Ultra Analog VA-2 64-bit

[jloeb]

I tend to prioritize opinions here above those elsewhere, so I'll go with you guys (and my gut - I do so love this simple fatty pork chop of a synth) and do the update. Will demo to see whether the changes piss me off, but my guess is that they won't.

[ChrisByrd]

Thanks for the detailed first impressions Shooshie. I was initially surprised at the size of the interface (it looks much bigger from the screen shots on the AAS site) but quickly got used to it. I did like the single interface of UA 1 but find the new tabbed interface easier to navigate and use, and the browser is much better - I've not looked at the manual yet, always a good sign with a new instrument

All in all a $29 well spent.

[bdr]

I like the new one a lot, like Shooshie I never got the hang of the old browser, it was kind of weird and non intuitive to me. I am wondering however how to get all my old 3rd party and edited patches from UA-1 into UA-2.

[Tritonemusic]

I personally think the new interface is WAY superior in every way, from a usability point of view, except for some of the fonts being a bit too small.

That is exactly how I feel about it.

[mhschmieder]

Took a look at the PDF on-line today while at work, to see what they say about importing sound banks. Was hard to focus on it enough to "get it" as it's written up quite differently from before. Has anyone tried drag/drop yet of their sound bank files to the GUI? Is it specifically not finding registered third party add-ons purchased for the previous version? They list eight sound banks at the product website so they must still be compatible.

[mhschmieder]

We seem to be SOL when it comes to previously purchased third-party banks, until we get instructions or see postings on how to get them back.

The old way was to merge any purchased libraries into a ".tdb" database file (probably "t" stood for "Tassman" as all of the products are built on that shared engine).

The new way is to copy new banks into the Banks subdirectory of the product directory in your user library (also where the old-school ".tdb" files are found).

The revised products have different file suffixes. So even if you kept backup copies of the patch libraries somewhere else on your disc (I think I did but have never figured out how to find files on my Mac since they changed how the Finder and Spotlight work in Leopard, so resort to Unix command line now and then), they are probably in the wrong format. Yet it doesn't hurt to try, copying them to the user area and seeing if the product finds it.

I bought a Chromaphone bank last night and copied it to the Banks folder in my user area and Chromaphone found it. So that technique does work for new libraries, at least.

[mhschmieder]

I found all my backup copies of the pre-64-bit banks, which are by vendor (full installation folders including instructions) and under my Documents subdirectory of my user directory. I mention this in case I didn't do this manually and the installers did this, which means everyone should find their own copies using the same criteria.

I haven't been doing that with the new banks for the 64-bit products as I can depend on normal backup strategies copying the banks as they aren't merged into a proprietary database file as before.

Now I'll see if I can do anything with these banks files for Ultra Analog to make them recognized or convert them for V2. I have quite a few of them; it's my heaviest investment of any AAS product.

[mhschmieder]

Very frustrating; I had trouble getting the discount earlier but on my own discovered the same thing Shooshie did (though the email took me to an entirely different product page originally, which was formatted quite differently from the one found by traversing their website, which is the only way to get to the Upgrade link and get that price). But I could have sworn that in the process of doing that, I found their otherwise-hidden user login panel.

Anyway, the point is that the sounds banks I already own all have product pages that list them as being VA-2 compatible, so they've all been converted. Therefore I figure those copies are in our account somewhere, available to download -- if only I could find where one accesses one's account at that website!

The old files clearly won't load; they are binary and in a proprietary format. The new files are text-based using simple curly-bracked-delimited lists.

I even went to my old email orders and re-clicked on the installer links, and they still install the old files in the old format. So that is not the way to access our new files. If we have to buy the sound banks all over again I will be very upset ($$$).

[ChrisByrd]

There's discussion of this on AAS's Facebook page, but I've not had a chance to look at it properly. It looks like the new installer packages contain both the VA-1 and VA-2 soundbanks. I'll be away from my computer until later today, but will try to install my purchased soundbanks when I get back.

Update: I've just had an email from AAS with a link to the updated sound banks, and a serial number. I downloaded and ran the new installer and the Angelicals sound bank (I think this is the only one I've bought) is now showing in VA-2

[mhschmieder]

Yep, received this email from AAS this morning, so others should as well:

"Just a quick message to let you know that we’ve just released updates for Analog Essentials, Ultra FX, Starlight, 30.8676 Hz, Angelicals, Cinémathèque, Sounds from BLKRTZ, and Plastic Pop to make them compatible with Ultra Analog VA-2. You’ll find what has changed as well as links to the latest installers of the banks that you own at the end of this message."

[mhschmieder]

OK, here's how it works: the installer comes with the old sound bank file that you already have. During the installation process, it converts it to the new file format (perhaps also adding parameters to take advantage of the new features), and then places the text-based Bank file in your User Area, making it very easy to do backups of the user banks.

All eight of my add-on banks are now properly installed, updated, and working in VA-2.

[jloeb]

Curious as to whether there's going to be any provision for third-party libs, some of which are excellent - Stawczyk's Moon, Xenos Retro, etc. Some kind of standardized library wrapper could probably work if AAS were so inclined.

[mhschmieder]

Not sure about those specific vendors; maybe contact them directly.

Many of the sound banks were dually managed by AAS and the patch provider. For instance, all eight of my banks made the transition and were updated via AAS, but several were from other vendors such as Le Lotus Bleu.

[bdr]

Curious as to whether there's going to be any provision for third-party libs, some of which are excellent - Stawczyk's Moon, Xenos Retro, etc. Some kind of standardized library wrapper could probably work if AAS were so inclined.

I emailed AAS regarding this, the libraries have to be redone and cant be imported in any way into VA-2. He asked me which libs I had as they want to contact the programmers and assist them to update their libs.

[dewdman42]

hmmm, I like the update, but I do have to say that is a bad oversight. It doesn't effect me so much but what if someone had many custom patches they made of their own on V1?