Berlin Studio 1.2 release and trial version available

@Peter Roos May I ask you about what you'd recommend for panning and the BS positioning? Is it better to pan instruments to the center and let BS "place" them in the soundstage or should I also be panning the instruments to the same place in the stereo field as the BS position? How do these two things interact?

I recommend to use the stereo panning in the Source channel.

If you use the plugin for a fully wet output, there should be no reason to use panning in the plugin.

To adjust, I would solo the source channel and position its output with the stereo panner.

Some sample libraries have the instruments/groups already "in situ" in case you can also skip the panning here. If not and you have for instance Violins 1, I would move the right side of the panner to say the center, thus narrowing the source sound and moving it to the left.

The input channel's panner should in general not be used, unless you want to adjust what is going into the source and the reverb channels as well. The microphone channels (i.e. their IRs) already have the panning of the selected position embedded.

I am working on the User Manual, where this will be explained as well.

(it is on my list to improve the UI/UX design of the panners for a next update)

Would like to check with you guys. Under what circumstances you'll normally use 1 and 2? 1 for Piano? 2 for piano / harp ? I do notice Strings can sound good at 2 as well though. hehe.

constaneum said:

Would like to check with you guys. Under what circumstances you'll normally use 1 and 2? 1 for Piano? 2 for piano / harp ? I do notice Strings can sound good at 2 as well though. hehe.

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I have wondered the exact same thing! I ended up putting soloists on your #1 and I use #2 for “I don’t know/It doesn’t matter” but I’d love a better answer than that.

CliveC said:

Thank you so so much Peter. As a Logic user, I was struggling with only one or two instances (high CPU) but now, I have sixteen and very little CPU usage. Fantastic update!! You're brilliant. Thanks again!

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is that while performing in live or while playing back?Haven't noticed a difference while playing in live. Not sure if I have it installed correctly

Edit: Playback my metres are really good, just playing in live I get spikes still.

NeonMediaKJT said:

is that while performing in live or while playing back?Haven't noticed a difference while playing in live. Not sure if I have it installed correctly

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There is only one installation approach for AU plugins: copy the component into a specific folder (the installer does that). No mistakes possible. Logic may have a bad day when it needs to update its caches. Plugins may internally say a little prayer.

In Logic you can tweak the number of buffers, buffer lengths, choices for threads, live or not, etc. I have seen some differences of course, but even with 16 or 32 sample buffers it just runs nicely on my modest M1 Mini.

Just tweak those settings for your project (i.e. what else and how much is going on...), the responsiveness, how hot the machine becomes etc... Only focus on optimizing for a specific plugin when it appears to become a bottleneck.

Possibly dumb question. Is the VST2 plug 32 bit or 64? I know it shouldn't be an issue, but I have a slightly convoluted setup, with Cubase and Win10 on my DAW, but Win7 on my slaves. Win 7 means I can't upgrade VEPro to the version that hosts VST3, but I am on a version that has ceased to host 32 bit. So far I've just installed Berlin Studio on my main machine - whilst waiting for iLoks to arrive - and Cubase has blacklisted the VST2 plug. It claims that it's not a valid plugin, which isn't necessarily a problem, since it now does this to anything prior to VST2.4, but it also says it's 32bit. Is that the case, or is my Cubase being erratic?

Peter Roos said:

In The Netherlands my preferred driving approach is: 200 km+ in southern direction

I was nearly 3 months in France this year working on the release - my selfie on the left was in St. Raphael in February. For me always a nice anti-stress country.

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I used to spend my summer holidays in St Raphaël/Fréjus when I was a child.
The countryside is splendid.

Pingu said:

Possibly dumb question. Is the VST2 plug 32 bit or 64? I know it shouldn't be an issue, but I have a slightly convoluted setup, with Cubase and Win10 on my DAW, but Win7 on my slaves. Win 7 means I can't upgrade VEPro to the version that hosts VST3, but I am on a version that has ceased to host 32 bit. So far I've just installed Berlin Studio on my main machine - whilst waiting for iLoks to arrive - and Cubase has blacklisted the VST2 plug. It claims that it's not a valid plugin, which isn't necessarily a problem, since it now does this to anything prior to VST2.4, but it also says it's 32bit. Is that the case, or is my Cubase being erratic?

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Hi @Pingu

The Samplicity plugins are 64 bit.

If you see any message in Cubase about 32 bit, that is not for a specific plugin, but a message "in general" - very confusing sometimes!

I have sent you an email.

Weird that the VST2 version gets blacklisted, looking forward to find out what's going on and get it fixed.

Cheers, Peter

Peter Roos said:

Hi @Pingu

The Samplicity plugins are 64 bit.

If you see any message in Cubase about 32 bit, that is not for a specific plugin, but a message "in general" - very confusing sometimes!

I have sent you an email.

Weird that the VST2 version gets blacklisted, looking forward to find out what's going on and get it fixed.

Cheers, Peter

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Yeah - it's weird all round, and, I suspect, not your fault. I think the 32 bit message is specifically for Berlin Studio (you can select plugins one at a time in the blocklist, and the warning at the bottom changes, depending on why it's there), but that doesn't necessarily mean Cubase is saying it IS 32bit, so much as it's saying, "Don't recognise the format, so please be aware we don't support 32bit." Frustratingly, the button that lets you attempt to restore a plugin, and have it rescanned, isn't available when I select BS. This seems improbable, since VST 2.4 is now ancient, but is it possible that the VST2 plug is pre 2.4? I think that's the lowest my Cubase (10.5) will support.

