Ultranos Dreamer

an old DAW (or music making program) developed by Iliyan Dinev from ca 2000 to ca 2004.

It was found in 2020 by (instagram user) fleamarketaudiostuff and placed on his webpage.

It's clone of Reason with a twist that it can load VST plugins. It's pretty decent software for unfinished product albeit it's little bit and inconsistent.

See this video for more backstory and how to use it.

dreamer.zip

Dreamer simulates rack-based music making studio. It has it's own original names for available devices so there is a little overview:

Akemi Digital Sampler is as name suggest digital sampler. While it sounds OK, constructing patches is somewhat tricky. Workhorse of song mode.

CR1 Drum machine is very simple yet very usable drum machine.

Musashi is TB-303-ish monophonic synth. Sounds great when tweaking cutoff frequency.

PsyFi PCF Filter is probably some step-sequenced filter. It's not finished and didn't work at all.

Sequencer 1 is sequencer used for song mode. It can import songs from MIDI files and automatically route MIDI connection to Akemis.

DDL 1 Delay is simple yet useful delay.

Di1 Distrortion distortion effect - not very useful or at least I didn't find its sweet spots.

FR Flanger is flanger. Probably usable one.

M1X3R Mixer cool looking mixers. It can be handy as it's easy to have clipping in Dreamer songs.

RV1 Reverb - unfortunately does not work (cannot be plugged in). Use included Freeverb2 VST instead.

VeloSiTy VST Host is VST host capable of hosting 32bit VST 1.0 - 2.3 plugins. See this thread to find out which VSTs work. According to eLawnMust it does not likes Synthedit plugins.

• don't be afraid to look into help file, Dreamer has one and there are some useful tips
• built-in reverb does not work (it cannot be plugged in), use included Freeverb2 VST instead
• it does not load 32bit float wavefiles, convert it to 16bit and you are OK
• there is KVR thread listing usable VST plugins and other findings
• Musashi and CR1 can be used while in pattern mode (they have built-in sequencer)
• Akemi and CR1 can be used while in song mode (they can receive MIDI from Seq1)
• song mode is all sequenced by Seq1 sequencer
• CR1 can do the polyrhytms
• cable connecting and disconecting is somewhat tricky
• and it's made even worse that in song mode it can change cable routing during the song
• at least it's documented in help file (in section Automation in Dreamer)
• when you add new device, it's automatically connected to hardware (output). You need to disconnect it to connect trough mixer.
• clicking stop button second time jumps to start of the song (in song mode)