Was just wondering what the progress of any new visuals was? I remember that a few Christmas visuals were "promised" but never made it around....

To someone who doesn't understand what in the world the capability of the empeg is, (no matter how much I try to explain it to them) the only real impressive part of it is the "cool bouncy graphics".

Any information on the progress?

Thanks! Keep up the great work.

(O|||||O)

I was discussing a bug with Toby at Prolux, and he mentioned that the planned Christmas/Millennium visuals were delayed because he got a really bad case of the flu at that time.

Personally, I don't think we need any new visuals. The one's we've got are great. I'd rather see some features implemented to add to the existing visuals, like flashing the track info atop the visuals at the beginning of a new track, or the ability to select which visuals will appear when cycling through them with the DNPP button.

Even then, there's other stuff I'm sure we'd all rather see sooner than vis enhancements. Things like per-song EQ, or crash-free synchronizations.



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.

I was discussing a bug with Toby at Prolux, and he mentioned that the planned Christmas/Millennium visuals were delayed because he got a really bad case of the flu at that time.

Ahh... What a great Christmas present.. I got the exact same gift!

Personally, I don't think we need any new visuals. The one's we've got are great. I'd rather see some features implemented to add to the existing visuals, like flashing the track info atop the visuals at the beginning of a new track, or the ability to select which visuals will appear when cycling through them with the DNPP button.

Granted, those are features that I would like to see (I actually remember suggesting the "favorite visuals" idea months ago) but there really are only 3 or 4 visuals that I ever use, and I would just like to see more of them... Many people tend to judge a piece of equipment by how it looks (as I mentioned with my friends who couldn't give a rip that the empeg could play any future digital format file, or that it runs Linux, or so on..).

Even then, there's other stuff I'm sure we'd all rather see sooner than vis enhancements. Things like per-song EQ, or crash-free synchronizations.

Again, I guess it all goes back to personal preference. I doubt that I'll ever use a per-song EQ feature.. I know that I wouldn't spend the time setting the EQ for each one of the thousands of songs I have in my empeg. *grin*. As for the crash-free synchronizations, I've been reading the board since it was started, and I realize that a lot of people are having these problems, however I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones that has never, ever had a problem synchronizing, upgrading, or anything. Never a crash, never a failure.

But seriously, I'm a software developer. I've been programming for over 15 years. I understand that to develop successful software you have to first produce bug-free "internal" code (well, as bug-free as you can get... no code is bug-free) before you go and start coding external features like new visualizations.

In otherwords - Ignore me, I was just whining. :)

(O|||||O)

I doubt that I'll ever use a per-song EQ feature.. I know that I wouldn't spend the time setting the EQ for each one of the thousands of songs I have in my empeg.

Perhaps you're not understanding the point of such a feature. You wouldn't program a different EQ for each song. You would just choose which of the 16 presets comes up for each song. And most of the time, they would just use the default anyway. You'd only choose a preset for songs that needed it.

You see, I have many different styles of music on the Empeg, and each album is produced differently. Some are brighter than others, some have too much bass, some have not enough bass, some are too quiet, etc.

I would have one "generic" preset that was the default setting. That preset would cover most of my albums that sound OK.

For a few albums whose production is troublesome, I would choose a special preset for those songs. For example, I have an album by The Fixx which is a "remaster" job that was done poorly: They remastered "Shuttered Room" way too bright. So, one of my 16 presets would be called "Less Bright", and any time one of those songs came up, the Empeg would automatically switch to that numbered EQ preset.

Conversely, I have one Steve Morse album that's not bright enough (even when compared back-to-back with all his other albums). Without a per-song EQ feature, that album sounds muffled and gray when one of its tracks is played immediately after a normal track (even more so if it's played after one of those Fixx tracks).

These sorts of features aren't needed on consumer CD players because you're usually playing CDs in sequence. You don't notice the differences between albums because you get used to the sound of the album as you're listening to it, and all the songs are produced the same on that album. But on the Empeg, since one tends to use shuffle play, the production can change so radically from song to song that it becomes glaringly obvious.



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.

Perhaps you're not understanding the point of such a feature. You wouldn't program a different EQ for each song. You would just choose which of the 16 presets comes up for each song. And most of the time, they would just use the default anyway. You'd only choose a preset for songs that needed it.

I understand the point of such a feature completely. What I didn't know was how empeg planned on implementing this feature, and I assumed that they gave you an option to set each song differently rather than from a list of 16 presets. Either way, this doesn't affect *me* as a consumer anyway, as my equalizers are all flatlined on every preset, and that is the way that I like it.

This is mainly because I drive a Jeep Wrangler, and with the factory speakers, there isn't enough quality of sound to even worry about equalizers, especially with the top down and the music blaring over the wind noise. I know I'm very much in a minority of the empeg populous, but I was only speaking from my point of view.

(O|||||O)

The new visuals set is very near completion - You can expect to be able to crash your vehicle in awe at the new set within a couple of weeks.

Toby
Prolux Real Time Visuals

The new visuals set is very near completion - You can expect to be able to crash your vehicle in awe at the new set within a couple of weeks.

MMmmmmm... Just what I want to hear. A couple weeks is right in time for my spring break, which would be absolutely perfect.

Wonderful wonderful.

I think I can speak for all 400 of us original empeg owners, and the future thousands: Thank you for all your hard work!

(O|||||O)