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That's correct Zo, which is why I thanked U-he in the above post. I didn't have to buy anything (other than Zebra2 and Dark Zebra which I bought from NI in their Christmas deal a couple of years ago). I just downloaded the legacy zip and then only installed the 14 free expansions (I already have the latest Zebra and Dark Zebra installed).

Pre-orders are now live on Asterian. https://www.eclipsedsounds.com/asterian Release is set for 2nd December, with seven different vocal modes. There's also a new demo (see below). Not sure about the song choice ?, but the voice is certainly powerful and realistic. The voice just doesn't seem to fit the track. It's almost like someone just plonked the vocal from VS onto an existing song that hadn't been mixed yet and then exported the result. I seriously struggled to listen to all of it. I'm pretty sure we will hear better examples of songs using Asterian in future weeks though.

My pleasure. I'm tempted by Asterian myself but heard a demo of Weina today (doing Karen Carpenter) which was seriously impressive. She's the first of their Gold standard databases. Although more expensive she seems to come with more vocal modes, better dynamic range, and a greater vocal range (low and high). For some reason, I didn't see any notifications for updates on this thread for your and pseudopop's posts above. I just happened to notice them when I posted the info about Asterian above ? So apologies for not replying sooner.

From Eclipsedsounds twitter feed (I think 7pm EST is midnight tonight in the UK)... Also @locrian and @pseudopop, I have followed Synth V development for quite a while, and I am not aware of any previous special sales over BF/Christmas for Synth V and voicebanks, other than bundle prices and intro sales. Of course, that might change at any time but at the moment I think it is regarded as "cutting edge" by many so they probably don't need to offer much of a price incentive. Having said that, I hope I am proved wrong as I will probably jump on a few more voicebanks myself if the price is right ?

The reason I didn't say it was a deal is that Saurus has been at this "sale" price for a long time. It's a great synth and well worth the money though. Their other synths are also great and are also on perma-sale. They do sometimes have proper sales where the prices are reduced further (often via direct email to existing Tone2 product owners), also from third parties (I picked up Nemesis and Saurus cheaper than this from Best Service in their previous Christmas sales for example).

Available now: Saurus 3.4 Saurus is an authentic emulation of analog synthesizers. It covers all aspects of the most famous and expensive synths, but without disadvantages. The update to v3.4 is available for free for all Saurus users. It adds VST3 support, a new standalone and enhancements. Saurus 3.4 Update Details The update is available for free for all Saurus users. Please note that the AudioUnit interface of Saurus 3.4 is not downward compatible. New features: Added a VST3 version for Mac (M1 native and Intel). Added a standalone version for Mac (M1 native and Intel). Completely new AudioUnit interface. Enhancements: Several small enhancements. Fixes: Automation in the VST3 version did not work with parameters that were located behind the 10th slot. Workaround for a bug of Ableton and FL Studio which did not display AudioUnits. Workaround for a bug of Reaper which did display automation parameters incorrectly. The AU version of Saurus 3.2 running in M1 mode could occasionally crash. Breaking changes: Please read this if you are on Mac and use AudioUnits. You can ignore it if you used only Vst plugins or if you are on PC. The AudioUnit interface had to be completely rewritten because of various issues that were raised from the introduction of native M1 support and Apple's notarisation. It was no longer possible to keep AudioUnits downward compatible with reasonable effort. As a result, the tracks that used previous Saurus AudioUnit versions will 'forget' their patches when you load them with Saurus 3.4. You will have to re-select the patches and re-save your song or you might prefer to stick with your current version. Product page: https://www.tone2.com/saurus.html Download link (free demo and update): https://www.tone2.com/download.html

My upgrade from Platinum to Horizon is $55.99 from Koby. Tempting as I've just run out of WUP.

@abacab Agreed, I don't see it as a problem (I have 32gb of RAM which rarely gets fully used). I was just answering the question.

Thanks, I just checked my upgrade price from V Coll 8 and it is $99. That's for KORG MS-20 V, SQ80 V, Augmented STRINGS, Augmented VOICES, Prophet-5 V, CS-80 V 4, Prophet-VS V, Piano V 3 plus 14 soundbanks I already have CS-80 V 4 as it was a freebie with the Cubase 12 upgrade so I could resell that. I am tempted ?

