Mntra Ultrasonic Death Whistle free at APD

[Zolton]

I happened to stumble on this while browsing APD, but haven't seen the freebie listed anywhere that I recall:

https://audioplugin.deals/ultrasonic-death-whistle-by-mntra-instruments/

On the one hand, a nice pickup if you're collecting Mndala instruments, like the Huracan free-with-purchase from PB last month.

On the other hand, the Mntra ecosystem seems to still be a tangled mess right now. I've gone through the password reset that lets owners of Mndala v1 libs log into the site (and eventually get the libs ported over to v2, I'm told).

But loading Mndala v2 in Cakewalk, I can install Huracan but not the free Rasa library that comes with it (error connecting to server, even in the same session where Huracan installed). In the plugin, Huracan perpetually says an update is available, even if just updated, and the UDW above comes from APD with instructions for installing in v2 which say:

Quote

If you purchased them through a separate retailer (ie: Plugin Boutique) you will have to enter your License Key via the ‘ADD FROM SERIAL’ button within the Library Tab into MNDALA 2 manually, which will automatically link the purchase of the instrument with your MNTRA account.

 Trying to enter the license key in-app gives a "server might be down" message and no other progress, though three seemingly-failed attempts have created three records in the "Orders" section of my Mntra account on the website -- each with a license key containing the string "UDW", but no product listed in the record. Basically, it's all higgledy-piggledy, so far as I can see.

Still, I'd had my eye on UDW, and perhaps at some point everything will be sorted and usable in Mndala v2. Maybe UDW is currently only compatible with v1, which means it's APD's install info that's wonky in this instance. At any rate, if interested, I'd advise to pick this up and stash it until the dust settles. Hopefully soon-ish.

[abacab]

1 hour ago, Zolton said:

Still, I'd had my eye on UDW, and perhaps at some point everything will be sorted and usable in Mndala v2. Maybe UDW is currently only compatible with v1, which means it's APD's install info that's wonky in this instance. At any rate, if interested, I'd advise to pick this up and stash it until the dust settles. Hopefully soon-ish.

I've got Huracan and Rasa working in MNDALA 2.

Everything else (v1) still works here in MNDALA 1, including UDW, which was acquired previously. Haven't seen anything yet to indicate that UDW has been upgraded to v2.

The libraries are all supposed to be in the v2 pipeline, but are likely to trickle out as they are ready. Not sure what info APD is providing...

Important read!!! >>> https://www.mntra.io/mndala-1-info/

Edited October 21, 2022 by abacab

[Zolton]

I've gone down the road of trying to be patient and wait for the v2 kinks to sort out, though it's been a little while. The link that abacab mentioned above went up in late August / early September, with no library conversions yet that I'm aware of, so the progress to date has been fairly slow.

(The page apparently hasn't been updated lately, either, as it indicates only Huracan is v2, but Caprakan is their latest lib and specifically for v2, according to the main site.)

I got a little burned in upgrading to 1.8 a while back, which turned out to be unstable and was eventually mothballed. Maybe I'll sort out with support how to get Rasa working in v2, or bite the bullet and fiddle around with v1.7 and the v1 libs for a while.

 

[abacab]

When it's all done and the dust has settled, it will be better off without the Pulse downloader and all of the extra hoops.

I think that Mntra are a small team and in a bit over their heads at the moment, but it's an interesting product with potential. What I have works, and I'll just be patient.

I have Atma,  Orakle, and UDW that are still v1... and Huracan which is v2 only...

[Reid Rosefelt]

I like the Mntra stuff a lot, but MNDALA keeps crashing Cubase for me.   Even 2.0.  

This is a company I would love if they were Kontakt.   I guess I'll keep collecting freebies and hope MNDALA becomes stable for me.  It seems to work fine for other people. 

[PavlovsCat]

That developer is a mess. I purchased a library and had show stopping issues, the dev responded once to my support ticket and said he'd follow up in a week, but that was several months ago. From reading forums, this plugin is a mess for people on Windows and Mac. They're clearly not ready for prime time, even from reading this thread. 

I know our own Reid R. has posted about his own show stopping problems with Mndala, and the last post of his I saw on the plugin, Reid gave up on it.  One of their YouTube  influencer"reviewers" had show stopping problems during a livestream review I witnessed.  He got the developer on the stream and he couldn't work things out. It was the worst fail I've ever seen for software pitch -- er,  review -- in real time.

Maybe the developer will get their act together at some point,  but I'm pausing on buying anything from them until these issues get resolved. I'm not even going to bother trying to track down the developer for support he promised months ago. It's not worth it, IMO. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[shawker]

3 hours ago, abacab said:

Haven't seen anything yet to indicate that UDW has been upgraded to v2.

