Here we go Spectrasonics.

[riffwraith]

The cat is out of the bag. It's a keyboard for toddlers:

[kpc]

Didn't they use the "10 years in the making" line for Omni?

Maybe it's Atmosphere 2.0

[Marius]

I'm increasingly convinced this has something to do with Roland Cloud. Jeremy Soule has been talking it up on Facebook, calling it virtual instruments but also patches and maybe also a community...it's very vague but it seems vast, whatever it is:




He says of 'Roland Virtual Sonics':

Many of our programmers developed for games that you see on this list. And this came as a result of when Roland Virtual Sonics was formed as I recruited from the best and brightest developers of the video game industry. We know music, and we know great high-performance software.

I'm wondering if what's coming is a custom-written Falcon-like environment built by Spectrasonics that plays host to both synth patches programmed by them and folks like Jeremy, plus custom orchestral and other instrumental samples. Maybe I'm just reaching though. Either way, I agree with Muziksculp that it seems unlikely an RMX revamp or something like that would take a decade.

[Guy Rowland]

Well Marius, I can't pretend to know much about Roland Cloud, except that it's announced on Sept 9, while Spectrasonics announce on Sept 1. Apart from that, it just doesn't seem Eric's style... I know he was big news in Roland back in the day, but I strongly sense he loves the autonomy of Spectrasonics now and has little reason to even part-relinquish that.

[Muziksculp]

The "10 years" hint gave it away. Spectrasonics is going to release Play Pro.

[Lawrence]

You're not a boutique developer. You're REALITONE, damnit.

[Scoredog]

I think a lot of companies (including me) are a little nervous about what exactly is going to be announced. NI doesn't want to hear that Spectrasonics is building a sampler. No DAW company wants to hear that Spectrasonics is entering their game. And sample library developers don't want to hear that Spectrasonics has spent 10 years doing something that might be exactly what that boutique developer has been specializing in.

So all I have to say is . . . please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals . . .

It's a banjo library

[Guy Rowland]

The final tease - "the fourth instrument". What does this leave? Solo strings, voice (Mike... Eeek) or still most likely, guitar (Mike.., tiny eek cos I just bet they really do put a banjo in there, the uncaring bastards).

I guess, assuming it is guitar, that there will be a whole lot of hybrid / synth guitar based stuff a la cinematic guitars, and a whole range of acoustic and electric models. What will be most interesting is to see how they approach the multi-string problem. I've never been able to think of a way for a keyboard to do some things which are effortless on a real guitar - my standard example is to play open top E, then slide the B string from D to E, F#. It is probably asking too much for anything keyboard-based to be able to do that, but perhaps they have other tricks up their sleeve - auto chord detection is likely, playing each note on an appropriate string. Also will it have a strumming engine too? And how will the amp modelling go?

Some of the Kontakt libraries have got very sophisticated in the past few years, it'll be interesting to see if this leaves them all for dust. I'm actually expecting not, in terms of detail necessarily, but I am also expecting this to be massive in scope, and nobody will be close there.

[AmG]

On some levels I am hoping to see this come true...would be fun to see how world got trolled!!

[TheUnfinished]

So all I have to say is . . . please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals . . .

I think if it had been vocal-based, they'd have held back all that Heart of Asia/Africa & Vocal Planet stuff from being in Omni 2.

A sampler or DAW make some sense. With the latter being less of a risk. Going in against Kontakt is viable, but doesn't half require a lot of people to totally change tack on years of work and purchases to accommodate it. A DAW can find room in the market simply by being really really good, whereas a sampler has to deal with the forces of stubbornness and also a bunch of pissed-off developers.

I'd be surprised if it was anything synthy, as John Skippy Lehmkuhl doesn't appear to know what it is, and I doubt they'd not have included him in the process of creating a new synth.

Personally, and I'm 99% sure it isn't this, I'd love to see them release their Omni effects engine as a standalone rack VST, a bit like the Soundtoys one. Or even as a bundle of separate plug-ins. Won't happen though.

My greatest fear is that it might be something I don't want!

[The Saxer]

My greatest fear is that it might be something I don't want!

Haha, exactly!

[Guy Rowland]

Here is my full Matt Bowdler horoscope - you face a mildly tormented future. A guitar-based product will be unveiled, causing many to oooh and ahhh at the depth and realism along with the breadth of the vast library containing acoustic, electric and world instruments. While the latter may be of moderate interest to you, you will be relatively comfortable in forgoing the rest. But your torment will come in the form of intriguing sound sources - hundreds, probably thousands of juicy temptresses ready to moulded and plied by your talented hands into organic / synthetic wondrousness. So you will be lured by the promise of new horizons, while irritated that the main reason most people will buy it is of little to no consequence for you.

Also, a change of some kind is on the horizon and you will have many meetings which may or may not be significant. As ever, your star is in the ascendence and your head out of Uranus.

[kpc]

I'm with Guy - I think it's a Guitar Library along the lines of Trillian. Although I would love a competitor to Kontakt. Not that I have the $$ to buy anything else this year, so the best deal for me would be a guitar library. I don't have much use for one right now.

Time to revisit the Arms Race thread.

[Marius]

Personally, and I'm 99% sure it isn't this, I'd love to see them release their Omni effects engine as a standalone rack VST, a bit like the Soundtoys one. Or even as a bundle of separate plug-ins. Won't happen though.

+1!

I'd love to see this, but I agree that it seems unlikely.

