Hi everyone,

I used to enjoy playing with 7Aliens' Catanya. I have since noticed the following "super-arps" emerge

Nora
BlueArp
Cream
Sundog Studio
Cthulu

but haven't tried them out yet. One reason is that my free time is scarce so I am trying not to take on every learning curve which comes my way (especially while I'm still learning Sonar X3e).

Another is that I'd first like to hear the opinions of other users about how well (or poorly) these instruments have worked as they are supposed to within X3e. I have read on other forums that some of these work better in some DAWs than others, so I don't take for granted they'll all work fine in X3e.

What have your experiences been?

Among other things, I'd like to know if people have managed to print the output of these as recorded midi -- a really cool feature, Catanya could do that in my old DAW, Acid Pro 7, sometimes without crashing even!

Anyway, I'd be grateful for views.

 

I use cthulu on a few of my projects and I like it alot, and I haven't yet taken it to its full potential. It has been rock solid in X3e, even with multiple instances. I haven't used it in platinum yet.

Setting it up involves adding a midi and an audio tracks for cthulu. The midi track is for feeding triggers or chords into Cthulu ( you can assign complex chords to single midi trigger notes, or just feed fully fingered chords). The audio track is needed so that Cthulu can derive timing, and to route Cthulu's sine wave based voice for troubleshooting.

You then create a midi and audio tracks for your softsynth. The softsynth's midi tracks input will need to be set to Cthulu's midi output, which will show up as an input device. You also need to click the input echo button on the softsynth's midi track to permanently enable it. If you don't hear output, this is most likely the culprit.

You can easily record Cthulu's midi output by simply hitting the record buttton on the softsynth's midi track. You can also send prerecorded chord to Cthulu by putting a midi clip into Cthulu's mdi track.

I find it intuitive to use, but the more time you spend with it and the manual the more you can get out of it.

Edit: I've started a new project and began using it with platinum. No problems so far.

Many thanks , JS516! It would have taken me potentially a very long time to have figured that out. Much obliged!

Can anyone comment on any of the other arps?

Hi, lingyai!  Lawajava just told me about Nora.... she is Awesome!!!!  I just tried out the demo and a string section from Albion ONE... works like a charm.  After stumbling around for a half hour, finally figured out how simple it is (midi keyboard to Nora with her output to Albion input... done...) Instant riffs... This is the first really understandable thing I've tried... have cream (works but...gui...) and chitulu... but guess none speak to me... Nora is gonna become my favorite string sqeeze...
 

Vastman
Hi, lingyai!  Lawajava just told me about Nora.... she is Awesome!!!!  I just tried out the demo and a string section from Albion ONE... works like a charm.  After stumbling around for a half hour, finally figured out how simple it is (midi keyboard to Nora with her output to Albion input... done...) Instant riffs... This is the first really understandable thing I've tried... have cream (works but...gui...) and chitulu... but guess none speak to me... Nora is gonna become my favorite string sqeeze...
 

Computer Music Mag have just added NoraCM to their rota of plugins. I couldn't make it work at first (the usual confusion of routing the output of the source plugin to the driven plugin rather than to itself) but once I figured it out I was well impressed. I have Cthulu but I don't overly like it - I must give it another go though - but Nora is a good'un.

Grum.

Hi,
 
I tried to use Cream with Sonar X3, and encountered a lot of issues..it would usually crash Sonar. As I recall Noel said it was something to do with a midi race condition, which was meant to be addressed in X3e, but i still had issues so gave up on it (could have been cream I guess, but it worked fine in reaper).
 
The Kingston update is meant to resolve midi crosstalk once and for all, but I can't test that .. Be interested to hear if anyone else has tried it.

MattyBoy
Hi,
 
I tried to use Cream with Sonar X3, and encountered a lot of issues..it would usually crash Sonar. As I recall Noel said it was something to do with a midi race condition, which was meant to be addressed in X3e, but i still had issues so gave up on it (could have been cream I guess, but it worked fine in reaper).
 
The Kingston update is meant to resolve midi crosstalk once and for all, but I can't test that .. Be interested to hear if anyone else has tried it.

Hi, Mattyboy... I have cream but couldn't really get into the gui... I'll give it a try again this weekend.  The latest rolling update has continued to work on midi so I'd give that a try if i were you.  Lots more attention to midi since X3. I'll give it a try and report back.  You should consider the upgrade for $80 which gives you a year of Platinum rolling updates. It's less than half price!

Vastman
You should consider the upgrade for $80 which gives you a year of Platinum rolling updates. It's less than half price!

Not to mention that you also get about 300$ worth of XLN drums, if you care about that sort of thing.
 

Yes, will upgrade at some point I'm sure..I like the monthly release cycle as I think it allows more responsive development, and seems to be bringing more emphasis on bug fixes and optimisations for the core features...nice work bakers!
 
Would love to hear from anyone if they still have midi crosstalk woes, or crashes with vsts that create midi output. Hopefully, Kingston is the charm.