Members Magpel Posted May 15, 2008 Members Share Posted May 15, 2008 With my bands being as busy as they are, and with voice lessons and some recording jobs, I've been WAY way out of the software and softsynth loop for quite a while--in fact I am sure I have missed the 5 or 7 latest greatest new synthesis engines... But I was at the Stillwell Audio site. If you don't know them, they are not Reaper, but they are kind of part of the Reaper family/philsophy--decent plugins with uncrippled, unexpiring demos, very reasonable prices, and an option to buy a Reaper-only version for less, which is attractive to me as I am pretty much Reaper-only these days. Anywhoo, one of the two developers there--Schwa (the other is Mr. Stillwell)--has done a really wicked and weird new sofstynth called Olga. IO am presently not getting some very important work done because of it. Not only is this synth "not for everything;" It becomes apparent pretty immediately that it is exactly and only for those things for which Olga is required Very distinctive sound--kinda gritty, kinda weedy and detuned, but veeeery solid and warm sounding. My initial impression is that it would sit well with acoustic instruments, which is not something I often feel about a softsynth. It's got an "organic," lively sound with lots of instabilities. The barrier to entry is a little high as the interface is entirely in a kind of near-Russian. he manual however is in crisp and concise English, and is very good. Apparently you can switch the GUI to English if you can solve an interface-based riddle, but after reading the manual once, I feel no need to. Architecturally, it is pretty basic subtractive though in some ways pleasantly unusual--there's no mod matrix, but enough that you can do with waveform modulation, tw envs and two lfos and an effects section. It's novelty is mostly in the many, many ways it can achieve different flavors of overdrive, and in some (apparently) pretty novel approaches to modeling osc instability. Anyway, if you enjoy futzing around with softsynths, here's a bit of quark and strangeness that is a very pleasant surprise! At 40 bucks for the Reaper-only version, I'm in! http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=37 Obviously no affiliation here except that, as a Reaper guy, I have been aware of the developers for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wwwjd Posted May 15, 2008 Members Share Posted May 15, 2008 heh! I ran across that one. I kinda like it for various sounds. The GUI is especially fun. Seems like a very tight finished product. Feels strong and solid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted May 15, 2008 Members Share Posted May 15, 2008 The GUI graphic artwork on these pluggies is ever-so-groovy. ....and I can't wait to give them a try within SONAR. OLGA really does sound expressive and warm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted May 15, 2008 Members Share Posted May 15, 2008 (the other is Mr. Stillwell) really wicked and weird new sofstynth called Olga. I know it's irrelevant to the topic but wasn't OLGA the "online guitar archive" that used to be at HC years ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted May 15, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2008 I know it's irrelevant to the topic but wasn't OLGA the "online guitar archive" that used to be at HC years ago? Why I think you are right, and someone else observed that there was an early "Tracker" program called Olga as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lancaster Posted May 17, 2008 Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 OLGA sounds great. You can get some serious tones happening with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Straycatstrat Posted May 17, 2008 Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 Olga rocks hard. It took some time until I came to realize why exactly this is not the average softsynth but as a result it's pretty much the only VA I use now. She has its very own character, can have a remarkable oomph and you have to learn how to tame her brutality first to get some really sweet warm sounds out of her. It makes me want to mount wooden side panels on my plastic MIDI controller... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Raymar Posted May 17, 2008 Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 I couldn't get it to work or even show up on my host. Then again I'm running Win 98SE. I'm guessing Olga is XP or Vista only? Didn't see that mentioned at the site or in the pdf. Sounds like a breakthrough though. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Straycatstrat Posted May 17, 2008 Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 I couldn't get it to work or even show up on my host. Then again I'm running Win 98SE. I'm guessing Olga is XP or Vista only? Didn't see that mentioned at the site or in the pdf. Sounds like a breakthrough though. Steve I assume you run Win98 on a similar ancient CPU. If you look closer at the website, there is also a non-SSE2 version available for old CPUs not supporting SSE2/3. The typical symptom of SSE2 plugins on a non-SSE2 computer is that they don't even show up in your host. But I guess your host could be a bit aged too and I don't know if Olga will use stuff not available in Win98, so your mileage may vary a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted May 17, 2008 Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 OLGA is great... if you can decipher all the mock-Russian labeling to make sense of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted May 17, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 17, 2008 OLGA is great... if you can decipher all the mock-Russian labeling to make sense of it. You'd figure game named rapsutin wouldn't struggle with this. Seriously though, the manual makes the architecture very clear, and while it is a pretty basic subtractive synth, there are some cool touches--like lfo 1 modulating Osc 1 waveform and Osc 2 fine pitch, like the filter mod slider that lets you choose all env, all lfo, or any balance of the two. I think I am going to use on a song demo I need to crank out in the next few days. Then I'll test my hypothesis that it's a softsynth that will hang with acoustic instruments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Straycatstrat Posted May 18, 2008 Members Share Posted May 18, 2008 OLGA is great... if you can decipher all the mock-Russian labeling to make sense of it. If you read the first pages of the manual carefully, you'll find out how to change the labels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Raymar Posted May 18, 2008 Members Share Posted May 18, 2008 I assume you run Win98 on a similar ancient CPU. If you look closer at the website, there is also a non-SSE2 version available for old CPUs not supporting SSE2/3. The typical symptom of SSE2 plugins on a non-SSE2 computer is that they don't even show up in your host. But I guess your host could be a bit aged too and I don't know if Olga will use stuff not available in Win98, so your mileage may vary a lot. I tried downloading and installing the non-SSE2 Olga.dll, no go. I've got an AMD K8 CPU that's about six years old, ancient in computer life, Win98SE, there are people on this forum that were born after that. But it still works, best PC I've ever had(quicker than my Vista/Celeron laptop with a cruddy soundcard). I was just using the now extinct Simple Vast Host so I downloaded another one called Mini-host which has a lot of cool features but still won't load Olga. Both will load all my other VSTi's no problemo like VAZ Modular which is also a host and can't load Olga. I guess it'll have to wait, something to look forward too. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Raymar Posted May 24, 2008 Members Share Posted May 24, 2008 I just installed Olga on my Vista laptop using vsthost and it works. It looks and sounds like a synth Trent Reznor might have in his restroom. This thing has alot of character and that panning effect is interesting. I haven't read the manual yet, just started tweeking away with a mouse and managed to get a note to stick so I could just try to figure it out with the Russian script. Tried out a few presets too, loads of fun! I'm going to have to get a USB midi interface for it soon. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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