I just downloaded this freebee in Mndala 2 and got it to load in Unify.  Seems to work from my limited test.

[MusicMan]

That's the strangest thing.. I was laying in bed this morning  just thinking, I really need an ultrasonic death whistle, but where could I find one... and then here we are 🤣

I'm not sure how much use it will get from me, but a nice freebie all the same and I grabbed it just in case.

Thanks 🙂

[antler]

But... if it's ultrasonic, how will we hear it? 😜

[antler]

7 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

One of their YouTube  influencer"reviewers" had show stopping problems during a livestream review I witnessed.  He got the developer on the stream and he couldn't work things out. It was the worst fail I've ever seen for software pitch -- er,  review -- in real time.

That probably wasn't the best move from the 'reviewer', or the dev for accepting. Bugs are best resolved with recreation steps and a debugger attached. When you're sitting there watching your program fail in real time with no diagnostics, there's actually very little that you can do.

[abacab]

10 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I like the Mntra stuff a lot, but MNDALA keeps crashing Cubase for me.   Even 2.0.  

This is a company I would love if they were Kontakt.   I guess I'll keep collecting freebies and hope MNDALA becomes stable for me.  It seems to work fine for other people. 

I just opened up Mndala 2 and got a notice there is an updated 2.05 version.

Download here: https://www.mntra.io/mndala/

[abacab]

OK, I already had the UDW that I bought from *Plugin Boutique and installed in MNDALA 1.

Out of curiosity I just grabbed the UDW freebie from APD, and it said to follow the instructions to download it in MNDALA 2, although the Mntra website still says it requires v1.7.2? That's confusing.

Well that worked! Just have to enter your License Key via the ‘ADD FROM SERIAL’ button within the Library Tab into MNDALA 2 manually, which will automatically link the purchase of the instrument with your MNTRA account.

Then hit refresh and click install. Choose location and done! Up and running in MNDALA 2. Maybe this freebie is a stealth beta test?

*FYI: This UDW from APD installs under a different name from the PIB version as "UDW-LE", so it must have been updated. My 1.7.2 version from PIB was installed as "Ultrasonic Death Whistle".

[Zolton]

Well, that's encouraging (Rasa and UDW-LE working in v2 for abacab and others), in that it suggests my issues are likely account- and/or installation-related.

When I have a chance, I'll uninstall v2, reinstall both versions, try my luck at installations and ping support about any persistent issues. It's a bit of a chore, but I do like the engine and the libs, so it feels worth another shot to get things sorted.

I wish it wasn't quite such a tangle, though. 

[Brian D'Oliveira]

18 hours ago, Zolton said:

I happened to stumble on this while browsing APD, but haven't seen the freebie listed anywhere that I recall:

https://audioplugin.deals/ultrasonic-death-whistle-by-mntra-instruments/

On the one hand, a nice pickup if you're collecting Mndala instruments, like the Huracan free-with-purchase from PB last month.

On the other hand, the Mntra ecosystem seems to still be a tangled mess right now. I've gone through the password reset that lets owners of Mndala v1 libs log into the site (and eventually get the libs ported over to v2, I'm told).

But loading Mndala v2 in Cakewalk, I can install Huracan but not the free Rasa library that comes with it (error connecting to server, even in the same session where Huracan installed). In the plugin, Huracan perpetually says an update is available, even if just updated, and the UDW above comes from APD with instructions for installing in v2 which say:

 Trying to enter the license key in-app gives a "server might be down" message and no other progress, though three seemingly-failed attempts have created three records in the "Orders" section of my Mntra account on the website -- each with a license key containing the string "UDW", but no product listed in the record. Basically, it's all higgledy-piggledy, so far as I can see.

Still, I'd had my eye on UDW, and perhaps at some point everything will be sorted and usable in Mndala v2. Maybe UDW is currently only compatible with v1, which means it's APD's install info that's wonky in this instance. At any rate, if interested, I'd advise to pick this up and stash it until the dust settles. Hopefully soon-ish.

@Zolton Brian here from MNTRA,  we had a temporary hiccup with our server service last night as you tried to do this which was resolved steadfastly and you should have received an updated order and the ability to download. As for your other issues, are you using MNDALA 2.0.5 ? If not I highly suggest that you install, and it should be a simple matter of de-installing Rasa and Huracan and then re-download them. And just sharing some insights, hosting your own hosting services that all work to allow for dead simple downloads and installs within a plugin is definitely not for the faint of heart, especially for such a small team as ours, but the unpredictable surprises have been dealt with and other than this small hiccup the feature has been working very smoothly with this latest update.

