XT1 vs XT2
Compared to energyXT 1.x, energyXT2 is a complete rewrite, in a different programming language. This allows for cross-platform support, new features, and a reworked, more streamlined workflow, but some things now work differently and there are features from energyXT 1.4.1 that are not yet in energyXT2.
Below is a comprehensive list of the differences, with workarounds where applicable.
Table of Contents
|
What's new/better in XT2
General
- Cross-platform Support:
- Linux (i386) version w/Linux VSTs (all mda plugins, freeverb, examples w/source) & jack support (with open-source jack interface)
- Mac OS X version
- Windows version also works great in Linux & OS X with wineasio/JackWASIO
- Portability:
- Can be run completely from a USB flash drive
- Settings file (energyXT.ini) isn't kept in the Windows folder
- Windows version has DirectSound audio support (not just ASIO)
- New Components:
- Synthesizer with sampler capability
- Arpeggiator (presets in .xta format)
- Multi Effect: Reverb, Delay, Guitar Amp, Chorus, Phaser, Bit Crusher, Filter, Compressor (.xte presets)
- Group
- Midi Mapping:
- MIDI/Parameter learn from Mixer and VST GUI
- Global MIDI CC mapping from external midi in and internal routing
- MIDI map programs
- MIDI control of main tempo
- Visual Improvements:
- More customizable non-bitmap looks (gradients, etc)
- Light and Dark color presets
- Optional frequency analyzer display
- Program combo boxes with integrated menu and arrows
- Icon
- Docking:
- Mouse wheel can switch between docked pages
- Can dock almost any window (including inserts and sends) by right-clicking its title bar
- Can re-order docked pages (drag & drop)
- Can re-dock something to a different page without undocking it first
- Transport:
- Transport buttons in main toolbar
- Panic button - pressing stop when already stopped will send CC 123 ("all sounds off") to all VST instruments
- Metronome button
- Built-in metronome click sound (don't have to load your own)
- Shortcut for metronome on/off (c)
- Shortcut to return to last play start position (5)
- User Interface:
- New "New…" dialog with different templates
- Optional Welcome screen
- Option to start up with default project (or last project, or empty project, or Welcome screen)
- Breadcrumb navigation in file dialogs
- Configurable keyboard shortcuts
- Shortcuts for next program (9) & prior program (8)
- Global Undo/Redo with toolbar buttons & descriptive text
- Optional tooltips (with keyboard shortcuts) in the toolbar
- Main menu acts like a menu
- Window menu: lists all loaded comps/inserts/sends, plus Browser & Mixer, with "Close All" option
- "XT" menu with helpful links and "About" box
- Recent/current project quick load dropdown
- Size and position of main window is optionally saved in energyXT.ini
- Ctrl-wheel (& Shift-Ctrl-wheel) to change values, including dropdown lists
- Right-click routing is more streamlined. Menus with checkboxes stay open if you click the boxes. They close with one click (old behavior) if you click the text.
