A regular white noise will be heard while using the demo version.

I thought the same thing........no offense to anyone.

how often is this noise heard? every 20 seconds, 3 minutes.....?

Is it soooo fuckin' hard to just drop the volume instead, and NOT damage my speakers and hearing in the process??? Argh!

Devon

I know there is only a few patches to play around with but this does not inspire me in anyway. One for people who were around the first time it was released I think.

Hmmmm... I must go and have a play. The top end of the CS range were indeed very distinctive (for you preset lovers out there, I'm afraid you need to program it to get the best out of something like a CS80... presets probably won't give you any idea of what it can do)

Although I must admit that I'm wondering if all the things that made the CS80 such a favourite will be implemented - like individual note aftertouch - that kind of feature is one that almost nobody will be able to take advantage of with your standard midi controller - it just isn't implemented nowadays...it's always channel aftertouch. So how are they gonna implement that with the VSTi? The only way I can think of doing it is by recording only one note on one midi channel - tedious to edit in any host to say the least. Unless they've come up with some novel way of polyphonic output being able to talk to any host and maintain the same midi channel? (Seems unlikely to me).

Don't forget that this kind of feature was one of the main things with a CS80 - absolute freedom for playing expression. You want to filter sweep only one note of a chord? ... No problem. Try and do that on any standard productio midi keyboard nowadays.

Although the sound on its own of a CS80 is worth having if they do it right - I put CS40s (and above) up there alongside Korg MSs - they have alot of similarities such as the filters and the potential distorted nature of the sound (in fact the top CSs were much better featured than an MS20).

Right.... now I'm off to the demo site.

Ah **** it!

Some other time maybe - over 5MB ... that'll take me around an hour or so to d/l. Frustrating to say the least (still it encourages me that it should be at least half way decent sim .... don't you get just a little apprehensive when the blurb tells you all about a wonderful new VSTi that when you d/l it is only 100kB or so?) There must be alot of programming in there.

So - as I can't be arsed to d/l today I'll go on 2nd hand info - does it have that metallic edge you can get on real CSs? Is the LFO useable with an envelope over its speed etc? The ring mod any good? Good squelchy slow filter?

kritikon wrote:

Ah **** it! Some other time maybe - over 5MB ... that'll take me around an hour or so to d/l.

Dang, I just downloaded it in 15 seconds. Modems are evil! Might check it out tonite myself.

Devon

I just downloaded and played with it for about 30 minutes. The warning should be restated: Be careful about the hiss. It's rather loud. Don't wear earphones while demoing this.

The sound: I found it to be very thick. The basses are nice and fat. The pads are very nice and analogesque, including the horns and strings. I like this more than the Moog Modular V. I didn't find any of the preset leads too inspiring but that may have been a case of programming. Also, some of the presets oddly had their volume turned way down.

I'm going to add this to my "covet" list.

kritikon wrote:

individual note aftertouch - that kind of feature is one that almost nobody will be able to take advantage of with your standard midi controller - it just isn't implemented nowadays...it's always channel aftertouch. So how are they gonna implement that with the VSTi? The only way I can think of doing it is by recording only one note on one midi channel - tedious to edit in any host to say the least.

As a user of a 88 weighted keys masterkeyboard with polyphonic aftertouch I do know that most major hosts can record and edit polyphonic aftertouch. So no such thing as a workaround like you describe is needed. Just create and edit the desired events in your host's event editor. It's very easy to draw automation curves for P-Press in Logic's Hyper Edit for example, in Muzys it's clearly labeled as Poly Pressure in the Grafix Editor, etc.

kririkon wrote:

So - as I can't be arsed to d/l today I'll go on 2nd hand info - does it have that metallic edge you can get on real CSs? Is the LFO useable with an envelope over its speed etc? The ring mod any good? Good squelchy slow filter?

