ONE-SYNTH-CHALLENGE WEBSITE

ZynAddSubFX by Paul Nasca:

RULES:
Create a track using only ZynAddSubFX for all sounds, including percussion.

Read the general rules HERE.

Upload to SoundCloud only please.

Songs must be submitted before 1st April (KVR time)

NOTE:
1. A reminder to name and tag the file properly, they should both be the same like this: Artist - Song Name.mp3

2. Also remember that ALL effects must be free and available to all. That means NO host effects are allowed. Exception is host EQ only.

PRIZES:
Wusik : Wusik Station V6 Full + Wusik EVE V2 Full

GSI : Free choice of one plugin

MaxSynths : Free choice of either Cryologic, Teutonic Tension or aPiano

Frantic Records : Soundsets for Sylenth1 and Predator

Electric Himalaya : Free choice of one soundset (as sold directly via the website)

Luftrum : Luftrum5 - a ReFill for Reason

Any other offers of prizes will be appreciated.

Be sure to get the latest Zyn released just days ago, it will give 16 stereo audio out.

With 16 channels and midi number for each, one can now basically run just one instance which is much more manageable.

Here is a track template for Reaper with 16 midi and 16 stereo outs.

To get the banks working, make sure they are in one of the default paths as those can't be changed in the VST version:



A known bug with Zyn is that it's sensitive to fast program changes, so wait a second and let the sound die first. Best is to save your faves to your host native preset system.

Another tip if you're having trouble is to run Zyn as a separate process via a vst host, it's explained in the readme. For Reaper users, just right-click when loading and set it there, like this:

Paul has some videos here how to edit sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/user/zynaddsubfx

Hi.

Wow, very interesting challange.

I have something that it might help the participants. Here is an unsorted dump of all my own settings that I use on zynaddsubfx:
http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/doc/instruments/unsortedz ynaddsubfxParameters_20101203.zip

Here are some interesing files inside the archive:
test5a.xmz
m1b.xmz
string_rhodes.xmz
0km.xmz
Maybe these examples can be a starting point for the participants.

I am looking forward to listen the entries/results.
Paul

This is one of my fav plugins. Glad it got chosen for this months 1SC.

Hi Paul and thanks for I think the best sounding of all the free synths.

And some nice new sounds you have there too.

OOF! Great synth indeed! I might give this a shot. Nice screen casts V'ger

Also, great idea about using soundcloud, should make handling the OSC much easier.

Grr. Had another frustrating bout with this thing. Tried to use vsthost as a wrapper in reaper and failed. the readme says to make a shortcut and add "/slave" to the target, and it won't let me. keeps telling me it's an invalid value. can anybody recommend a different wrapper? What the crap am I doing wrong?

No need to fuss with that as Reaper has it's own, just load Zyn as a dedicated process like shown in the gif a few posts above and it's all set up.

If you also use an 'always on top' windows app (just search for it, I use Anvir Task Manager free), then the now separate Zyn window is always visible when working in Reaper and the fx box can be closed for a neat working environment.

Hi, I was able to run the latest beta zyn in XP and reaper 3.75 without
any rapper. I was able to save and reload a project, but noticed these severe issues:

1. Dangerous/damaging sound spike (I had failed to delete the earlier version, and this did not happen again after removing it, but to be careful, test sounds at low volumes first, because these are not commercial soundsets, that had rigorous testing, and the synth is beta. Expensive monitors, and ears that are issued only once, should be considered.

2. To open the gui, I have to click the UI button on the dummy panel twice.
The gui may open behind the host, so minimize the host if nothing shows up.

3. The path to the sound banks did not like being modified, and returned to a
location that made no sense. So I copied the banks folder to the paths that kept reappearing in the settings panel. Multiples of each folder now appear after pressing the 'refresh bank list' button.

4. Sometimes after quitting zyn, the soundcard midi ports were disabled, requiring a reboot. Reapplying settings in Reaper had no effect.

5. Pushing the limits of your cpu, may have unpredictable results, hearkening
back to the massive sound spike (which did not stop til I fumbled thru the
reaper shutdown process. Putting the sounds in mono mode saves a lot of cpu
when using several parts at once, as you eleiminate surprises.

I have not had any of these issues in the linux version, or it's more modern yoshimi variant. Zyn is included in audio/video linux distributions like

Fedora CCRMA
Puppy Studio
64 Studio
Ubuntu Studio
Dynebolic
JAD
and is available in many mainstream linux repositories. PCLinuxOS has a very efficient kernel for audio production, and is stable, and one of the easier linux setups for windows users. It's on this months Linux Format magazine dvd.

Cheers

Also, the 'save all parameters' menu option saves the multi-timbral setup,
with a .xmz extension (presets in the banks have an .xiz extension)whatever you have going gets saved, and it can be reloaded with the 'open parameters'
menu option. A large unsorted collection of these .xmz files are available, and Paul posted what may be the most complete batch. Some are quite wonderful.

William Godrey presets are also on the net in banks labeled variously as
Collection, Internet Collection, and Internet. I believe most of the sounds in them are duplicates from his bank, which is very nice, I took a few minutes and copy/pasted a full bank of 160 sounds, very handy.

The Cormi and Laba170 banks are also good ones to see what can be created.
There is a formant editor under the hood, very cool when in good hands.
Cheers

Yea Zyn runs fine in Reaper started normally here too, but prefer it run through the host so there's no menu conflict and to have the GUI on top and not cycle through the dummy every time.

Never had it spike or mess up any midi drivers or anything like that, don't know what that's about? Try run it as dedicated or separate and see if it improves.

Generally runs fine now and with one instance and 14 channel tracks doing 15-20% CPU which is comparatively very good. Sound is of course terrific, but editing can be daunting. The drum kit feature is also cool.

I'll keep trying. I hope I get it grocked before March runs out!

I have issues trying to load this .xmz files (host = reaper). Whenever I try to (file --> open parameter) the search window pops up for half a second, then disappears again and from then on Zyn doesn't respond to anything anymore.

The only time I am able to load an .xmz file is after I opened a regular instrument (.xiz file) first. This only works one time, whenever I try to load a new one then again zyn doesn't do anything anymore

On top of that strangely enough, whenever this is the case and i close reaper after zyn blocks, then I have to open taskmanager and close reaper.exe within the task manager because the process is still running there.

Anyone can help me out with this, I would like to try out all these sound files paul posted.

If reaper turns out a no-go, there are free limited versions of Cantabile and MULAB, as alternate hosts, which should suffice considering zyn is multi-timbral, and has some in-built fx

http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/download/ (full version for 30 days!)

http://www.mutools.com/downloads.html (I think its limit is support for 4 vsts at a time)
Cheers