Home Premiere Ensembles Husserl Husserl Versions Husserl Emerald

Husserl Emerald

November 19, 2008

Heavens*onEarth proudly presents the second-generation Polymorphic Metasequencer for cutting-edge electronic music: Husserl Emerald Edition.

Husserl Emerald Edition (Click image for bigger view)

Get your Emmy with Husserl Emerald! New scores are a breeze with the most sophisticated integrated polyphonic step sequencer available anywhere in the world.

Faster. Smaller. Sample accurate. Loads more quickly and smoothly; and yet bursting with new features. How is this possible? After six weeks of painstaking redesign, Husserl Emerald implements a totally new soundcore. Due to its architectural separation of GUI and logic, Husserl remains backwards compatible with prior snapshots, but under the hood, the entire core engine is optimized, now half the size, and the ensemble loads 40% faster, and consumes up to half as much CPU.

NEW B PANELSET

Husserl's B panel now contains a dozen pages with integrated, dynamic, multipage online help.

Up to 32 voices on each of 16 channels

Output Matrix (Click image for bigger view)

Previously Hussserl's internal polyphony engine was limited to 16 notes. The number of voices allocated to any one of the 20 outputs is now selectable, with 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 20, 24, or 32 voices. New retrigger/sustain options allow each output channel to handle notes of the same pitch as required. In retrigger or sustain modes, notes of the same pitch remain active until the end of the last note. The B panel contains a fancy new look for these added controls!

Full-Screen Pitch Map Editor

The Editor provides complete access and a convenient edit buffer to change and move pitch maps. There are 17 custom maps stored with each snapshot - one for each sequencer channel, and one global channel. You can move maps between channels and change them very easily with this comfortable control interface. The panel also provides a close view of the preset maps, which you can also change here to modify all your snaps at once. Pitch maps can also be useful when mapping pitch patterns to a drum machine, as all the pitches for one drum sound can be changed at one.

Snap Info Screen

This is a summarial view of all sequencer channels on one panel. It also dynamically displays notes output on any one MIDI channel. Pitch, velocity and duration for the 16 main patterns is on the left; the bar sequencer patterns, which modulate the main pattern, are next over; the text area contains editable information about the current snapshot; and the note probe on the right shows the actual polyphonic notes generated for any of the 16 output channels. Other sequencers could be sending notes to the same output channel, as indicated in the grid at the bottom right. During play, the notes dance across the display as the instrument's internal logic performs its own optimal assignment of polyphony for any overlapping notes from any of the sequencers.

Restart of Sequencer by Notes

~ Subscriber Enhancement Request ~ Both MIDI and notes from other channels may now optionally restart the pattern and reset a channel's clock divider. The RESTART button enables this functionality. In fugue mode, the current playing pattern is stopped and a new pattern started, instead of two patterns overlaying each other.

New Modulation Options

~ Subscriber Enhancement Request ~ In the pattern panel, new PMOD and DMOD lists now permit selection of how matrix modulations affect the current sequencer. Previously, velocity and duration modulations were multiplied together with the pattern table output. Now, both velocity and duration modulations may either add to, subtract from, or multiply with the pattern values.

OUTPUT NOTE FILTERING

The note filter is now pluggable on each channel to filter either input note triggers, or output notes. The menu in the note filter subpanel allows selection of input or output filtering.

Graphics Optimizatio

~ Subscriber Enhancement Request ~ Event triggers on screen redraws are reduced by >80%. Complex panels are staged so they phase in shortly after initial load. The core redesign also reduces ensemble size by 5MB, and decreases load by 30% with large numbers of triggers at high clock rates. Testing indicates the ensemble is functional on CPUs down to 1GHz. On an AMDX2 with 2.8GHz clock, the ensemble can loop all 16 channels, at 1/32 tempo and 480 bpm, with chords on, and play the analog demo synth at a CPU usage of only 70%.

Tight Synchronization

Concurrent from chords and multiple sequencer patterns ~ as well as modulations from other sequencers ~ are tightly linked to occur simultaneously. In layer and fugue modes, sequencers triggering other sequences all do so in the same event cycle. If two patterns trigger in the same clock cycle any modulations from each other are completely applied to the other before the notes are issued.

Internally, new mutex logic prevents event loops, and events are processed in four phases. Note, the internal clock (in the clock subpanel) can store the tempo with a snapshot, but it is limited by Reaktor's own clock to event-period resolution (2.5 milliseconds by default). For best synchronization, the MIDI clock from the instrument's toolbar is very accurate. Select it instead for best timing.

CPU Throttling

On low-CPU machines, the instrument's internal four processing phases can optionally be spread over separate event cycles, via a new TIMING control on the SETUP panel. This has not been found necessary yet, but its activation spreads each of the four phases over separate event cycles. Note, throttling can introduce up to a 10 millisecond skew between output notes in the same MIDI clock tick.

Immediate Bar Sequencer Interactivity

Previously, changing a bar sequencer value did not affect the sequence until the bar sequencer advanced to the next bar. Now, changes to the bar sequencer tables take effect in the next channel step.

SongPos AND Clock Start/Stop/Continue Support

In the clock panel, CLOCK now sends MIDI Start/stop messages. When clock is set to EXT, it can turn the Reaktor toolbar clock on and off.

Pre and Post Pitch Mapping

Each sequencer channel may apply pitch remapping before or after the pitches are sent to the modulation matrix and chord generator. This allows fine control of the pitch patterns; for example, a single semitone offset can map up or down to different pitches, depending on the pitch modulation in each channel and the output settings.

Obtaining Husserl

A production version of Husserl will be $199, and will be a standalone product not requiring Reaktor. Reaktor users can purchase an advance version of Husserl implemented as a Reaktor instrument for $79.99. Customers are entitled to free upgrades and requests for new features. Payment is accepted via Paypal.  Just click the button below to see how it works.