New CreamWare products in Frankfurt

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:28 pm

It could be 1 chip running the equivalent of what 6 current chips can. If the synths sound great, I don't see why 6 notes is a problem.. the Hatmann Neuron keyboard seems to do around 8 notes maximum. What *would* be important is implementing those 6 notes in an intelligent way - I'm sure everyone who'd had a Minimoog has wished they had more... having 6 channels of monophonic Minimaxes would be pretty good (great for gigging MIDI guitarists too

).

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:37 pm

On 2005-04-03 15:33, Shayne White wrote:
I can't imagine anyone using Virtual PC to run this thing! It's just plain dumb.

whatever you call it - it's a solution (at least)
... and it was the OFFICIAL Clavia suggestion, when their Modular editor wasn't Mac compatible

in case you don't know the app: one can freeze any state of the Windows engine as the starting point for the next launch. If you choose the ASB editor, you won't even notice that Windows is running at all.

cheers, Tom

MOFO · Post by **MOFO** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:38 pm

I think this is a good move by Creamware. They need revenue badly, sales of the pci boards are non existant.

If this is priced low enough they should sell well and give Creamware some money to develop the next generation of scope hardware.

Good luck Creamware!

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:12 pm

Is anybody here going to MusikMesse? If so, could you please ask Frank the following:

1. Is it OS X compatible?
2. How is going to be implemented with our host sequencers?
3. Is it going to have digital I/O, either through S/PDIF or USB?
4. Why is it only going to be six voices??

Thanks!

Shayne

Post by **hubird** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:21 pm

what I'm thinking all the time is, those potential buyers who don't have or plan a Scope card, won't they just compare it with the plain specs of other (VA) synth boxes like the Virus?

Number of voices and multitimbrality (most probably then) are important things for the masses, at least they will expect it on forehand.

The price is corresponding, true, a Virus is more expensive.
Still € 650,- / $ 881,- excl. VAT, estimated street price by F.H., isn't really a give-away.
If the street price would be, say 500,- excl., the boxes could be killers on the musical market!

I really hope people will see that you buy these synths just because you want these specific 'emulations'.
BTW, wasn't the Virus also DSP based? (I should know, I know).
Is it the DSP power then that makes the Virus so poly and multi (and hardware consequences of course)?

Ok, the mac thing then.
I really really hope Creamware will soon make *some* statement about OSX.

I'm sure almost everyone here fully understands and respects the strategic choise that Creamware made with the Return of the Legends (with respect for all opinions).

(It's a small step for men kind, but a huge step for CreamwareAudio, it feels good to me

)

this also means, we understand that all our known whishes will have to wait another while.
This is where we are.

Now back to OSX, it's clear that at this point of history, mac support means OSX support.
You support mac or you don't.
Today you can't have an in-between situation anymore, OS9 is closed, history.

I know, people have very different priority lists about what first, and it just depends.
But OSX support is a platform question, it's so basic for us mac users, and we have almost nothing to rely on, check it out

I 'm sure that the lack of OSX support of the rcs can't be understood as a sign of rejecting the mac support.
But it also doesn't make my heart beating of joy

If Creamware feels having to wait to do any announcements about OSX untill sales start doing really well, then I'm afraid we have to wait months and month's, and then again the devellopment and debugging time (check the release dates).

I'm not asking for much...
A 100% promise of OSX support as one of the main targets would be really something for me

Wasn't there a Messe?

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2005-04-03 22:22 ]

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:06 am

BTW, wasn't the Virus also DSP based? (I should know, I know).
Is it the DSP power then that makes the Virus so poly and multi (and hardware consequences of course)?

All VA synths are DSP based. In that respect these new ASB's don't differ in any way from a Virus, a Nord or a K-Station, to name but a few. (I think most VA's used Motorola chips though). So yes, CWA has a problem with competition offering way more voices and multitimbrality for a slightly higher price (I don't know why everybody else can pull it off but CWA can't. Perhaps their algorythms aren't so precise). If the price could come down to about 500 Euro though they would really place themselves in another market segment.

