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Kilohearts Essentials: 30 free plug-ins


Starship Krupa

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15 hours ago, abacab said:

The Kilohearts Snapin "hosts" all use the same modular FX concept and software code under the hood. Phase Plant, Snap Heap, and Multipass are all modular in design, and can arrange the FX Snapins in virtually unlimited configurations. They are a key part of the sound design potential when used internally in the Phase Plant synth.

Multipass is similar to Snap Heap, but takes things to another level. You can separate the incoming audio by frequency bands, and then apply the different FX lanes to different frequencies! :)

Thanks for the overview.

So, how does it compare with Cherry Audio Voltage Modular and its ecosystem?

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11 hours ago, ALC said:

Thanks for the overview.

So, how does it compare with Cherry Audio Voltage Modular and its ecosystem?

Kilohearts Essential Vs. Cherry Audio Voltage Modular? Apples and oranges, if you are referring to the Snapin hosts "Snap Heap" and "Multipass". Not tone generators. They are modular FX processing chains, that can only use only the Kilohearts Snapins, i.e., "walled garden". Although these Snapin hosts can be used as VST FX plugins elsewhere, so your Snap Heap presets are portable.

But if you are referring to the Kilohearts synth host, Phase Plant, it is a semi-modular synth that you can add as many supported oscillators (including your own single samples), envelopes, filters, modulations, etc. as you wish, with all output running to 3 FX lanes where you can stack as many Snapins (including Snap Heap or Multipass) as you wish in parallel or serial mode.

But Kilohearts is a closed ecosystem, compared to Voltage Modular, and Phase Plant is not a true modular rack synth. I have Voltage Modular, but Phase Plant is probably my favorite synth right now for diving under the hood quickly, and intuitively. Everything is right there, starting with a blank slate.

For example, go from an init patch, to this:

Phase Plant init.PNG

Phase Plant factory preset example.PNG

Edited by abacab
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16 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Also, SnapHeap has an Asteroids-y game built into it.

Oh cool - is it just SnapHeap? I remember v1 had a Space Invaders type game in all/most of their plugins; wasn't sure if it had been replaced by Asteroids for v2, or if it's just for some plugins.

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52 minutes ago, antler said:

is it just SnapHeap? I remember v1 had a Space Invaders type game in all/most of their plugins

I dunno, after I read this I looked for something in SliceEQ and CarveEQ and couldn't find any game.

Did you know that the Bandcamp Artists site has a vintage arcade game in the menu? I think it's based on Defender.

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18 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Also, SnapHeap has an Asteroids-y game built into it. I am not making this up. I just found it by clicking on a button I couldn't identify.

The Kilohearts hosts have the games: Phase Plant has "Phase Invaders", SnapHeap has "Asteroider", and Multipass has "Snake!". :)

I say, I say, hey son whatcha doin playing games? Yer sposed to be making music!

Edited by abacab
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7 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

I know, right? My first thought was "why are they embedding a distraction into the plug-in??"

Probably to stop us from loading something up from Steam instead (which would most likely be an even bigger time-sink) ?

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4 hours ago, antler said:

Probably to stop us from loading something up from Steam instead (which would most likely be an even bigger time-sink) ?

Yer tellin' me. According to Steam, Last week I spent 40 hours playing Obduction. Which, BTW, was really amazing. I loved it. Haven't dug a game like that since MYST. I scored the entire Cyan catalog for $25 in a Humble Bundle thanks to this forum. Obduction was a true return to form.

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26 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Yer tellin' me. According to Steam, Last week I spent 40 hours playing Obduction. Which, BTW, was really amazing. I loved it. Haven't dug a game like that since MYST. I scored the entire Cyan catalog for $25 in a Humble Bundle thanks to this forum. Obduction was a true return to form.

Obduction is an amazing game! Still need to finish it. I got deep into it, but had a turn of life events that pulled me away long enough to lose the momentum. When I find time, will start at the beginning again.

I can't think of another game that got my attention like that one! :)

And did you pick up Myst 2021 with that Cyan bundle? The re-imagined Myst version produced in real-time 3D and VR.

Edited by abacab
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6 hours ago, abacab said:

Obduction is an amazing game! Still need to finish it. I got deep into it, but had a turn of life events that pulled me away long enough to lose the momentum. When I find time, will start at the beginning again.

