Published on March 22nd, 2005.
Author: Darren McEntee
Category: Interviews.

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An interview with René Ceballos from rgcAudio.

Hi René for and welcome!

1. Hi, tell us about your-self (name, details Etc…) ?

Well, I’m René G. Ceballos, 33. I’m married, 2 kids. Thank you for interviewing me!

2. When did you start to produce audio software?

I started writing CoolEdit plugins (www.audiotechcorp.com) on Jan 2001, then I moved to VST arena… I’ve been a session keyboard player for many years, and I always wanted to make my own instruments.

3. How did you start on Pentagon I software synthesizer? (The code? an idea? the interface? user requests? etc…) ?

Well, I wrote a few predecesors of it (Triangle I, Square I) which served for me to learn the VST specification. After that I felt ready to create Pentagon I. It’s very easy to make a good instrument, you just need a couple of good ears… to test it? partially… more important: to hear your customers.

4. What do you think of all those VSTi plugins that “pop-up” here-there-and-everywhere?

I love that. Most of them are written by students or people trying to create what they can’t find in existing instruments or just can’t afford.

That’s very good for the users and also for we developers, as the general knowledge about technical and quality aspects is raising on the scene, so customers are getting more prepared to recognize what makes a good instrument different from a bad one, and they also can squeeze we developers much more.

That leads to the whole VSTi community getting a rising quality scene.

5. For you and your company, what is the best format for Plug-ins; VST, DirectX, RTAS, TDM Logic i etc… and why ?

VST. xPlatform, open to write plugins and hosts, efficient. We devs usually complain about it being underspecified/underdocumented, but it’s still the clear winner hands down.

6. Under what OS’s does Pentagon I work?

Windows *.*
We just started to get in touch with Macs, but we won’t release anything for mac till we can offer the same support level than we offer for Windows platform. I have to apologize here with Mac users… for a while.

7. What is different/unique about Pentagon I as compared to other VSTi’s ?

Pentagon I, as our other instruments, were conceived to play them realtime. The expressivity obteinable by routing several MIDI controllers to parameters and controlling them realtime is still unmatched in the VSTi arena. All other components in P1 aren’t innovative really, it’s a subtractive synth after all. Only the quality of every component makes it one of the tops..

8. What has it been like working in a Windows dominated environment ?

Natural for me I guess… There is always that Mac vs Pc discussion, but it doesn’t happen in this part of the world at all.. PCs are the only choice in all studios.

9. What features/upgrades are you developing on adding to Pentagon I , in its next version? Or is it in completion at present ?

Well, it’s very close to completion, mostly due what we hear from customers and press reviews is, it’s starting to become veeeeery complex. We still have a few things that will make it more “complete” though.

10. What is the coolest, least understood feature about Pentagon I ? If any ?

The Voice Modulator. Due the lack of MIDI+AudioIn support in VST hosts, it is needed to use weird tricks to get it working in different hosts. This is about to change in latest versions of major sequencers fortunately.

11. What is the future that you foresee for digital audio recording and music producing on home PCs?

Do you genuinely think that VSTi’s will “take-over” from hardware altogether? (or have they already?) Or is this just a period of time/change in the way professional artists or hobbyists invent their music ?
It depends. Samplers will be taken over this year and next one without any doubt for the whole studio production scene, and for many live applications too.

However, hardware synths won’t be out so easily. In fact, hardware synths are just “computer programs” nowadays, only running in a very dedicated computer. There are already a lot of “computer-in-a-synth-shape” projects going around now, but that will only change the shape of the support.

I can foresee that rackmountable pc’s/macs or synth-shaped pcs will start getting part of the scene, which will be good. I’ve received a zillion questions… “do you have plans to make P1 hardware?”. . . . Ummm i like the sound of that!!!

12. Where is rgcAudio going to go from here ?

 

We just started writing our new instrument. but unfortunately I can’t give any details of it, as I hate vaporware with my full strength, and the specs aren’t fixed yet.

13. What are your favorite audio related software? (Excluding your own rgcAudio software though. )?

Instruments: GigaStudio, FM7, B4, SynC Modular, DR-008, VAZ2001, VirSyn.
fx: Waves, Ultrafunk.
sequencer: (is there any decent?)
audio mix: Vegas.
wave edit: CoolEdit, SoundForge.
loop: Orion Pro, Acid Pro.

14. Why should a customer buy a rgcAudio product versus your competitors?

Because he/she likes it. Besides of that, I only can offer a hard-to-match customer support, and a hard-to-match upgrade and crossgrade policy.

15. Can you tell us what’s coming next from rgcAudio? … ?

 

“A bicircular self-autoretrointerpolated sound generation engine…” ugh.. see 12.

 

16. What would you most like rgcAudio customers to know ?

 

That I really appreciate all the encouragement/support messages I receive daily, that we work everyday to make your sounds high quality.

17. Do you like strawberries?

Uh? did anyone answer no? With cream!

18. Any closing thoughts ?

Thank you TraXmusic. and thank you Steinberg for the VST standard.

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Thank you very much Réne for your time!

You’re welcome.

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