10. Expansion and Restoration

Eric has completed remaking his core applications for Apple’s current computing platform and now it is time to build on them. We are creating new expansion packs and restoring long-forgotten content made with the apps.

ArtMatic CTX Expansions

ArtMatic CTX has four expansion packs currently available (Super, Metal Heart, Architecture, and Deep Space). Users also continue creating and sharing new free expansion projects. These help users get a jumpstart on more complex systems such as Trees for landscapes. Special shout out to Peter Miller and Dick Scherzinger. Make sure to add the first free Customer pack to your store account and then visit the Community page for even more.

MetaSynth CTX Expansions

We are working with Galbanum to convert/migrate their wonderful MetaSynth 4 expansion packs all the way to MetaSynth+Xx CTX 1.2. The first one completed is a massive collection of wavetables for creating new synth voices. The next is a multifaceted pack of presets+synths+samplers+filers+more, and then a big collection of samplers. We are also working to identify all synths and samplers from the past and put in the work to create a Classics Pack for CTX. Plans are forming for even more!

In the meantime, I have converted Len Sasso’s The Wizoo Guide to MetaSynth 2.5 files from MS2 to MS4 to MS5 to MS6 to MSCTX1 and the result is now available on the Learning page. A rewrite of the book adding sections with features that came after MS2 is in progress. I found the web page for Len’s The Bouncing Ball (thank you https://archive.org/web/), and Toby Pitman’s Introduction to MetaSynth tutorials, and have migrated them to CTX compatibility. Lastly, I created an all-new set of HotKey charts for each MetaSynth+Xx “room”/application. These are all posted on the Learning page.

Additional Restorations

Glen Bledsoe originally compiled and released six MetaSynthia albums with music created by MetaSynth and visuals in ArtMatic. Sadly they were all lost to time. Helge Krabye and I worked with Glen and Paul Fletcher to restore them. We’ve also created and released a new 7th volume with an 8th in the works! Helge then produced two videos documenting the multimedia included on the original two double CD-ROMs. You can watch the videos on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/uisoftware and you can listen to the music on BandCamp: https://metasynthia.bandcamp.com/

Eric Wenger produced the Insideout DVD of MetaSynth music and ArtMatic animation in 2003. I have restored and upsampled them to 4k them using Topaz’s artificial intelligence program and posted them to the YouTube channel. You also can watch Erics videos and listen to his music here: https://www.youtube.com/c/metawenger or https://ericwenger.bandcamp.com/

It Takes a Community

2022 got even more exciting with two of the movies, ‘Dune‘ and ‘No Time to Die‘ that used MetaSynth CTX 1.2 on their scores are up for Oscars! Proud that years of work to remake the app and add a new higher resolution (256x’s) audio engine to it are paying off. Mel Wessen has agreed to sit for an interview about his use of the app in film, and Dane Davis (the Matrix films) recently sat down with us to talk about his use in ‘Matrix Resurrections‘. More folks have links on the Community page. Some other famous names and companies are using MetaSynth CTX and we hope to chat with them soon.

Thank you to all the loyal customers who donated to restoring these two application suites, remaking them for Apple’s current “Mac” operating system platform (AppKit), and adding powerful new features to them. It took us 5 years end to end to do it, and at times it looked like it would not happen, but together we made it happen. Onwards and upwards, step by step. Stay Tuned!

– Kevin DuArte