Available now... https://u-he.com/products/zebra2/ I already own Zebra2 and the Dark Zebra but it's cool that I get the other 14 soundsets and the upgrade to Zebra3 for free. Thanks U-he ?? Incidentally, I asked Urs whether you need to install the downloaded version of Zebra2 and The Dark Zebra if you already have the latest versions of these installed (2.9.3). He confirmed that you don't need to install these, only the soundsets (which are installed by drag/drop anywhere on the Zebra2 UI).

Heads up - Zebra Legacy will be available from 12:00 CET today (that's 11am in the UK or just under an hour from now).

Just tested it after the update and yes it does still use 1Gb of RAM per instance.

I have most of what's in Absolute 5 bought separately, apart from Groove Agent 5 (I have GA 5 SE included with Cubase 12 Pro). The Absolute 5 upgrade cost is currently 150 GBP inc VAT for me so it's probably worth my waiting for a sale on Groove Agent 5. I'm also still waiting for Halion 7; seems to be long overdue.

Yes, Asterian is quite a departure from the previous offerings. I would like to hear a few more demos from him, but I could definitely use his voice. We could do with some more English male voicebanks. He is based on the singer Eric Holloway; here's a couple of examples of his singing: I have Solaria and Kevin so far, and Solaria remains a favourite. Kevin is a good "poppy" voice but it's difficult to make him rock! I'm also tempted by Natalie; lovely tone. Synth V has certainly made astounding progress in recent times. I am hoping there will soon be a glut of great English voicebanks for it.

Eleanor Forte has now been added to the list of v1. 8.0b1 voicebanks available (link in first post). Also, Eclipsed Sounds has released a new male voicebank, Asterian. Quite a deep voice, although the demo seems to feature more of Solaria than Asterian. https://www.eclipsedsounds.com/asterian

Same for me. I bought all three products for use in Windows some years ago but hardly ever use Publisher and Designer. I will probably just go for the Photo upgrade and agree that it's a shame there isn't a reduced upgrade price for v1 users. I still need to convince myself that I need the new features; back to watching video reviews of v2.

Thanks for the heads up. Btw your link doesn't work (it points to ujam/ instead of https://www.ujam.com/usynth/drive/ ).

UPDATE: The full v1.8 version has now been released. Update in the application. Note: This could be seen as a deal as Studio owners get a free voice bank, AI Mai which supports the new voice technology (DPM). Dreamtonics releases the Synthesizer V Studio 1.8.0b1 update. As a major and comprehensive update, 1.8.0b1 is being rolled out as a beta first. The update introduces a major evolution of the synthesis engine – high speed Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DPM) based singing synthesis technology, along with a number of exciting features and improvements detailed below. 1.8.0b1 also introduces MIDI keyboard and metronome support. Cross-lingual Synthesis feature gets updated to support note-level specification of the language. Users are invited to update individual voices to give the new engine a try. You will find the full list of voices, currently available for updating, down below. In addition to the voice updates, on Oct 27 Dreamtonics released the demo for a new Japanese voice database, Synthesizer V AI Mai. We are happy to announce today that users who have purchased the Synthesizer V Studio Pro version will have access to Mai for free. List of Voice Database being updated to support DPM: Dreamtonics - An Xiao, Feng Yi, Kevin, Mo Chen, Natalie, Ryo AI, Saki AI, Qing Su, Weina, Yuma AHS - Koharu Rikka AI, Natsuki Karin AI, Hanakuma Chifuyu AI, Tsurumaki Maki AI (JPN), Tsurumaki Maki AI (ENG), Kyomachi Seika AI, Tsuina-Chan AI AUDIOLOGIE - ANRI Eclipsed Sounds - SOLARIA Quadimension - MEDIUM5 Stardust Beta versions of these voicebanks which support the new features can be downloaded here. More information -- https://dreamtonics.com/en/synthesizer-v-studio-1-8-0b1-update/ 1.8.0 Beta 1 Studio Downloads Synthesizer V Studio Pro Windows: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-pro-setup.exe Linux: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-pro-linux64.zip macOS: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-pro-setup.pkg Synthesizer V Studio Basic Windows: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-basic-setup.exe Linux: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-basic-linux64.zip macOS: https://download.dreamtonics.com/svstudio/1.8.0b1-EJ7TAjeC4kQkRABY9Pkj/svstudio-basic-setup.pkg Free AI Mai Voice Bank download supporting v1.8.0 DPM feature (for owners of the paid Studio version only) - https://resource.dreamtonics.com/download/English/Voice Databases/Free Voice Databases for Synthesizer V Studio Pro/Mai/ New Synthesizer V product page --> https://dreamtonics.com/en/synthesizerv/ Also, there's a new paid English Voice Database for $79 which sounds pretty nice (Natalie) -- https://store.dreamtonics.com/product/vdb-natalie/

Thanks Bakers!