- Combined Options/Setup window in main menu, with shortcut (F6)
- Monitor volume control in main toolbar
- Option to hide Modular tab
- Can change value fields by dragging sideways
- Rendering:
- Render includes components outside of the sequencer
- Render "All" option
- Render to AIFF and MP3 as well as WAV
- Render at 24000Hz
- Multi-track export uses track names as filenames
- Export to SoundCloud
- Saving
- Saving a project with audio folder to new location will make copy of files in audio folder and store it in the new location
- Saving a project will now use a "temp file" while writing to disk. In case anything goes wrong (crash, freeze, lock-up), the old project file will not be overwritten/corrupted
- Option to disable save prompt in Setup rather than only in energyXT.ini
- Demo/Registering
- Installing massiva.key is easier (just put it in the program folder)
- Demo mode can open files, but not save
- Registered name or "DEMO" appears in title bar
- Other
- Official manual
- Autoupdate
- Will attempt to recover a project when encountering errors when loading (caused by a plugin or similar)
Modular Routing Area
- Can select audio & midi devices from I/O comps
- Multiple I/O comps
- Audio in and out comps have midi inputs for automation
- Feedback routing is possible (but it doesn't really work)
- Names are on the side (so they don't get in the way as much)
- When adding multiple plugins by drag & drop, they are staggered rather than placed on top of each other
- MIDI In comp has its own 'editor' window with midi keyboard and option for quantize and velocity sens
VST Hosting
- Auto-bypass idle effects
- Non-GUI VST windows are resizable, and all controls are visible at the default size (see R.Ch in 1.4)
- Can type in values for non-GUI plugins (mapped to whole numbers 0-100)
- Better display updating for automated non-GUI plugins
- Mouse wheel works to scroll non-GUI plugins
- VSTs outside the VST folder can be reloaded in projects (path is saved)
- When opening a project with a missing plugin, you are prompted to edit the list of plugin folders before the project loads
Main Mixer
- It's now a separate, dockable window
- Trim control +/- 12dB
- 4-band parametric EQ with more filter types (Low Shelf, Peaking, High Shelf, Low Pass, High Pass), more gain (+/- 24dB), and a graphical display on all mixer channels
- EQ, Inserts, and Sends are collapsible to save space
- Faders are longer, and in dB
- Fader thumb doesn't move when you click on it
- Fader slides by itself when you click above or below the thumb
- Drag & drop reorder mixer strips
- Drag & drop reorder/move inserts & sends
- Copy inserts & sends with ctrl-drag
- Make an insert into a send, and vice-versa
- Pan is more visually recognizable (maybe)
- Groups (with sends and inserts)
- Inputs, outputs, and sends have channel strips (with inserts, meters, etc.)
- Show/hide channel types (Inputs, Outputs, Sends, Groups, Components)
- Fold/unfold unused mixer channels for plugins with multi-outs
- Mixer presets (programs)
- Pan works for mono to stereo connections
- Glitch-free volume/mute/solo
Browser
- Stuck to the left side of the window
- Integrated search with keyboard shortcut (ctrl-f, but it doesn't work in sequencer because freeze is also ctrl-f by default)
- New sections: Components, Presets, Loops & clips, Samples, Audio Pool
- Ability to refresh lists (per section, or per folder in Disks section)
- There can be multiple Project (etc.) folders
- Add folder as Project/Plugin/Preset/Clip/Sample Folder from Disks section
- Desktop is shown in Disks section
- Category icons
- Horizontal scrollbar
- Volume control
Sampler
- Is also a phase modulation synth
- Has a piano keyboard
- Resizable
- Tabbed interface
- Nice preset browser page
- Small VU meter in the toolbar
- Mapping looks better, with zoomable keyboard
- Choke groups
- Global edit mode
- Sample view:
- Bigger, with easy to move start/end points
- Modulation:
- LFO goes up to 50Hz instead of 20Hz
- Modulation delay
- Effects:
- Reverb as send
- Delay has separate L/R control, time can be ms
- Phaser
- Chorus
Sequencer
- More integrated with main window
- "Add New Track" button (or right-click empty area) to add tracks, including instrument tracks with VST already attached, and "Guitar Amp" track
- Drum track with integrated drum sampler, including simple default drum kit
- Combined menu bar when docked
- Less cluttered toolbar?
- Mixer channel strip (with gain, drag & drop, better faders, etc.)
