PluginGuru releases UNIFY with intro price of $59

[Reid Rosefelt]

Get it HERE

As most of you know by now, Unify is a flexible plug-in for working with MIDI effects, Instruments and Audio effects in a sleek “Unified” single-screen interface! It also comes with 400 patches and over 2.5GB of samples from PlugInGuru’s 12 unique and awesome sample-based libraries that were originally found in libraries for Omnisphere.

Note that John says in the video that he created patches for an about-to-be released Korg virtual instrument, which is obviously their new Triton. He then says he has included the (Triton) presets he created in Unify

Edited January 6, 2020 by Reid Rosefelt

[Reid Rosefelt]

Unify is listed on the site as "Standard Edition."   Do any of you know what that means?  Will there be a "Deluxe Edition?"  And if so, what's the upgrade price.  I'm going to write the Guru. 

[cclarry]

Most likely there will be a "Pro" version in the near future

[cclarry]

For some reason this idea just seems silly to me.  This is basically the same
thing as the "Pro Channel".  A proprietary "Second" VST FX bin.  The major
advantage to the Pro Channel was the "interface", but the idea of using a plugin
to host plugins is kind of lame.  Granted it may give you alternate routing methods
but how many do you "really" need???  Again, merely my opinion.

[Fleer]

But with those amazing PlugInGuru sounds

Still, good to have them in Omnisphere. 

[cclarry]

12 minutes ago, Fleer said:

But with those amazing PlugInGuru sounds

Still, good to have them in Omnisphere. 

True...that is another advantage...if it's advantageous for you

[Reid Rosefelt]

37 minutes ago, cclarry said:

For some reason this idea just seems silly to me.  This is basically the same
thing as the "Pro Channel".  A proprietary "Second" VST FX bin.  The major
advantage to the Pro Channel was the "interface", but the idea of using a plugin
to host plugins is kind of lame.  Granted it may give you alternate routing methods
but how many do you "really" need???  Again, merely my opinion.

I can totally get why it might be of zero value to you, but for me it has a lot of value. 

Multis - Making multis with Kontakt is central to my workflow.  Only being able to use Kontakt instruments is frustrating.  Making multis is also central to all my sound design in Falcon and HALion.  If multis aren't part of your workflow, then I can't see why you wouldn't want this. 

But with this I can add add players from Spitfire, Orchestral Tools, Best Service, East West, Vienna Instruments, plus Omnisphere, etc. and save it as one patch.  Not within a song, but something I can grab any time I want with one click.  And run with a separate core on each instrument. 

VST3s -  On Facebook he said it hosts VST3s.  If that's so, then if will allow you to use things like the Reason plugin in something like Komplete Kontrol, that doesn't work with VST3s,  

MIDI plugins -  It's a little fiddly to hook up MIDI plugins, using one track for the MIDI plugin feeding into another track with the virtual instrument.  Not that hard once you get the hang of it, but this might make it easier if it works well with MIDI plugins that don't come with it.  If I'm right and it does work,  once you set it up, it's easy to just change the instrument. If it works...  then one click and you've got Obelisk or Scaler set up.  But maybe it only works with the onboard MIDI plugins. 

GuruSampler and others- This is an instrument. 400 patches, 2.5 GB of samples by Lehmkuhl and Airwave.  It comes with its own sampler and free instruments like Dexed, plus effects. I don't even consider the possibility  that he will only double the amount of free sounds and multis available for this. I believe they will come from the new and old libraries on his site.   It's what he likes to do and it's his business model--rewarding the people who pay for his plugins.  I am confident that the number of onboard sounds will grow and grow. 

This is 1.0.  The feature set has grown an insane amount since he announced this a few months ago.  John is a tinkerer--that's what has made him such a legendary sound designer.  He'll never be satisfied with this, he will keep adding new features.    I love this now, but I think it will be better in the future.  In the video he says this is the lowest price he will ever sell it for.  It will go up to its real price after this and there it will stay. 

But I won't claim to be unbiased.  John is an acquaintance and I admire everything he does. 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Reid Rosefelt

[TheSteven]

Looks like it's similar to Blue Cat's PatchWork but with patches that require other 3rd party plugins, like Omnisphere, Syrum, etc.

