KRON and ARCUS Updates / Alien Seed REs are on sale!

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starship
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05 Sep 2019

Yo! Updates are in the shop for the KRON and ARCUS; and all 3 (PSDN too) are on sale this month!

Links to the REs:
The ARCUS has more combi patches from its patch competition, plus a couple minor bug fixes (1.0.2). And it's on sale for only 9 Euro/USD!
https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... ser-knobs/

The KRON is now 1.2.1 with a large bugfix update. Most of these bugs were in the custom waveform editor but there were some other doozies. :) On sale for half of this month!
https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... sion/kron/

The PSDN's also on sale (half off)... still working on the update. :)
https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... generator/


Details on the REs:
For those new to the ARCUS, it's a 1U CV knobs device with curving and fancy changing-color-with-position rainbow knobs, and a ton of other controls and I/O. It's a gigantic help when making patches, automating, and especially IMO just sound design in general. It really helps solve the deficiencies of the combinator, adding as many controls as you want that can be nonlinear, precise, and have larger and easier-to-grok knobs and labels. It's great for linking stuff together and making all kinds of parameters in your songs easier to tweak.

For those new to (or afraid of) the KRON ;), it's a powerful LFO generator/combiner galore with a ridiculous number of options and such. Drawbacks include its complexity, but its strengths are in making waveforms and LFOs do things that no other devices in the shop can do. I.e. get it so you can make patches that simply can't be made otherwise, and you'll wonder how you ever did without! :)

And the PSDN... still working on the giant 2.0 update, and it's a hell of an update. More apologies for taking so long. If you wonder why the PSDN has kept at its original price, rarely goes on sale, and is probably too much for what it is, it's because this 2.0 update will be free and totally worth whatever you've paid for the PSDN beforehand. E.g. grab it on sale and forget about it till I finally solve all the bugs and quit implementing features and release the wanker. :) (FWIW, it's 4U, looks great, has full poly modes, with some insane and useful options, and damn does it ever shine with built-in devices and IDK, anything... :))


Bug Fix Details:
ARCUS 1.0.2:
the note values were being displayed 2 octaves above their actual input/output value
a rare graphics bug

KRON 1.2.1:
fixed something with the mod section.. a display inefficiency
fixed clear mod menu for quants

fixed various drawing problems with the custom waveform display
fixed problem with clusters of points at the beginning making it hard to manipulate certain points
1 error with curved waveforms sometimes causing a very rapid spike halfway between the first and last points
problem with not drawing updated wave ends

grid snap errors and misalignment problems
fixed problems with moving waves left/right
fixed random wave gen when grid-snapped problems
fixed problems with add/delete/grab

forced 2d displays' fps to not be >= 40 fps to avoid skipping crucial frames (sdk basically has max 40 fps for these)
the waveform tool menu now has the right undo action descriptor
some other stuff I forgot to write down and/or is sorta folded into the above fixes

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MannequinRaces
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05 Sep 2019

Cool! Anything new you’re working on? :)

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starship
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05 Sep 2019

MannequinRaces wrote:
05 Sep 2019
Cool! Anything new you’re working on? :)
Yes, but I haven't touched it in months. It'll probably be exciting. :)

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moneykube
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06 Sep 2019

ok interested in kron... price is right... guestiion...how much damage does this beast do to dsp? Expanse bring my computer to it's knees sadly amoung a few others I egret buying because they constantly freeze, cack, or do poppy crackly things... semi easy on dsp ... purchase likely :puf_smile:
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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starship
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06 Sep 2019

moneykube wrote:
06 Sep 2019
ok interested in kron... price is right... guestiion...how much damage does this beast do to dsp? Expanse bring my computer to it's knees sadly amoung a few others I egret buying because they constantly freeze, cack, or do poppy crackly things... semi easy on dsp ... purchase lokely
Cool!

It's not a total DSP beast, but if you have enough of them, you'll notice it. And you can turn the graphics off which helps when you've maxed out a song against your cores. I used that a lot on my previous computer. :) And I used a lot of them too, on a computer that was pretty dated (4 core intel from like a decade ago). So I mean it's not as fast as I wish it was but surely it's not as much of a DSP-hog as Expanse. :) I think you'll be fine. Demo it first and see how it goes maybe. :)

I will say that some combinator patches in there have a lot of KRONs, and on my patches the number of KRONs is part of the patch name. Also, the KRON does take a while to load. It's not that bad, but if you have enough of them it's noticeable. As near as I can tell there's nothing I can do about that. It doesn't bother me much on my new computer, but on my old computer if I used dozens of 'em in a song, I'd be annoyed by the wait. It'd be worth the wait though. ;) This is only an issue when loading a song or combi patch.

