2004-03-18 02:08 ]</font>
Eve:
http://www.dashsignature.com/?content=p ... evevintage#
There's a 10Mb demo which gives a reasonable idea. If CPU is a problem then Eve is a good idea. However, I'm sure it's not in same league as Atmosphere ! But then neither is the price. Dash do some great bundle deals too.
http://www.dashsignature.com/?content=p ... evevintage#
There's a 10Mb demo which gives a reasonable idea. If CPU is a problem then Eve is a good idea. However, I'm sure it's not in same league as Atmosphere ! But then neither is the price. Dash do some great bundle deals too.
As a matter of interest I checked Eve out....quite interesting, but no more tweakable than Atmosphere, and rather limited in range of sounds.....all based on old gear, some of it nice, but nothing you can't get out of a Modular synth, or even a free VST plugin like Cheeze Machine. The electric pianos were unconvincing.On 2004-03-17 14:48, Spirit wrote:
Eve:
If CPU is a problem then Eve is a good idea. However, I'm sure it's not in same league as Atmosphere ! But then neither is the price. Dash do some great bundle deals too.
OK you only get 30 mins demo time so I'm probably not being that fair, but Atmosphere covers a much broader Spectrum.
I have Superwave 8 too....I'll run a comparison on DSP.
Keep you posted.
PS is it Piddi you are addressing your responses to?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-17 15:58 ]</font>
I have considered atmosphere. It is on my list of things to buy. It doesn't require you to credit them when you use it unlike the Spectrosonics "Heart of Africa" sample CD. That crediting bit annoys me on that. Maybe they will make a plug-in for those sounds but I already spent a lot of money on it so I guess I will have to put "African samples are courtesy of Spectrosonics "Heart of Africa" CD on anything I release, but I can promise you that the text will be so small you can hardly read it. They put no restriction on the size of the credit. I might even make it microscopic.
Don;t want to seem as if I'm an Eve zealot here, but the point of this vsti is that there are multiple "sample sets" available. Four at the moment I think, so the demo only gives the barest idea. You can also buy a cheap "developers kit" and make yur own sample sets.
The demo comes with many rhodes and elec pianos which, personally, I have absolutely no use for. In fact I didn't even buy this synth as such - it came as apart of a bundle deal.
I wasn't very excited by this device at first, but after downloading the extra sound sets and working with the GUI I must say that I think it's one of the lightest-cpu and best designed vsti devices I own.
Where Eve excells is in layering of different sample sets. To change the key ranges of the three layers is so easy, and to cycle through sample sets happens by a single click.
It is brilliant for bass and pads and captures the diversity of analog sounds much better than any other synthesis-based device I've tried for the simple fact that it is sample-based.
Now before people throw petrol over me and light me up, I think it's fair to say that just about any sample-based instrument will get a wider range of sound in its chosen category than pure synthesis.
BUT, that's certainly not to say that it has better quality. The quality is almost certainly not as good. Like always it all depends on what you're after.
But like I said earlier, I used to own a lot of the instruments that are sampled (various Jupiters, Poly800, Korg Mono/Poly, Poly 6 etc) and to the best of my hearing recollection this is the best and cheapest way to get a very close emulation that I've yet heard.
I really was taken back to the old days in a way that no other device has done.
I also like the simple GUI. Being a one-page GUI with just a few decisive controls, you can make dramatic changes to key parameters very quickly. So although it doesn't seem overly "tweakable" you can in fact get new sounds quickly.
My defence of this device is funny really since I generally don;t like sample-based devices. But something about this one has just grabbed me.
Sorry, we were talking about Atmosphere . . . .
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2004-03-17 21:59 ]</font>
The demo comes with many rhodes and elec pianos which, personally, I have absolutely no use for. In fact I didn't even buy this synth as such - it came as apart of a bundle deal.
I wasn't very excited by this device at first, but after downloading the extra sound sets and working with the GUI I must say that I think it's one of the lightest-cpu and best designed vsti devices I own.
Where Eve excells is in layering of different sample sets. To change the key ranges of the three layers is so easy, and to cycle through sample sets happens by a single click.
It is brilliant for bass and pads and captures the diversity of analog sounds much better than any other synthesis-based device I've tried for the simple fact that it is sample-based.
Now before people throw petrol over me and light me up, I think it's fair to say that just about any sample-based instrument will get a wider range of sound in its chosen category than pure synthesis.
BUT, that's certainly not to say that it has better quality. The quality is almost certainly not as good. Like always it all depends on what you're after.
But like I said earlier, I used to own a lot of the instruments that are sampled (various Jupiters, Poly800, Korg Mono/Poly, Poly 6 etc) and to the best of my hearing recollection this is the best and cheapest way to get a very close emulation that I've yet heard.
I really was taken back to the old days in a way that no other device has done.
I also like the simple GUI. Being a one-page GUI with just a few decisive controls, you can make dramatic changes to key parameters very quickly. So although it doesn't seem overly "tweakable" you can in fact get new sounds quickly.
My defence of this device is funny really since I generally don;t like sample-based devices. But something about this one has just grabbed me.
Sorry, we were talking about Atmosphere . . . .
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2004-03-17 21:59 ]</font>
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Neil B
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Neil B
Page 28 of the liner notes booklet:
You may use any of the samples in a commercial recording without paying any additional license fees. However, you must strictly adhere to the following crediting guidelines on any music recording that utilizes material from Symphony of Voices
Vocal samples courtesy of Spectrasonics "Symphony of Voices"
!!!!!!!!!
