XLN Life

[Caine123]

I think we can all relax a bit:
https://support.xlnaudio.com/hc/en-us/a ... gs-Period-

yes thats what all companies state mostly and then "oooops"

[enCiphered]

I see absolutely no reason to relax.

It has come to our attention that..

So XLN, you've noticed it, probably through this thread, but you don't think it's necessary to provide a brief statement here as well? I don´t like companies that silently monitor but are too arrogant for direct communication.

[Viktor [TUC]]

I've talked to them about it and they replied to me, then I posted that here. I see no reason to suspect cowardice.

[Caine123]

companies "always" want the best for their customers. trust them. they would never do something not in your interest!!!




*irony*

[enCiphered]

I've talked to them about it and they replied to me, then I posted that here. I see no reason to suspect cowardice.

Sorry Viktor, I don´t believe they don´t monitor this thread.

This:
a) a non-exclusive, irrevocable, free-of-charge, worldwide, perpetual, transferable, sublicensable license to access, analyze, copy, store, modify, create derivatives from, make available to the public and otherwise use, in any manner and media, all Created Music Work and any parts thereof, including but not limited to any recordings, stems, loops, sounds, samples, presets, MIDI files and underlying compositions (if any), and any other material generated by the Customer in connection with the use of the Software;
b) to the extent applicable and permittable under applicable law, you waive any so-called “moral rights” in relation to the license in paragraph 6(7) a) above;
c) for the avoidance of doubt, paragraph 6(7) a) and b) above shall apply also to Created Music Work created by the Customer during the Trial Period, regardless of whether the Customer exercises its right to withdraw in accordance with paragraph 5 above.

doesn't match up at all with what they just published. I don´t trust them

[Michael L]

I don´t trust them

I am also skeptical they made such a big change to their plans, overnight.

Their new Terms still says, "XLN Audio requires a limited license...including but not limited to making copies" of the Created Music Work, and their Terms can quickly change again:

"XLN Audio may from time to time, on its own discretion, modify these Terms, the Production Description or any additional terms that apply to the Webshop or the Software. You will be notified regarding any modifications to these Terms by email or through our Website. Changes will not apply retroactively and will become effective immediately after they are posted to our Website, unless otherwise required by mandatory law."

[FarleyCZ]

So far this feels to me like their lawyer's f*ckup. They probably just asked him: "Pls make sure we're safe in terms of copyright on the cloud bit." ...and he overdid it. Unfortunately 2023 is not a good year for such f*ckups as several companies in the space broke the customer trust already.

What I'm more concerned, though, is that this product doesn't make sense financially. Actually, and I hate to say this, some kind of tiiiiny subscription (like 2 USD/month or something) would make sense here much more. There will be an ever-growing webservice bill arriving at XLN's headquarters every month. (As is, it might explain the higher pricetag, but still...)

I bought it. I like the concept. It's essentially streamlining a process ambient music producers were doing with field recorders for ages. But note to myself: Don't buy stuff right away. Stop by KVR first to see what's up. If I saw these T&C's first, I'd wait for sure.

[mxbf]

ill buy it when 1/2 time is added to the tempo section or somewhere like that. they hand these 150 dollar off coupons out to talentless influencer bum hacks who dont even know how to use the f**king plugin and use it for 5 minutes then never touch it again, handouts like candy. f**k that. add the half time feature! then ill pay 50 dollars for it! andrew huang can rot in hell for all i care. these bums just shill for 20 minutes a month and make an entire months salary X5 and then get sent 100 free synths and plugins for their worthless efforts. yes, worthless. i'll say it, yes. worthless. yes. affirmative. confirmed. yes. worthless. did i stutter!?

Amazing plugin!

[FarleyCZ]

I agree wit this sentiment.
...but I still like the plugin.

[SLiC]

Fortunately I don't like the plug anyway so the legal side is moot!

[aMUSEd]

This is great fun
I hope they will release a bigger sample/presets pack to go with though - making my own stuff is fun but I would also like more interesting sounds than my own farts (ie stuff not just from my life but the whole world) to draw on

[wasi]

I really like it too. I actually get more interesting results using melodic content rather than rhythmic.