I've had it since the first beta-here's my take(and I have a CS60);
The sound-it's very close to the real thing.The filters in normal mode have that thin,nasal sound the real one did,and the envelopes are the same.Like the real one,you want to use the filters as bandpass filters most of the time.
The added 24 dB/octave option is really nice-I wish my CS had them.
The ring modulator-there's a little inaccuracy with how the decay slider is scaled,but the sound is the same essentially.
No PAT unfortunately-you could fake it with keyboard zones,but not completely.
The sliders are upside down to my thinking-like the original again.
You can sync the oscillators-very cool with sweeping the synced oscillator with the mod wheel.The arpeggiator is nice.The ribbon is a mod source,but of course you can't do hammer-ons on it the way you can with a real CS.
The gliss and portamento are the same,and the chorus sounds better.There's also a delay...
All in all,if you liked the hardware,you'll like the software
ew

It seems most of the presets these days are rather bland, the exception for me is Atmosphere.
My test of whether I want a synth or not is going in and start tweaking oscillators and filters and listen to what happens and whether I like the sound or not, this gives me an idication whether I can make some interesting sounds on my own, that's half the fun.
I've already listened to several of the audio demos and thought it sounded beautiful.
Once again this type of synth will not appeal to everyone, depending on your needs and style of music, and for others it will satisfy our "good old days" yearning.

Well, as someone who owned a real CS80 for many years (until its unfortunate demise some years ago ), and as someone who, like dr.wackler, has an 88-note mother keyboard with polypressure (doctor, what's yours? mine is the Elka MK88 mkll ), all I can say is "F***!"(some northern Englanders will also understand "gobsmacked!!").This is one superb emulation...the details of the original that have been faithfully maintained, plus all the new stuff that has been added (which are IMHO all totally coherent with the spirit of the original). I haven't really played much with the presets (which I never even used to do with my own CS80), but I was once again knocked over by the sheer beauty of the sound that can be gotten out of it....damn! I wanted to save some patches immediately, but of course the demo doesn't allow this. Let's just criticize the miniscule legends for faders and knobs, and I hope that the limitation of 8 note polyphony (admittedly,same as the original) is merely a factor of it being a demo version. On the other hand, I was very amused,upon "opening" the top panel, to see the fans spinning away under the grills:-).I haven't seen the asking price for this yet, but I'm afraid that some folks I know are going to receive a somewhat lesser Christmas present this year!

vic_france wrote:

I haven't seen the asking price for this yet

I think Xavier said $249
ew

ew wrote:

I think Xavier said $249

In that case, I should still have enough left over to at least buy Christmas cards!

I've just noticed one thing, however (If I'm right, please pass this info on to Arturia). I was trying to get the SC80v to respond to the volume pedal, without having to resort to the matrix (Keanu, help me!). As far as I can see, the "EXP" and "WAH" buttons *do* work, but they are expecting to see CC#4 (it should be assignable, notably to CC#7, or even to CC#11). More serious, when they *do* receive CC#4, they react *backwards*! (i.e. pressing the pedal down *decreases* the volume). My pedal is definately working with the correct polarity.

I love this synth! What a sound and expressiveness!!!

just, where are my glasses...?

ew wrote:

No PAT unfortunately-you could fake it with keyboard zones,but not completely.

What is 'PAT', ew? If you mean Poly Aftertouch, the demo that I just tried does have it.

ew wrote:

The sliders are upside down to my thinking-like the original again.

Not only to your thinking.

vic_france wrote:

like dr.wackler, has an 88-note mother keyboard with polypressure (doctor, what's yours? mine is the Elka MK88 mkll )

Ditto, but "Mark I".

vic_france wrote:

On the other hand, I was very amused,upon "opening" the top panel, to see the fans spinning away under the grills:-)

And have you mouse-clicked on them? (But beware, after a while it might get quite hot)

Hmmm...you know in all the time I've played around with this thing,I've never tried using PAT(an Ensoniq user here-the best thing about the old dear)?Thanks for letting me know.Needless to say,the beta documentation was non-existent,and I usually don't use aftertouch.
About the sliders-yeah it's authentic,but I like pulling my sliders UP to increase the value.Personal preference,I suppose...
ew

Also,I'd like to know whether anybody else is seeing this...I get tons of graphics noise in the standalone version.The plugin versions(both VSTi and DXi in my case)are fine,but the standalone's almost unusable.This and the MMV are the only plugs I've ever had problems with...the Arturia people told me I was the only one with that problem-I find it hard to believe.
ew

The cheesy demos after the first 2 do not make me want to buy this VSTi...

