Xils 4 The Pin Matrix Modular Analog Synthesizer [V1.5 released + Intro Price offer]

[Lotuzia]

Hi guys!
i bought Xils LE some years ago.
I admit that i didn't use it so much beacuase for my kind of style heavily based on automation it lacks some little things that makes the old VCS/SynthiA one of the greatest beasts for experimental improv stuff.

So i'm really planning to upgrade to XILS 4 but i see that those kind of limitations are still there.
So a few requests. Hope that some developer will listen to me

1. An alternative mode ( via option menu ) for the Oscillator frequency knobs to be full scale ( 0 hz - 16.000 Hz ) as the real VCS/Synthia.
This way we can keep compatibility with the normal mode ( Octave range and semitones ). Obviously the new full scale parameters should be available as VST automation parameters

2. Matrix pin on/off and amount available as VST automation parameters

3. Joystick X, Y values and X, Y range available as VST automation parameters

can i hope for the future and buy this baby?

thanks and all the best

a.

i guess that 2. and 3. are pretty easy to implement. and i guess that even 1. would not be so difficult.

Good news are : You dont have to hope for the future. Most are already there. You can map all parameters to midi Cc in Xils 3/4

To display osc in hz just check this option in the option menu. If you use the shift key you can fine tune oscillators ( so divise hz )

Joystick X and Y axis have been assignable for ages to midi Ccs. As is the pitch of all oscillators. There's however no plan atm to allow pin connection to be automatable. ( 1200 possible connexions per patch can explain that ) Maybe in the future ? Control/automate the output of modules is enough most of time ( and these ones are available in the midi cc assignation tables and/or thru direct matrix operations )

[aMUSEd]

About the joysticks... If someone could answer a question I asked few days ago and which has received no answer at all... Thanks in advance!

It's here : USB MIDI joystick controllers

Hmm you can use XY controlers on Novation keyboards for example. Or HW synths equipped with joystick and that can send midi data. But a dedicated USB JS I dont know of any.

I use this:



the joystick action is perfect - you don't just have to use it with the Neuron, with the Nuke4all software it can be used with anything - but not available any more

[lalo]

Good news are : You dont have to hope for the future. Most are already there. You can map all parameters to midi Cc in Xils 3/4

bad (old) news are that MIDI is 0..127 ( 7 bit ) and VST parmeters are 32 bit 0.0...1.0. So i.e. if you want to control Oscillator pitch via MIDI you have 128 discrete values, if you use VST automation envelopes or OSC wrappers you have 32 bit resolution

To display osc in hz just check this option in the option menu. If you use the shift key you can fine tune oscillators ( so divise hz )

I know. But the automatable range is not full scale. Is only relative to the octAve selector.

Joystick X and Y axis have been assignable for ages to midi Ccs. As is the pitch of all oscillators. There's however no plan atm to allow pin connection to be automatable. ( 1200 possible connexions per patch can explain that ) Maybe in the future ? Control/automate the output of modules is enough most of time ( and these ones are available in the midi cc assignation tables and/or thru direct matrix operations )

again..MIDI is only 7 bit low res stuff.

ok. i got it.you guys let's get fun with XILS. it's just not for me and for my kind of use.

[Lotuzia]

About the joysticks... If someone could answer a question I asked few days ago and which has received no answer at all... Thanks in advance!

It's here : USB MIDI joystick controllers

Hmm you can use XY controlers on Novation keyboards for example. Or HW synths equipped with joystick and that can send midi data. But a dedicated USB JS I dont know of any.

I use this:



the joystick action is perfect - you don't just have to use it with the Neuron, with the Nuke4all software it can be used with anything - but not available any more

Looks good ! Too bad its not available anymore !

[aMUSEd]

About the joysticks... If someone could answer a question I asked few days ago and which has received no answer at all... Thanks in advance!

It's here : USB MIDI joystick controllers

Hmm you can use XY controlers on Novation keyboards for example. Or HW synths equipped with joystick and that can send midi data. But a dedicated USB JS I dont know of any.

I use this:



the joystick action is perfect - you don't just have to use it with the Neuron, with the Nuke4all software it can be used with anything - but not available any more

Looks good ! Too bad its not available anymore !

Yeah, plus how much it cost!

