Nothing like striking while the iris is hot http://www.groove3.com/str/iris-explained.html $19.99

lol

There's also  http://streamworksaudio.com/products/FA_iZotope_Iris   The fast approach to Iris

dubdisciple


i find it fascinating how different the reaction to this synth is contrasted to forums that have a greater diversity of musical styles. 

Yeah, we're all just a bunch of Rubes'
 
I would say, (IMNSHO) if you're not a sound designer? I echo the comments of others who've said, why not use any one of the myriad good synths out there already? Especially since we all own several... I don't need to grab a sample and twiddle this, and tweak that? I mean, "it's a synth?" Load it, and play it... And no I'm not "just a guitarist?" I play guitar (guilty) but I'm a pretty decent keys player too? I'm sure things like this are cool for some, but for most? People don't want to take (read waste) the time to get in to the guts of an interface to tweak a particular synth sound when there are "thousands" of excellent synths out there? And again, many of us have several good synths already?
 
It's just an opinion, everyone has one, and like noses? They all smell...
 
And P.S.? I'm no Izotope bigot... I have Ozone 3 and 4, and Alloy, and RX. I am a HUGE fan of Izotope SW! They rock, and they rock "HARD!" I believe Izotope makes some of the best, most essential plugs out there.
 
But it's not like getting a really really nice GUITAR! LOL!

wasn't trying to imply the people here are rubes or any other derogatory term.  Just that this forum attracts a different crowd than say the Ableton forum or a drum and bass forum.  I play guitar as well so i certainly have nothing against them. 

As for questions like "why not use any one of the myriad good synths out there already?" for the same reason that new guitars, amps etc are being made.  Someone will always think of some slight difference.  i own more than one guitar because they are different. Try as I may I certainly cannot make Z3ta do what Fm8 or the reverse. If you have no need to resample, you obviously have no need for synths that do, but there are whole genres of music that could not exist without such tweaking.


I have no idea what the future holds for Iris, but no one would have thought that the kick drum from the Roland 808 would be the single most common kick sound in pop music  40 years ago. I'm sure nobody thought guys like Skrillex would be winning Grammy's for what would have been considered formless noise not too long ago

No I didn't mean you were implying that we're all Rubes'? I'm saying we are :-) LOL! And there's no guitar, like a new "really nice" guitar! :-D If you don't play guitar? You just can't understand... All of those keyboard forums just don't get it. Guitars rule? Keyboards drewl...

If you can't sound design, you wouldn't understand.

Guitars are so, 20th century.

I feel safe in saying that after using the full version and library for one day this is the best and easiest sound design tool I have ever seen. And that no one else is going to use it is just better for those of us who understand that. IE - we have an edge over the competition.

Freddie H

I laugh so I almost peed in my pants... useful sounds....not... hahahaha...
perhaps useful if you into making songs to the neighbours dogs..... whooling.... hahaha
 
Sure I get the idea but I have Omnisphere and Spectrasonic has done this already thousand times better and more sophisticated and advanced then this product. If you don't have check out Omnisphere I recommend you do...

they aren't "comparable" , the whole point is to make something everyone else *ISN'T* using as a default setting on a workstation etc. which is what I feel a lot of this things are.. nexus as well I can say the same, sure you can tweak the sounds / filtering.. but if you built sounds from scratch then thats more the angle to look at it.

if your not one for tweaking sounds and doing a bit of work to get something NOT run of the mill, then it's probably not aimed at you.


do you use reaktor ? thats along the same paradigm also.. the problem with certain synths is they are too well known / used.. much like synth sounds from the jd-800 etc were in the 90's .. the modern version of that, where it's samey all the time.

have you ever done any field recordings to generate samples ? you'd be surprised what sounds you use ARE made from that, except your buying them in the bundled / tidied up format.

I'm tempted to get this thing though and borrow a friends field recorder for a few weeks :)

Some may not know about the complex inner workings of some instruments and even if you don't you can still use these instruments and use them well. But if you are someone that does, then it will become very apparent that IRIS is one such instrument that could throw a very fresh take on synthesis and how sounds are created.

Omnisphere cannot do what IRIS does (so logically therefore it is NOT 1000 times better) and so too IRIS will not be able to create sounds in the same way Omnisphere does. That is what is exciting about owning several instruments that use very different approaches to making sound. It is stupid to compare them.

Another amazing instrument is Native Prism and what is interesting about that one is that it can make some very original sounds but I have found it can sound like Omnisphere as well (some of the time!) and it does it all without using samples. The way that instrument moves the harmonic structure around is very unique. (Unlike most I am sure) We have to move into an age of creating sound in a much smarter way, we need to leave the 40Gig sample library concept behind.

Although IRIS is using samples as its raw materials I imagine the size of the library will be considerably smaller. It is going to be what you do with the programming that is going to add the interest into the sound. It is not just restricted to sound design sounds at all. It comes with a lot of straight ahead notes that can be altered in a lot of ways but still create very musical and usable sounds in normal musical contexts.

But I think the real power of IRIS is its ability to import your own raw materials and recordings etc. Something Omnisphere cannot even do. Even Alchemy can do that as well. That is one serious instrument too. I love Alchemy!

Some may think that IRIS is creating sound from an image and it is except the image originates as a sound. But I love the idea of altering that image and hearing the result and in real time too.

This is a very interesting instrument and it is a true image to sound converter. It is called Coagula. It is a very small program and it is free as well.

http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Coagula.htm

The concept here is that you draw or create an image and that is rendered to an audio file. The more interesting the image the more interesting the sound. I have created breathtaking complex sounds from this instrument. If you do get into this, try rendering over much longer periods eg 100 seconds instead of 2 seconds. (start with short renders though) You can add filters to your visual creations and also import images and also render those to audio. It is also very stereophonic too. Here is something to think about. Imagine creating an incredible sound with Coagula and importing that into IRIS and take it way further. Almost unimaginable!

IRIS is not for those who want and need straight ahead sounds for straight ahead music. There are plenty of synths around that can do that well. It is going to shine for those who are prepared to put the time in and make the sounds much more interesting than that. I am going to get it for sure!

Very good post Jeff.  As I noted earlier, I love Alchemy and while I'm sure some use it simply for the presets, like most interesting synths (at least interesting to me) it's what you can do with it aside from sample playback.  Hell some of the most interesting guitar I've ever heard has little in common with what most think of as general guitar based music.  

Music is still an art form right?