I can't think of another game that got my attention like that one! :)

And did you pick up Myst 2021 with that Cyan bundle? The re-imagined Myst version produced in real-time 3D and VR.

Obduction got under my skin the same way MYST did, I dreamt about it. A couple of nights ago I had a dream that conflated Cakewalk and Obduction. I had to solve Obduction-like puzzles in Cakewalk or something like that. It wasn't the Drum Map, though.

The bundle doesn't have MYST 2021. It has some really early pre-MYST games from Cyan, like Cosmic Osmo. It has 2 versions of MYST. I played realMYST Masterpiece Edition, which is the one I recommend for anyone wanting to go back and try it. It uses new art and a 3-D engine, so you can free roam instead of click and move slideshow style. It also has an extra "Age" called Rime, which was fun. It was still just as fun and engaging as it was when it first came out.

I banged my way through Exile, which I had started 20 years ago and not finished, Revelation, and End of Ages. Revelation has some amazing art direction and also a few puzzles that I would consider almost sadistic in their difficulty level. There were two that even using a complete step-by-step walkthrough guide I still had difficulty completing. Not my idea of fun, but the scenery and world-building make it worth it. End of Ages dropped the misery level of the puzzles, but I still had to hit the hint guides a couple of times. The world-building was superb. Obduction is the true return to form (although there is a maze puzzle toward the end that is full-on brutal).

I haven't finished Uru, which is the one that was originally designed to be multiplayer, with humanoid avatars. It's weird to watch mini-me climbing around on things. I think you can "die" in Uru, so kinda not MYST-y in that way.

The thing about MYST that some people, and I think this includes the developers that did a few of them after Riven, don't get is that it's not about solving puzzles, it's about exploring landscapes that you have to figure out how to get around in and what you're even supposed to do. And putting together the story of what the heck happened there. Some of that figuring involves solving things that are puzzle-like, but it's more about visiting those fantastic worlds. Obduction has 4 "worlds," and the tonal shift between them is really great. The first one, where you start out, is the dusty Western mining town, which you get used to, then the next one is a damp, cold gothic steampunk world. The contrast between the sort of cozy warm familiarity of the one and the cold ancient alienness of the other made it even creepier and cooler. I couldn't wait to get out of the cold and miserable place and back to the dusty Western place.

Just like MYST inspired me to get a CD-ROM drive 27 years ago, Obduction has me thinking about some kind of VR rig. I'd love to cruise around those landscapes in VR.

The nagging question for me regarding Obduction is where did everyone other than Farley, Cecil and Josef sleep? There were supposedly dozens of people inhabiting the town but only enough living quarters for a population of about 10.

Edited by Starship Krupa
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12 hours ago, Fleer said:

Don’t make me remember Myst, never got past them first pages. I remember some treasure chest and that was that. 

Tip: Walkthrough guides! ?

One example:

Myst Walkthrough overview - https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/1

Myst General hints and tips - https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/2

Myst Myst Island Hub - https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Myst/walkthrough/3

Another:

 

Edited by abacab
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I like the UHS hint system better than full walkthroughs. For any given area or puzzle, it starts out by asking you simple questions that nudge you in the direction of being able to solve it yourself. It doesn't spoil the fun and sense of accomplishment as much as watching someone play who already knows the answers. Sometimes I just get stuck and need a nudge in the right direction. Myst Journey is good too. I like my hints in the form of questions. Obduction came with a hint guide from Cyan, which is available online here: https://obduction.fandom.com/wiki/Obduction_Exploration_Guide.

To put this back on topic for the forum somewhat, I think MYST was also the first time a music soundtrack for a game was released as an album, which went platinum. The way they used music and sound design as hints (when you explore an important new area for the first time, the soundtrack kicks in to let you know you've found something). It really complements the sense of wonder. I suspect that the ability to have careers doing game soundtrack music got kickstarted by the success of MYST. As with many cultural innovations, it would have happened anyway, but someone had to get there first.

Props to Robyn Miller for that. He came back to do the soundtrack for Obduction and it shows.

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38 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

I think MYST was also the first time a music soundtrack for a game was released as an album, which went platinum. The way they used music and sound design as hints (when you explore an important new area for the first time, the soundtrack kicks in to let you know you've found something). It really complements the sense of wonder

Myst and Obduction seem to use an amazing mix of music and *Foley to create that immersive 3D atmosphere of wonder, exploration and discovery! :)

*Foley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

Edited by abacab
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