Not saying that's bad but he's kind of ***** footing on the requirements.
If you're a nube and pick this up - how much content is usable?

[TerraSin]

22 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

Looks like it's similar to Blue Cat's PatchWork but with patches that require other 3rd party plugins, like Omnisphere, Syrum, etc.

Not saying that's bad but he's kind of ***** footing on the requirements.
If you're a nube and pick this up - how much content is usable?

All of his own patches are done using included freeware plugins. All the other plugins like Omnisphere are up to the user to make their own. First and foremost, this is a tool for sound design rather than his typical presets, etc. and you use anything you have in your personal collection with it. Think of it more like a Mainstage type thing but focused more at this point on recording.

As Reid mentioned, this is highly focused on making multi patches across multiple instruments and using your own arsenal of plugins for processing.

[artturner]

Although it looks cool and I kind of want to get it, isn't this pretty much how instrument racks in Ableton work?

Edited January 6, 2020 by artturner
spelling is hard

[TerraSin]

2 minutes ago, artturner said:

Although it looks cook and I kind of want to get it, isn't this pretty much how instrument racks in Ableton work?

I don't know much about Ableton but can you save one and reopen it like you would a preset in other projects easily?

[Reid Rosefelt]

59 minutes ago, TerraSin said:

All of his own patches are done using included freeware plugins. tiple instruments and using your own arsenal of plugins for processing.

Not true. He has put in 2.5 GB of his and Airwave's samples which are used in many of the presets and multis.

1 hour ago, TheSteven said:

Looks like it's similar to Blue Cat's PatchWork but with patches that require other 3rd party plugins, like Omnisphere, Syrum, etc.

Not saying that's bad but he's kind of ***** footing on the requirements.
If you're a nube and pick this up - how much content is usable?

PatchWork costs $99. I have wanted it and have watched for sales.  During the last one they took $5 off.
UNIFY costs $59, does everything Patchwork does and much more.  

ALL 400 presets work without owning anything that doesn't come with UNIFY.

Edited January 6, 2020 by Reid Rosefelt

[artturner]

3 minutes ago, TerraSin said:

I don't know much about Ableton but can you save one and reopen it like you would a preset in other projects easily?

I'm just trying out Ableton now, but I think the answer is yes you can. 

Not negative on Unify, just trying to understand it, btw.

[TerraSin]

2 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Not true. He has put in 2.5 GB of his and Airwave's samples which are used in many of the presets and multis.

Those are all accessed using his GuruSampler included with Unify

[Reid Rosefelt]

5 hours ago, TerraSin said:

Those are all accessed using his GuruSampler included with Unify

Yes, he's using that.  My impression, I guess a wrong one, was that you were saying all the patches came from freeware plugins like Dexed.  If I was wrong about that, I apologize. 

But also, even when he makes patches from stuff like Dexed, they are his and Airwave's presets.  John's whole business comes from selling his skill as a programmer of synths that everybody owns before they buy his libraries.  So he adds value to the freeware by creating presets and multis with them for UNIFY.  

I can't wait to install this thing.  😀

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

5 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

UNIFY costs $59, does everything Patchwork does and much more. 

I picked up Unify this morning.  It and Patchwork don't really have that much in common at all.  Unify is firstly a synth rack, it isn't even an effect rack at all (doesn't show up as an effect plugin).   Patchwork is more for effects routing than it is for synth setups (though it can do both).  I don't think I could use Unify to do anything I do with Patchwork or vice versa really.  Other than the hosting plugins they really are two different kinds of things.  Unify is a bit like DDMF's Metaplugin (which I also have) in fact some of the UI in Unify looks a lot like Metaplugin (maybe they are using the same GUI toolkit?).  Odd Unify doesn't have a Steinberg VST ownership bit in the about box.  And the open source site they send you to doesn't list any licenses yet either.  So I can't tell how it was built (yes I look very closely at how software works/is built/what it uses).

Unify is interesting, has some very nice presets.  Though I think building your own using it may prove to be a bit too much work for me.  The installer is a bit goofy.  Wanted to reboot my computer after it was done, which seemed odd.  Has no way to specify where to install the plugins (lucky for me it's defaults are the dirs I'm using) and has very confusing directions on how to move the default library location, instead of having it be something you just specify in the installer.  In fact right now all my complaints about Unify are 100% installer related.

