u-he Hive Modular Synth - Electronic Delivery

With its effortless workflow and low processor usage, you can create your patches in next to no time at all. u-he Hive Modular Synth is quick and uncomplicated, but that doesn’t mean sacrificing flexibility, sound quality, or creativity. It's packed with features and controls – with a dazzling character that delivers stunning sound.

How it works

Hive version 1.2 Hive includes Wavetables! These appear as oscillator waveforms, and are controlled in the central hexagon. You can manually select wavetables, modulate the position via the modulation matrix, or even scan them automatically using various envelope and loop options, which let you animate wavetables without requiring an extra modulation source.

More features include a Reverse option to flip the wavetable back to front, Cyclic mode for seamless wavetable cycling, and different real-time interpolation methods.

Multi-Table

This feature splits the wavetable from between 2 and 16 parts. For instance, a wavetable with 30 frames can be split into 3 wavetables with 10 frames each - by setting the number of Tables to 3. The Multi Position knob scans those set tables. This opens up a second dimension of wavetable scanning, such as velocity crossfades or multisample support.

Optional scripting

Want to go even more in-depth? Wavetables in Hive are also available as .uhm files. These files contain scripts made with a proprietary wavetable generation and manipulation language. Getting started is easy and fun.

Interpolation

When using Wavetables, Hive provides 4 different algorithms for interpolating between frames: switch, crossfade, spectral, and zero phase. The appearance (and CPU usage) of waveforms can differ significantly, depending on the interpolation. The spectral and zero phase modes shift the relative phases of partials differently. The switch option only shows non-interpolated waveforms.

Arpeggiator and Sequencer

Hive's hexagon includes an ARP/SEQ area in which you can sculpt your complex and rhythmic loops.

Hive's arpeggiator features 4 octaves to select from, 6 different directions, and 4 options for the order. Additional features are Restart, which lets you set the number of notes the arpeggiator will play before jumping back to the beginning, and Frame, which limits the the length while driving the sequencer from the arpeggiator.

The sequencer features 3 different modes: Modulator, which doesn't trigger notes, but only CC values and Gate. Select Play, to trigger notes. Like the arpeggiator, the sequence will run whenever notes are being played and will stop when all notes are released. The last mode is Record, this lets you record sequences manually or through the arpeggiator.

Flexible Effects

Hive's hexagon includes 7 different effects: Distortion, Reverb, Equalizer, Chorus, Delay, Compressor, and Phaser.

Each effect state and position in the chain is easily controllable from the center of the hexagon. Click on one to enable or disable it, and order them to your liking: Like in other u-he plugins, effects in Hive are rearrangeable through drag and drop! This allows you to sculpt your sound even more through many experimental combinations.

Effects in Hive are fully-featured with many editable controls, a selection of presets, and the well known u-he quality. Want more? All controls are also modulatable thorugh the modulation matrix!

Modulation Matrix

Hive features a 2-page, 12-slot (6 per page) modulation matrix which allows you to connect modulation sources (LFOs, MIDI controls, envelopes, etc.) to more than 80 targets. Each modulator can be turned on or off, and lets you select 2 different targets, each with its own modulation depth control. The assignment is made easy with drag and drop. Preset support is also included.

New in 1.2: Performance controls

Version 1.2 introduces another new tab in Hive's hexagon: XY. In this page, you'll find a pad with 4 controls – simply connect them to your MIDI controllers for maximum fun on stage!

Hive is able to assign XY controls to parameters automatically. It looks into the structure of presets that have unused XY controls, and assigns them to the most appropriate XY macros (pre-defined sets of parameters).

Features:

• CPU-friendly VA synthesizer with 3 different synth engine characters
• 2 pairs of stereo oscillators and sub-oscillators with 10 different waveforms each
• Wavetable support with additional proprietary .uhm file scripting
• 2 LFOs with various shapes, sync options and unipolar switch
• 4× XY pad control with auto-assign
• Polyphonic (up to 16 voices), duophonic, mono and legato modes
• Up to 16× unison per oscillator
• 2 multimode filters: lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandreject or peaking
• 12-slot modulation matrix with 2 targets per slot, countless targets including all FX parameters
• Glide (constant rate or constant time mode)
• 7 quality effects on board: distortion, chorus, delay, phaser, EQ, plate reverb, compressor
• Arpeggiator and sequencer with direction, order, octave, frame/restart controls, and common clock with strict host-sync option
• On-screen keyboard
• Over 2700 factory presets
• Resizable UI from 70% to 200%

System Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.7 or newer, Windows 7 or newer, or Linux
• 1GB RAM, more recommended
• 50MB free disk space
• 1000 × 600 or larger display
• Modern CPU (Sandy Bridge or newer recommended)
• Host software

Hive is not a standalone product, it requires host software. Hive is compatible with nearly all DAWs. Available as Audio Units (AU), VST2, AAX (Pro Tools 10.3.7 or later) plug-ins with 32-bit and 64-bit versions.