Update details - Tone2 RayBlaster VST VSTi AU synthesizer plugin - Tone2 Synthesizers

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RayBlaster 3.0

New features:

  • GUI with 22 different sizes (with and without keys).
  • Native support for WQHD, 4K, 5K and 8K UHD displays.
  • You can now drag & drop wav files on the wave displays to import them.
  • Support for hardware-acceleration.
  • Ultrasharp graphics with enhanced HiDpi and Retina Display support.
  • Automatic detection of the ideal GUI size.
  • GUI can be scaled from 100% up to 450% by clicking in the lower right corner.
  • Patch browser can now also be opened by clicking on 'Browser' or the display on the upper left.

Higher sound-quality:

  • More transparent and clear over-all sound.
  • The synth 'sits better in the mix', especially when it is combined with other instruments.
  • The audio-engine now uses 64-bit precision instead of 32-bit, which results in a higher sound-quality.
  • Enhanced sound of the automatic micro-tuning.
  • More precise pitch calculation.
  • Higher quality resampling in 44 and 88 kHz sample-rate.
  • More linear frequency-response for certain configurations.
  • Enhanced sound of the Reverb Large. It has a more transparent tail and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanned sound of Reverb Huge. It has a more transparent tail and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Small. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Ultra. It has a more transparent tail and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Big. It has a more transparent tail and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Infinite. It has a more transparent tail and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Trance. It has a more transparent tail.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Band. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Glass. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Reverb Spring. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Delay. It has a more precise interpolation and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Delay Band. It has a more precise interpolation and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of PingPong. It has a more precise interpolation and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Delay Fat. It has a more precise interpolation.
  • Enhanced sound of Delay Diffuse. It has a more precise interpolation and sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Delay Dual. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Tape Delay. It sounds less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of Chorus. It has a more precise interpolation now.
  • Enhanced sound of Hypersaw. It has a more precise interpolation now.
  • Enhanced sound of Chorus2. It has a more precise interpolation now.

Enhancements:

  • Higher performance.
  • Reworked and enhanced graphics.
  • Smoother animations and more responisve controls.
  • Several small enhancemets for the patch-selector and patch-browser.
  • Completely rewritten GUI code.
  • More contrast for the LCD displays.
  • Several small enhancements for the VST3 and AU version.
  • Reworked some tool-tips.
  • More beautiful sectors for knob-modulation.
  • Fine-tuned some coordinates in the interface.
  • Re-sizing the VST3, Standalone and Audiounit works more reliable.
  • Enhanced stability.
  • Smarter installer.
  • Re-renderd the background bitpmap skin with a higher resulution.
  • More beautiful font for the patch-browser for certain configurations.
  • Fine-tuned some colors.
  • Added Color bleeding for the glowing displays on the main screen.
  • The installers come with a Microsoft/Apple approved certificate.
  • Lots of further small enhancements.

Changes:

  • Removed the demo-version timeout and added a voice-over.

Fixes:

  • Some DAWs could show the VST3 version on PC with an incorrect size when Windows scaling was used.

Downward compatibility:

  • All patches created with previous versions can be loaded with RayBlaster3.
  • All existing songs and patches will benfit from the enhanced sound quality.
  • The Vst2 and Vst3 versions are downward compatible with all previous versions
  • The Audiounit version is downward compatible with RayBlaster 2.9 or later

Further notes:

  • RayBlaster v3.x will be the final version. There will be no RayBlaster4.


RayBlaster 2.9 (free update)

The update is available for free for all RayBlaster users.

New features:

  • Added a VST3 version for Mac (M1 native and Intel).
  • Added a standalone version for Mac (M1 native and Intel).
  • Completely new AudioUnit interface.

Enhancements:

  • Many small enhancements.

Fixes:

  • Workarounds for many DAWs which did not resize the VST3 plugin properly.
  • Automation in the VST3 version did not work with parameters that were located behind the 10th slot.
  • Workaround for a bug of Ableton and FL Studio which did not display AudioUnits.
  • Workaround for a bug of Reaper which did display automation parameters incorrectly.

Breaking changes:

Please read this if you are on Mac and used AudioUnits.

RayBlaster 2.8 (free update)

The update is available for free for all RayBlaster users. It adds native Apple M1 ARM support for Mac and contains enhancements.

New features:

  • AudioUnit version supports M1 native.
  • VSTi version supports M1 native.
  • Help->'Show version info' displays the mode in which the plugin is running (ARM/Intel).

