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

[Lotuzia]

To answer quickly to the dozen of PMs I've received since yesterday :

1/ The Elicencer dongle is free, and worldwide international P&p is included in the offer. No additionnal/hidden fees when checking out.

2/ If you want the free Elicencer, you must choose the "Elicencer with a dongle" option in the store page. ( Please, See direct link to the store below )

3/ Even if you already have an Elicencer, it might be a good idea to still order the dongle. You can use it if your original Elicencer begins to be a bit tired, put other licences on it etc.

4/ It is the exact SAME Elicencer that you can use with Steinberg Cubase etc. You will therefore be able to use it for numerous other products than Xils-lab. Its NOT a special Xils-Lab dongle. If you already have an Elicencer dongle, you dont have to use a 2nd USB port to use the Xils 4, or wait to receive the Elicencer USB Stick sent by Xils-Lab to use the Xils 4 : Just put the licence on your Elicencer and you're ready to go in 1mn.

Xils 4 Store page : http://www.xils-lab.com/products/XILS-4 ... ected.html

Thanks for reading, and sorry if all the above was not made clear enough before.

LtZ

[Lotuzia]

Sound examples A ( Presets from factory lib )

Xils 4 Ld Scream Sync

This preset uses both Xils 4 cores. In the right engine, Oscillators Hard Sync is triggered by an LFO. As you can hear, the Hard Sync can be as sharp, F.a.s.t, and clear sounding as needed.

Xils 4 KY Keybrass

Besides its obvious possibilities as a pure research synthesizer, Xils 4 is also able to produce an endless list of classic analog patches. With this preset you can make chordal/harmony works, standard licks/phrases, and you can even use the bass register alone, as a kind of hybrid analog/acoustic interesting thing. CPU benchmark : Root note + Triad chord takes 14% on my antique QuadCore 9650 ( now 6 yo ) : Pristine quality with more than reasonnable CPU print.

[twolegstoneworks]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but when do you expect to have the full wide GUI ready?

Best,
- Torben

[Z1202]

Besides its obvious possibilities as a pure research synthesizer, Xils 4 is also able to produce an endless list of classic analog patches. With this preset you can make chordal/harmony works, standard licks/phrases, and you can even use the bass register alone, as a kind of hybrid analog/acoustic interesting thing. CPU benchmark : Root note + Triad chord takes 14% on my antique QuadCore 9650 ( now 6 yo ) : Pristine quality with more than reasonnable CPU print.

I would really like to see how XILS4 performs in the creation of the weird analog noises (with abundance of audio rate FM), which is what EMS synths are so famous for. From playing around with the demo I have mixed feelings. For this specific purpose, XILS4 is probably the most capable VA on the today's market, but (although I have no experience with the real thing) I was often left with the impression that I get lots of digital artifacts, which are shortcomings of the DSP model, rather than the features of the original. Particularly, I was trying to reproduce the "squarish" FX sound used by JMJ all over Equinoxe IV and I could not get sufficiently close (although I admit it might be just my shortcomings, rather than those of the synth itself ). In comparison, with Monark I never have the question "I don't really like this sound, is this how the analog original sounds too?", but then Monark is so much more limited in architecture.

Bottom line: it would be really awesome to hear a number of the weird FX noise examples. The presets in the demo seem to contain very few of those and none of them have the JMJ "FX feel".

Regards,
{Z}

[Lotuzia]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but when do you expect to have the full wide GUI ready?

Best,
- Torben

Hi Torben,

could you please remind me what -full wide GUI- means ?

Is it the same GUI with an alternative bigger size or else ?

Thanks.

[twolegstoneworks]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but when do you expect to have the full wide GUI ready?

Best,
- Torben

Hi Torben,

could you please remind me what -full wide GUI- means ?

Is it the same GUI with an alternative bigger size or else ?

Thanks.

Certainly A GUI that contains the full view of both Xils synths instead of having to use those arrows in the sidebars. It's very confusing, for me at least

[Lotuzia]

Besides its obvious possibilities as a pure research synthesizer, Xils 4 is also able to produce an endless list of classic analog patches. With this preset you can make chordal/harmony works, standard licks/phrases, and you can even use the bass register alone, as a kind of hybrid analog/acoustic interesting thing. CPU benchmark : Root note + Triad chord takes 14% on my antique QuadCore 9650 ( now 6 yo ) : Pristine quality with more than reasonnable CPU print.

