Spectra is now free

This forum is for discussing Rack Extensions. Devs are all welcome to show off their goods.
slic
Posts: 130
Joined: 01 Jun 2021

11 Jul 2021

Thank You!

Good Luck with whatever comes next, good karma coming your way!

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Kilsane
Posts: 276
Joined: 15 Sep 2016
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11 Jul 2021

I bought it a year ago, but I find it good that you chose to give it away for free.
Good luck for the future

sdst
Competition Winner
Posts: 896
Joined: 14 Jun 2015

11 Jul 2021

Thank you,

very honorable the developers that leave their REs for free and not deleted

dhruan
Posts: 311
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Helsinki, Finland
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12 Jul 2021

What an awesome gesture! I already have Spectra, and I really, really like it! I know that you put a lot of effort into developing Spectra and that really shows. I am sure that keeping the same attitude and dedication will carry you far forward. So here's hoping for success in your future endeavors, whatever they may be. :)
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olive6741
Posts: 294
Joined: 11 May 2016

12 Jul 2021

Very kind of you. Really appreciate. I bought it a while now, never went deep with it (no time) and I find very great you let it ‘alive’. Wishing you the best for your next adventure. Good karma !

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integerpoet
Posts: 832
Joined: 30 Dec 2020
Location: East Bay, California
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12 Jul 2021

This seems especially generous given that silly people are likely to track the developer down and ask support questions anyway! I guess this is one of the reasons we need forums like this one. Be prepared to help out, folks! :-)

By the way, for anyone scrolling through this thread and wishing for a link…
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... nthesizer/
And yes there are several videos.

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fieldframe
RE Developer
Posts: 1037
Joined: 19 Apr 2016

13 Jul 2021

Thanks for your support of the Reason community, and thanks for taking this very generous approach to closing shop.

While Spectra never grabbed my attention when it was released, it's interesting looking at it now. Synclavier-style spectral synthesis was a real gap in Reason, and while you can easily get it now with VSTs such as Arturia's Synclavier V or Dmitry Schies Thorn, there are still benefits to having it in the rack.

With the perspective of looking at it from now in 2021, if anything limited Spectra's appeal, it may well have been its fidelity to Reason's original hardware-stye approach to UI. The Roland-esque programmer, complete with the menu diving that entails, strongly evokes that hardware experience, but as we've seen lately, even Reason Studios has started to fall away from that for certain complex interactions. Algoritm, for instance, feels a lot less like real hardware, but has a workflow that takes better advantage of the fact that it's software.

It's a tough balance to strike. Something like Ekss' product portfolio is very hardware-flavored, but it can be because its interactions are less complex (and are often modeled after real hardware anyway). What do you do when you have 256 partials, a handful of envelopes, MSEGs, custom filters, and more? It's an interesting design problem, and one that I think Reason Studios itself is wrestling with as it evolves the RE platform.

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Catblack
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Joined: 15 Apr 2016
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14 Jul 2021

I'm one of the ones that bought it. I'm glad I got to support you. I can't say I used it more than a couple of times, but I have a lot of rack extensions.


I do have 3 combinators for it that someone on the forum must have created.

Perhaps as everyone tries it out for the first time or two, come back and chime in here with patches and combinators.
If you ain't hip to the rare Housequake, shut up already.

Damn.

Proboscis
Posts: 1004
Joined: 28 Aug 2019

14 Jul 2021

I've logged in to the forum today to say THANKS for the kind gesture. I'm not much of a synth-user, and don't really comprehend the workflow of synthesis, so I would have not purchased this.

But now that I have, it's very cool. Lots of preset patches, which is a big plus for me.

I'm actually taking up the 'Song Challenge', in respect for the developer.

Proboscis
Posts: 1004
Joined: 28 Aug 2019

14 Jul 2021

I might ad that it's cool that you would leave it in the shop, rather than kill it, as some other devs have done.

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WasteLand
Posts: 131
Joined: 04 Jun 2018
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14 Jul 2021

thanks, i bought spectra, never regret it, that i bought it. is a great synth.

and it is great that you make it free!

worth the discovery!
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https://soundcloud.com/sada-exposada

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aeox
Competition Winner
Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
Location: Oregon

14 Jul 2021

It's kind of cool when devs remove the device completely because then the original buyers have a novelty synth which is now unobtainable.

On the other hand, it's also cool when everyone get's it for free. Can't complain about that.

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moneykube
Posts: 3447
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

15 Jul 2021

bought awhile back... great gift for those who do not have it yet... sorry you are leaving the party
Last edited by moneykube on 17 Jul 2021, edited 1 time in total.
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
Proud Member Of The Awesome League Of Perpetuals

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zero01101
Posts: 39
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

16 Jul 2021

synthetechsound wrote:
09 Jul 2021
Hi everyone. I recently decided to stop operation of synthetech sound as a company and this has some implications for spectra in the App Store. I could have either removed spectra altogether or offered it for free. I chose the latter knowing that people who purchased it would potentially be upset but what can you do?

I wanted to thank everyone for their support and I hope you enjoy spectra. For those persons concerned about on going support I can only say that I only received one defect for spectra since 3-2018 so I’m feeling like the code is stable. Again thanks to all for the kind words about and support for spectra. It was fun coding it up.
incredibly generous of you; this is a quality instrument that is absolutely worth familiarizing oneself with :) thank you very much!

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aeox
Competition Winner
Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
Location: Oregon

17 Jul 2021

Also, I am reminded of this time where I couldn't decide on a certain sound for a track I was working on. After a few different iterations I ended up using a preset from Spectra, I don't remember the name but maybe someone might recognize it at 1:22 in (I think it's played at a lower oct. than intended)

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Auryn
Posts: 842
Joined: 12 Aug 2015
Location: La Mancha

24 Jul 2021

probably a bit late for a bug report but it seems to me the output of the Generator 1's Ring function bypasses the filter? or maybe this is by design and I don't understand the signal routing correctly
~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-~-.-
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teddymcw
Posts: 432
Joined: 13 May 2016

25 Jul 2021

aeox wrote:
17 Jul 2021
Also, I am reminded of this time where I couldn't decide on a certain sound for a track I was working on. After a few different iterations I ended up using a preset from Spectra, I don't remember the name but maybe someone might recognize it at 1:22 in (I think it's played at a lower oct. than intended)
Damn, that was dope. So appreciated when music is given on here, and especially so in context. This piece happened to be a really good one. Cheers.

pepe444
Posts: 89
Joined: 29 Jul 2020
Location: Portugal

25 Jul 2021

Thanks :D

WarStar
Posts: 296
Joined: 17 Oct 2018
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25 Jul 2021

aeox wrote:
17 Jul 2021
Also, I am reminded of this time where I couldn't decide on a certain sound for a track I was working on. After a few different iterations I ended up using a preset from Spectra, I don't remember the name but maybe someone might recognize it at 1:22 in (I think it's played at a lower oct. than intended)
Love this song! Digging the dark vibe!

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Noplan
Competition Winner
Posts: 726
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Cologne, Germany

25 Jul 2021

Thank you.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

31 Jan 2024

I think I know why this one "failed" commercially, despite being quite amazing as a synth (I bought it before it got free).

I loaded it up yesterday and tried several (dozens of) patches to use in a sketch I was drafting and what struck me immediately is that most of them were at least 6, 9 or 12dB quieter than everything else! Obviously it's not a problem to crank the amp up, push channel fader up or use one of the gain devices; but one shouldn't have to do this. There's some - unwritten? - loudness standard at which most of the sounds in Reason are and Spectra simply fails to reach it. And we all know that louder = better ;)
Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

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