- Optional object bar for changing selected object's properties
- Buttons to hide/show channel strip & object bar
- Select multiple tracks, or no tracks
- Shortcuts to move tracks up and down (ctrl-arrows)
- Move multiple tracks to a folder at once
- Global mute/solo buttons
- Option to hide part content
- Envelopes are connected to midi/audio/drum parts
- Controller/envelope overlay mode
- Automation envelopes in popup editor
- Record automation (envelope) from track value box, mixer, and VST GUI
- Edit envelopes with arrow keys
- Duplicate envelope points with ctrl-drag
- Input monitoring options (off-auto-rec-manual) per track type (audio or MIDI)
- View/change track input and output routing in object bar
- Triangle buttons to open/close in-track editor
- Part headers (with name) in in-track editor
- Select events with arrow keys when in-track editing
- Split selected parts at play cursor with keystroke (ctrl-k) or menu item
- Per-track shuffle
- Way cooler track/part color selection (including "Random" option) in object bar
- Optional random track color (enable in setup)
- Clips (.xtc) - Re-usable Audio/MIDI/Drum parts, with embedded VST programs or drum samples
- Alt-click creates a part
- Parts created within the loop area are set to the length of the loop area
- Cut parts/events (ctrl-x)
- "Add Track" dialog for adding multiple tracks at once
- Timeline/Snapping:
- Playback cursor goes all the way down
- Set playback cursor position with middle click
- Shortcut for autoscroll (j)
- Shortcuts for next beat (6) & prior beat (4)
- Set loop area by dragging in timeline
- Drag edges of loop to adjust
- Insert bars / remove bars (shift-i / shift-r)
- Dotted snap
- Snap to dotted bar and bar-triplet
- "1" and "32" as time signature denominators
- Markers:
- Markers are triggerable by mouse click, qwerty keyboard, and MIDI notes
- "Remix" live marker playing to new arrangement
- Keyboard shortcuts for marker navigation
- Midi tracks:
- Option to auto-quantize input
- Built-in Arpeggiator per track
- Notes snap to original position even when snap is off (good/annoying?)
- Inline midi editing is better (with object bar, and selecting notes with arrow keys)
- Vertical scrolling within midi editor with mouse wheel over keyboard display
- Automation with envelopes is much more convenient
- Multiple CC/automation lanes in in-track editor
- Line tool for velocity/CCs (ctrl-drag)
- Selection of velocity/CCs (shift-drag)
- Poly Aftertouch & Channel Pressure editing
- Range selection in event list (shift-click)
- Can open VSTs from track headers
- VST program selector in object bar
- M.Ch setting transforms input (not just track output)
- When note names are hidden, they still show when you click on the notes
- MIDI input velocity sensitivity per track
- MIDI export between loop points when looping is enabled
- Legato and fixed length
- Slice MIDI notes (cut into equal sized parts)
- Reverse MIDI
- Half/double tempo
- Keyboard shortcut for vertical zoom
- Audio tracks:
- Fade in/out per sample (not limited to 50ms) with graphical display
- Rudimentary crossfading (shift-x)
- Beatslice (slices part at grid interval)
- Autoslice (detects transients)
- Destructive audio editing by selected region: fade in/out, reverse, normalize, trim, delete, cut/copy/paste
- Open samples in external editors
- Option for mono/stereo recording per track (in object bar)
- Audio output is indicated on track header
- Resample/Stretch/Pitch shift audio parts
- Better resolution for selected audio part display
- Audio pool is in the browser (shared, instead of a separate pool per sequencer)
- Drag & drop from audio pool
- Replace samples in audio pool
- Deleting unused recorded files from the pool also deletes from disk
- Remove all unused samples
- Audio folder is automatically created when recording to a saved project
- Quantize works in popup audio part editor
- Reverse samples
- REX2 import
- MP3 import
- AIFF import
- Splitting a single-sample part leaves the whole sample intact, so you can drag the edges out to get it all back
- Convert to mono
VST Version
- Easier parameter to CC mapping
- Syncs to host by default
What's missing from XT2
These features are in XT 1.4 but aren't yet in XT2.
General
- CPU meter
- Middle click & ctrl-click for MIDI learn
- CC mapping without using learn (right click > add just makes a blank box in the controller map)
- CC Map per comp (The global one can get huge. I suggest a menu to filter the list by component.)
