Syntronik [update March 2018: New T-03 Bonus Content & 4-for-1 bass synth promo] available

[braj]

Screw it, impulse buy. Now tell me what I should love about it

Well, you've lost any excuse to sit around bored and depressed,
you're armed with a studio full of synths and effects, pick one of
your favorite songs, and make a dazzling cover. Like the Atari's did
with Boy's Of Summer. You're on the clock
Cheers

Well, you could have told me about the arp, which is quite nice, I'm really happy about that I'm a bit underwhelmed with the presets and 'synths' themselves so far honestly, editing is very limited and some just have weird volume issues between presets. The big charm though so far for me is in the limitations, I won't waste time trying to modulate everything and everything, because I just can't, even if I open them in Sampletank. I also really appreciate that it can be resized, I hope Sampletank gets that feature soon, with a more powerful synth engine that allows more complex sound design. Anyhow, I got this cheap, and for ~$75 I can't complain much. I may even sell a synth or two that get their bases covered well enough with this.

[zzz00m]

Screw it, impulse buy. Now tell me what I should love about it

For starters, I would go through the factory multis first. Lots of interesting layers and splits in there, and you can play around with substituting other instruments for parts. Huuuuge sounds available here!

Check out the quick mixer controls on the multi page. You can quickly go on/off with the effects on any part. Also quick arp on/off selection as well. Sometimes it's helpful to be able to hear a patch dry, or without the arp.

Speaking of effects, that section is greatly improved now with drag/drop re-ordering of FX, as well as the ability to save custom settings and effects chains.

[zzz00m]

This sure has a crapload of installers.

Yup! That there is downright painful.

IK needs to fix that, at least as an option for full version customers.

Maybe use something like the XLN Online Installer, for example?

Also, I have to say it sucks that IK chooses to charge you to download what you already paid for, seeing a time limit on when I can download just is not cool at all, in any way, shape, or form. This is not 2002.

Agreed. Since most companies today have moved to the cloud and content delivery networks, it is not like IK is hosting the downloads and bandwidth on their in-house servers. At this point all I can recommend is getting a cheap external drive to back up all of your installers.

[zzz00m]

Just wow. So there is really no way to automate anything except by midi learn from a controller? When I tried to midi learn the second knob on my controller, it changed the preset! This is in Reaper, CC23.

In Syntronik: 'Settings > Remote', you can set the CC# for 'Browse Parts', 'Browse Sounds', and 'Load Selected Sound'. The default CC values for these options respectively are 24, 22, and 23.

So when you sent CC23 you were telling Syntronik to load a sound.

[DarkStar]

I was shocked to find that Syntronik only offers 'Dry Level' and 'Wet Level', where every other plugin shows tons of internal parameters for automation.

SampleTank 3 shows the 'Dry Level' and 'Wet Level', as well as 'Volume' and 'Pan', and the 8 macro knobs. So that is something...

It's better than that - the "Dry Level" and "Wet Level" are courtesy of your host, not the plug-ins.

IK Multimedia has said in the past that there are too many possible controls that publishing that many parameter names to the host is not feasible. But to go backwards with Syntronik is not good. And K*****t manges it with user-controlled mapping of the target controls to 256 (128?) parameters.

This sure has a crapload of installers. Also, I have to say it sucks that IK chooses to charge you to download what you already paid for, seeing a time limit on when I can download just is not cool at all, in any way, shape, or form. This is not 2002.

1 You have 180 days to download them all, as many times as you need.
2 IK Multimedia recommends that you back-up the downloaded files to avoid the need to download.
3 I just back up the libraries, after installation.
4 A re-download would take 17 hours here (and, if I'm not careful cost me over £135!)

[zzz00m]

IK Multimedia has said in the past that there are too many possible controls that publishing that many parameter names to the host is not feasible. But to go backwards with Syntronik is not good. And K*****t manges it with user-controlled mapping of the target controls to 256 (128?) parameters.

The easiest solution would be for IK to add macro knobs to the Syntronik UI, that could be assigned to any parameter in the instrument. Then make the macro knobs available to the host automation, as in Sampletank 3. Since they share a lot under the hood, this should not be a huge obstacle.

[DarkStar]

I suggested user-defineable Macro knobs years ago, for ST2.5 and SS2 (especially for all those SS2 instruments that don't use the Macro knobs at all), ...