I'm going to try it in VEPro and FLStudio this morning - I think both of those are slightly less fussy than Cubase.

The next installer version will give the option to select the plugin format(s) you want, and VST2 should not be auto-selected as VST3 is the recommended Steinberg format.

But, the Vst2 format version should just work as well. I hope to get this fixed.
Seen my email?

Peter Roos said:

The next installer version will give the option to select the plugin format(s) you want, and VST2 should not be auto-selected as VST3 is the recommended Steinberg format.

But, the Vst2 format version should just work as well. I hope to get this fixed.
Seen my email?

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I've responded to the emall now, sorry for the delay.

Just reading this post for the first time quickly. So for the Belin studio it's a new update? Am still using the first copy that was first released. I'm sure i can figure it out, but for the sake of time, what's the best way to update? Can i update from the plugin or redownload a copy? Been a while since i was on the website, so do i download from my account there?

Great plugin btw. Really love Berlin Studio. It's very essential when needed.

musicalMind said:

Just reading this post for the first time quickly. So for the Belin studio it's a new update? Am still using the first copy that was first released. I'm sure i can figure it out, but for the sake of time, what's the best way to update? Can i update from the plugin or redownload a copy? Been a while since i was on the website, so do i download from my account there?

Great plugin btw. Really love Berlin Studio. It's very essential when needed.

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Just download an installer from Samplicity.com/downloads - and check if there already is an iLok license in your iLok account. If not, I have not been able to lookup the account (using your email) - let me know with an email to support at samplicity dot com

Btw, all customers have been sent emails about this "migration".

Peter Roos said:

Just download an installer from Samplicity.com/downloads - and check if there already is an iLok license in your iLok account. If not, I have not been able to lookup the account (using your email) - let me know with an email to support at samplicity dot com

Btw, all customers have been sent emails about this "migration".thank you. yes i use a different email for plugin accounts.

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Peter Roos said:

Just download an installer from Samplicity.com/downloads - and check if there already is an iLok license in your iLok account. If not, I have not been able to lookup the account (using your email) - let me know with an email to support at samplicity dot com

Btw, all customers have been sent emails about this "migration".

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Yes i use different email for my plugin accounts. I'll check on the website for downloads, n contact support if needed. It's usually easy to update. Thank You very much

Peter Roos said:

There is only one installation approach for AU plugins: copy the component into a specific folder (the installer does that). No mistakes possible. Logic may have a bad day when it needs to update its caches. Plugins may internally say a little prayer.

In Logic you can tweak the number of buffers, buffer lengths, choices for threads, live or not, etc. I have seen some differences of course, but even with 16 or 32 sample buffers it just runs nicely on my modest M1 Mini.

Just tweak those settings for your project (i.e. what else and how much is going on...), the responsiveness, how hot the machine becomes etc... Only focus on optimizing for a specific plugin when it appears to become a bottleneck.

Click to expand...

Hi Peter,
when I installed the update, I left everything checked including AAX and VST2, would that be an issue?

NeonMediaKJT said:

Hi Peter,
when I installed the update, I left everything checked including AAX and VST2, would that be an issue?

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If you do not use specific versions you can remove them from your system drive:

AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/Components/Berlin Studio.component
AAX: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Berlin Studio.aaxplugin
VST2: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Berlin Studio.vst
VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Berlin Studio.vst3

AAX: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\Berlin Studio.aaxplugin
VST2: C:\Program Files\VstPlugins\Berlin Studio.dll
VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Berlin Studio.vst3

These are the plugin files in the various "flavors"; they do not contain any reverb content.

The 1.2 installer for Windows did not give any option for partial installs, if I remember well.
The next update will have the option to install only what you want on Windows as well.

[Edit:]
version 1.2.2 is available on https://samplicity.com/downloads/
It fixes a reported issue with loud sounds when restarting playback, on systems with multiple instances. The Windows installer now has options for which plugin formats to install

Peter Roos said:

If you do not use specific versions you can remove them from your system drive:

AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/Components/Berlin Studio.component
AAX: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Berlin Studio.aaxplugin
VST2: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Berlin Studio.vst
VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Berlin Studio.vst3

AAX: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\Berlin Studio.aaxplugin
VST2: C:\Program Files\VstPlugins\Berlin Studio.dll
VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Berlin Studio.vst3

These are the plugin files in the various "flavors"; they do not contain any reverb content.

The 1.2 installer for Windows did not give any option for partial installs, if I remember well.
The next update will have the option to install only what you want on Windows as well.

Click to expand...

Sweet! Thank you

For anyone interested I tried Berlin Studio on Win7 today. I'm only using the VST2 (because I'm using it in VEPro, and the version of VEPro that supports VST3 doesn't run in Win7), but I can report that it runs just fine, so if you have older slave machines lying around....

The intro price ends tomorrow, right? What will be the new price tag?
I would love to dive deeper into the plugin, its a little sad that there is no manual yet or some tutorials (or is there anything?)

I am using the trial version right now. So it is clear how to use it on classical orchestra seating, but what about additional instruments like synth, or even a piano?

It sounds good, if you want a huge wet room for your strings, brass and woods, but what about other situations?