And yes the official version full version of UDW is still V1, we are in the midst of updating and we are very excited of the final version. I have seen complaints and frustration as to our release schedule and though I can understand, the reality is that the updates mean us building almost everything from scratch all over again and we simply did not want to rush the process and just come out with a half fast update that does not take advantage of the new 2.0 features to the fullest, we did not announce the final release date so as not to create a deadline that might cause compromises, but if all goes well they will all be ready before Black Friday

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Brian D'Oliveira
forgot to mention

[Brian D'Oliveira]

15 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I like the Mntra stuff a lot, but MNDALA keeps crashing Cubase for me.   Even 2.0.  

This is a company I would love if they were Kontakt.   I guess I'll keep collecting freebies and hope MNDALA becomes stable for me.  It seems to work fine for other people. 

@Reid Rosefelt we tried looking into building what we envisioned with Kontakt  and its basically impossible, so we instead chose the (extremely hard ) route and build MNDALA from scratch. The features we have now built with the newly released 2.0 are just the tip of the iceberg of many exciting developments in our development roadmap that will now be possible and that we can't wait to start sharing in the near future.

As for your Cubase trouble, I just literally delivered two major series using both Cubase and Nuendo with extensive MNDALA 2.0 instruments within, and it worked just fine, so please do feel free to reach out via our support and mention me and I will personally go over this to see what could be the issue.

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Brian D'Oliveira
Forgot to mention Cubase

[Anxiousmofo]

11 minutes ago, Brian D'Oliveira said:

@Reid Rosefelt we tried looking into building what we envisioned with Kontakt  and its basically impossible, so we instead chose the (extremely hard ) route and build MNDALA from scratch. The features we have now built with the newly released 2.0 are just the tip of the iceberg of many exciting developments in our development roadmap that will now be possible and that we can't wait to start sharing in the near future.

I look forward to the further development, Brian.  I hope MPE support is on the roadmap, as well.

[Zolton]

18 minutes ago, Brian D'Oliveira said:

@Zolton Brian here from MNTRA,  we had a temporary hiccup with our server service last night as you tried to do this which was resolved steadfastly and you should have received an updated order and the ability to download. As for your other issues, are you using MNDALA 2.0.5 ? If not I highly suggest that you install, and it should be a simple matter of de-installing Rasa and Huracan and then re-download them. And just sharing some insights, hosting your own hosting services that all work to allow for dead simple downloads and installs within a plugin is definitely not for the faint of heart, especially for such a small team as ours, but the unpredictable surprises have been dealt with and other than this small hiccup the feature has been working very smoothly with this latest update.

Hi Brian -- 

Thanks very much for letting me/us know! It's quite possible I don't have the latest point release of Mndala installed, so I'll grab that, uninstall and start from scratch. It sounds like things may go much more smoothly now.

As I mentioned in a later post, I'm a big fan of the engine and the sound, so best of luck with getting all of the pieces in place. It's a little tricky for both users and developers when the roadmap is somewhat unpredictable, so I really appreciate the info and communication here and elsewhere. I've put a couple of recent v1 library purchases "on hold" for the moment, but it'll be fantastic to try everything out together in v2 when available. Cheers.

[Brian D'Oliveira]

3 minutes ago, Zolton said:

Hi Brian -- 

Thanks very much for letting me/us know! It's quite possible I don't have the latest point release of Mndala installed, so I'll grab that, uninstall and start from scratch. It sounds like things may go much more smoothly now.

As I mentioned in a later post, I'm a big fan of the engine and the sound, so best of luck with getting all of the pieces in place. It's a little tricky for both users and developers when the roadmap is somewhat unpredictable, so I really appreciate the info and communication here and elsewhere. I've put a couple of recent v1 library purchases "on hold" for the moment, but it'll be fantastic to try everything out together in v2 when available. Cheers.

@Zolton Thank you for the good vibes! The team has been working extremely hard and if there is anything whatsoever we are around and happy to help and figure out whatever might come up

[Brian D'Oliveira]

11 minutes ago, Anxiousmofo said:

I look forward to the further development, Brian.  I hope MPE support is on the roadmap, as well.

@Anxiousmofo MPE has been definitely been in our minds and though I wanted to roll this out from the start with 2.0 we had to focus on making sure the core features were rock solid stable, but this will definitely come some time in the future.

[Anxiousmofo]

34 minutes ago, Brian D'Oliveira said:

@Anxiousmofo MPE has been definitely been in our minds and though I wanted to roll this out from the start with 2.0 we had to focus on making sure the core features were rock solid stable, but this will definitely come some time in the future.

Great to hear. Thanks for the quick response and best wishes for much success.  I really enjoy your products.