Enhancements:

  • Much faster loading times on M1 Macs.
  • The native M1 support results in 20% lower CPU use compared to Rosetta2 Mode.
  • More responsive GUI on M1 Macs.
  • The ideal GUI size is detected automatically.
  • Several small enhancements.

Fixes:

  • Workaround for the 'unusual' designed audio architecture of FL Studio. It is not longer necessary to enable 'Use fixed size buffers' to avoid crackles.
  • Clicking on the stars in the patch browser did not always work when GUI was set to big.
  • Several small compatibility fixes for MacOS 11 and MacOS 12.
  • Workaround for Apple's unrelieable AudioUnit validation. It is not longer necessary to reboot the Mac after an installation.

Changes:

  • AudioUnit is now an AUv2 plugin.
  • AudioUnit and VSTi are now a Universal Binary for 64bit Intel and M1.
  • Apple's development tools are unable to build 32bit Intel binaries when you support M1. Sadly we had to drop support for it.
  • Apple's Notarisation and the M1 support requires a macOS version higher or equal than 10.11. If you still use an older version you must stick with RayBlaster v2.6.

Notes:

Unlike what Apple suggests to their customers porting complex products to native M1 is not easy at all. In our case it did mean many months of additional work.


RayBlaster 2.7.2 (free update)

The update to v2.7.2 is available for free for all RayBlaster users. It extends the PC version with a VST3 version and adds several enhancements.
RayBlaster 2.7.2 is downward-compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary.

New features:

  • Added a VST3 version.
  • You can select from 3 different installation types: Minimal (VST2 only), Default (VST2 + Standalone) and Full (VST2 + VST3 + Standalone).
  • Added a Microsoft-approved certificate to the installer.
  • HiDPI support.

Enhancements:

  • More beautiful keyboard graphics.
  • More contrast.
  • More smart detection of the VST2 path.
  • Slightly higher performance.
  • Smaller binary and slightly faster loading.
  • More precise timing.
  • Higher sound-quality in 44 kHz, 48 kHz and 88 kHz sample-rate.
  • Further optimisations against denormalisation.
  • More robustness.
  • Several small enhancements.

Fixes:

  • Workaround for the 'unusual' designed audio architecture of FL Studio. It is not longer necessary to enable 'Use fixed size buffers' to avoid crackles.

Changes:

  • Microsoft dropped support for 32-bit Windows. As a result, we will not longer provide updates for it. If you still depend on it you can install v2.6 instead.

Notes:

Steinberg advertises that their VST3 format has 'many essential new features' and 'advantages' compared to competing plugin-formats.
In practise, we do not think that this is true for synthesizers, since VST3 does not offer proper MIDI support.
That's why we recommend to use the VST2 version if your DAW supports both formats.


RayBlaster 2.6 (free update)

The update to v2.6 is a major update, which is available for free. It includes a big GUI, many new features, better sound-quality, lots of enhancements and some fixes.
RayBlaster 2.6 is downward-compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary. They will benefit from the enhanced sound-quality.

New features:

  • A big interface is available beside of the normal scale now.
  • It is possible to select from 4 GUI sizes in 'Setup'.
  • The texts shown in the patch-browser on Mac support hi-dpi drawing.
  • The plugin detects the best GUI-size automatically.
  • Added Digital-Signatures for the installers on PC
  • Added Notarisation for the installers on Mac
  • Support for Code-Signing on the Mac, since new hosts may require it to be able to run plugins
  • Compatibility with MacOS Catalina
  • Completely new AudioUnit interface

Enhancements:

  • More harmonic overall sound.
  • Enhanced sound of 'Chorus' and 'Ensemble'. They sound smoother and less detuned.
  • Enhanced sound of 'Delay','Delay Band','PingPong','Multitap','Delay Diffuse' and 'Delay Dual'. The echo sounds less detuned.
  • Higher precision audio-rendering.
  • Workaround for a well-known bug in Apple's AU-manager: It is not longer necessary to reboot the Mac to detect the plugin.
  • Some texts on newer OSX-versions were looking ugly.
  • More contrast for the user-interface.
  • Removed the ugly reflections of the borders from the GUI.
  • PC-version is loading faster.
  • Better compatibility with Windows 10.
  • Activation-dialogue in also available in German.

