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Equator presets in NOISE, NOISE Soundpacks in Equator

I would like the ability to create presets in Equator and port them over to NOISE, or take NOISE soundpacks over to Equator for desktop applications.


55 people like this idea

100% this. Sound packs from Noise but in equator would be great. I think the best feature would be making equator presets for use in Noise. Being able to assemble an entire drum kit and sound pack in equator, then be able to take them with you with Noise would be HUGGGGGGGEEE. Related to your request would be the ability to assemble a drum sounds or a sound pack in equator, then drag and drop individual items onto a 4 x 4 config (or 2x2) to customize the pad however you would like. Save the layout and sounds for easy and quick loading in the future.

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By staying connected to equator, but loading up individual slots on the gridded pad, you could tweak sounds as you play them.

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Was going to post a similar request. Designing sounds in Equator (desktop) and playing them on iOS devices through the Noise AUv3 would make for a neat workflow. It does sound like the full Equator engine is available there, but we can’t play our own patches on iOS. Don’t think this added feature would cannibalize sales of soundpacks any more than the ability to edit patches in desktop softsynths killed the sales of presets.


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In this day and age incompatibilities between platforms is not acceptable.

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Yeah I mostly agree that’s its unacceptable although I wouldn’t use that word necessarily. I do find it frustrating though that there has been built two distinct platforms, iOS and desktop, but they are essentially walled off from each other completely. I think this is a huge missed opportunity. Open the walls of the ecosystem.

6 people like this

I was looking for a solution/integration between NOISE and Logic Pro X, and I find out that there’s no solution at the moment.

I’m a bit disappointed, because I can’t use/record the same NOISE sounds on Logic Pro X (as midi/audio), so what’s the sense of composing or buying NOISE Packs if I have to change the sounds later on my DAW?

I’m in love with the full version of Equator, but I was expecting the NOISE sounds included.
They definitely need a NOISE desktop software or app integration as soon as possibile!


9 people like this

I bought the SongMaker kit hoping to be able to use all of the cool synths and drum sounds in NOISE as a part of my compositional workflow on my desktop. I do like the full version of equator, however I'm very disappointed that the noise sound packs were not a part of equator. I especially miss the drum kit and groove kit sound libraries that are in NOISE, since I like to do experimental composition work. I was hoping to use NOISE's drum sounds in my DAW workflow and compositions! Why is the desktop app and sound engine player plug-in lacking this cool capability especially since Roli advertised using their Lightpad M Block as a drum pad controller for virtual drum instruments? 


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It is sad we can’t run noise in the background, and sounds will not work over usb to intergrate into a desktop system. There should be a disclaimer stating that purchased sounds will not work outside of the noise app and noise does not intergrate with their own equator product.

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"noise does not intergrate with their own equator product"

I consider that an extreme lack of smart planning from Roli. Both products should had been developed in conjunction. It's simply absurd and beyond comprehension why they can't work together, or why so many sounds are exclusive for a mobile app that not many people can even use. And it gets dumber every day.


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Something which may be useful to know, though ROLI doesn’t make it clear…

Sounds like the Noise app uses three separate sound engines: Equator, drums, SWAM.


The Equator one is the biggest by number of sounds and it includes all the polyphonic sounds as well as most of the monophonic ones (so, the large majority of “melodic” sounds). When AUv3 plugin support came to Noise, it was exclusively (and explicitly) about these sounds. Simply put, it made these Equator presets available in other iOS apps.

Buying Noise packs doesn’t provide access to these same sounds in Equator on the desktop but the full version of Equator does allow for a huge set of possibilities which aren’t available on iOS. As some have discovered (and reported in this thread) there’s even a way to use custom soundfonts in Equator for desktop.


The SWAM Engine is a recent addition to Noise (concurrent with the AUv3 version of Equator sounds, IIRC). Its sounds are exclusively monophonic and they’re really meant as faithful emulations of acoustic instruments, including a few articulations. Those packs come from the Audio Modelling catalog. They’re not available in any kind of AUv3 version, so you can’t use them outside of Noise.

The desktop versions of these packs are sold by Audio Modelling itself, for hundreds of US dollars a piece. No idea what agreement ROLI has with Audio Modelling (it came while Audio Modelling also struck a deal with Sample Modelling). AFAICT, there’s no obvious connection between iOS and desktop versions of these plugins. For instance, you can’t use Noise to play these sounds on the desktop as is possible with GeoShred. And there’s no way to start a Noise project with these sounds and finish it on the desktop using virtual instruments (as you could with Korg Gadget). You can export to soundfiles, though.


All signs point to drum sounds coming from a separate sound engine, distinct from Equator and SWAM Engine. These include groove kits and drum kits. A separate AUv3 for those sounds was added recently, so these sounds are now available on iOS, outside of Noise. It’s also disconnected from any desktop app from ROLI (maybe it relates to FXpansion, which ROLI bought a while back?). Frustration over the lack of desktop support for these sounds could be the topic of another thread.


So, none of the three sound engines used by Noise has a direct connection with a desktop app or plugin. It sounds likely that file exchange between Equator and Noise for those “melodic” sounds could work well, without much work on ROLI’s part, and would enhance our capabilities as creators. It’s possible that the sales of soundpacks create a marketing/political barrier to this but it doesn’t sound like a major technical issue.

It’s highly unlikely that ROLI could provide SWAM Engine sounds for the desktop, given Audio Modelling’s protection of its IP. It’d be most excellent to have them in AUv3 version on iOS. Not holding my breath on this one.


The groove and drum kits might not be too hard to port to desktops, but it’d require a separate plugin, with its own logistics. It might not be an overly complicated plugin (it mostly works by triggering and releasing sample playback, with very minimal modulation). But that could still be a complicated project, especially given the diversity of desktop setups out there.


(Wonder if the Strobe2 engine is available to Noise. That could make things even more difficult to track!)


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Maybe just a direct port of Noise AUv3 to desktop (separate from Equator) would make sense?

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As I use this instrument it gets get more and more frustrating. The keyboard performs vastly different between the desktop and the iPad. No comparable blocks program in the iPad environment The library on iPad is unusable there is no reference to any level of organization except alphabetizing people call all sorts of things all sorts of names that have nothing to do with the sound. If we categorize and sort, it would be a good thing. The issue with equator working on some of the sounds from noise but not all is just plain surprising. Running in the background is critical on the noise app. The noise program is in its infancy and again does not reflect the needs of the community. After releasing these roli keyboards a while ago this company is not responding to our needs. These.company paths are very a very frustrating place to be and is forcing me to make decisions that doesn’t NOT involve these roli products.

6 people like this
It is frustrating to see roli not weigh in on this topic. One very simple thing that seems like it is possible with the current architecture, would be to be able to bring my equator presets over to the noise environment on iOS. It does seem like noise has an equator playback engine in it, but as Roli has not weighed in on the topic, I can't know for sure

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Hey Eric,


Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts about this, and I appreciate your frustration. We absolutely want to improve the cross-functionality and workflow between NOISE and Equator. 


NOISE partially uses the Equator sound engine, while it also uses the SWAM engine (for the SWAM soundpacks) as well as a different sound engine for the drum kits and groove kits, which are not part of Equator. We've begun releasing parts of NOISE soundpacks for Equator, for example the BLOCKS Extended Library for Equator (included with Equator Player and available to Equator Full creators via My ROLI) and the "Colours of India" soundpack, and we hope to offer more in the future.


Thanks for your patience while we work towards improving integration between NOISE and Equator.


Red

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