Now that I've played with it a bit I wish it had some better internet focused preset exchange system.  That's a hard nut for small companies to crack though.  But I can't see me building my own presets all that much.  And it doesn't seem to have any way to update the patches/etc other than drag and drop installing?  Might be it's weakest link -- the lack of online preset updating functions (maybe that will be coming, along with the marketplace/store I'd guess).  Not sure how to update the software either, doesn't seem to have anything to check that.

The way it blends a bunch of free vst plugins along with it's own sampler and other non-free bits is very impressive though.  I'm not sure I'd call it a game changer, since it is like a lot of other products (see Rob Papen's Explorer's Prisma).  But for a first release it's pretty nice.  It's not clear on the website what the final price is going to be.  I'm guessing from the video the $59 is an intro price and it's not going to be put on sale in the future.  I think it's a good move for PluginGuru though and plays to his strengths.

Should be an interesting ride though.

[TerraSin]

2 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Yes, he's using that.  My impression, I guess a wrong one, was that you were saying all the patches came from freeware plugins like Dexed.  If I was wrong about that, I apologize. 

But also, even when he makes patches from stuff like Dexed, they are his and Airwave's presets.  John's whole business comes from selling his skill as a programmer of synths that everybody owns before they buy his libraries.  So he adds value to the freeware by creating presets and multis with them for UNIFY.  

I can't wait to install this thing.  😀

 

Yah, I have most of his presets already. I meant that the presets he made specifically for this were done using the freeware that it installs with so you don't need to buy anything more to use those particular ones if you didn't want to.

[ZincT]

Video manual part 2 is out now...

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

Last night I tried to have it scan my VST plugins.  But was never able to get it to finish my VST2 directory.  It keeps restarting and never stops.  Let it run for about 2 hours while I had dinner.  It did make it through my VST3 plugins.  For me it makes it to MidSidePlugin.dll (part of DDMF's Metaplugin) and then restarts, scanning the same plugins again and again.  The online help page has some interesting bits about plugins that it doesn't work with:

https://pluginguru.net/unify/manual/doku.php?id=troubleshooting

Quote

Plug-ins that Unify cannot yet load

We are working hard to track down why Unify can't load certain plug-ins. The following is a list of plug-ins we know about, but it's not an exhaustive list, because there are tens of thousands of plug-ins out there, and we can't test them all.

All Softube plug-ins

Waves Audio plug-ins: All instruments, and some audio-effects, don't yet work with Unify

More to come… list under construction

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

Tried again this morning with some monitoring, the plugins that were causing it to restart in an endless loop turned out to be the Focusrite Midnight plugins,

Midnight EQ 64.dll
Midnight Compressor 64.dll

Which were right after MidSidePlugin.dll.  I don't think Unify is force updating the progress bar text so you can't see what is failing accurately by the text it shows.

After removing them it did finally make it through my VST2 list.  Didn't seem to like VST2 Amplitube 4.dll and a few Plugin Alliance plugins (fiedler audio stage) but it's restart on crash handler worked for them (unlike the Midnight stuff where it just got stuck).  Not sure how to get it to retry those.  Only option is to remove them from the list.  Wish it had a bit more control.  The right click menu's that list plugins are really kind of bad for my collection to.  Needs more search oriented UI to be useful.

Rescanning seems to look at the same plugins that it should already know about and not need to rescan (so it's not very fast).  Doesn't seem to like the iZotope DLL organization very much either (iZotope uses a wrapper system where the plugin is one file and the actual code is a separate DLL that isn't a normal VST)  A good plugin scanner will report the iZXXXX.dll files as not being plugins (or ignore them completely) but Unify reports them as being VSTs but that don't work.

To be honest I'm not sure this result is all that bad really.  I have 20+ years of plugins.  It's common for VST scanners to fail.  Really doesn't seem to like Waves plugins very much.  I have Mercury plus but the list of Waves plugins that made it though is pretty small:

Edited January 7, 2020 by Matthew Sorrels