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Vital v1.5.3 [Early Access] update + CLAP


abacab

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34 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

I love it but CPU is kind of crazy for my ancient laptop :(

I hear ya, because my last PC had trouble running newer synth plugins. It definitely requires some resource management. I finally just stayed with older synths that were more CPU friendly until I could upgrade.

One thing I have noticed with newer synths that use animated graphics for anything like waveforms, modulators, envelopes, etc. is that they tend to eat a lot more CPU when playing while the plugin GUI is open. When the GUI is closed, the graphics aren't constantly consuming CPU cycles. So try that out for resource management!

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That's a price you pay for having a plugin with very fancy eye candy! The dev has been reworking the Vital graphics engine, but there will always be a limit to how much that can be optimized.

I have noticed via Windows task manager that my Nvidia GTX 1650 takes on some extra GPU load when using demanding plugins like this one. :)

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11 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

I use Surge XT when I need a 'super synth', which I rarely do. Much lower CPU and arguably more powerful. GUI takes some getting used to. Definitely should upgrade my PC soon though.  Vital does have a very nice workflow.

Surge is actually many years old. The open source dev team has updated it to XT and added some things, but the core should still be well behaved.

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37 minutes ago, Sander Verstraten said:

I have to check that out. Though I still have to figure out what the CLAP advantages are outside or Bitwig and its modulators. 

I noticed that PreSonus is on the list of companies evaluating CLAP. I wonder is Studio One 6 will support it when it is released.

I think part of the advantage of CLAP is future proofing, especially for developers. I am not sure that there is a clear advantage yet for end users.

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47 minutes ago, Sander Verstraten said:

I have to check that out. Though I still have to figure out what the CLAP advantages are outside or Bitwig and its modulators. 

Read Urs Heckman's (u-he) comments about CLAP in that u-he link https://u-he.com/community/clap/.

It's essentially an effort to unseat VST3 with an open plugin standard. With the possibility of a few other goodies in the implementation. There is more, so the quote below is just what is most relevant to musicians...

Quote

 

Here are some immediately useful advantages of CLAP:

Better Performance From Modern CPUs

  • Developed with modern CPUs in mind, CLAP takes multi-thread management to a new level, with a clear and efficient allocation of roles between plug-in and host. Specifically, CLAP allows collaborative multicore support between plug-in and host through a so-called "thread-pool", also allowing hosts to manage CPU-threading for plug-ins that provide their own multicore support. Preliminary tests show significant performance gains compared with current solutions.

Better and Faster Organization

  • CLAP hosts can read plug-in metadata and help organize your plug-ins. As CLAP hosts can retrieve information from plug-ins without having to wait for them to initialize, plug-in scans can be much faster.
  • Furthermore, we're currently finalizing an extension which lets plug-ins tell the host which files they need (e.g. samples or wavetables), and the host can consolidate those in the project file. That means you'll never lose a sample while transferring a project between systems!

Better Modulation

  • The CLAP standard promotes new ways to create music with automation, modulation, and expressions. Here are a few examples:
  • CLAP supports per-note automation and modulation (in accordance with the recent MIDI 2.0 specifications).
  • Going one step further, CLAP's parameter modulation concept allows for temporary parameter offsets. Parameter modulation is non-destructive, so as soon as the modulation has finished, the target parameter will return to its original state.
  • CLAP makes it possible for polyphonic plug-ins to have their per-voice parameters modulated for individual notes ("MPE on steroids").
  • With this new standard we aim to inspire host developers to add exciting new features to their products. Initial implementations by Bitwig, u-he and the Surge project demonstrate just a few of the possibilities.

 

 

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:11 PM, abacab said:

One thing I have noticed with newer synths that use animated graphics for anything like waveforms, modulators, envelopes, etc. is that they tend to eat a lot more CPU when playing while the plugin GUI is open. When the GUI is closed, the graphics aren't constantly consuming CPU cycles. So try that out for resource management!

Is this progress when an audio tool needs much more resources for graphics? 😡

I am too old, really don't understand the 21st century. To me it gets more and more crazy! 😆

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3 minutes ago, marled said:

Is this progress when an audio tool needs much more resources for graphics? 😡

I am too old, really don't understand the 21st century. To me it gets more and more crazy! 😆

Pretty much the way it is now. All the cool kids want fancy eye candy to inspire them. They don't want their Dad's plugins...

Blame it on Smartphones!!! 🤣

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48 minutes ago, marled said:

Is this progress when an audio tool needs much more resources for graphics? 😡

I am too old, really don't understand the 21st century. To me it gets more and more crazy! 😆

I'd say in some cases that a 'flashy' UI can make a plugin easier to use, e.g. when you're programming a synth patch

  • It can be helpful to see where you are on the ADSR envelope in real time as you play the note (helps someone understand the concept better too)
  • Animating the LFOs can help you see what's going on with the sound you're shaping
  • It's helpful to see which frame in a wavetable you're on and how quickly the frame transitions
  • If you're morphing oscillator waveform e.g. between square and sine, it's useful to see what the shape is

With a compressor/limiter, it's helpful to see before/after of the waveform as well as the compression level graph (or gain reduction meter) to see if you're hitting the threshold

With EQs the analyser is useful to see if there are any spikes in your signal, as well as seeing the results of boosting/cutting.

Realtime feedback on a goniometer is useful when checking for phase compatibility, though you can do this by flipping to mono

I know they say mix with your ears, but sometimes it's useful to have a visual indicator too - especially if someone doesn't have perfect hearing

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