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moneykube
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06 Sep 2019

ok sold me... I can navigate around what you stated if I have to... in the mean time... a big learning curve... thanks for update and sale... been eying it awhile
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MannequinRaces
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07 Sep 2019

starship wrote:
05 Sep 2019
MannequinRaces wrote:
05 Sep 2019
Cool! Anything new you’re working on? :)
Yes, but I haven't touched it in months. It'll probably be exciting. :)
Very nice! I always look forward to new stuff from you and it's good to see that CV devices in Reason aren't dead. Keep up the good work!

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moneykube
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07 Sep 2019

not understanding difference between PSDN and kron as I am cv retarded... layman terms explaination please... is it I toned down version of kron.?
.. so many questions... so little time :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :puf_wink:... next learning phase cv my friends
:puf_wink:
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starship
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07 Sep 2019

moneykube wrote:
07 Sep 2019
not understanding difference between PSDN and kron as I am cv retarded... layman terms explaination please... is it I toned down version of kron.?
.. so many questions... so little time :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :puf_wink:... next learning phase cv my friends
:puf_wink:
KRON is primarily a set of LFOs and combiner, deluxe. The PSDN does envelopes. They have related curve sections and other features but are otherwise pretty different.

:)

akeia
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Joined: 20 May 2018

07 Sep 2019

I bought ARCUS and it is great. A device with focused functionality that solves one or more problems.

In my opinion Kron and PSDN are confusing. And the videos are even more confusing. They feel like random rambling but not a product video trying to explain the use cases for the product. What for do I need such complex LFOs and envelopes? What is the advantage over simpler LFOs and Envelope rack plugins?

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zoidkirb
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07 Sep 2019

akeia wrote:
07 Sep 2019
I bought ARCUS and it is great. A device with focused functionality that solves one or more problems.

In my opinion Kron and PSDN are confusing. And the videos are even more confusing. They feel like random rambling but not a product video trying to explain the use cases for the product. What for do I need such complex LFOs and envelopes? What is the advantage over simpler LFOs and Envelope rack plugins?
Yes ARCUS is amazing and imo a must have in Reason. Kron I guess isn't quite so immediate since on the surface it is primarily LFO'S but there's just so many little ways to control the shape and behavior of those lfo's, cross modulate them, quantize them, or simply draw an lfo. It's great just to go cv crazy within one neat device. It can be daunting but I've purely learnt what I know from just trying every knob and window that I can find and seeing what it does. I feel a deep dive into the manual to properly figure out stuff like the mod matrix and custom user knobs is gonna be mandatory for me.

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Reasonable man
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07 Sep 2019

Yer i think Kron has potental to give brain damage :mrgreen:

Alot of the wave edit tools like snap/allaign/reset x/y values etc etc is a bit overkill imo. But this is the most unique device in reason by some distance. The mod matrix is obviously the key to the whole thing ..... alot more advanced than thor's for complexity ..thats foe sure.
I think you have to decide imo beforehand what you want it for. If for simple lfos ..there's no need to go through gates or quants. For sequening the quants are the gates and if you want it to react in real time ..put it in a combi...recieve notes ticked and have the gates 1/2 set to 'note'.Thats only 3 ways of using it!

I remember going through the combies that come with it and they are really inspiring..off the top of my head i think..
Bass go Ruh, Marching to uncertain doom...made me laugh ..you just cant do this stuff with anything other than this device.
The problem with it is it takes you away from music for a long time and gets you caught up in just progaramming and sound design.

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moneykube
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08 Sep 2019

:lol: :lol: :lol: well bought all 3 as they seem to work in conjunction with one another... the videos also confuse me... but hey... looks like all 3 can do things I never dreamed of... exploration and discovery time :exclamation:
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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moneykube
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08 Sep 2019

moneykube wrote:
08 Sep 2019
:lol: :lol: :lol: well bought all 3 as they seem to work in conjunction with one another... the videos also confuse me... but hey... looks like all 3 can do things I never dreamed of... exploration and discovery time :exclamation:
95 canadian beats 150 canadian for a lame upgrade any day :puf_wink: sorry r11 is not an impressive upgrade so far for me... got all the tools I need..and much more then I need
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Reasonable man
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08 Sep 2019

