I went up to CM and paid for the December issue, no mention of issue numbers anywhere on the site (that I could find...).

So, is the December 2002 issue the correct one with Crystal 2?

I've got to wait 28 days before it will be mailed. That kinda sucks. No offense to Glenn but it's a lot of hoops to jump getting this synth. I can't get around easily and all of the local stores were sold out the day they got their CM's.

At least it looks like a good edition.

I think its on the issue with musyz or however you spell it......issue 54.....I saw this one last night at barnes and noble here and it also had on the disk crystal 1.5......is this the one?...if it is, its issue 54

"So, is the December 2002 issue the correct one with Rainbow 2?"

Short term memory loss, eh!
Yes and yes, we know you mean Crystal 2....
It's on dec issue 54, and also jan issue 55 which I just bought.

fake

DEC 2002 ISSUE 54 has Crystal V2 on the CD

I believe the issue with Muzys on it is issue 53. California just got issue 53!! i cant believe it. Who knows when we'll get 54. I'm gonna try not to think about it. Thats a big reason I havent suscribed to CM. I don't want to pay all that money and get my magazine 2 months after its supposed to get here.

fake d.j., lol what did I have for breakfast this morning? You realize I'm gonna correct it so no one's going to know what you were talking about.

I thought I saw something about Muzys being on the issue's CD as well. Hope so, I've been interested in the program for some time now.

Thanks all, I'm just getting to terms with the softsynths I sold a kidney for. So it's time to go back to Crystal which I haven't spent enough time with but always liked.

Bruce

Oh btw, I was waxing poetic about Rainbow 3's new interface in another thread. Sounds like it's going to be a really interesting synth.

Issue 53 - first issue with ComputerMuzys

Issue 54 - first issue with Crystal 2.

I believe ComputerMuzys will be on every future issue. I'm guessing this will be the same with Crystal 2. This would be in keeping with the fact that Muon's special VSTi are on every issue.

There you go - from the mouth of a nobody.

ooops!

Woah, so that CD will have the Muon synths? That would be quite a bargain...and the magazine has a few articles that seem like they'd be interesting.

Cool.

Found it too (issue #54)! Not only do you get Crystal2, but you also get a full copy of Computer Muzy's software, DS 404, CM 101, GoldWave, Atom, XG Gold, Buzz, and lots more!

As for Crystal 2....ehh? Still the same old, same old to me? The Wave Sequencing is interesting, but after having Ultran in Orion... I'm dismayed that the CPU usage hasn't been improved any with this version? But still, Crystal is an excellent synth - this V2 though, I wouldn't get your panties in a bunch over.

But Computer Music is not a bad mag, and BTW - Future Music is celebrating it's 10th anniversary with 2 CD's on it's cover. I begrudged buying it, as I think Computer Music is more essential for us creators.
Good luck!

Just remember, in a couple months everyone will have access to the "newer" version of Crystal. Something like Crystal 2.1 I think.

Robert

Actually I've always liked Crystal and when I heard it supported a sample that made it very interesting to me.

I like Ultan a lot but don't want to go to the hassle of building my own soundfont library in the text format required and although there is more than enough to program with already in Ultran I'm spoiled by Reaktor which does some of the things Crystal does. And yes, I could use Reaktor for similar purposes but in all honesty it tends to suck up resources as a VSTi.

I look at Crystal as the step between something like FM7/Rainbow 2 and Absynth in terms of general sound character. So having soundfonts that can be loaded there's lots of additional sonic possibilities between 1.5 and 2.0. As I said earlier I could have waited 3 months or whatever time Glenn had an agreement with CM but the CD seemed to have some interesting material and some of the articles seemed like they'd be interesting.

Yes, you're right - great article on how to program Crystal from scratch as well. Don't get me wrong, I really like Crystal from the get go. It's a truely modern synth beyond Prophet and DX emulations for sure. I guess I would like to see more 'rythemic' patterns come out for Crystal that could lessen the CPU usage by being creative with one or two voices only.
The Wavesequencing is different from Ultran, true - but my little CPU went through the roof on some of Crystal 2's 'big' wave voices.

But as Rabid says, the newer versions will be coming out soon - and no doubt Crystal will be getting more refined still. (With more RYTHEM voices next time! )

John,

If you mean rhythm, nothing could be easier to program on Crystal v2.0 - just pick an AMP or a Mod. envelope, narrow the window so only '1' or '2 ' are visible, and then use the envelope points in linear mode to set up simple triangle, saw, or square shaped envelopes that alternate between the maximum and minimum values. "User bank 1" (and 2 as well, I believe) has dozens of arpeggio- and other rhythm-type presets, and they're freely downloadable from Glenn's website. For added pleasure, pick (say) "GQ Techno Talk #3" and set Mod Envelope 1 as the modulator for Frequency... It's also worth to try and use the same envelope(s) to control pitch and resonance of different Oscillators.

Keep in mind, though, that Crystal is a tweaker's tool far above and beyond a simple preset-player; the presets in this case should be handled as demo-sounds rather than as a library of instruments.

As a sidenote, Chainer is one incredibly useful tool with CPU-heavy synths like Crystal, even if you only have the demo version like myself. I can comfortably load 2 instances with Ultraverb on top on an Athlon 1700+, and the soundscapes coming out are just magical...

Unless things changed radically it was fairly easy to get several Crystal instances on my Athlon 1700+. Usually this is within Orion or Cubase.

It may depend on how you use it. Like a lot of complex synths it's pretty hard to use more than a few tracks at a time as the synth is so dominant sounding. Ditto for Absynth, some of z3ta+'s timbres and really anything that makes a lot of sounds and movement.

Even Ultran is a pretty big resource hog. Bigger than z3ta+ and in some cases as intensive as Reaktor 3.

x_bruce wrote:

Unless things changed radically it was fairly easy to get several Crystal instances on my Athlon 1700+.

Oh, absolutely!

I merely raised attention to Chainer because when I only want to tweak/audition sounds, and I want to use polyphony AND several instances of Crystal together, and I want to use a good reverb, things can get rather nasty in any host in a hurry... This way I've never crashed Chainer, whereas OPlat is a different ballgame. On the other hand, once I 'nailed' the combo of sounds, I wouldn't work with it anywhere else but OPlat...

x_bruce wrote:

You realize I'm gonna correct it so no one's going to know what you were talking about.

That's one of the funniest things I've read here, ever!

Thanks for the tips Dingo on rythem making with Crystal. I'm pretty happy with alot of presets just doing there thing. But eventually I'm going to have to tweek my own I know.

But the CM article, and your tips - I think I'm gonna make it now!