I would really like to see how XILS4 performs in the creation of the weird analog noises (with abundance of audio rate FM), which is what EMS synths are so famous for. From playing around with the demo I have mixed feelings. For this specific purpose, XILS4 is probably the most capable VA on the today's market, but (although I have no experience with the real thing) I was often left with the impression that I get lots of digital artifacts, which are shortcomings of the DSP model, rather than the features of the original. Particularly, I was trying to reproduce the "squarish" FX sound used by JMJ all over Equinoxe IV and I could not get sufficiently close (although I admit it might be just my shortcomings, rather than those of the synth itself ). In comparison, with Monark I never have the question "I don't really like this sound, is this how the analog original sounds too?", but then Monark is so much more limited in architecture.

Bottom line: it would be really awesome to hear a number of the weird FX noise examples. The presets in the demo seem to contain very few of those and none of them have the JMJ "FX feel".

Regards,
{Z}

Well, Peter ( Zinoviev, who created the EMS ) pointed us to very cryptic and ancient videos featuring EMS synths, and the sound of the Xils 4 matches them. I had a Synthi for two years, and it also matches my memory, like it matched the memory of some Kvrians in this thread who had real aks. It also matches our analysis systems of course. As for JMJ if you point me to some youtube stuff with the timing, I'll look at them.

I'll try to post some more sound examples in the future featuring such sounds, but if you want to try similar sounds for yourself, in the Xils4 demo, just give a try to the presets in the *Engine/Abstract* and *soundscapes* categories. Here you'll find a lot of these patches. Instant 70s scifi textures, and very very weird sounds. Take a look also in the Fx category.
LtZ

[Lotuzia]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but when do you expect to have the full wide GUI ready?

Best,
- Torben

Hi Torben,

could you please remind me what -full wide GUI- means ?

Is it the same GUI with an alternative bigger size or else ?

Thanks.

Certainly A GUI that contains the full view of both Xils synths instead of having to use those arrows in the sidebars. It's very confusing, for me at least

Thanks now I understand better. I dont know if such a big GUI is schedulled, i'll ask Xavier and report here ( seems to me that it would be too large for the screen in most resolutions but well we'll see )

Meanwhile I'll try to explain the best I can the logic of the 3 Xils 4 panels. I hope this will help you.

In the Xils 4 you have 3 big panels, and always 2 are visible simultaneously.

The First panel is the Left synth lets call it L
The second Panel is the Right Synth lets call it R
And finally the third panel is the extended matrix, fx, sequencer etc, lets call it EXT

So you can have :

L R ( Shows both synths L & R ) or
L EXT ( Shows Left synth and EXTended ) or
R EXT ( Shows Right Synth and EXT extended )

When the EXT is displayed you can switch between L and R synths by clicking on the left sidebar big arrow
When L/R is displayed you can revert to L EXT by clicking on the right sidebar arrow

And thats all the logic about the panels.

So the Xils 4 intends to display what is really usefull at T time when you program a patch ( as it would not make sense to always display all panels when you work on a patch only using the LEFT synth Engine for example )

When you program complex patches you can switch easily to work on the two parts you need. I agree sometimes you have to switch more than you would like. But once you understand the logic its reasonnably fast. So a 3 panel view would be cool I agree but I dont know if it would fit all screens, especially the ones for laptops.We already had to implement a special trick for laptops, allowing you to detach the lower panel.

There are so many modules and possibilities on the Xils 4 that its very difficult to make it a one view synth.

Ok I'll ask Xavier if something like this was schedulled and report here.

[Z1202]

Well, Peter ( Zinoviev, who created the EMS ) pointed us to very cryptic and ancient videos featuring EMS synths, and the sound of the Xils 4 matches them. I had a Synthi for two years, and it also matches my memory, like it matched the memory of some Kvrians in this thread who had real aks. It also matches our analysis systems of course.

