Stylus RMX - initial thoughts, queries, feedback, requests etc.

[DoctorZeus]

My copy of Stylus RMX arrived today and, after watching all the tutorial videos, I have spent several hours playing with it.

First off, it is fantastic - a really great achievment and I am certain I am going to get a LOT of use out of it. Much kudos to Eric and all at Spectrasonics! :)

Got a bunch of questions, feedback and stuff though. I hope these aren't ALL too obvious and been covered elsewhere. No particular order.

1. switching between kitmode and multi mode wipes everything in the current mode without warning. I lost half an hour's noodlings when I switched to kit mode to have a play. There should be a prompt to save the exisiting multi or kit when you switch mode.

2. I wish there was a way to "jam" a performance in groove menu mode and then somehow switch mode, convert the recorded midi parts and have access to the slices for more detailed editing. I guess this would be complicated and I don't know how it could be implemented.

3. browser should stay on the last selected page when you switch to an empty part. At the moment, when you switch part you have to go through the menus each time.

4. what is the "settings" button above the "Elements" pane in the browser?

5. It would be good if, by default, the grooves, where appropriate had pre-defined edit groups for e.g. kick, snare, hats (or appropriate edit groups for the particular loop groove). I guess this would have required a lot of programming, though.

6. The sounds menus only work in "slice menu" mode but there is no warning of this. I think: either, when you select "sound menus" the mode should switch to "slice menu" automatically, or it should give you a warning dialogue "use SLICE MENU mode" (as it does if you try to "capture" in the Chaos editor page, or it should just ignore the mode when you select "sound menus" and work regardless of which mode you are in.

7. Can velocity modify the filter?

8. "Jump" jumps you to your user favourites suite. This is great. What would be really good would be, if you pressed JUMP again it "jumped" back to the sound menu you were on before.

9. Is there a manual? I couldn't find it, just the tutorials.

That's all for now. I'm having trouble understanding exactly how CAPTURE on the chaos page works - which randomisations are "printed" to the midi part and which are not, whether you then need to switch off the chaos editor or not and when you capture, how much will be captured and from when. Probably needs another thread ;)

Once again, great work! Wicked bit of kit! :)

[Bo Clausen]

About number 4 - look here:
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26421

[Gabe S.]

7. Can velocity modify the filter?

9. Is there a manual? I couldn't find it, just the tutorials.

Hi.

7. On the Edit Page, under the ENVELOPE heading, there's a Filter button. Press that and then Turn up the "Depth" dial. The "Velo" dial controls how velocity sensitive the Filter is.

9. Spectrasonics has something in the works. On the Yahoo forum, spectrum said, "Downloadable PDF reference manual is in the works....more info soon...."

Cheers.
-gabe

[DoctorZeus]

Thanks, Bo.

About number 4 - look here:
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26421

[DoctorZeus]

Thanks, Gabe - I'll check that out.

Hi.

7. On the Edit Page, under the ENVELOPE heading, there's a Filter button. Press that and then Turn up the "Depth" dial. The "Velo" dial controls how velocity sensitive the Filter is.

9. Spectrasonics has something in the works. On the Yahoo forum, spectrum said, "Downloadable PDF reference manual is in the works....more info soon...."

Cheers.
-gabe

[DoctorZeus]

bump for Spectasonics

[GlennO]

My copy of Stylus RMX arrived today and, after watching all the tutorial videos, I have spent several hours playing with it.

First off, it is fantastic - a really great achievment and I am certain I am going to get a LOT of use out of it. Much kudos to Eric and all at Spectrasonics! :)

Got a bunch of questions, feedback and stuff though. I hope these aren't ALL too obvious and been covered elsewhere. No particular order.

1. switching between kitmode and multi mode wipes everything in the current mode without warning. I lost half an hour's noodlings when I switched to kit mode to have a play. There should be a prompt to save the exisiting multi or kit when you switch mode.


Yes, we're looking into that. As you probably know, that's not simple to accomplish in a plugin.