New features and enhancements (standalone-version for PC):

  • Added a recorder that can export your jam-session to a wav-file.
  • The BPM-rate can be changed.
  • Added a soft-clipping-algorithm with low harmonic distortion.
  • The current patch can be saved on exit and is reloaded automatically on start.
  • MME-driver support.
  • Midi-through support with output-routing.
  • Added Midi-velocity-curves with multipoint-splines.
  • Optional Midi-transposition with up to +-48 semitones.
  • Optional Midi-channel-filtering.
  • The current BPM-rate, CPU-load and volume is shown on the top-panel.
  • Tooltips are shown on the top-panel.
  • Lower latency for the sound-card drivers.
  • More responsive GUI with 120 Hz refresh-rate for smooth knob movements.

Fixes:

  • The check-mark for the patch selector was missing in some hosts after closing and opening the GUI.
  • Fixed some GUI glitches in the browser which could appear if very long names are used.
  • Fixed the Y-coordinates of the texts on Mac.
  • Fixed a rarely appearing crash on the Mac that could happen when the plugin was deleted while a tooltip was shown.
  • Fixed a rarely appearing problem when envelope-parameters were not updated correctly.
  • Fixed an unlikely crash on the Mac which happened if the plugin was closed immediately after opening the browser.
  • Fixed a bug in the fast-sine-approximation on PC.
  • Fixed a bug with list-selectors on Mac 64bit.
  • Updated some deprecated links.

Changes:

  • 32-bit on Mac is not longer supported. If you still use it, install RayBlaster 2.5 instead.
  • MacOS 10.7 is the minimum requirement now. If you use 10.6 or 10.5, install RayBlaster 2.5 instead.
  • Windows XP is not longer supported. If you still use it, install RayBlaster 2.5 instead.


RayBlaster 2.5 (free update)

The update to v2.5 is a major update, which is available for free. It includes exciting new features, enhanced sound quality, 43 additional patches, many enhancements for the user interface and some fixes.
RayBlaster 2.5 is downward-compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary. They will benefit from the enhanced sound-quality.

New features:

  • 'Edit->Create Random Patch' can create an unlimited number of complex and mostly useful sounds automatically.
  • Tooltips with explanations are shown when the mouse is hovered over a button or control.
  • The tooltips can be hidden with Help->'Hide tooltips'.
  • The menus now show check-marks for the currently selected item.
  • Automatic and dynamic micro-tuning for enhanced chords.
  • Knobs can be reset to the default value with a double-click.
  • A hand-symbol is shown for text parameters which can be altered.
  • Support for the 'natural-scrolling-mousewheel' on the Mac.
  • Clicking a diode now also changes the LFO waveform on the Mac.
  • 43 additional patches
  • 4 additional waveforms

Enhanced sound-quality:

  • More linear frequency response above 6kHz. RayBlaster has a less 'sharp' overall sound and sounds more 'high-end'.
  • 'Delay', 'Delay Dual','Delay Band','PingPong' and 'Multitap' sound less detuned.
  • The late-reflections of 'Reverb Large', 'Reverb Medium', 'Reverb Small', 'Reverb Feedb' and 'Reverb Plate' sound less detuned.
  • Smoother sound of 'Reverb Ultra' and 'Reverb Trance'

Enhancements for the GUI:

  • Better mouse-wheel support on PC.
  • A midi-program-change does not longer change the patch category.
  • The menus are larger and easier to read.
  • Patch category is now located above the patch selector
  • Unison is easier to set up
  • Several small enhancements for the GUI.

Further enhancements:

  • Slightly faster loading of patches

Changes:

  • The 'handbook' is now a 'manual'

Fixes:

  • Fixed a compatibility problem with recording automation in some hosts.
  • Fixed a rarely appearing crash, which could happen after many midi-program-changes.
  • The visual appearance of the modulation-depth of knobs could have been incorrect if a matrix target was switched.
  • Fixed some wrong pixels which could happen after clicking the unison button.
  • Hiding the keyboard of the VST-version did not work with all hosts on the Mac.


RayBlaster 2.0

RayBlaster2 comes with a massive amount of new features, a pimped sound engine, a reworked user interface, over 500 additional patches, a patch browser, drag & drop modulation and many enhancements. We did not change the look and replace the GUI skin to make it look more 'new'. Instead of this we decided to invest our time into what's really important: The sound, the content and the workflow.
RayBlaster2 is 100% downward-compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary. They will benefit from the enhanced sound-quality.