2.8.2 Change Log --------------------- - Fix sustain pedal handling in Ostinato Arp - Fix possible crashes with VST3 version on some Windows

Get the update by running Pulse downloader. Version 1.1.0 Change Log Added Mono/Poly Toggle - Velocity Steps Adjustment - Keyswitches Name on keys hovering.

Nice one Fleer! I also just received an email with a loyalty voucher reducing it by a further $50 so worth keeping an eye out for that.

Got it, thanks. It must have taken a bit of time for Symphony 3D to appear in iLok as it is there now and I have activated it ?? Thanks for your help.

Release notes for EZdrummer 3.0.5 (2022-11-01) EZdrummer 3.0.5 is now available to download using the Product Manager or from the ‘My Products’ area in your Toontrack account. Please note that version 3.0.5 is required for the support of EZX expansion packs released from this point forward (Q4 2022). CHANGES General Added high-resolution graphics for several menu icons and buttons, etc. Improved readability of the main tab labels and improved color cohesiveness with tab content below selected tab. Grid Editor A new articulation row called “Choke (Stop Playing)” has been added for each instrument that responds to aftertouch. The poly-aftertouch editors have been removed. Moving the playhead in the song track now scrolls the Grid Editor to show the playhead, unless the Auto-Scroll option is off. E-Drums The hi-hat splash feature has been improved in order to remove unwanted hi-hat splashes. The hi-hat now has a time window, within which the pedal needs to have been raised after a “Pedal Closed” hit in order to generate a splash. Settings On Windows, there is now a setting to invert the horizontal scroll direction when shift+wheel is used. BUG FIXES General Some (few) EZX presets would for some instruments cause a high-pitched noise at low buffer sizes. The current library preset was not marked with an asterisk if a mixer knob was turned. Printing the MIDI layout with the plug-in scale being other than 100% would cause some texts to be incorrectly positioned and sometimes truncated. Quitting certain hosts when the VST 3 plug-in had been used could cause a crash. The setting “Keep on Preset Change: Output Routing” was never saved in preferences. Loading a project at the same time as the host was changing the plug-in parameters could potentially cause a crash. Changing libraries or loading a preset did not make the host get properly notified that parameter values (mixer knob values) had changed. Drums Tab Trying to load an audio file on a cymbal or a tom would crash the program. Importing an audio file to an instrument with “Keep on Preset Change: Output Routing” active would make the instrument silent. It was not possible to switch to the Drums tab while dragging an audio file (by hovering on the tab). Grooves Tab Fixed some cases where the “Clear All” button wasn’t hidden when no filters were active. Setting the velocity slider to something other than 0 and selecting a different groove would make the filter always say “+127 Velocity.” Mixer Tab Setting a channel output to None, saving and loading the project would cause the channel to completely disappear. Song Track Recording onto a song block with a user-defined Song Part (a custom color) could cause a crash. While recording, notes did not graphically appear on the red block. While recording, moving the playhead before the beginning of the red block would graphically start a new block instead of extending the existing one. The time signature editor did not support keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste. After dragging a groove from User MIDI, “Remove Groove Part” did not work on the block. The Auto-Scroll setting was never saved in preferences. The Count-In setting was never saved, it is now saved in the project (like Metronome on/off). Edit Play Style Pasting notes on the tambourine or shaker pad should no longer cause a crash. Audio Export On Windows, the disk space check could not correctly handle more than 4 GB free, so you could “randomly” get a false not-enough-disk-space error. Channels routed to “None” are no longer shown in the stem selection list. Deselecting stems to be exported did not work correctly. E-Drums Changing libraries with an e-drum preset active could in some cases result in incorrect mapping for some notes/instruments. Floor toms in Hard Rock EZX and Rock Solid EZX were not mapped correctly with some e-drum presets, for example TD-50. Standalone On Windows, the splash screen no longer has a drop shadow because it didn’t look good with the rounded corners.

Thanks for the feedback. My iLok License Manager is currently showing Stratus3D activated (1 of 1 activation). Do you mean that I have to de-activate that and then activate it again using just the serial number which should then activate the bundle?