[braj]

Yeah DarkStar, I have backed up installers, like I always do. But the most likely reason I would need to download them again is if my house is burglarized and all my stuff, including backup drives, stolen. 180 days is like a warranty to me, it may be two years when I need the installers again. I owned Studio One and they let me download stuff on demand, as many times as necessary, from within the app. Charging for this to me is just not cool, I don't care the rationalization.

[braj]

Trust me, I don't want to spend five more hours of my short life downloading them again

[braj]

I read a couple of crappy reviews of Syntronic that were more rah rah than critical, but came across this one this morning which I think is 'fair and balanced' and ultimately positive, the reviewer ends with "I find Syntronik to be an absolute delight. " I think it does a great job of giving an in-depth overview of the product for anyone on the fence.

http://soundbytesmag.net/review-syntron ... ultimedia/

[zzz00m]

I think perpetual download rights should be a given for any customers who purchased downloadable products. If you buy a license, that should be an implied part of the license agreement.

I think most other companies provide this convenience without any limits. It may not be in writing, but they don't seem to put strict time limits in writing either. They have to host the installers online for new customers anyhow, so why make a big deal about the bandwidth for downloads. It's not likely that a single customer will download them over and over just to abuse the system!

[zzz00m]

I read a couple of crappy reviews of Syntronic that were more rah rah than critical, but came across this one this morning which I think is 'fair and balanced' and ultimately positive, the reviewer ends with "I find Syntronik to be an absolute delight. " I think it does a great job of giving an in-depth overview of the product for anyone on the fence.

http://soundbytesmag.net/review-syntron ... ultimedia/

I read that review a while back. I agree that is fair and balanced. The author, David Baer, frequently writes reviews for that publication and he usually gives it a good effort.

The sounds are quite good. Of course many sound designers went bananas due to the lack of deep programming in Syntronik, but for someone who just wants a playable synth with a minimum of fuss, this is going to be a go-to instrument.

There are many other synths available for deep sound design. This one is for everybody. Just take it for a ride, without having to build your patches from scratch, and I'm sure you will enjoy a smooth ride!

Bottom line, I'm sure it was a labor of love for one of the key contributors to Syntronik, Erik Norlander. In addition to owning many of the synths that were sampled for Syntronik, he was a co-designer of the original Alesis Andromeda analog synthesizer.

[zzz00m]

Am I missing something - using midi learn for aftertouch doesn't work like a performance control, it works like it's physically moving the knob - so when you release the aftertouch it means the knob is set to zero.

I just learned today that you can control the MIDI range assignment for MIDI learn!

I was playing around with filter cutoff again, and assigned MIDI learn to aftertouch. In the same right-click menu as 'MIDI Learn', there is also an item called 'MIDI Assignments'.

After you assign MIDI learn, right-click on the control knob again, and select 'MIDI Assignments'. That brings up a matrix view of your learned assignments. Select the min/max values there and you are good to go!

Setting the filter cutoff min at 40-50% is a good starting point. Then you can adjust to taste...

[braj]

Sadly Syntronic can't be mapped in my VIP plugin, neither controls nor presets show up. Sampletank itself works, but it only shows the default library, though you could go through and manually add presets from Syntronic or other Sampletank addons, it still would be great if it did this automagically, given the huge amount of Sampletank-based content I now have that could be explored from my keyboard if it had the support. Of course it would be best if Syntronic itself were available so I could use the arp too.

[zzz00m]

Sadly Syntronic can't be mapped in my VIP plugin, neither controls nor presets show up. Sampletank itself works, but it only shows the default library, though you could go through and manually add presets from Syntronic or other Sampletank addons, it still would be great if it did this automagically, given the huge amount of Sampletank-based content I now have that could be explored from my keyboard if it had the support. Of course it would be best if Syntronic itself were available so I could use the arp too.

Suggestion: use a DAW host of choice to create the ultimate synth rack!

I use VIP and like it within its limitations.

If you use VIP as a plugin, you can insert one instance of VIP into a DAW host. Assemble your multi as desired with plugins that are mapped in VIP.

Then insert an instance of Syntronik into your DAW. Use the multi features within Syntronik. Alternatively, use SampleTank 3, and create your multi in that.