New features:

  • Over 500 new patches by professional designers, the total number of patches has increased to 1076
  • Added a comfortable patch browser
  • Drag & Drop modulation: Drag an envelope or lfo and drop it to a knob to modulate it
  • Midi learn support: Right-click on a knob to assign a CC
  • The new synth engine is now able to create bass sounds and more realistic lowpass filter sweeps
  • Hovering the mouse over a knob shows a box with information
  • 39 DC waveform types have been added, which are suitable for bass and filter
  • Right-click on a knob opens a menu where you can assign a massive amount of modulation sources
  • Modulation depth control on top left of a knob if a source is assigned
  • Sectors on knobs show the modulation amount
  • A red sector is shown when clipping of modulation occurs
  • Added a random patch generator: Edit->'Create random patch'
  • Hovering the mouse over a knob shows the current parameter value and the modulation source
  • 134 new impulse responses in wav format
  • 10 additional high quality Reverb effects
  • 5 additional delay effects
  • 2 additional phaser effects
  • 2 additional flanger effects
  • 2 additional vibrato effects
  • 1 additional chorus effect
  • 1 additional tremolo effect
  • 1 additional autopan effect
  • Added 'Psychoacoustic+', a new psychoacoustic mode with more' presence'
  • The patches can be ranked by clicking on the stars in the patch browser
  • Patch rankings are stored as .rnk files within RayBaster_sounds
  • Information tags (like legato, unison, etc) for every patch are shown in 'info' tab of the patch browser
  • File->'Quick save patch' overwrites a patch with the new settings
  • Additonal osc window functions 'Triangle','Hard square','Harder square', 'Taper', 'Sine', 'Fish', 'Add square', 'Lips'
  • Responsive and smart GUI with tooltips
  • Parameters can be reset to the default value with right-click->reset
  • Switching the effect type now selects good default paramter values
  • 4 additional sound categories 'Wobble', 'Pluck', 'Pad 2' and 'Sequence'
  • Edit->'Clean matrix' cleans up the mod matrix and resets unused slots
  • Edit->'Reset midi learn' removes all midi CC assignments
  • Added a 'Hypersaw' effect, which sounds like many detuned oscillators
  • 32 bit wav file format support
  • Support for exotic wav file headers (Logic X)
  • Help->'Show version info'
  • Help->'Download updates'
  • Edit->'Init gate: Ramp up / down / up & down / down & up / random' initializes varius shapes for the step sequencer

Enhancements:

  • The synthesis engine has been reworked
  • More detailed overall sound
  • Extended sonic range with more 'low-end'
  • Reworked user interface
  • More soft parameter smoothing
  • It's more easy to get good results when building own sounds
  • More linear frequency response, especially for high frequencies
  • Enhanced sound of the effects by adding oversampling
  • The resynthesis is able to import larger samples
  • Higher precision for high freqeuncies when using the resythesis
  • Reworked many existing factory sounds
  • New knobs with enhanced performance
  • Enhanced sound of unison
  • Enhanced Init patch settings
  • File, Edit & Help menues now pop up from beneath
  • Updated and extended demo version
  • Better performance
  • More robustness and stability
  • Better compatibility with older hosts
  • Support for exotic mouse drivers
  • Better workflow
  • Higher quality waveform playback
  • Parameters are more easy to adjust
  • Clicking on 'Next Bank' now rotates to the first entry if the last one has been reached
  • Slighly enhanced gui skin and colors
  • Legato is more easy to setup
  • Many other small enhancements for the user interface
  • 2x and 4x stereo unison is more easy to setup
  • Category is rotating for a more comfortable patch browsing
  • More precise coordinates for the layout
  • Enhanced sound of 'Delay' effect by adding spline interpolation
  • Enhanced sound of 'PingPong' effect by adding spline interpolation
  • Enhanced sound of 'Multitap' effect by adding a lowcut filter
  • Better sound quality by adding a high-end resampling algorithm
  • More smart mousewheel support
  • More chaotic behavour of the random lfo types in free mode
  • Enhanced performance
  • Higher quality waveform resampling
  • Extended range of synced LFO phase
  • Workaround for buggy hosts, which forget noteOff commands. The Arp does not longer produce a hanging note

Changes:

  • Matrix source 'Env1' has been renamed to 'Aux Env1'
  • 'Gate' has been renamed to 'Step'
  • Moved some sounds to a different category
  • 'Off' window function has been renamed to 'Off/Square'
  • 'CLIP!' is not longer displayed
 
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