Updated: March 10, 1999

While I haven't had a chance to review all of the new version 1.1, here are my first impressions.

Availability and Installation

Currently, the v1.1 CD is available at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. Soon, Creamware will be sending CDs out to dealers internationally.

Also, it is available for download at Creamware's site, though be warned that it is about an 80mb download.

If you downloaded the files and are having problems installing, one of the files may have been corrupted during download. Several people have complained about this. The symptom is that your installation will slow down to a crawl and then never finish. Guy Eastwood has provided the following advice for figuring out which file was corrupted:
* when the installations reaches the 'grind point' switch to the dir you're installing FROM
* create a new dir in there called backup or whatever you want
* move the setup files into the new dir one by one.. if you're @ 70% or more you can move the first 20 files no problem I'd think
* DO NOT move the EXE file .. this will always give an error
* when a setup.Wxx file gives an error, THIS is the corrupt file (as win can't move it cos it's open)
* re-download this file & replace it
* redo the install

Some folks have recommended the GetRight FTP utility for more error-free downloads.

Efficiency

In general, the system seems more efficient. Some synths have lower DSP requirements (as described below). It seems that I'm able to increase the DSP load higher before receiving "Can't add DSP atom" errors. It is obvious that some internal DSP components have changed as lots of numbers on the DSP usage tests are subtly different now (some lower, some higher, but definitely an overall reduction).

The memory usage seems lower in general, but I haven't done any hard tests. I'm hoping that Martin Saletag will update his memory charts, so we can confirm Creamware's claim of 20-40% reduction in memory usage.

In general, I still find CPU usage to be high. With a complex project loaded, and the Big Mixer running with its meters, etc, the system still seems sluggish. Also, parameter responsiveness to knob turning (and MIDI control) still seems poor. Ingo at Creamware announced on Mar 8, 1999 that they accidentally left out a new version of a critical DLL which dramatically decreases the CPU usage of the Big Mixer meters, etc. Ingo said "the CPU load was drastically decreased, in my measurement to 20 - 30% of what it was before. In addition it took less CPU power when the HDR software was running with high CPU load". A new patch will be available soon.

Some Bug Fixes

Some bugs have been fixed. Rembert @ Creamware gave me a big update on the bug list, and I've integrated his comments. On my first runthrough, I noticed the following bugs were fixed: the mono wave file bug (played back on left channel only), clipping off the first bit of a wave file, voice allocation issues, bypass buttons not working from Big Mixer, not being able to open the DSP Load drawer.

I saw a couple new bugs, but they were mostly trivial. For example, the UKNOW 007 synth, and the Sample Player F demand to always be on top.

WinStart.pro

The windows task bar now shows a Pulsar icon in the tray, providing access to the Pulsar samplerate settings, even when the Pulsar UI is not running. This lets you modify the sample rate for WinStart.pro without having to run Pulsar.

Also, you can now set the current Pulsar project to become the new WinStart.pro from the Pulsar Settings dialog.

Synths

The voice allocation bug is fixed. This means that given enough polyphony, playing a note twice in a row doesn't cause the first to be cut off. Consecutive triggered notes each get their own voice (as they should!) This makes the synths so much more usable.

Unfortunately, the voice stealing latency bug is still present (as described in the MIDI performance article). The good news is that, since the voice allocation problems are fixed, there is no longer such a problem with the voice-stealing-jitter (as the voice allocator now chooses more sensible notes to steal).

Creamware has improved the efficiency of some of the synths. This results in higher total possible polyphony. Here is the chart for v1.0.x, and here is the new chart. For example, previously the maximum polyphony for Blue Synth in a simple project was 7 voices, while in v1.1 it is 9 voices.

Some of the synths have new presets (BlueSynth, miniscope, miniscope MKII). I have uploaded the new preset lists to the files page.

The new UKNOW 007 synth looks a lot like a Juno-106, and sounds pretty nice.

Big Mixer Stuff

There is a new version of the Big Mixer called Big Mixer V2. The Big Mixer has channel linking - adjacent channels may be linked. Linked channels share gain, volume, mute, solo, opposite pan settings, EQ, monitor pan and level. See picture.

Modular Stuff

Wow! This is the most exciting part of the update for me.

A new FM Operator Oscillator with feedback allows for some great FM synths. Included are two new modular patches FM Start and FM Classics both with lots of excellent presets.

A new Wave Oscillator and MIDI Voice Control Sampler allowing you to build your own wave-based sample players. You can drag wave files from the File Browser window right into the Oscillator, and then immediately play it across your keyboard. Cool! Only the new MVC Sampler can be used with the the Wave Oscillator - no big deal, but it doesn't provide portamento.

A new ring mod unit.

A new MIDI Voice Control V2 unit, with a slightly modified layout. The portamento settings were moved into a separate window (pops up when you click on the portamento button).

Sample Player Updates

The speed of access on Akai CD-ROMs is dramatically improved. I used to go crazy waiting for the directory listings from Akai format CDs to load. This is so much better that it's no longer an issue at all. Similarly, loading sample patches is much faster.

The notable new feature is the ability to copy/paste Akai sample programs from CD to your hard disk. You perform the copy and paste operations from the File Browser window.

New device modules

The following drivers are now included: 24 bit Wave source/dest, 24 bit ASIO source/dest, 16 channel interleaved Wave source/dest.

I haven't had a chance to try these yet.

New Effects

There is a new mono gate insert effect, with pretty nice control parameters. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

Preset-List editor

The preset-list editor has been modified a little bit. The change is purely one of user interface. Instead of clicking in the filename area and typing a name, then clicking save. Now, you click "save", it asks you if you want to overwrite the current preset, and if you say no, it creates a new preset called "untitled" at the end of the list, which you then have to go and rename, by clicking on the name. It doesn't really seem to be an improvement to me...

The Manual

The manual is improved to more closely correspond with reality. As an evolving product, there are already some differences between the manual and the new version. (e.g. the MVC V2 is not included). But it really seems much better than before.

Note that the picture of the "keyboard mixer" has been removed, so that may have been put on hold indefinitely.