I don't understand the point of the cloud element though. It doesn't really seem add any value, unless they're doing the actual number crunching for the slicing in the cloud (at which point the result strikes me as rather modest). Direct sync via WLAN or then just any cloud-storage tie-in would have been more than sufficient IMO. I wonder if it's simply to protect their machine learning algos from reverse engineering.

It's certainly a natural progression from XO to use the categorization algos on loop slices (and those weren't in the cloud either, so why now?).

You could somewhat emulate the results with something like Microtonic and Redux (or any other sampler with a loop-slicing workflow). Microtonic for the random beats and Redux for the slicing. You wouldn't get the slice 'grouping' though.

Anyway, the bumpy intro notwithstanding, this is a very innovative plugin IMO. You won't get these results from this simple workflow anywhere else.

[Ah_Dziz]

I'm not interested enough to really look at a demo. This might be cool for anyone that's never had a portable recorder and learned to use a sampler. This is the sort of thing people have been using samplers for for 35 years at least. Automatically making a kit out of a quick snippet of audio could be a handy tool for people in a hurry but I don't see much in the way of setting up how the audio is divided and then processed to make it percussive. Does it modify the audio beyond simple truncation and amp/pitch envelope? Does it have any method of cleaning up input audio? Does it have more advanced sample playback modes to facilitate a greater variation of sound from the input? Making an "AI" drum programmer seems like overkill for a simple sample playback system. If it had a crazy deep sample manipulation engine underneath the hood and a list of "sounds" one wanted generated from the source audio and then the proper tools to realize those "sounds" in a reliable fashion it might make more sense to rely on AI. I'd rather spend a couple minutes in a waveform view when I want to make some new drums from old audio

[zvenx]

This for me is definitely my plugin of 2023..

rsp

[wasi]

I'm not interested enough to really look at a demo. This might be cool for anyone that's never had a portable recorder and learned to use a sampler. This is the sort of thing people have been using samplers for for 35 years at least. Automatically making a kit out of a quick snippet of audio could be a handy tool for people in a hurry but I don't see much in the way of setting up how the audio is divided and then processed to make it percussive.

Well maybe you should try it rather than speculate. You can adjust the slices manually in one of the more accessible ways I've seen in a sampler and then process but IMO it's more about the happy accidents and exploring your loop rather than taking loop X and slicing it with a clear idea of what you want. Obviously a sampler will be a more direct way to that result than something like this.

Does it modify the audio beyond simple truncation and amp/pitch envelope? Does it have any method of cleaning up input audio? Does it have more advanced sample playback modes to facilitate a greater variation of sound from the input?

It's not a sampler. It's a loop-mangler or something like that if you want. But really, you should try it, seeing as you're interested enough to write an entire paragraph about it with no experience with it of your own. No offense.

Making an "AI" drum programmer seems like overkill for a simple sample playback system.

Indeed, if that's what it was, it would be. It would also be a totally stupid way to make an analog synth. Luckily it's neither.

If it had a crazy deep sample manipulation engine underneath the hood and a list of "sounds" one wanted generated from the source audio and then the proper tools to realize those "sounds" in a reliable fashion it might make more sense to rely on AI. I'd rather spend a couple minutes in a waveform view when I want to make some new drums from old audio

Like I said, if you want a classic sampler with a classic sampler workflow for classic sampler results, you're better off with a classic sampler. I'm confused as to why you deduced from anything written about it that this was a classic sampler. Personally though, I agree it would greatly benefit from more extensive per-slice effects chains like Redux or Bitwig/Ableton drum racks.

My understanding at this point is it analyzes the loop, slices it, categorizes the slices, adds some processing and plays them back with a Euclidian beat generator. The slices, the beat and the processing can be manipulated in real time and saved, or manually adjusted (except the beat I think). Everything can be exported (stems, midi, full mix). I suspect they are checking which beats get used more often to teach the system to make better beats. I sure hope so because that would probably be the key benefit of machine learning here. Sonic Charge did that with the Microtonic Patternarium for years and it greatly benefited MicroTonic.

Anyway, you should give it a try, but don't approach it like a sampler. It's probably closer to the "Beatspace" plugin for Microtonic than a sampler, it just happens to use the loops you feed it rather than a synth engine. Yes there are some seemingly glaring omissions if you're used to working with slices but XLN are obviously out on a limb here so I'll cut them some slack.