Atomic Feature Request

[glokraw]

Hi Atomic users!

I have started this thread for you to add features you would like to see on the next version of Atomic. We will consider all entries.

Thanx!

Tim

Atomic sounds so good, that I think Boris slipped you a round version of Enceladus
Maybe you are in cahoots with him? Synths like this are what economic stimulous packages are all about! For a suggestion, how about when the mouse is over a knob, that the a and z keys can be pressed to increase or decrease the value at the knob?
Or perhaps the mouse scrollwheel to do the same? Cheers

[tconrardy]

Maybe you are in cahoots with him?

Yep..you bet!! Boris is a brilliant synth designer. It is a pleasure working with him.

Tim

[tconrardy]

From a support mail:

Hi Tim,

Congratulations on your new Product "Atomic", imho it's really
a masterpiece and my personal highlight for 2008 so far.
A great GUI, a great Synth, great Presets and most of all
an inspiring Sequencer with lots of Possibilities.
Allthough I didn't expected anything (going...Well, who needs just
another sequencer... - coundn't be more wrong) as I downloaded
the demo, after the first try I was instantly blown away and bought
it on the spot.
I integrated Atomic in NI Kore 2, assigned every possible Parameter
to Kore's Hardware Controllers, also used the Midi-Out Capabilities
of Atomic inside Kore for Layering, and it works like a charm.
(Kore uses Host-Automation for Controller-Assigning instead of Midi).

While I was fooling around with my setup, two things came to my mind,
which I think could eventually improve even more the RealTime Playing.
So may I suggest these two Points for an upcoming Update:

One thing I like is to play with the step/seq control, sometimes even
going down to 1-3 Steps.
I think it would be great, to have a dedicated Control to shift this
"looped" Portion around (e.g. if Steps 1,2,3 are selected, then to
move it e.g to steps 4,5,6), inother words, to shift the start
of the sequence around.

The second thing is, I'd like to see the buttons "seq" and "rtrig"
to be
automatible, especially for RealTime Tweaking.
With "seq" switchable via a Hardware Controller there would then be
the Possibility to switch between the pure Synthsound, normal ARP Mode,
sequenced ARP Mode and the Sequencer Mode, without reaching for the mouse.

Ok, enough said...
Hats off to you and Boris K

Best regards,
Frank Lozancic

Tim

[Gucky]

Hi Tim,
I am a big fan of the Atomic. Congratulations!

For a new version I would like to have an other preset manager.
At the moment the sequencer line and the synth sound is stored in one preset.
I think it would be better to seperate sequencer line presets and synth presets. Then it would be possible to play the same sequencer line with different sounds only by changing the synth presets. So I could check out what synth sound is the best for my sequence.
What do you think about it?

Could it be that the Atomic has an other and better sounds engine as the Encaladus has? For my ears sounds the Atomic much better.

[tconrardy]

Hi Tim,
I am a big fan of the Atomic. Congratulations!

For a new version I would like to have an other preset manager.
At the moment the sequencer line and the synth sound is stored in one preset.
I think it would be better to seperate sequencer line presets and synth presets. Then it would be possible to play the same sequencer line with different sounds only by changing the synth presets. So I could check out what synth sound is the best for my sequence.
What do you think about it?

Could it be that the Atomic has an other and better sounds engine as the Encaladus has? For my ears sounds the Atomic much better.

Thanks for the kudos! A workaround could be to have the MIDI OUT of one Atomic effecting the input of another Atomic and just turn off the sequencer on the second Atomic. ..and yes..Boris has been improving his synth stuff. But the synth in Atomic is a bit simpler then Enceladus.

Thanks for the ideas..we would have to see if that is possible in the SE world

Tim

[Gucky]

Hi Tim,
thanks for your answer.
Yes, Atomic is simpler than Enceladus. But for my ears is sound much more
"organic". While hearing the Enceladus demo I am thinking more on "plastic" (in positive sense)sound.
I would buy a big synth with the Atomic sound engine.
I hope for such a synth in the future.

[swonderme]

Unless I'm missing something (played with for about an hour last night) it seems that when you turn off a step (mute) it doesn't leave a space there (rhythmically).....it just pretends that that step isn't there and makes the pattern shorter. I would love it if I could turn off steps and have the sequence leave empty space there so I could make more rhythmic patterns. I might be wrong on this though, I will test it more thoroughly when I get home tonight.

I love the whole thing though. Really fun and creative.

[tconrardy]

Unless I'm missing something (played with for about an hour last night) it seems that when you turn off a step (mute) it doesn't leave a space there (rhythmically).....it just pretends that that step isn't there and makes the pattern shorter. I would love it if I could turn off steps and have the sequence leave empty space there so I could make more rhythmic patterns.

I love the whole thing though. Really fun and creative.

It does turn off the step, and it does make a space rhythmically. At least in my experiments. Can you give an example?

