The impressions of a new user with suggested improvements.

[scotartt]

I am a new Phoscyon user, just bought it today after playing with the demo last night. I have used 303s before, but not for about ten years.

Phoscyon won a head-to-head shoot out with Bassline, because although Bassline is simple to use, I think Phoscyon shows more potential and is a few dollars cheaper to boot.

But there are a number of things I think that could be improved or changed with the plugin. It has a great sound and I like the programming model of it. I think a good plugin can be made into a great one pretty easily. Most of the suggestions below are mainly around the manual and generally making the interface quicker to use with less mousing around.

I'm using it under Ableton Live 6 on an Intel MacPro 15".

* First thing the link to the manual should be in the receipt when you buy it. I had to search the forum to find it. Or include it in the dmg would be even nicer.

* Sorry if I offend anyone's English ability here but I have to say that the manual should be re-written or at least edited by someone who speaks English as a first language. It is highly ambiguous in some places, outright confusing in others ("drawing a pattern"?). It has the feel of a machine translation.

* Sometimes the manual also needs a bit more than just explaining each button - you need to give an example how to use them in combination, as in the section about auto follow/note off clear/self reset, or at least generally. E.g. the section on the Randomise buttons could use an example how to use them rather than just an explanation of each button.

* When editing patterns, there should be computer keyboard commands for AT LEAST increment/decrement step. E.g. right arrow/left arrow. It would be killer if gate/accent/slide also has key commands.

* When editing patterns in AUTO-FOLLOW mode and with the sequencer stopped, cannot change pattern being edited. It's really tedious to stop sequencer, disengage autofollow, increment to pattern required to be edited, edit as necessary, re-engage autofollow, start sequencer. Editing the patterns in place as they play is really nice but one of the first things I tried was using auto-follow to play a whole bunch of patterns in quick succession, which made editing them difficult because by the time I realised I wanted to edit something, it had moved to the next pattern. Getting back was a pain in the arse.

* When editing patterns, it would be nice to have a key-entry mode whereby midi notes played on the keyboard set the note in the currently selected step. Maybe also with an auto-increment to the next step. Because this would reduce the step-entry times for me by a factor of ten.

* Midi controllers? Wouldn't it be better to do the stuff like gate/accent/slide (well, maybe not gate) with midi controllers anyway?

* Midi controllers for every synth parameter need to be added ASAP. A midi "learn" mode to capture the controller numbers to be used. Actually the ability to assign midi CC's for every single button and knob would be even better.

Thank you
Scot.
new Phoscyon user.

[iknowuknow]

Ditto on this. The manual needs attention, the more synicle among us would say you don't link it in the reciept because it is so basic

Don't take offence.

Fact is though if the manual was good I wouldn't still be deciding to buy...I'd of bought it by now!

Instead I'm having to trial and error a bit untill I decide whether I want it or whether I should use something simpler like Baseline 2 ?

The fact that it sounds so great is wonderful but if people find it pain to have to know, spesh if your a busy person and don't have alot of time to learn new stuff, then you may just pass on it.