Revolution - Anyone using it?

[Jmax]

Is it worth getting? Not sure exactly what the difference is between just setting up parallel channel pan's. Curious if anyone uses it a lot.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Well, here's the skim on it, from my perspective at least.

It is based off of the sound engine that modern games, like Call of Duty, use to create "3D" sound. In theory, this RE allows you to place an object wherever you wish in space. The user is at the center of the display, and you move the speaker to wherever you would like the sound to come from, as well as under and over the user. In theory this would become handy as you could "stage" your instruments and give your music a sound like if you were at a concert, or having sound moving as if to travel to a farther distance.

Now, I use the words "in theory" because that is how it is supposed to work. That is not my experience with this unit. At all. I have been blessed to own both a very nice set of true studio-reference quality headphones and a pair of 5.1 headphones. Not once was I able to have this unit perform anything like what you would hear in a movie or game that would sound like something is above you or below you. I was, however, able to tell when things were panned to behind me, but that is fairly doable with REs like Mr. OverDrive or with a stock pan, and those are considerably cheaper alternatives. Add to the mix that despite this having a distance-effect elimination knob, there was no notable "distance" that this RE was able to accomplish short of mildly delaying a signal and making it more quiet.

In short, is it worth getting? It wasn't worth it to me. Which is a shame, because honestly it is one of the only REs I was looking forward to seeing on the Black Friday sale. When I trialed it I was sad to see the gaps that this unit left me wanting something else, something that still does not exist in Reason.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Another notable gap is that this RE does not allow you to truly circle around the user; which is quite disappointing. Instead, if the user wishes to having sound that swirls around the user, the only available option it to have the sound pan all the way to the other direction (so from far left to far right, and then back to far left from far right, instead of being able to just move freely in a circle). Why this device was decided to be brick-walled directly behind the user, I am not sure. This is a poor flaw, as let's say I have a sample of a helicopter that I want to be flying and circling overhead in a song, no dice. Or if I want a pad synth that is slowly swirling around the user, no dice. And unlike conventional panning, this device adds a sort of phasing sound that truly hurts the illusion of something moving. The dev was nice enough to add CV to this device, which I also tested out, but truly having CV running the show of this device almost made it worse, as the sounds I was able to come up with all sounded pretty terrible. I am sure that perhaps if this RE was updated with a few things it would definitely be one to try again, but as it currently sits, I can not recommend this other than if you would like to use your "try" and see what you can come up with.

[gak]

I didn't care for it.

[Jmax]

Well, here's the skim on it, from my perspective at least.

It is based off of the sound engine that modern games, like Call of Duty, use to create "3D" sound. In theory, this RE allows you to place an object wherever you wish in space. The user is at the center of the display, and you move the speaker to wherever you would like the sound to come from, as well as under and over the user. In theory this would become handy as you could "stage" your instruments and give your music a sound like if you were at a concert, or having sound moving as if to travel to a farther distance.

Now, I use the words "in theory" because that is how it is supposed to work. That is not my experience with this unit. At all. I have been blessed to own both a very nice set of true studio-reference quality headphones and a pair of 5.1 headphones. Not once was I able to have this unit perform anything like what you would hear in a movie or game that would sound like something is above you or below you. I was, however, able to tell when things were panned to behind me, but that is fairly doable with REs like Mr. OverDrive or with a stock pan, and those are considerably cheaper alternatives. Add to the mix that despite this having a distance-effect elimination knob, there was no notable "distance" that this RE was able to accomplish short of mildly delaying a signal and making it more quiet.

In short, is it worth getting? It wasn't worth it to me. Which is a shame, because honestly it is one of the only REs I was looking forward to seeing on the Black Friday sale. When I trialed it I was sad to see the gaps that this unit left me wanting something else, something that still does not exist in Reason.

