SQ80 emulating VSTi available

[kreinberg]

Now that would be a trip! I could use my KS-32 to control my . . . virtual KS-32!, which would save me the trouble of changing out the dead battery, and give me all the polyphony I never had when layering 4 patches together.

[audiojunkie]

About copyrights:
I'm not really sure what's going to happen if we start selling the SQ8X. I wouldn't be too surprised if Creative would try to intervene. But as mentioned Creative didn't seem to be very interested in the SQ80 in the past.
What I actually DO use from the original is the waverom which could be regarded as copyright infringement. But then again the waverom data has been freely available on Rainer's site for years and no one ever complained.

Oh dear. I was hoping you had an agreement with them.

Consider that you may be on their radar already, but that they're waiting for you to actually go commercial before they send their lawyers after you. (Sorry to be so cynical, but you really want to know your status here before you proceed. Why not just send them a nice letter asking permission?)

And, while I see your points, I still don't agree about effects and splits/layers. To me it's far easier to know how to do something in one host, that works with any instrument you're using. Rather than to having to have a whole different set of working methods, effects, etc for each and every instrument.

I feel the same way about arpeggiators and sequencers. They have no business being in an instrument plugin, they're event processors that should be in the realm of your host. Then you can use your arpeggiator with ALL your synths, rather than having different capabilities in each.

The one exception is the step sequencers in some classic modular synthesizers. But check out Poly-Ana to see what I did there. You can use your HOST'S sequencer (which you don't have to re-learn) and pipe it in, on additional MIDI channels, as a modulation source that can be routed anywhere. Provides all the functionality of a built-in sequencer, while letting you use the interface that you (presumably) prefer and already know how to use. As well it can be step, real time, and any length or complexity you want -- only limited by your host's capability.

That said, I'm probably going to add effects to Poly-Ana when it hits version 2.x. But I'm justifying it to myself by Poly-Ana being internally oversampled, so her effects can exist in the oversampled domain too. The only way to get the oversampled audio stream into the effect is to have them integral to the instrument plugin. (And, it'll do a lot for marketing too, for the kids these days who don't understand classic synths didn't come with delay/chorus/flangers and phasers in them.)

It's good that everyone can give their own opinions. They are all valuable and worthwhile. Personally, I LIKE having the effects and arpeggiators built in, so that I can save everything to the patch I am working on......so, I am with Sigikull on this one.

There are two schools of thought on this. It is most evident in guitarists who either have a single multi-effects unit that does everything and everything is saved in a single patch that can be easily recalled, or who use multiple single-effect stomp pedal effects that are daisy-chained together with cords and must be altered and adjusted between songs for every different type of sound that is desired..... two preferences..... neither one bad.....

I just happen to be the "save-everything-in-one-patch" kind of guy, rather than the "keep everything modular and separate" kind of guy.

--Sean

[DRDRDR]

Just a thought (and reminder, i asked for this earlier)

it would be wonderful to benefit from a powerful patch browser

-quick to show up & browse thru
-resizable for large (30inch) screen users
-with tagging options and a search engine similar to FM8's one

and most important imo, a true "Key-Feature" turning the SQ8X from great to exceptionnal :

-containing and showing at once
ALL patches of ALL the historically available sound banks.

***

Would you also consider making available an alternative GUI much larger then the actual one cause it would display all the "sub-pages" at once or in maximum 2 or 3 tabs ? On some synths, tweaking a sound can become very painful when one has to browse thru endless sub-menus.

***

One last-minit thought :

Lot of time is lost by constantly jumping from the mouse to the music keyboard trying to change a parameter while playing. We all agree that's the weakness of virtual synths. What about this idea ? A primitive but straight-to-the-point solution implying 4 keyboard notes :

exemple :

C1 Previous parameter
D1 Next parameter
E1 Increment value
F1 Decrement value

That would be awesome !