Okay, maybe I should check some youtube EMS videos myself.

As for JMJ if you point me to some youtube stuff with the timing, I'll look at them.

My guess would be that youtube videos of Equinoxe 4 have questionable copyright issues (although it might depend on the country). Therefore I'd rather refrain from posting any links here. But you might be able to find the original Equinoxe 4 on Spotify (not sure, as I'm not their user), or maybe on some other similar channel. As for the timings (of the original Equinoxe 4 track, not the concert versions), the sound I was referring to appears at (with different realtime variations):
0:51-0:57
1:11-1:18
1:34-1:42
1:44-1:51
1:54-2:01
2:04-2:11
2:19-2:26
etc.
I must admit, that I'm not 100% certain that this sound is made on the EMS, this is rather my guess (and I think I've seen the same opinion in some discussions on the internet).

I'll try to post some more sound examples in the future featuring such sounds,

Highly anticipated!

but if you want to try similar sounds for yourself, in the Xils4 demo, just give a try to the presets in the *Engine/Abstract* and *soundscapes* categories. Here you'll find a lot of these patches. Instant 70s scifi textures, and very very weird sounds. Take a look also in the Fx category.LtZ

I think I was checking the FX category already. I'll take a look at the other two. Thanks for the hint!

Regards,
{Z}

[Z1202]

Here http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00JGVXQMS you can find a demo excerpt from Equinoxe 4, which contains one of the variations of this sound (it appears exactly in the middle of the excerpt, where the "verse" changes into the "chorus"). Although, the original track has much more variations of the sound where you can also hear it at much slower modulation rates (so you can hear the fundamental part of the sound).

[twolegstoneworks]

Thanks now I understand better. I dont know if such a big GUI is schedulled, i'll ask Xavier and report here ( seems to me that it would be too large for the screen in most resolutions but well we'll see )

Meanwhile I'll try to explain the best I can the logic of the 3 Xils 4 panels. I hope this will help you.

In the Xils 4 you have 3 big panels, and always 2 are visible simultaneously.

The First panel is the Left synth lets call it L
The second Panel is the Right Synth lets call it R
And finally the third panel is the extended matrix, fx, sequencer etc, lets call it EXT

So you can have :

L R ( Shows both synths L & R ) or
L EXT ( Shows Left synth and EXTended ) or
R EXT ( Shows Right Synth and EXT extended )

When the EXT is displayed you can switch between L and R synths by clicking on the left sidebar big arrow
When L/R is displayed you can revert to L EXT by clicking on the right sidebar arrow

And thats all the logic about the panels.

So the Xils 4 intends to display what is really usefull at T time when you program a patch ( as it would not make sense to always display all panels when you work on a patch only using the LEFT synth Engine for example )

When you program complex patches you can switch easily to work on the two parts you need. I agree sometimes you have to switch more than you would like. But once you understand the logic its reasonnably fast. So a 3 panel view would be cool I agree but I dont know if it would fit all screens, especially the ones for laptops.We already had to implement a special trick for laptops, allowing you to detach the lower panel.

There are so many modules and possibilities on the Xils 4 that its very difficult to make it a one view synth.

Ok I'll ask Xavier if something like this was schedulled and report here.

Thanks Think I got the idea now.

Yes, a full GUI will take up a lot of screen-space, but it would be really cool if you could have an option to select "normal" and "extended" GUI.

Love the synth btw!

[Z1202]

To make myself clear: the sound I'm referring two appears (in the beginning) as a modulation of the oscillator frequency (or a resonating filter cutoff, or both) by a relatively fast square (30 Hz or so), then the modulation rate is slowed down and it doesn't sound as a square modulator anymore.

[BlackWinny]

Maybe an example in this little video (a tour in his studio) where he comes back several times to his two Putneys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOhwRGdVvo

[Z1202]

Maybe an example in this little video (a tour in his studio) where he comes back several times to his two Putneys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOhwRGdVvo

I think this is an excerpt from "Oxygen live in your living room", but the EMS sounds here are way simpler than the one I meant.

[BlackWinny]

Ok, I think I have understood now.

Here, starting at 5:35 until the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTLRjXsrNSQ

It's that?