Thanks for the tidbit! yeah that's what I figured. It was to good to be true. I'm not to concerned about it been able to place something above or below me or even behind but more in the corners. I feel even panned parallel's miss those corner spots. Was this device able to capture that a little better? In great tracks I can always hear little bits of the sounds from all area in front of me. If only this device was a little cheaper.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

...I'm not to concerned about it been able to place something above or below me or even behind but more in the corners. I feel even panned parallel's miss those corner spots. Was this device able to capture that a little better?

No, as this RE does not act in terms of corners, but in terms of open space. Though you can angle the sound to be playing from "corner" (45 degrees and facing you) you will not have the same kind of illusion due to reverb that you would expect from having a sound source playing from a corner. Even with the help of Rob Papen's RP-Verb that actually emulates walls and such, this was still a rather big no go. Truly, I have better results from Mr. OverDrive, forcing mono, positioning the dials to be at 45 degrees, and eliminating some stereo spread than I do with using Revolution. Again, I wish it was not one of those "too good to be true" devices, but it certainly seems that way with the current state.

[Jmax]

...I'm not to concerned about it been able to place something above or below me or even behind but more in the corners. I feel even panned parallel's miss those corner spots. Was this device able to capture that a little better?

No, as this RE does not act in terms of corners, but in terms of open space. Though you can angle the sound to be playing from "corner" (45 degrees and facing you) you will not have the same kind of illusion due to reverb that you would expect from having a sound source playing from a corner. Even with the help of Rob Papen's RP-Verb that actually emulates walls and such, this was still a rather big no go. Truly, I have better results from Mr. OverDrive, forcing mono, positioning the dials to be at 45 degrees, and eliminating some stereo spread than I do with using Revolution. Again, I wish it was not one of those "too good to be true" devices, but it certainly seems that way with the current state.

Thanks for the heads up on this one. I'm not sure if something better will ever come or it's more a question of just using tricks which I imagine might be the case. Regardless thank you.

[PhutureD]

hydlide posted a video on creating 3d sound
http://www.reasonexperts.com/video-tuto ... sound.html

[Shokstar]

it´s not true, you can circle around the sound via automation. I´ll use for a future experimental track.

[dvdrtldg]

You can circle the sound via CV as well - stick Revolution in a combinator, use a sawtooth waveform with "Angle" as your target. I quite like the device. True it's not everything it might be - the "Distance" effect is a bit underwhelming, and the "Elevation" up or down is so subtle as to be useless in a busy mix - but for basic placement of sound in front of/behind the listener I think it does an OK job

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

it´s not true, you can circle around the sound via automation. I´ll use for a future experimental track.

I honestly do not know how that would be possible, unless if you literally copy and paste an automation sequence that simply goes from far right on the knob to far left on the knob and repeats that. Sure sure, I suppose that is possible from a recorded track perspective. But from a straight-out-of-the-box, CV, or live-use perspective, there is not a way, as the knob does not turn infinitely but is a limited turn and hits a wall. Unless if there is somehow I mode I am missing on this device?

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

You can circle the sound via CV as well - stick Revolution in a combinator, use a sawtooth waveform with "Angle" as your target. I quite like the device. True it's not everything it might be - the "Distance" effect is a bit underwhelming, and the "Elevation" up or down is so subtle as to be useless in a busy mix - but for basic placement of sound in front of/behind the listener I think it does an OK job

I stand corrected, thank you for the info!

[Libraquaricorn]

I kinda liked it when I trialed it. I modulated the hell out of it with some lfo and had some pretty interesting experimental results. I think I filed it in my wishlist under "luxury devices I would love to have that I really can't justify spending that amount of money on"

[dana]

I modulated it from the x/y and lfos from vecto and found it to be a very interesting device for mixing, especially on a parallel channel with some crazy fx like audiomatic:eerie.

Its another tubetech, a must have for mixing - some daws have this built-in like logic.

[Faastwalker]

I had fun with this RE. But I was less than impressed with the effect. At least what was supposed to be happening. It didn't really work for me as a 3D sound psuedo effect. But yeah, fun to play around with all the same. Didn't buy it though.