- Load files from command line (energyXT "%1")
- Favorites in Open/Save dialogs
- Replace VSTs (comps page, sequencer, inserts/sends)
- Dropdown menu for tabs with multiple docked windows
- Option to turn off plugin delay compensation (and see its current value in samples)
- Multi-core CPU support
- Synchronizer (the main transport kind of does this job, but there's nothing to synchronize yet)
- Registering (out of demo mode) without closing XT2
- "(Modified)" notice in main toolbar instead of only on modular area background
- Cosmetic stuff:
- Skinning support (bitmaps)
- Maximized window larger than the screen (window border off-screen)
- Transparent menus
Modular Routing Area
- "Inputs and Outputs" to split stereo plugs to mono, etc. (workaround: use (un)link vst (Windows only))
- Live recording of Master Out (workaround: use a recording VST)
- Audio Part, MIDI Part, & Envelope comps
- energyXT 1.x-style Arpeggiator & Chords comps (workaround: use XT 1.4.1 VST)
- MIDI Patcher comp (workaround: use mGUI midiXbar vst (Windows only))
- MIDI chs comp (workaround: use midiChs_noGUI vst)
- Mixer comp
- Scroll modular area with right-click-drag
- Select comps with arrow keys
- Move comps with ctrl + arrow keys
- Duplicate comps from right-click menu (use ctrl-d or ctrl-drag)
- Press menu-key to open main menu
- Press m to open menu of selected comp
- Disconnect inputs from right-click menu
- Visual feedback when clicking connections
- Option to hide scrollbars (cosmetic)
- Anti-aliased lines (cosmetic)
VST Hosting
- Preset generator
- 128 values of resolution (vs. only 101 values in XT2) for parameters when using host GUI
- Power/bypass button
- "Grab Icon"
- Names of VST output pins shown in routing menus
- Adding inputs/outputs to energyXT 1.x VST when hosted in XT2
Main Mixer
- Panning law setting (-6/-3/-0dB). XT2's pan law seems to be -3.5dB.
- Pre-fader sends (workaround: route the channel to a group, but use the send from the original channel)
- Unlimited EQ bands
- Display VST parameters in main mixer (workaround: in the sequencer, use automation lanes)
- VST program selector for insert effects integrated into mixer
- "Selected" and "Auto" viewing modes (Selected would be like a floating mixer strip; Auto would require minimizable mixer channels)
- Minimize mixer channels
- Option to (not) send MIDI to inserts (workaround: set M.Ch on inserts to the "wrong" channel)
Browser
- Recent plugins
- Search plugins only
- Audio pool: display of number of sample instances ("#" column in 1.4), display of file path
Sampler
- Multitimbral mode
- Multiple outputs
- Layers
- Slicer mode
- Envelope Sustain on/off switch
- Envelope Hold
- Sample view:
- Zoom in/out
- Backward/Alternating loop modes
- Start/end position numerical readout
- Modulation:
- Drawable LFO/Envelope (loop/1-shot)
- Gate modulator
- Add modulators
- Rename modulators
- Mod router
- Negative modulation amount
- Effects:
- Unison
- Adding VSTs as sends
- Filter blend
- Filter drive
Sequencer
- Multi mode / variations
- Live mode
- Shortcut for minimizing tracks (h)
- Duplicate track (with track content)
- Duplicate program (workaround: select all, copy, add program, paste)
- Copy/paste parts between sequencers
- Track delay (+/- x samples, ms, ticks)
- Shift-drag to stretch parts
- Load plugins inside the sequencer (hidden from the comps view)
- Midi out to audio in "feedback" routing, to record the output of a VSTi (workaround: record to a second sequencer, then drag from the audio pool to the first sequencer)
- Separate transport buttons/loop per sequencer
- Freeze/Render:
- Freeze/bounce use temp audio folder if project isn't saved
- Freeze bit depth setting
- "No FX" Freeze mode (per VST or audio track)
- Dotted outline at location of frozen parts
- Un-freeze all
- Rendering options (replace/overwrite tracks, add tail)
- Purposely exclude effects (outside the sequencer) from rendering
- Timeline/tempo/meter/snapping:
- External sync optional in standalone mode
- Independent tempo per sequencer when not using external sync
- Loading other metronome sounds
- Tempo track (workaround: use a midi loopback device)
- Adjustable tempo range for midi mapping
