Sound Search Nightmare

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I am on quest to setup a new live rig, without bloated software VST’s. All the sounds I like are CPU intensive,i.g. Omnisphere. VSL products, and my newest love…Korg Trinity. This is nothing new in this forum, and we all have struggled with the bloat.

I spent many hours to get a CPU friendly “decent” DX7 sound, and even took a deep dive into the Yamaha chipset rabbit hole.
And yes, playing live doesn’t always need the best of the best, but I look for what makes me feel, respond, and hear as it is the real thing. I’ve spent many years searching for a Hammond that gives me the real feel. That is why I started the organ thread, to share new ideas.

What I came across was a barely used rompler, Air Tech Xpand! I never took a dive into the many presets until a few days ago. The sounds were very good, and it is CPU friendly. The DX7 was very believable, as were many other presets.
I’ve used several romplers, and I guess I overlooked these jewels while going after the new pretty VST’s.
I don’t have any Elon Musk super computers, which also limits my wants.

Cheers

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I love Xpand2. It’s got great sounds, inexpensive, and light on resources.

The only issue I have is with the Xpand2 VST3 plugin. The UI works fine the first time you open it. If you close then reopen the UI, many of the controls are frozen and unresponsive. Perhaps something that @brad could take a look at. Air Music Technology’s Structure 2 ROMpler has the same issue.

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If you have an iPad Pro, GSI has a great piano app, IKmm has a B-3x app, NeoSoul keys has an app, and to sample O3 sounds and map (with velocity all done within the app) can be done using Chameleon app by 4pockets, AUM being the host, you can do a lot! I have played gigs with a controller a control surface and an iPad with no worries about CPU overload and sounds pristine. When I sub in for other bands, this is my go-to setup.

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I’ve reproduced this with the demo version. Best I can tell it’s a plugin issue and I’ve contacted AIR to see if they can help.

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I really appreciate that, Brad. Thank you.

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Hi @bpeterson1123 ,

I’ve just been testing this some more and this might be related to Tools → Options → General → User Interface → HiDPI User Interface.

In my testing:

  • when set to “Enabled” the problem happens
  • when set to “Enabled and Upscale Plugins” the problem doesn’t happen.

When you’ve got a moment, could you please confirm if you’re seeing the same behaviour.

Brad

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Yes, I am seeing the same thing. I can change my setting to Enabled and Upscale, but I recall that I had other issues with this setting using other plugins.

Is this expected behavior with the Enabled setting, or an issue with the AIR plugins?

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I now remember why I had not used the “Enabled and Upscaled” option. It causes my Waves Chris Lord CLA effects plugin controls to disappear. Basically, I get a blank window with missing sliders, tabs and buttons. So I don’t believe this workaround will work for me.

@brad, has there been any response from AIR regarding the problem you reported?

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I get this with Xpand2, but only if I use the 64 bit version. Using the 32 bit one, the UI doesn’t freeze. YMMV!

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Last I heard they were looking into it - I think that was last week.