Ha.... Kron just wrote itself an Irish Reel.
Is there anything it can't do? lol

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pruhck1igmas9 ... l.cmb?dl=0

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Crumbfort
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08 Sep 2019

Just picked up KRON to complete the Alien Seed Tech set. This device is brilliant... why'd I wait so long?!
Descent: Legends of the Dark // Darkeport Productions // The LotR: ACG // Blue Zones (Netflix) // Chef's Table (Netflix)

(Composer for visual media / Adeptus Mechanicus Synthseer)

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moneykube
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08 Sep 2019

Reasonable man wrote:
08 Sep 2019
Ha.... Kron just wrote itself an Irish Reel.
Is there anything it can't do? lol

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pruhck1igmas9 ... l.cmb?dl=0
cool
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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moneykube
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08 Sep 2019

hey any patches , explainations, files or anything on all these racks appreciated... my mind is melting... cv alien seed indeed :lol: :lol: :lol: :puf_wink:
love :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
it all
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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Reasonable man
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10 Sep 2019

moneykube wrote:
08 Sep 2019
hey any patches , explainations, files or anything on all these racks appreciated... my mind is melting... cv alien seed indeed :lol: :lol: :lol: :puf_wink:
love :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
it all
I think imo kron can be seen as being based on two seperate devices.
https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... processor/ (This is the 4 lfo sections)
and
https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... ine-mixer/ (This is the grid section)

On top of this it combines a curved midpoint section (bottom of lfo sections) and can gernerate its own square wave gates (quants) that can be sent out as a gate step sequence or can be used to quantize/smooth the lfo output signals using a different rate to whatever rate the lfo's are set to.


I did this Europa patch last night ( I'm still very much learning sound design) . It uses the even power crossfader patch from the 'tools' folder that comes with the device . i think the lfo's are originally ment to control either the level or pan of 4 instruments connected to a line mixer inside a combi for crossfading. ....but i just mapped the 4 knobs of kron to combi rotaries which are then modded by kron's own grid (loop). I just sent out random cv signals to syncronous and other devices etc .
The patches that come with it are excellent imo . if you like wobble bass ..there are several brilliant patches , and there is a humana section that is just awesome .... The 81 page manual is great nightime reading :mrgreen:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7u2gehmda195b ... e.cmb?dl=0

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moneykube
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10 Sep 2019

awesome stuff dude... checking into it all
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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starship
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30 Sep 2019

Heyo! I extended the sale for another couple weeks!
Now it's ending Oct 14th.

Just reading through all this stuff. :) :)



Sorry about the videos... I'll try harder.

Re: why would one need/want complex CV tools? Lushness of sound. It opens up any kind of synth/effect far beyond basic CV. nonlinear is great, but modding the shit out of LFOs, feedbacking, nonlinearly jumping around and being smooth the whole time... for example, that power translates into seriously rich sound, opening up the stereo field in weird ways, freq modding in undreamt of ways ;), just in general adding dimensions and lushness to anything you choose to.

E.g. in the previous KRON update, I added some combi patches using some of the provided Europa patches, and btw there's a good number of other patches in there capable of swapping out the instrument patches. Not all, but some are designed to. So honestly, the Props/Reasonheads are way better at making Europa patches than me :), but OMG are they ever enriched if you double 'em up or so, adding some sweet, sweet CV to link 'em and vary 'em in subtle ways. It makes anything shine. It's not automatic, there's an art for sure :), and yeah, one can totally get lost in programming the CV... but ideally, at least part of the design intention of the KRON is to pack a lot into a narrow visual field so that once you get used to what's what, you can intuitively grasp and tweak your CV without having to mentally keep track of WTF is connected to WTF... which was my experience before making the KRON, trying to do wicked CV stuff with a ton of different devices chained up.

MoneyKube and Crumbfort: :) :) :) :) :)

Reasonable Man:
Digging your reaction to those patches and such. :) I try. :)

Yeah, some inspiration real early on from those 2 CV tools, Reasonable Man. But there's way more to the LFOs and grid. :) And for sure, if all you want is simple LFOs and such, you don't need the KRON. :)

It's not so much a CV Toolbox as it is a mad scientist's CV workbench.