[Guy Rowland]

I'm sure I read that their fx are licensed and built by someone else - can't remember who now (Slate?). But part of the deal was that they could only be used as part of the instrument. Double shame with guitar - bet they have some lovely new fx and amp modelling in there that it would be great to put a real guitar through.

[Muziksculp]

One of the really far out guesses I came across on another forum is that it might be a Spectrasonics DAW !

Now that is truly unexpected if that's what they have been working on for 10 years.

But seeing this :


It is their Fourth Instrument, so ... It can't be a DAW.

We will know tomorrow.

[J Rod]

I'm convinced that is a guitar Lib with tons of Electric and accoustic guitars, it's time, and this will be the fourth instrument.

But also thinking about a new instruments with a different concept from RMX in the percussion line.

I'm sure I read that their fx are licensed and built by someone else - can't remember who now (Slate?).

I remember read something about this time ago, that some of the FX was made in colaboration with Nomad.

[Mike Greene]

So all I have to say is . . . please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals, please don't be vocals . . .

I think if it had been vocal-based, they'd have held back all that Heart of Asia/Africa & Vocal Planet stuff from being in Omni 2.

Hopefully you're right. But what I'm worried about is that since they say it's been a 10 year project, it's probably more than just a samples collection. A basic choir or some ethnic phrase recordings wouldn't take 10 years, plus I don't think it would interest Eric. My fear is that they're doing a full-on Vocaloid competitor, except much better sounding. Which is what I've been working on.

My main work this last couple years hasn't been sampling, it's been coding in Python and C++. I honestly believe I'm finding a "better way" to make a virtual singer. But Spectrasonics has the resources to find a better better way. Or at least a bigger better way. I'm hoping to release one fully versatile singer next year. I worry Spectrasonics may be releasing a dozen tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily think that is likely, and if I had to bet, my money would be on guitars. Although . . . I don't see how that could take 10 years. Plus . . . I don't think anyone in 2016 is going to pay $300 or $400 for a guitar collection. Damn . . . I don't think I'm going to get much sleep tonight . . .

[Guy Rowland]

I remember read something about this time ago, that some of the FX was made in colaboration with Nomad.

YES! That was it, thanks.

The more I've thought about it (and I'm on an idyllic lazy sunny holiday, so I'm allowed to think about it), the more I can almost picture how this product will look and feel, with a couple of blanks. I think there will be a Trilian-style front page with pictures of the instrument, amp and mic where relevant, and some easy controls. Reckon there's a good chance of amped and DI'd, with the possibility of combining both so the DI goes through the FX and modelled amps. I'd expect them to drop the wavetables and just have the soundsources, but keep the granular engine and hopefully Harmonia (and I just bet they have some killer synth-like patches inc leads, built on the guitar samples). Then alongside the World guitars, I can imagine a lot of really esoteric stuff where they've recorded bizarre tones and noises from the various rigs.

Where I feel less certain is whether or not they will have a strumming engine. Kinda hope so, perhaps the ARP but with a couple of extra parameters that pertain to up stroke / downstroke etc - I'm sort of anticipating nice picking demos and also really meaty drop D chugs (and there of course drop the rhythm from this into Trillian to add the Hardcore Bass). Also the biggest unknown is what they do with intelligently mapping notes to particular strings.

I'm also kinda hoping that there will be so much new scripting here to manage all the articulations, that some of it will filter down to a Trillian update - articulations-wise, it's pretty clumsy really. But that might wait for a Trillian 2 with new basses, Rickenbacker etc.

Gonna look reaaaally stupid now when it's a DAW, eh?

(Thinking of you, Mr Greene - I can eaaasily imagine how guitars took them 10 years....)

[TheUnfinished]

I haven't the faintest idea what timezone they're in, so not sure when it'll hit GMT tomorrow.

Plus, I plan to be in a park, under a tree, researching two new Omnisphere 2 soundsets. Haha!

[Mike Greene]

I haven't the faintest idea what timezone they're in, so not sure when it'll hit GMT tomorrow.

Plus, I plan to be in a park, under a tree, researching two new Omnisphere 2 soundsets. Haha!

They're in Burbank. (Los Angeles.)

A little off-topic, but in case you haven't done this already, Matt, you might want to get in touch with them. (Not this week, of course. ) I wouldn't be surprised if they'd want your input and if they might even want to give you some inside and advance info on their releases. After all, what's good for you is good for them. Just a thought.

[X-bassist]

I haven't the faintest idea what timezone they're in, so not sure when it'll hit GMT tomorrow.

Plus, I plan to be in a park, under a tree, researching two new Omnisphere 2 soundsets. Haha!

They are in Burbank, LA area... which means it's 11:18 am now. I think they announced O2 at 10am PST

And my bet is that they have secretly bought out the Unfinished for £10M and are mining him for Gold!
(Pretending to know nothing as he types from his Malibu home... what a bastard...)

[Guy Rowland]

(psst - Matt did contribute to the Omni 2 core library. And as he says, even Skippy doesn't know about this release. They do play their cards close to their chest...)

[Mike Greene]

(psst - Matt did contribute to the Omni 2 core library. And as he says, even Skippy doesn't know about this release. They do play their cards close to their chest...)

Uhhh, yeah, I knew that. I was just making sure you did.

[TheUnfinished]

And my bet is that they have secretly bought out the Unfinished for £10M and are mining him for Gold!
(Pretending to know nothing as he types from his Malibu home... what a bastard...)

How I wish they had.

But I wouldn't be living in Malibu.