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2005-04-04 04:08 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:02 am

I don't think the virus is comparable to this at all, as its definately costlier and in the next bracket up for VA synths even in the classic series. A used Virus-A might be comparable in cost but its only 2 oscs per voice and is used (and only 16 poly with 2 oscs each). Same perhaps for a used Nord Lead (1). Alesis ION is also not quite comparable to these since it has a keyboard, although its 8-voice poly and price fall right next to these boxes and so its close. The Novation K-series is a decent comparison too, the a-station having relatively little hands-on ability in a rack format. Let's just hope that Creamware has the same quality converters carried over to this hardware so that it does sit firmly in the Alesis/Access line of fire rather than trying to compete with the lower end in Novation's lineup.

suthnear · Post by **suthnear** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:11 am

While these look pretty tasty, if there isn't any host integration (i.e. the remote software just runs alongside whatever host you might be using) then I think that creamware may well have misread prevailing market trends.

At the very least, the remote software should be able to run inside the host (even if it's only sending midi ccs/sysex) as well as on its own. But ideally, the remote software running inside the host should expose all the asb's parameters for the purposes of automation and report its latency for sample accurate playback. Ah well, I can dream

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:35 am

its not lioke osx users cant use this, it does offer standard midi in/outs.

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 8:58 am

Echos:

http://www.createdigitalmusic.com/index ... &Itemid=44

http://www.onetonnemusic.com/mt-static/ ... to_re.html

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/04/ ... -5-no.html

Man-Machine · Post by **Man-Machine** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:59 am

These are great news! I love Creamware vintage emulations and I have them all. These seem like awsome products but I think they're overpriced though. I don't understand why $1000 when there's the Alesis Micron that sounds so good and does so much for less than $500. It's hard to believe that it costs twice as much as the Micron to manufacture these things. And the sound engine R&D was paid off anyway because these synths already existed in software...

They also should make the line available also as rack format. I never understood tabletop synths anyway. Keyboards on stands are out of the way and so are rackmounts. If you have a few tabletop synths where do you keep them without being on your way? You gotta have lots of desktop space but then it might be hard to reach them. I just think they're cumbersome to me...

______________
L8ter Oscill8ters!

[ This Message was edited by: Man-Machine on 2005-04-04 11:16 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:08 am

yep, price isn't really aligned with competitor offering.

For 1000$ i'd get a NOAH for sure!

Well, they still look pretty coOl

Hope they sell BUNCH of those...

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:36 am

Yep, rack unit with knobs would have been nice - like the old Super-Jupiter programmer module... But the real question is how they integrate. Are they just hardware boxes ? Have to wait & see.

phatbob · Post by **phatbob** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:30 am

Why does Creamware keep investing in everything *except* the music product which has proved the most viable and successful ?

So true.
E.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:39 am

the thing is that they probably had to invest very little in the ASB's because they didn't have to develop anything new (the plugins were already written, the development payd for).

Man-Machine · Post by **Man-Machine** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:47 am

That's why I don't understand the $1000 tag. The manufacturing costs can't be that much when you have Alesis sell a very competent synth like the Micron for $399. Unless they're using some very rare and expensive south american wood

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:02 pm

Huh? These things are dirt cheap compared to those Virus boxes. I think they're very reasonable.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:07 pm

On 2005-04-04 12:47, Man-Machine wrote:
That's why I don't understand the $1000 tag. The manufacturing costs can't be that much when you have Alesis sell a very competent synth like the Micron for $399. Unless they're using some very rare and expensive south american wood

the micron has two sliders and 3 knobs...

Man-Machine · Post by **Man-Machine** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:16 pm

But do you think a dozen more knobs explain the $600 difference? Also, the Micron has a keyboard which is even more expensive to manufacture than a dozen knobs. It's 8 voices multitimbral, a dozen of different filters, mini-sequencer built in, vocoder and a few other tricks. Even though it doesn't emulate any classics specifically it does analogue very well. I think these synths should definitely be cheaper in comparison but I guess it must be a German/Euro thing then. American synth makers like Alesis can probably get away with cheaper products...

PS: Sorry for all the edits, I only have a small work break and need to type fast!

_________________
L8ter Oscill8ters!

[ This Message was edited by: Man-Machine on 2005-04-04 14:02 ]

breitner · Post by **breitner** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:46 pm

On 2005-04-02 15:44, erminardi wrote:

why not an external empty midi controller for the user that have already Minimax or other emulations?

good work guys!

I use the Behringer BCR2000. Works excellent. And is cheap!! Settings can be stored in Scope. Connections are made using Midi-OX.

...but don't leave the "pulsarians" alone