3. browser should stay on the last selected page when you switch to an empty part. At the moment, when you switch part you have to go through the menus each time.



Currently, the browser for each part is independent. But, you're right, sometimes, particularly when a selection hasn't been made yet, it would be nice if they were synced.


6. The sounds menus only work in "slice menu" mode but there is no warning of this. I think: either, when you select "sound menus" the mode should switch to "slice menu" automatically, or it should give you a warning dialogue "use SLICE MENU mode" (as it does if you try to "capture" in the Chaos editor page, or it should just ignore the mode when you select "sound menus" and work regardless of which mode you are in.

Yeah, that's a tough one because, strictly speaking, a suite could have a mixture of sound menus and grooves, but we're looking into it.



That's all for now. I'm having trouble understanding exactly how CAPTURE on the chaos page works - which randomisations are "printed" to the midi part and which are not, whether you then need to switch off the chaos editor or not and when you capture, how much will be captured and from when. Probably needs another thread ;)



It will capture things that make sense in a midi file: the pattern, repeat, and dynamics chaos. So, it's a great way to create fills which you then drag into your sequencer. It will capture up to 16 passes through the loop and there's no need to turn off the chaos after you drag into your sequencer since chaos doesn't operate when triggered via midi.

- Glenn

[DoctorZeus]

Hey, Glenn, thanks for replying. :) Great to hear that you are already aware and looking at the issues I raised!

So to clarify, with Chaos Designer:

When you press "capture" does it capture the last 16 bars that have gone through Chaos designer? Or the last (up to) 16 bars since you pressed the play button for that part? E.g. If I press play part (or play all) and then press stop after 4 bars, if I press play again and then press Capture (whilst it's still playing) after 8 bars, what happens? Do I get the 8 bars just before I pressed Capture? Or the 12 bars (so the 8 with the 4 before I pressed stop)? Or when I press Capture does it wait until a further 8 bars have played and capture the whole sixteen?

In the captured file there will be the random pattern variations (pattern and repeat), timings (early/late) and velocity variations (dynamics) but NOT reverse or pitch randomisations. Have I got that right? If I leave all the settings in Chaos Designer and play back the captured part, the Chaos Designer settings for pattern, repeat and dynamics will be ignored (so no additional Chaos randomisations) but does Chaos Designer still insert random pitch and reverse variations? Or is the whole Chaos Designer bypassed when you play back from a captured midi part? If the former, does Chaos Designer insert random (therefore different) pitch and reverse variations every time the part is played?

I think it would be good if when you Captured Chaos patterns that the pitch and reverse randomisations were also captured in the midi part, using continuous controller data. That way the captured midi part would play back the Captured Chaos the same way everytime and you could then go in and edit the captured pitch and reverse randomisations by editing the controller data.

Once again, thanks for the reply and thanks for a great product! :)

Yes, we're looking into that. As you probably know, that's not simple to accomplish in a plugin.



Currently, the browser for each part is independent. But, you're right, sometimes, particularly when a selection hasn't been made yet, it would be nice if they were synced.


Yeah, that's a tough one because, strictly speaking, a suite could have a mixture of sound menus and grooves, but we're looking into it.



It will capture things that make sense in a midi file: the pattern, repeat, and dynamics chaos. So, it's a great way to create fills which you then drag into your sequencer. It will capture up to 16 passes through the loop and there's no need to turn off the chaos after you drag into your sequencer since chaos doesn't operate when triggered via midi.

- Glenn

[DoctorZeus]

bump

[stevejay]

I think it would be good if when you Captured Chaos patterns that the pitch and reverse randomisations were also captured in the midi part, using continuous controller data.


I second that thought, DoctorZeus!

Bye,
Steve

[monkeytrix]

Crap it's true, no reverse in capture sucks. I hope they are working hard on that one.

[spectrum]

Reverse is really easy to automate though....just MIDI Learn it and automate the reverse effect you heard in the mean time.

spectrum