XILS-lab has announced availability of Synthix, its third soft synth plug-in.

Synthix is a Mac and Windows compatible virtual recreation of the much-sought-after Synthex, a lush-sounding, 1982-vintage, eight-voice programmable analogue polysynth (independently designed by Mario Maggi and built by Italian home-organ manufacturer Elka).

Synthex was much beloved by synth luminaries of day, such as Jean-Michel Jarre, whose well-known Laser Harp performances still emanate exclusively from a Synthex patch produced by one-time UK demonstrator/programmer Paul Wiffen (audible in isolation in 'Second Rendez-Vouz' on Jarre's multi-million-copy-selling Rendez-Vouz album of 1986).

As a virtual analogue synthesizer, Synthix successfully combines now-standard analogue features with several new and exciting ones:

• Two oscillators with four selectable (seven available) waveforms - triangle, PWM triangle, sawtooth, PWM sawtooth, square, and PWM pulse (plus a PWM cross modulation mode and a ring modulator).
• One multimode filter, based on a Curtis CEM3320 24dB/octave (multi) chip emulation - provides low-pass 12dB and 24dB, band-pass 6dB and 12dB, and high-pass 12dB.
• Four D-ADSR - enhanced standard ADSR envelopes, each with a MIDI-sync-able delay.
• Two polyphonic LFOs - each capable of modulating the oscillators' pitch and width, filter frequency (with host application tempo synchronisation), and amplifier level, or as a modulation matrix source.
• Four embedded effects - delay, chorus, phaser, and dual EQ.
• Polyphonic sequencer - up to four tracks (with legato mode).
• Chaox - an LFO module that calculates the movement of a point in a 2D space (with each axis capable of modulating any of 132 destinations).
• Rhythm - an LFO module dedicated to rhythmic effects (with five modulations assignable to any of 132 destinations).
• Split keyboard - each with an individual arpeggiator and MIDI management settings, and capable of managing up to 16 freely-chosen voices to make full use of the multi-layering capabilities (with eight totally independent layers).
• Guitar mode - two voices can be assigned to up to six MIDI channels to play various sounds with each guitar string (when using a MIDI-to-guitar converter).

A wide range of sounds - from straightforward recreations of vintage or modern analogue synths to more complex patches - can be created using Simple Mode Edit or easy-to-operate Split and Layer modes; Synthix is bundled with more than 250-plus presets produced by a talented team of notable sound designers (including Paul Wiffen, Kelvin Ford, Cliff Douse, Kire, Lotuzia, Peter Schelfhout, Soundsdivine, Tzadi, Ingo Weidner, Adam Borseti and Vivolator).

Pricing & Availability

Synthix costs for €169 (incl. VAT for EU countries) and is available for Mac OS X (10.3.9+) and Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) in AU, VST and RTAS instrument plug-in formats.

XILS-lab Synthix is also available in a bundle with Kromalaser, a real, easy to use, easy to install, Laser Harp.

Until August 31st, 2011, a launch offer is running featuring a saving of 30%.