Quote:

Mahler himself was clearly inspired by the nursery rhyme Brother John.

Surely these guys know the first rule in sales...You can't sell a car with cigarette butts in the ashtray!

downloading now................

dano

I never verified this myself, but I've heard that the reason so few keyboards implemented polyphonic aftertouch was because Ensoniq obtained a patent on the technology and made it quite expensive for other companies to license.

deastman wrote:

I never verified this myself, but I've heard that the reason so few keyboards implemented polyphonic aftertouch was because Ensoniq obtained a patent on the technology and made it quite expensive for other companies to license.

That would've been interesting for them to pull off, considering the original CS-80 had it well before Ensoniq even existed.

ew wrote:

About the sliders-yeah it's authentic,but I like pulling my sliders UP to increase the value.Personal preference,I suppose...

So do I. (Just in case you misinterpreted my first comment).
What I find irritating is that some sliders work up-down, but some work down-up. like on the original again I guess, but still irritating...

ew wrote:

No PAT unfortunately-you could fake it with keyboard zones,but not completely. The sliders are upside down to my

Not true - there is poly aftertouch - HOWEVER if your KB sends both the CS-80V will only respond to channel AT - per Xavier in response to one of my beta-reports.

BTW, I do have a Kurzweil Midiboard and Expressionmate (although my ribbon controller is attached below my keybed) and I must say that the CS-80V is a ton of fun - and of course you can open many instances.

There is the eight note polyphony - so there might be some kavetching there - but not if you program your patches right. This thing can get thick as London fog, and if you get past eight notes you got no room left to put in anything else...

deastman wrote:

I never verified this myself, but I've heard that the reason so few keyboards implemented polyphonic aftertouch was because Ensoniq obtained a patent on the technology and made it quite expensive for other companies to license.

They might have had a technology that they could license to implement PAT... but other than that - no. I believe that Ensoniq had some from of inter-digitated filiments under the keybed (resistive) - while Kurzweil implemented a capacitive mechanism that tracked the upward vertical strike at the "back" of the key (think if a faux hammer action).

Different patented technologies - but polyphonic aftertouch is part of a public spec.

ew wrote:

Also,I'd like to know whether anybody else is seeing this...I get tons of graphics noise in the standalone version. ew

Dude, you're alone.

vic_france wrote:

I've just noticed one thing, however (If I'm right, please pass this info on to Arturia). I was trying to get the SC80v to respond to the volume pedal, without having to resort to the matrix (Keanu, help me!). As far as I can see, the "EXP" and "WAH" buttons *do* work, but they are expecting to see CC#4 (it should be assignable, notably to CC#7, or even to CC#11). More serious, when they *do* receive CC#4, they react *backwards*! (i.e. pressing the pedal down *decreases* the volume). My pedal is definately working with the correct polarity.

The backwards thing follows the standard practice then - like many church organs I believe. Look at a GX1 and you might see what paradigm they were using.

BTW, the panel levers were not backwards, as they had a pivot above the slider that caused up to mean down - think about it.

I mentioned to them that some folks won't get it - but if you wanted authenticity - you get more than anti-aliasing oscillators.

HHaynes wrote:

ew wrote: Also,I'd like to know whether anybody else is seeing this...I get tons of graphics noise in the standalone version. ew Dude, you're alone.

