KVR Audio

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:54 pm

Just for fun, here is a nice video showing the Andromeda in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lae0C4spghI

lfm · Post by **lfm** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:55 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote: But, both the GX-1, CS-80 and things like the oberheim 4/8 voice have stunning sonic flavor. I mean nothing sounds like those things.

I had CS-80 emulation in Arturia AnalogLab flavor, but seems I missed dig into the idea properly before I sold it.

I think I saw Yamaha release something new, if it was Reface - don't know yet if any CS-80 stuff in there. One is called Reface CS, so I will have a look.

lfm · Post by **lfm** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:57 pm

V0RT3X wrote:Just for fun, here is a nice video showing the Andromeda in action.

I see what you mean - one gets dizzy just seing that panel with knobs.

EDIT: the sound of this unit - a good reason to sell my car, crap.
Saw an A6 on eBay for $4000 just about.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:01 pm

lfm wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:Just for fun, here is a nice video showing the Andromeda in action.

I see what you mean - one gets dizzy just seing that panel with knobs.

I wish they started another production run! I would love to buy one of these!

I've heard they ran out of parts, which is the usual story you get.

I saw a few auctions on E-bay but I am afraid of getting scammed, because i've heard some people getting sent busted keyboards and stuff. Repairs on anything as complex as a 16-voice polyphonic analog can't be cheap and I'm not made of money so I decided to wait.

For the time being I have Diva, A.c.e (purchasing again soon), Synthsquad, to help me mimic certain sounds and I'm more than happy with my setup.

Diva sounds amazing for lots of those big polyphonic analog sounds though.

Demo1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6en5u_PLRCE

*edit* - ok won't spam any more software

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:08 pm

V0RT3X wrote:
justin3am wrote:The V-Synth has a mode in which you can route each 'Oscillator' to it's own COSM block (filters/signal processors). Each oscillator block has 4 envelopes and 1 LFO, each COSM bloack has it's own envelopes and LFO, then there is the global 'TVA' (Time Variant Amplifier) or DCA.
It's an incredibly flexible synth.
Sounds pretty fun! Also can't you run your own samples through the V-synth engine too??

Yeah, each oscillator can be set to use oscillator algorithms (including JP supersaw, feedback osc and D-50 LA Osc shapes), PCM samples (with REX-style slicing) or external input. You can use the external input as a modulator or carrier (!) for FM and RM. I'm not sure how it's possible to FM a live input, I guess there is a buffer with some amount of latency involved.

SJ_Digriz wrote:heresy bringing digital signal processing into the discussion Even if it does sound incredible .. that's not the point.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:11 pm

V0RT3X wrote: I've heard they ran out of parts, which is the usual story you get.

That's part of it. Also the engineers who designed it no longer work for Alesis/inMusic. One of the original designers of the Andromeda is our lead engineer.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:15 pm

justin3am wrote:
V0RT3X wrote: I've heard they ran out of parts, which is the usual story you get.
That's part of it. Also the engineers who designed it no longer work for Alesis/inMusic. One of the original designers of the Andromeda is our lead engineer.

Does this mean we'll be seeing a Nektar polyphonic synthesizer at some point?

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:27 pm

[removed] Didn't realize this is hardware only.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:36 pm

By the way, trying to do that many voices via modular is painful. I've done 3 voices with 2 OSC each voice. It sounds great. But it is difficult to tune and manage everything.

For the CS-80 and the GX-1, even though the signal paths were discrete, the main controls were "global". Which required massive amounts of calibration. And then the OB 4 and 8 voice were like a modular and you just had to do it all manually constantly. Basically true discrete analog poly is one giant PITA.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:42 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:Basically true discrete analog poly is one giant PITA.

Indeed! I used to have 4 of the same voice in my modular and I planned to use Silentway to control everything. Even when using Silentway for tuning and per-voice modulation, it was still more of a pain that it was worth.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:51 pm

justin3am wrote:
SJ_Digriz wrote:Basically true discrete analog poly is one giant PITA.
Indeed! I used to have 4 of the same voice in my modular and I planned to use Silentway to control everything. Even when using Silentway for tuning and per-voice modulation, it was still more of a pain that it was worth.

There was a dude on muffwigglers who was doing GX-1 voice cards. Kind of amazing. Maybe when I retire I'll design and build a discrete voice card chassis with SMT and ICs with digital controllers.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:58 pm

Is it the same guy who does the CrOwBX voices?

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:26 pm

justin3am wrote:Is it the same guy who does the CrOwBX voices?

that's the dude. genius.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:35 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:
justin3am wrote:Is it the same guy who does the CrOwBX voices?
that's the dude. genius.

hmmm, I only see CS-80 and GX1 filters on his site. Not the voice cards anymore. Either that or I have him confused with someone else and he only did the OBX thing. I almost positive someone over there did GX-1 voice cards. Maybe it was on electromusic or whatever that other site.

I personally built two GX filters in MOTM format and run them in series.

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:38 pm

The cs 50, 60 and 80 used one card per voice, one osc and one lpf and one hpf on each card. With the associated eg's. I can't recall if the lfo's were per voice, global or both.

Maybe the cards were different between models. Or maybe the same. So cs 80 with 16 cards had 8 voice polyphony with two synth cards per voice, cs 60 was half a cs80 with 8 cards, and cs 50 was half a cs 60 with 4 voice cards.

To keep the beasts in tune the oscillators were exponential cv rather than 1 v / oct, no analog log / antilog converters to temp drift. And the custom vco chips had solid state heaters to run a steady temp, hotter than normal environmental temps.

CS 60 was probably the most tuning stable analog I owned, though maybe after decades they might be a maintenance nightmare nowadays.

I liked the cs60, but didn't like 1 osc per voice. And it was better for clean sounds than gritty sounds, though I generally prefer polite behavior. I would run it thru delay and chorus a lot to try to fatten it up.

So IMO a 4 voice modular would need at least 8 voice plugins, not 4. 12 would be kewl.

I liked oberheim 4 and 8 voice as well, never owned one. Did modifications and repair on a couple back in the day. Wanted one but it would have been a nightmare live playing and they were expensive. The oberheim programmer module helped, but the programmer didn't control every panel parameter.

Well, as far as that goes memorymoog used a separate card per voice, except with multiple vco per filter on each card. In theory a 12 voice memorymoog could have been made with more cards.

Synths that have VCF+VCA for each oscillator - do they exist?