Tim

[swonderme]

Hi,

I was actually editing my post as you typed yours! You are correct! I must have been running it too fast last night when I tried it out....and/or too excited by all the other cool things it does. For some reason I thought it was just removing, not muting, the step.

Thanks for a great tool!


EDIT 1: I would second some of the other suggestions about having separate presets for synth vs. sequencer. Also song mode or multiple patterns so you could have multiple switchable patterns for each song.

EDIT 2: The other thing I'm wondering (which may already be possible, please correct me if it is) is if you could assign each step to a different midi out channel so you could have one sequence driving multiple synths/vsti's. That would be really awesome. I will see if I can find a way to do it tonight as well. I hope it does!

[tconrardy]

The other thing I'm wondering (which may already be possible, please correct me if it is) is if you could assign each step to a different midi out channel so you could have one sequence driving multiple synths/vsti's. That would be really awesome. I will see if I can find a way to do it tonight as well. I hope it does!

I am afraid that Atomic only does one midi channel at a time, although you could have several instances of it going to several vst's. You can turn the synth off on atomic by going to synth view, and turning the vel(volume) knob to zero, which saves CPU.

however, if you want to try that kind of trick, you could always install Steem and ISEQ from my atari site..its free! See sig, and go to software

http://tamw.atari-users.net/grid.htm
http://tamw.atari-users.net/steem.htm

Tim

[swonderme]

I am afraid that Atomic only does one midi channel at a time, although you could have several instances of it going to several vst's. You can turn the synth off on atomic by going to synth view, and turning the vel(volume) knob to zero, which saves CPU.

however, if you want to try that kind of trick, you could always install Steem and ISEQ from my atari site..its free! See sig, and go to software

http://tamw.atari-users.net/grid.htm
http://tamw.atari-users.net/steem.htm

Tim

Thanks for the links. I'll check those out later.

Yeah, I found out that there wasn't multiple midi outs. I did use multiple Atomics each controlling a different synth and then I muted different/opposing steps across each Atomic and was able to get some cool things happening. Not quite as elegant as if you could put each step on it's own midi channel, but still really fun. Maybe one day you guys will do a version with a selectable midi-out for each step But I love it just as it is anyway. Really fun to layer in drums and percussion too!

I'm not even a synth/electronic guy (guitar guy) and I'm just totally fascinated by this thing!

[mbncp]

[..]

[kosmisch]

Very pleased with Atomic.
Just want to second the wishes to be able to save patterns, and a "song" mode where patters can be combined (yes, I know you can record MIDI etc but having these features in the Atomic sequencer itself would save much time and effort and make it much more complete as a composing tool). That's all that's missing from my experience. And those features are more important than the synth part.

(And maybe a 32 step version).

Thanks again for a great product!
EDIT: It would also be cool to from Atomic be able to save/export the pattern as midi directly!

[kosmisch]

Addition: It would be very helpful if the seminote knobs showed the value when controlled by an external MIDI source, just like it does when you control it with the mouse. Maybe already said, but worth saying again!

[emdot_ambient]

New Atomic user as well. I really like the sound of the built-in synth and FX. I tried it out on some other VST instruments...and just decided that Atomic's built-in synth sounds best. Still haven't tried running it to hardware synths, though.

Here's some of my wish list [Not sure if of this exists already, I haven't read the manual completely]:

1 - Ability to save the Sequence pattern (semitone, velocity and gate), the Synth (all the synth parameters plus FX) and the rhythm grid pattern independently of each other. So like I'm programming a new preset and come up with a nice sequence but the synth sound kind of sucks...no problem, the synth for the Crystal Lake preset is amazing, I'll just import that into my new preset.

2 - Some easy way to reset the semitone/velocity/gate to a default position...like double clicking on them. Semitone would go back to 00, velocity and gate to the 12:00 position or whatever.

3a - New sequencer playback mode...not sure what to call it, but you'd be able to set the # of steps in the cycle. The sequencer would then play that many notes starting at step 1. Then it would play the same number again, but this time starting at step 2. So you'd get a playback pattern of:

1, 2, 3, 4
2, 3, 4, 5
3, 4, 5, 6
.
.
.
13, 14, 15, 16
14, 15, 16, 1
15, 16, 1, 2

etc.

3b - New sequencer playback mode...Pong. The sequence begins at step 1, then plays the last step in the sequence, then step one again, then the last step in the sequence minus one. So with a four note cycle, it would play:

1, 4, 1, 3, 1, 2 and then repeats.

You can play with ideas like that all day (like a combination of both the above).

4 - MIDI Learn! I really love the old Right Click, select MIDI Learn, twiddle a knob kind of CC assignment.

5 - Ability to assign Gate and Velocity knobs to something other than Gate and Velocity. Sequencing filter and some envelope stuff is good.