I was afraid of that I was having a correspondence with their GUI guy,and he was running a slower machine than mine with a really old ATI card and he didn't have it.Thing that gets me is that the Arturia synths are the only ones I have this happen with Oh well,I wouldn't be running it standalone anyways...
ew

I just found out about the power of the Multimode and different Voice Allocation Modes... WOW, it is really amazing what you can do there!!!
Absolutely makes sense that this thing has a fixed number of voices as you can literally compose with Rotating voices!

Some questions to the beta testers:
Does the Chorus switch from Stereo to Mono when you activate the Delay?
What exactly does the Sustain Mode switch do?

HHaynes wrote:

BTW, the panel levers were not backwards, as they had a pivot above the slider that caused up to mean down - think about it. I mentioned to them that some folks won't get it -

So tell me Dude, what's up with the Keyboard Control Sliders then?
(Pun intended)

Just downloaded late yesterday evening that beast

-very impressive GUI , i thought

-but for many presets my G4 733 couldn't face the work...too CPU expensive !

-to be honest i'm not such in love with analog sounds emulation in general, question of taste, and this one (yet) won't make me change my mind !

-but i just played 10 minutes at the most so...

I'm so impressed with this synth!!! I'll be picking it up for sure. This thing sounds and looks awsome. I'm not a big fan of the Modular V becuase of the bulky interface and CPU usage. This is much better IMHO. Not bad at all on my 2.8PIV. Great work Arturia. You have a new fan.

You have also this experience with moog modular's interface ?
...................................................

-No i go back to what i said, going a bit farther, its a very impressive beast !

Buggy as hell in Fruity Loops, the top display managed to get blanked out where you change the presets. Also not all the areas where you change the presets work, only the very bottom of the panel.

B.

Once again Arturia manage to produce a brilliant synth with the exception of a few, totally crap presets that dont show of their synth. I didnt hear enough preset sounds from the period of time that made this synth famous. I mean who wants sounds from 2000 onwards with this type of synth ?

A few managed to invoke vangelis and jarre, but now many, and these are the guys that put their mark on this synth.

There is a demo MP3 demo called CS80 medley, maybe the guy who did that should include all of his presets (or maybe it will make it into the final product release).

Bluey.

It roxx. Like it like it like it

wow. it sounds amazing!!!!

HHaynes wrote:

vic_france wrote: As far as I can see, the "EXP" and "WAH" buttons *do* work, but they are expecting to see CC#4 (it should be assignable, notably to CC#7, or even to CC#11). More serious, when they *do* receive CC#4, they react *backwards*! (i.e. pressing the pedal down *decreases* the volume). My pedal is definately working with the correct polarity. The backwards thing follows the standard practice then - like many church organs I believe. Look at a GX1 and you might see what paradigm they were using.

Well, I promise you that the expression pedal on the original CS80 works the *correct* way round. (also, I've never played a classical organ whose swell pedal worked "backwards" (I started [church]organ lessons when I was 12..many centuries ago )

Hmmm... yes, serious FL Studio problems here too.

DXi version repeatedly crashes the host when loading it.

VST version -graphics are all arsed up, as above comments.

Looks like a dodgy beta at this stage sadly. Hope Arturia haven`t produced a zillion CDs with it in this condition! Oh, and I did ask about being a beta tester too... oh well.

i dig it alot!!

but i sont hvae money for it plus the money i do have will go towards imposcar...

dr.wackler wrote:

What exactly does the Sustain Mode switch do?

With the switch in the "up" position, sustain works normally,i.e. you play a 3-note chord,hold down the pedal then play a 4th note which gets added to the first 3, but when the switch is in the "down" position, the polyphony gets reduced to the number of notes held *after* pressing the pedal, i.e. in the previous example, when you play that 4th note, the first 3 will cut off. This is useful in conjunction with the portamento..it ensures that if you glide between two chords (eg first chord in the middle of the keyboard, and the 2nd chord 2 octaves higher up), that there won't be any notes from the first chord just "hanging there"

HHaynes wrote:

BTW, I do have a Kurzweil Midiboard and Expressionmate (although my ribbon controller is attached below my keybed) and I must say that the CS-80V is a ton of fun - and of course you can open many instances.

