SQ80 emulating VSTi available

[bluedad]

Hi, I'm Siegfried Kullmann, the developer of the SQ8L.
Sorry for the confusion about the installing procedure; just wasn't sure the installer would work, so I described the manual steps.

Toshu, what's your CPU? When does the crackling occur?
Perhaps, when moving the mouse over the GUI, or really all the time, even when you do nothing?

Hope you all fun with it!

welcome to kvr Siegfried, thanks for the SQ8L.
I used the installer process and had no problems.
If this is the lite version, I'll be interested when the heavy version comes out.

@tomg - I missed Utopia; by that time I'd moved to NW Indiana

[Convolve]

Hello Siegfried, nice to meet you in this thread! This is really a faithful emulation of the original, one page back in the thread Chris Huelsbeck posted a mp3 of some a/b comparisons, you should listen to them if you didn't already

A nice feature for the full version would be a GUI layout in which the parameters are accessible without switching the modes in the display, like a knob, slider or dropdown for every parameter. But I think this would be a very huge effort...

So thanks again for this software, and if it's going commercial and is reasonable priced you can put me on the customer list

[Artvera]

Thank you very much Siegfried for this gem

[Spaceman Sounds]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees, the greatest news of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I played already quite a bit with the demo and decided to make a little comparison mp3 with some of my favourite classic ESQ1 / SQ80 sounds:

http://www.yousendit.com/download/M6mjInC3BIc%3D

Example A is always my hardware SQ80, and example B is the plugin playing the same sound.

If the download doesn't work anymore, let me know...

I think it sounds already very close to the original (enough to be more than useful in fact). I am sooo excited about this!!!!!!! Pretty much all my classic favourite synths are now available as plugins - Korg, PPG, Prophet, SQ80 - I think I'm in heaven!

Chris

Really good comparison, they sound very similair indeed..... but... this mp3 demo you put up high lights the thing that I have been going on about vsti's in general. There is a slight brittle glassy sound on the vsti version that most virtual synths seems to have.

Don't get me wrong, this is just an observation, it's very very close. But it's just that toppy tebly glassy brittleness that annoy about vsti's in general. Maybe just an ever so slight lowpass filter might cure it

Esq-1 was allways my favourite synth. If I had to choose between an esq-1 or a minimoog on a desert island... it would be the esq-1.

[olepro]

man this thing sounds good !!

why? i mean, should it really sound this excellent? it's just a digital synth...

i hope that it's not just in my brain, like the thrill of having a new synth or whatever.

but wow, seriously nice. and just in time too, since i was trying really hard to get the right sound out of a couple of VAs yesterday, and just couldn't seem to nail it. This fits right in, like i made the track especially for it

thanx for pointing it out.
-g

yes, many people think it sounds digital because they just dont know the synth.
Ensoniq SQ80 is one of the warmest and full sounding synths i have ever heard. The grittyness that many people allso are talking about is a nice thing but it can allso sound smooth, you just have to turn down the output from the oscillators DCA page to around 48, then it will not overdrive the filter and the distortion will disappear.

This is the day i have wated on in a long time.....The day where i could have my beloved Ensoniq SQ80 inside the computer YES-YES-YES !!!

[jens]

Hi Siegfried and welcome to Kvr. Thanks for SQ8L. Brilliant.

+1

[Spaceman Sounds]

I actually used to use my a lot for bass sounds and analogue blips. Don't think I ever used any waveforms other than Saw and Square he he.

[r_buchty]

Don't know if Rainer participates on this forum...if so it'd be nice for some confirmation if this is his student's project

Now I do

Sigi told me about the SQ8L thread here, and I got curious.

And yes, it is that very project.

Rainer

[r_buchty]

The page is old though and not often updated.

Uhm. It's not like there's a new hardware hack per week available... So why should I update the page, then?

[djsubject]

Hope you all fun with it!

thats exactly what i'm doing with it (although ttoz may disagree)

thanks for shearing this gem!!! & to r_buchty (i don't know who did what?)

if you need any beta testers for the advanced version keep me in mind


Subz

[k-bird]

I had no idea about the ESQ-1 aside from that some of the Ensoniq guys came from MOS who invented the SID chip for the Commodore 64 (also emulated as QuadraSID). This VSTi is superb though. Dankeschoen Siegfried.

[nj]

Hello Siegfried , any chance of a mac version?? please!!

[Compyfox]

sigikull, r_buchty...
I also want to thank you for this awesome synthesizer. It's exectly what I was looking for for a couple of months now (partially even years). This is why I started my research (see sig) on software emulations.

This sure is a work of art and I'm really curious when the full version will be available, how much it will cost - and I also like the idea of Mac port. A couple of friends of mine would sure use it without hesitating.

Hope you folks don't mind that I put the SQ8L in my list. Keep up the good work and enjoy your stay at KVR.

[Compyfox]

Don't get me wrong, this is just an observation, it's very very close. But it's just that toppy tebly glassy brittleness that annoy about vsti's in general. Maybe just an ever so slight lowpass filter might cure it

The reason for that is fairly simple. Even though you can emulate an old hardware unit fairly well (at least on the digital basis - not analogue cause you'll never get there - circruity can't be turned into bits and bytes) there's always another factor: the input/output converters.

Old hardware just sounds different than nowaday "highend 24bit 96kHz" recording modules. And this sure makes the difference. While the VSTi is on a pure digital basis, the hardware has to be recorded. And due to it's "old audio engine", it sounds more gritty than most VSTi.

But like you said, nothing that can't be done with filtering or effects. It doesn't matter in a mix anyway.

[r_buchty]

thanks for sharing this gem!!! & to r_buchty (i don't know who did what?)

Kudos for programming all go to Sigi. My part (since 1997 ) was the reverse-engineering of the machine.