... And the PSDN... shit. Once I release the update.... it's a big improvement on what's in the shop: GUI, features, it does full poly like a mofo, can chain up, etc. Similarly, if you just need a real simple envelope, you don't need the PSDN. But if you want to do flat-out insane shit with your sound, you kinda need the PSDN 2.0. Sorry it's taking so long. :)

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starship
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30 Sep 2019

Also, FWIW, I know there's a lot of hiccups and such in its GUI and workflow. A ton of that can't be changed, and I wish it could, b/c of backwards-compatibility issues, and the dev time was soooo long, years, i had to keep my songs and beta testers' songs working. :)

Some planned devices of mine, of which there are *legion*, would sorta fix all that and boost the power a few degrees of magnitude. ;) So it is what it is. *shrug*

Just to be defensive. I know it scares a lot of people. :) And by way of apologies to new users! :) And thanks!



Oh, lemme sum up the KRON too, thinking about what you said, Reasonable Man. Way more than those 2 devices. :) I'm definitely going to forget some stuff.

LFOs: basic and hardcore custom waveforms that can be curved and shaped (high/mid/low values and curving over their phase); curving options that will turn basic waves (sine, square) into more much more complex waves; a bunch of trigger-by-gate options and quantizing; a mod section that can pretty much connect anything to anything, in parallel especially; an LFO/mod engine designed to do smooth modding of parameters, akin to frequency modding a free-freq LFO but *deluxe*; random seeds for doing random stuff and having the ability to change tempos and such, getting the same sequence for a given LFO, grid selector, etc.;

Grid: combines and selects signals with various functions; basic ones like add and multiply combine all sources, then stuff like loop/random/min/max selects a signal with its built-in square wave LFO that has the basics of the main LFOs. So a lot of the modding shtick applies to it too. It can fade between signals too with an s-curve as it selects them.

Quants: For quantizing signals over time, especially the LFO/grid. And also for generating gates. Much of the LFO modding shtick applies here too. Lots of smoothing options for quantizing, the ability to use LFO curve sections to make curved "windows" of gates, etc. Not always useful for every patch, for sure, but powerful when you want it, and being on the same device, no extra latency is introduced in the signal chain. Ditto with why the grid's on here.

Custom waves: The points determine the curves, rather than having curves between points. So it's a rough bezier curve, freely defined. Doubling up points makes a hard edge. Random waves, snapping to a grid, an option to use steps instead, etc. Any of the LFOs can use it, and it can also be used as a note quantizer.

Other stuff: a lot of CV in/out on the back, etc. A ton of other things I won't bother to sum up. Custom color schemes to make it interesting and help keep track of stuff and just in general make your reason rack look badass with all these LFOs doing crazy shit to your sound, in the colors of your choice. ;)

Probably not for the faint of heart. :) But at the same time, I have faith anyone can grok it if you give it a chance. A ton of features in it aren't really what you need to worry about as a novice to it, but they're there when you're like, "hmm, I wonder if it'll do this?" Probably yup. And as you experiment, etc. It's definitely an overload of features, but I swear, they all come in handy for specific music-making CV situations. :) Half of those I was like, "Oh shit, what if the user wants to do XYZ with this? I already implemented X and Y, someone's going to expect Z." :) I didn't get 100% coverage. And there are other great CV tools out there that can do a shit ton of stuff mine can't do. All of what I was saying about why one would want complex CV was also meant to apply to those. :) :)

cheers!

Bes
Competition Winner
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30 Sep 2019

i guess i do want to do flat out insane shit with my sound. hope you release PSDN 2.0 soon :)
- Certified Reason expert

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starship
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30 Sep 2019

Bes wrote:
30 Sep 2019
i guess i do want to do flat out insane shit with my sound. hope you release PSDN 2.0 soon :)
haha :)

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Boombastix
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Location: Bay Area, CA

30 Sep 2019

I just bought IK Multimedia Leslie VST. To test it I used a simple mono Organ sound from Subtractor :shock: What happened?
I got a million dollar sound :lol:

So this leads me to think: A Leslie just modulates the sound, so what can KRON do for Malström or Subtractor - I suppose the vault to more million dollar sounds has to be opened. So, this is just a pre-ample to someone who already understands KRON and wants to dig in.

Personally have enough basic sounds in a dozen or so monster synths, but what is attracting my interest is to explore MOVEMENT. I'm sure KRON can do that.
Not just slow movement in sound, but also stepped explorations, or note sequences.

First - I will dig through the KRON Combinators. But I got stuck on the 4th patch, starting to make a new song :lol:
Oh, well, I'll get to them all...eventually...
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

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