FYI:
We will certainly make a bundle offer on our website; i.e. sell this Expressionmate ribbon controller together with the CS-80V.
Actually Kurzweil wants to dispose of their very last copies of Expressionmate (about 50 - I'm not sure but I think they have stopped production).
We are currently exploring this possibility, but nothing is sure for the moment.

More about Expressionmate: http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com/html/expmate.html

David
ARTURIA

Dayvid wrote:

Actually Kurzweil wants to dispose of their very last copies of Expressionmate (about 50 - I'm not sure but I think they have stopped production). We are currently exploring this possibility, but nothing is sure for the moment. More about Expressionmate: http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com/html/expmate.html David ARTURIA

Why, is a newer Expressionmate in development?

bluey wrote:

Buggy as hell in Fruity Loops

If it runs well on everything BUT Fruity Loops, who do you think you should contact about it? My guess is that since I tested this plug with Steinberg hosts, that you should be letting the makers of Fruity Loops in on their shortcomings.

Because my other VSTis are not buggy, and only CS80 is buggy in Fruity Loops, So whos fault ?

Whatever, the demo is buggy in Fruity Loops, which shows their contempt for this platform, otherwise they would have picked this easy one up in testing, oh well.

B.

bluey wrote:

Because my other VSTis are not buggy, and only CS80 is buggy in Fruity Loops, So whos fault ?

In my experience, it's almost always the host.

It is possible that it could be a problem with the CS-80V, but I seriously doubt it.

Yeah another thing, the GUI is waaay too small, I have look closely just to make out what the controls are, and even then its not clear. They clearly made this to fit on small monitors, but well I think most people are running on 1280 X 1024 these days, and dual monitors too. In fact the GUI is ridiculous.

I think an option should be included to run another version with a larger GUI, or have it resize. You can do this on Pentagon.

B.

dr.wackler wrote:

kritikon wrote: individual note aftertouch - that kind of feature is one that almost nobody will be able to take advantage of with your standard midi controller - it just isn't implemented nowadays...it's always channel aftertouch. So how are they gonna implement that with the VSTi? The only way I can think of doing it is by recording only one note on one midi channel - tedious to edit in any host to say the least. As a user of a 88 weighted keys masterkeyboard with polyphonic aftertouch I do know that most major hosts can record and edit polyphonic aftertouch.

What keyboard is this? Is there a semiweighted version?

electro wrote:

What keyboard is this? Is there a semiweighted version?

It's the Elka MK88 (which I have) or its successor the Elka MK88 MkII.
Both are not in production anymore, so would have to look for a 2nd hand one. I seem to remember that there was a 76 keys version as well (Elka MK76?), but I think it was also weighted, not semi-weighted.

kritikon wrote:

Although I must admit that I'm wondering if all the things that made the CS80 such a favourite will be implemented - like individual note aftertouch - that kind of feature is one that almost nobody will be able to take advantage of with your standard midi controller - it just isn't implemented nowadays...it's always channel aftertouch. So how are they gonna implement that with the VSTi? The only way I can think of doing it is by recording only one note on one midi channel - tedious to edit in any host to say the least.

I just did a review of Cubase SX 2 and they have a great facility in their MIDI Key Editor for dealing with polyphonic aftertouch (see page 555 of their operation manual). I actually generate mine through the Kurzweil MIDIBoard, and then edit. It it's super easy to create it on a per note basis.

As I say in the review, you'll be chillin' like Vangelis in no time...

well...there the sounds aren't inspiring and the static is annoying..it's buggy in fruityloops but
WAIT

it's got little fans in the GUI that actually spin around not since the delay lama have i been so happy
i could watch them spin for hours

i'm sold.

HHaynes wrote:

I just did a review of Cubase SX 2 and they have a great facility in their MIDI Key Editor for dealing with polyphonic aftertouch ...

In Logic this is called the Hyper Editor and can in the same way be used to edit Velocities as well - in case someone's looking for a way to create/edit poly pressure events.