It's been done, and very successfully too...
http://www.manxsynthesizers.com/XS-2.htm

So far, I do not intend to give up support and go open source. I still enjoy writing this plugin too much...

martin...
I know promises are worth their weight in gold...
but I do promise to make a donation when the money flows a little looser from my wallet.or rather, when there IS money to flow from it.
Just please, please please promise to keep working on that Mac VST version.

~r

Yes, that is definitely planned. I hope that once the new PC version is up and running, I won't need so many changes to port it to the Mac.


Cheers,
Martin

Sign me up for Beta testing. Seriously.
If you're done by September 1, I'll try using it in a live performance scenario.
Here's my credentials on programming the JX series:
http://home.earthlink.net/~finnkit/

and by the way the patch listed there ("rumblefish") is spot-on and perfect when programmed into the PG-8X with only one exception: the VGA is a little bit high, meaning, it is amplified too much. However that could be attributed to my using the VFX V-Machine software on Mac OSX and how the VFX software handles VSTs, so don't take this 'issue' as being a real issue for now.

~robert

What exactly do you mean? Is it higher compared to other patches? Is it just too loud in the mix, or does it clip at some point?


Martin

It clips.
Keep in mind that patch I was using also has a random LFO setting affecting both the VCF and VCA (DCF, DCA?) and can also be the cause.

I still believe it's the fault of the VFX hosting software, as it too has a volume level setting.
You can download the Rumblefish patch from my site above (sysex, and it also has a PDF typed-out patch sheet too) and see if it clips for you. If it doesn't? Problem solved, and we both know it's a VFX software issue.

For what it's worth, I remember my JX8P also would occasionally throw hard levels at my mixer/amp using the Rumblefish patch, and a few others. Sometimes there's a max output from the oscillators? Who knows. It's all analog gear and has that unpredictable nature like this.

Speaking of LFO: would your update have LFO sync to tempo, or sync to host? Which is something the JX did not have. I would be a fantastic addition.

are there any more patch banks available, aside from the 2 on the website.. I thought the guy who made those 2 banks had a ton more he was converting for this synth.. ???

Hallo Martin,

ich kann nicht mehr warten:),was glaubst du wann kommen wir in den Genuss die
neue Version auszuprobieren?

Grüße Mario

Just turn the track down that the instrument is on. If the clipping goes away, it's not the instrument, it's something downstream (probably the audio driver itself).

Fix it with a limiter or compressor or by just turning the track down.

There's no clipping built into the instrument, is there Martin?

It is somewhere in my plugin, because it happens even if the output level is well below clipping level. There is no (intended) clipping built in, that's why I start looking at the output signals of the individual modules now.

Thanks to the design with internal 'cables' (i.e. buffers), it is quite easy to feed those buffers into additional external output buffers and look at them (listen to them) directly.


Cheers,
Martin

Martin, like I suggested before:
The JX8P itself also spiked as well with some patches; either the oscillators had a tendency to be over-powered or overdrive? Or the amp section was too 'hot'. Either way, since the instrument itself was analog in nature, those spikes tended to be rounded off a bit. Not sure how you emulate that in a VST!

So in a manner of speaking: if you are getting spikes? Then guess what... you have successfully emulated the JX8P exactly.

That's why it can be difficult to record an original JX8P. Tricky to capture the body of the sounds at a level low enough to be safe from spikes... and still, not have the sound be thin.

I have a similar problem recording my Roland Alpha Juno-1, which came out at roughly the same time; it's another DCO analog synth.
Last edited by lionscub68 on Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:43 am; edited 1 time in total

I usually just comment out the chunks of code I want to bypass. Really there are only 3 modules. Oscillator, filter and amplifier. So it's not that complicated. (You have a chorus too, but I assume it bypasses transparently and isn't what's causing the distortion.)

Clipping doesn't naturally happen in any of these, with the exception of filter resonance (assuming it's a classic IIR) where you need to reign in the feedback levels to keep it from "blowing up". If you're hearing distortion with zero filter resonance, then yes, something is definitely wrong somewhere.

Post a sample of the sound if you'd like. Maybe some discerning ears can help figure out where it might be coming from.

Try a compressor.

And if you can set the output levels so the spikes don't go over, then the clipping is not coming from the synth.

I wouldn't be surprised if the chorus in the real JX-8P exhibited some clipping distortion though. And potentially the amplifier section could as well. But again, if simply turning it down in the mixer fixes it, then it's the mixer's problem (or something else downstream), not the synth's.

Do you mean spikes, or some distortion or clipping?

I never had problems with spikes with my JX8P. If it really is spikes, you experience, there might be some fault in your unit.

However, I found that the output signal is too high on the highest settings. I always had to select Medium or even Low on the little switch at the back, in order to avoid distortion or clipping when recording.


Cheers,
Martin