I used it for a couple of hours and here are some issues in my experience:
- Lyric input is clunky. The Tab key does not go from note to note. You have to click on each new one.
- Pasting a set of lyrics in does not work correctly. It does not split up the words, but instead crams all syllables of a word into one note. You have to edit your lyrics to be only one syllable each. e.g. If you paste the word “happiness” into a three note melody, it will sing “happiness” really fast on the first note only and leave the last two notes empty. But if you paste in “ha pee ness” it will fill all three notes correctly.
- You cannot drop and drag or copy and paste MIDI notes into SV. You can only IMPORT MIDI. So if you have a MIDI track in Logic you want SV to use, you have to export it, then import it. And even then it does not line up correctly - you have to nudge it around.
- You cannot record notes into SV and hear the rest of your tracks at the same time! This is a major problem!!! You either hear SV’s synth, or you hear your other tracks, but not both. So it is IMPOSSIBLE to play a MIDI keyboard into SV while listening to your tracks. This is a serious issue, since that would be the most intuitive way to use the plugin.
- The manual is not great. There are things missing and also there are things that contradict the actual program.
The good points:
- Editing notes in the grid is easy and works very very well.
- The sound is amazing! I’ve only used the SOLARIA voice so far, but she sounds like a real singer. You have to tweak the timing a bit, etc., but man it sounds gorgeous! Definitely worth having to record the melody on another track, export it as MIDI, then import it into the SV track.
I don’t know what the talk is about the ARA stuff. I never dealt with that and don’t know if it’s being used or not. I’m on a Mac Studio with Sonoma 14.7.2 with Logic 11.1.1 (the latest as of Dec. 24, 2024).
I’m going to look into the ARA thing, but there are conflicting reports. Apple says ARA 2 is fully implemented in Logic. But the SV manual says ARA doesn’t work in Logic except with the Bridge (whatever that is) and booting Logic with Rosetta. I’ll check it out and see if it fixes some of the problems I listed. And it doesn’t say if it’s ARA or ARA 2.
Since Logic is the most popular DAW, I think it would benefit Dreamtonics to ensure full ARA 2 compatibility in Logic, and to fix other clunky issues. More money for them!