Okay, well .. those initial impressions were upon simply sitting down with Analog Lab 2 and having at it, without any manual reading. I feel that's important, because it shows how intuitive a piece of software is.
Now that I've read the manual while sitting here for a couple hours with Analog Lab 2, I've grown to appreciate it a bit more. I was also using it side-by-side with Analog Lab 1 while doing this.
I do very much like the new Multi-mode features: the macro assignments and such-not.
I like that we can add comments, AND add our own tags. I really wanted to be able to add my own tags in Analog Lab 1 (is that what we call it now? o.O)
I'm still not a fan of the new graphics for the keyboard and knobs, but I WILL say that the new knobs make it easier to see exactly where the knob is positioned to. So that's nice. I guess I'm really just not a big fan of this whole "flat interface graphics" thing. (I've demoed Ableton, and I don't like it there either .. tho it is easy to read, I'll grant that)
Overall, it works just fine and I'll likely use it. It's nice to be able to mess with the Synclavier in particular, and just kinda audition the new piano and organs -- tho I'm not particularly interested in having them.
A few observations tho:
I notice that Soft Clip is missing. That's a shame, and I hope you reconsider and put it back. Why was it removed?
I understand about not over-writing factory presets. Totally makes sense. However, it would be nice to add comments and perhaps extra tags to factory presets, without having to save a whole new copy of a preset under a user bank. I'm not sure if or how this could be implemented, but please give it some consideration.
I notice that four effects are missing, in the Multi-mode: Compressor, Limiter, Subgen, and Leslie. Any chance of putting those back please? Again, I don't understand why you'd remove those. Particularly the compressor and limiter.
Also regarding effects: Is there any chance of letting us save presets for them? I know this wasn't in Analog Lab 1, but it sure could be useful.
I notice that you've removed the Chords and Snapshots. I guess removing the Snapshots kinda makes sense, but I really don't understand removing the Chords. Again, please put it back. It's super useful.
Regarding the upper toolbar and saving/loading. Why no icons? Icons are pretty standard interface elements for New, Save, Save As, and Load. That really seems like an odd decision to omit them.
The absence of the synth performance controls: Polyphony, Pitch Bend Range, LFO Sync, Seq/Arp Step Size, and Key Mode. ... HUH???
Why would you do this? This one TRULY baffles me. WTF. ... Once again, please put those back. Regardless if we actually own the standalone synths or not, those are pretty important performance controls. Removing them makes NO sense, particularly since we already have access to SO MANY of the other controls within each synth, just from Analog Lab 2 without owning the full synth.
Question regarding the Search function: What exactly does it search? Does it search within comments? Names, tags? What does it search?
Question regarding Macro Sub-Controls: The manual says you can assign a -/+ range to a sub-control, but I don't understand how to do that. For intance, making that Sub-Control have a range or -70 to 70.
Thanks much!!
I hope all this makes sense.