- CC mapping of "play from start" and "left locator"
- Snap parts to original position (useful for moving them to other tracks)
- Shortcut to toggle absolute/relative snap (d)
- Shortcut to toggle triplets (t)
- Loop selection obeys snap setting (workaround: make a minimized track with a blank part where you want to loop, then select the part and press Ctrl+P)
- Double-click timeline to start playback
- Ctrl + return, play song from first selected part
- Navigation/zooming/selection:
- Invert selection (workaround: shift-drag over everything)
- Double-click a part with shift pressed to select all parts in the track
- Zoom all (workaround: Select All or de-select everything, then Zoom Selection [ctrl +])
- Double-click zoom button for zoom-all
- Right-click on horizontal scrollbar returns to beginning
- Right-click on vertical scrollbar returns to top
- Horizontal zoom with mouse wheel over timeline (or some way to zoom with wheel only)
- Zoom with shift-= "+" (not only numpad "+")
- Markers:
- Moving/resizing markers
- Multiple marker tracks
- Clicking on marker selects parts within marker
- Recording:
- Optional record-arm buttons on each track (New way: select multiple tracks with ctrl-click)
- "wait note rec" mode
- Delete current take and start recording again with Backspace key
- Cosmetic stuff:
- Highlighting of selected items in ghost parts
- Horizontal lines separating tracks
- Different background every 4 bars
- Midi editor:
- Option to remember last note velocity separately from note length
- Hovering indicator on keyboard display
- Piano roll background on non-selected parts in inline editor
- "End of part" marker in popup editor
- "Note Preview" button
- Octave up/down buttons (workaround: use ctrl+shift+up/down)
- Mouse wheel move/transpose/resize modes
- Mute individual notes (n)
- Split notes with double-click (workaround: use alt-right-click)
- Velocity value box
- Channel field for individual notes
- Composer (Fade/Random/Compose/Random Notes/Slice Notes)
- Input channel filter ("I.Ch") for midi tracks (was only in manual rec mode)
- M.Ch (O.Ch in 1.4) displayed next to track outputs in header, when multiple tracks are set to different channels and routed to the same output
- Midi effects & groove
- Inserting notes with snap off still uses quantization value as note length (when not remembering last note length)
- CCs/Envelopes:
- Center line, 1/4 & 3/4 lines
- Envelope point value display/manual input
- Dotted line after last envelope point
- Keyboard shortcut to show event list (was F9 in 1.x)
- Double-click an event in event list to switch velocity/cc view to display the type you clicked
- CC/PrgChg/etc. value display (workaround: watch the event list)
- CC/PrgChg/etc. manual input
- Up/down buttons for velocity/CC editing (workaround: alt+arrows)
- Dropdown menu indicating which controller data exists on a midi track (workaround: read the event list)
- Envelope "square" mode
- Copy/paste envelope points between parts
- Displaying multiple automation lanes in popup editor
- Import/export envelope clips (they're not saved in .xtc files)
- Audio tracks:
- Sample-level volume envelope
- Sample-accurate start & end points
- Within multi-sample parts: destructive editing, volume/pan/fades/mute per slice, vertical zoom, semi-transparent slices, etc.
- Multi-channel audio parts with mute/solo/pan/volume/output per channel
- Multi-take loop recording
- Search for missing sample on disk (new way: "Replace" each sample in audio pool)
- Insert sample with right click menu
- Error message when trying to drag & drop unsupported sample formats
VST Version
- Multiple inputs & outputs
- Rename/disable mapped parameters
- Reporting latency to host
What's coming later (?)
General
- Multi-monitor support
- Optionally unload disabled plugins from RAM
- Import of .ext files
- Configurable midi control of everything
- Group comp (with panel surface)
- Volume per connection
- Save CC maps
Browser
- Better audio pool
- Drag samples from audio pool to sampler
Sequencer
- Improved composer, for audio tracks too
- Clip fx (destructive/nondestructive)
- Drum Track
- Velocity layers
- CCs/Envelopes/Automation:
- Copy/paste controllers (not just envelopes)