It's pretty much perfect as a plugin joystick though, the action is responsive but also smooth and it stays in place, no wobble or drift, and the controller is heavy, solid metal, so doesn't move around, it even has a palm rest, and the joystick tip is bevelled so your finger rests right into it.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Game controllers are a great cheap alternative for joysticks
I use an old wireless Wingman (amongst other devices)

[electro]

vmidi joy was the original PC application for this. I think I read somewhere Andy Cytomic was the originator of Vellocet.
http://vellocet.com/software/VMIDIJoY.html

It shouldn't be too hard to get and Xbox360 controller joystick generating MIDI CC.

[BlackWinny]

Or you can map two sliders/knobs of any hw midi controller to the X and Y axis of the Xils 4 ( this is what I use when I dont want to use my Novation XY pad or map my korg JS via midi ) Its not optimal and not the same feel than a joystick, but it works.

It is always a solution, yes. But I feel it as a kind of degraded solution, because I have an important spatial visualisation of things, with real orthogonality and a direct mental representation of the axis with values in abscissa and ordinate. We loose that direct visualisation with two independent sliders. So a stopgap solution yes, but with a very uneasy new mental perturbation in the command of the actions between the brain and the fingers.

[BlackWinny]

About the joysticks... If someone could answer a question I asked few days ago and which has received no answer at all... Thanks in advance!

It's here : USB MIDI joystick controllers

Hmm you can use XY controlers on Novation keyboards for example. Or HW synths equipped with joystick and that can send midi data. But a dedicated USB JS I dont know of any.

I use this:



the joystick action is perfect - you don't just have to use it with the Neuron, with the Nuke4all software it can be used with anything - but not available any more

Woooooaaaaah!
It was exactly my dream!!!
What a shame that all these devices are always discontinued!
I'm gonna still create alerts in eBay, Priceminister, etc. for this device in second hand if I can't find it directly at the moment I look into the available products.

[aMUSEd]

About the joysticks... If someone could answer a question I asked few days ago and which has received no answer at all... Thanks in advance!

It's here : USB MIDI joystick controllers

Hmm you can use XY controlers on Novation keyboards for example. Or HW synths equipped with joystick and that can send midi data. But a dedicated USB JS I dont know of any.

I use this:



the joystick action is perfect - you don't just have to use it with the Neuron, with the Nuke4all software it can be used with anything - but not available any more

Woooooaaaaah!
It was exactly my dream!!!
What a shame that all these devices are always discontinued!
I'm gonna still create alerts in eBay, Priceminister, etc. for this device in second hand if I can't find it directly at the moment I look into the available products.

You will have a hard time finding a Neuron VS on EBay for less than several 100 (cheapest I can see at the moment is $799 which is frankly a scam considering the Mac software at least is now free and the controller, while nice, is not worth anything near that much) - I have never seen a second hand NUKE on its own and also the NUKE4All software is discontinued:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=H ... 0178390199

[BlackWinny]

Game controllers are a great cheap alternative for joysticks
I use an old wireless Wingman (amongst other devices)

I have an old wingman (I have been a Flight simulator geek in the past, perhaps twenty years ago), but it has (and all these game controllers) totally the look of real control sticks... and even always military control sticks.

But first: my philosophy is rather...


and second: it's a bit disturbing for musical applications where the use of a joystick is rather with very subtle movements by the finger the palm of the hand being totally still... while in flight simulations (and real planes, I have got a french PPL in 1983 in Touraine) the use is rather with subtle movements of the wrist all the rest of the hand staying totally still.

[BlackWinny]

You will have a hard time finding a Neuron VS on EBay for less than several 100 (cheapest I can see at the moment is $799 which is frankly a scam considering the Mac software at least is now free and the controller, while nice, is not worth anything near that much) - I have never seen a second hand NUKE on its own and also the NUKE4All software is discontinued:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=H ... 0178390199

That's curious. Why was it so expensive? Have you an idea? (without talking of that particular scam)

[aMUSEd]

Originally it was expensive because Hartman wanted to market it as a high-end synth - it is basically identical to the hardware version apart from a few less fx (eg no reverb but you can add better ones anyway) and a few more bugs

Both unfortunately were failures economically and the company folded - the plugin version was left without the bugs being fixed (although the new free version fixes some) and the hardware OS was also incomplete in some respects.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Also the software Neuron was 'limited' to the built in analysis models if I remember correctly.

[BlackWinny]

So if I summarize... it seems a bit like a very good idea outed from an excellent mind but which after that has not been correctly followed by the company for obscure financial reasons, if I understand correctly. Certainly the same usual confusion made by many companies between expenditures and investments.