Could be interesting in a court case where they have used the expression "guidelines"
You may use any of the samples in a commercial recording without paying any additional license fees. However, you must strictly adhere to the following crediting guidelines on any music recording that utilizes material from Symphony of Voices
Vocal samples courtesy of Spectrasonics "Symphony of Voices"
!!!!!!!!!
Could be interesting in a court case where they have used the expression "guidelines"
OK Neil, I've run a comparison for you:
Computer:PIV 2.8 litre, 1 Gig RAM, XP Home.
Empty Cubase SX2 project + Dynamic Mixer in SFP......2-4% CPU
SuperwaveP8 playing 8 notes......13-15% CPU
Atmosphere playing 8 notes.......5-8% CPU
Atmosphere playing 56 notes......21-27% CPU.
So it definitely takes less DSP per note on my system.
I think the thing to remember in Atmosphere though, is that it loads a lot of data into RAM.....most patches average 50-70 MB, but 'Hollywood Studio String Section' takes 146 MB!.......(Sounds bloody good though, oh & takes more processing- 56 notes = 45%).
So it's really gonna depend how much RAM you've got, and how quick the computer accesses it. I'm lucky enough to have DDR400 operating in dual-channel dynamic paging mode, which is a leap ahead of my old PC100, PIII, and will significantly improve performance of VSTi's like Atmos.
I hope that is useful to you.
Thanks for bringing up the subject, by the way......I'm a bit obsessed with Flexor at the mo, and had kind of forgotten just how good Atmosphere really is.....you know that feeling when you fire up a patch and just get sucked into playing, rather than fiddling & tweaking......?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-18 04:57 ]</font>
Computer:PIV 2.8 litre, 1 Gig RAM, XP Home.
Empty Cubase SX2 project + Dynamic Mixer in SFP......2-4% CPU
SuperwaveP8 playing 8 notes......13-15% CPU
Atmosphere playing 8 notes.......5-8% CPU
Atmosphere playing 56 notes......21-27% CPU.
So it definitely takes less DSP per note on my system.
I think the thing to remember in Atmosphere though, is that it loads a lot of data into RAM.....most patches average 50-70 MB, but 'Hollywood Studio String Section' takes 146 MB!.......(Sounds bloody good though, oh & takes more processing- 56 notes = 45%).
So it's really gonna depend how much RAM you've got, and how quick the computer accesses it. I'm lucky enough to have DDR400 operating in dual-channel dynamic paging mode, which is a leap ahead of my old PC100, PIII, and will significantly improve performance of VSTi's like Atmos.
I hope that is useful to you.
Thanks for bringing up the subject, by the way......I'm a bit obsessed with Flexor at the mo, and had kind of forgotten just how good Atmosphere really is.....you know that feeling when you fire up a patch and just get sucked into playing, rather than fiddling & tweaking......?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-18 04:57 ]</font>
Flexor is more about the ultimate in digital synthesis 
I have atmosphere myself. I bought it to fill a small space in certain tunes that I write, when I need a pad or string sound at the top of the tune sustained for several bars but don't want to dedicate a large portion of my cpu/dsp power or an external synth to doing the sound. The sounds are high enough quality that you could definately compose entire tunes around them, but I generally agree with those that feel relying on multisampled libraries to make your tunes for you is often a quick way out. However when it is just a backing pad/string it suits my needs perfectly.
The sound quality is definately excellent and the samples are very long without any obvious looping (this means lots of motion on sustained notes and I have yet to hear a loop point even when I know it must have looped). There is some ability to build simple patches by loading samples contained in other patches into the a/b slots yourself to create your own combinations, and there's a moderate amount of enveloping/filtering/modulation per a/b patch as well as global control, so you're not completely reliant on the built in patches.
Just beware that Atmosphere is a self-contained module and you won't easily get access to the samples without rendering out a few notes as audio in your sequencer.
I have atmosphere myself. I bought it to fill a small space in certain tunes that I write, when I need a pad or string sound at the top of the tune sustained for several bars but don't want to dedicate a large portion of my cpu/dsp power or an external synth to doing the sound. The sounds are high enough quality that you could definately compose entire tunes around them, but I generally agree with those that feel relying on multisampled libraries to make your tunes for you is often a quick way out. However when it is just a backing pad/string it suits my needs perfectly.
The sound quality is definately excellent and the samples are very long without any obvious looping (this means lots of motion on sustained notes and I have yet to hear a loop point even when I know it must have looped). There is some ability to build simple patches by loading samples contained in other patches into the a/b slots yourself to create your own combinations, and there's a moderate amount of enveloping/filtering/modulation per a/b patch as well as global control, so you're not completely reliant on the built in patches.
Just beware that Atmosphere is a self-contained module and you won't easily get access to the samples without rendering out a few notes as audio in your sequencer.
-
Neil B
Thanks for your time and effort Plato - I'm really grateful.
Thanks for your contribution too Valis - very constructive and enlightening.
Well, I'm going to trade my JV1080 in for Atmosphere and several other smaller bits and pieces. The JV used to sound great but it feels a bit dated now compared against quality bigger samples. Plus the fact that it generates a bit of noise as an outboard synth (I know I can cure it but it introduces latency) and of course the restrictions of effects in a performance bank.
I've downloaded a lot of the Atmosphere demos and I'm impressed with what I hear, so thanks everyone for you help.
Thanks for your contribution too Valis - very constructive and enlightening.
Well, I'm going to trade my JV1080 in for Atmosphere and several other smaller bits and pieces. The JV used to sound great but it feels a bit dated now compared against quality bigger samples. Plus the fact that it generates a bit of noise as an outboard synth (I know I can cure it but it introduces latency) and of course the restrictions of effects in a performance bank.
I've downloaded a lot of the Atmosphere demos and I'm impressed with what I hear, so thanks everyone for you help.