***

Thanks a lot for the great job you're doing,

[MarsHottentot]

Lot of time is lost by constantly jumping from the mouse to the music keyboard trying to change a parameter while playing. We all agree that's the weakness of virtual synths. What about this idea ? A primitive but straight-to-the-point solution implying 4 keyboard notes :

exemple :

C1 Previous parameter
D1 Next parameter
E1 Increment value
F1 Decrement value

That would be awesome !

***

Thanks a lot for the great job you're doing,

Oh, Man. That would be great!
+ Juan!

[AdmiralQuality]

There are two schools of thought on this. It is most evident in guitarists who either have a single multi-effects unit that does everything and everything is saved in a single patch that can be easily recalled, or who use multiple single-effect stomp pedal effects that are daisy-chained together with cords and must be altered and adjusted between songs for every different type of sound that is desired..... two preferences..... neither one bad.....

I just happen to be the "save-everything-in-one-patch" kind of guy, rather than the "keep everything modular and separate" kind of guy.

--Sean

Well that explains this then:



Right to left:
- Vox 847 Wah-wah with true bypass mod.
- Custom built uber-"Fuzz Face" with extra controls for tone (high and lowpass on one knob!), fuzz bias (so I can set it anywhere between farty to creamy, this is an internal trim pot in commercial FFs), and pre-gain (buffers the input, adds sustain).
- Custom built "Octavia" fuzz/rectifier.
- Custom built "Univibe" vibrato/chorus (sounds more phasey than a true chorus).
- Digitech Digidelay (highly recommended for it's "tape delay" mode!)
- Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner (never had a problem tuning by ear but I bought it to tune my Wurlitzer with and I gotta admit, it makes tuning guitar a snap.)
- Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue
- THD Hotplate speaker attenuator (aside from keeping the neighbours happy it also provides a line out that I can run into the DAW, completely silent if I want!)
(And a Dunlop Crybaby Classic wah cooling it's heels on top of the amp. The modified 847 actually sounds better and cost half as much.)

And back to DAW land, I still "save-everything-in-one-patch" -- but I do it at the host project level. When I get a "kit" I like I save it as a template project and can start a new project with it instantly, with whatever mix of products I like.

(What I'd like to see are hosts that let you merge projects, which would make this technique even more viable.)

But yes, it's a personality thing, for sure. We know what type I am.

[audiojunkie]

LOL, That's not a problem! Different strokes for different folks.... It's all good.

It's a nice setup, by the way.

--Sean

[MitchK1989]

Admiral Quality, you might like logic. You can save whole "channel strip" presets which include everything assigned to a single mixer channel (softsynth, effects, etc.)

[AdmiralQuality]

Admiral Quality, you might like logic. You can save whole "channel strip" presets which include everything assigned to a single mixer channel (softsynth, effects, etc.)

Hehehe, trying to get me on a Mac again eh Mitch?

(Seriously though, thanks for the tip! Looking forward to the day I can afford one.)

[MitchK1989]

Admiral Quality, you might like logic. You can save whole "channel strip" presets which include everything assigned to a single mixer channel (softsynth, effects, etc.)

Hehehe, trying to get me on a Mac again eh Mitch?

(Seriously though, thanks for the tip! Looking forward to the day I can afford one.)

Actually, I don't know if that feature is in the older windows version of logic or not. Something work looking into.

But yeah, I'm trying to get you on a mac again

I should never have installed the demo on my parent's Hewlett Packard. I've been drooling over the idea of a mac poly-ana ever since

[AdmiralQuality]

I should never have installed the demo on my parent's Hewlett Packard. I've been drooling over the idea of a mac poly-ana ever since

Thanks Mitch, glad you like her. (Have you considered, like you Mac folk are always telling me, that you could use BootCamp? I'd like to know if you can actually run a viable DAW with a USB2 or Firewire audio interface with it. Wanna do the legwork for me? )

[MitchK1989]

I should never have installed the demo on my parent's Hewlett Packard. I've been drooling over the idea of a mac poly-ana ever since

Thanks Mitch, glad you like her. (Have you considered, like you Mac folk are always telling me, that you could use BootCamp? I'd like to know if you can actually run a viable DAW with a USB2 or Firewire audio interface with it. Wanna do the legwork for me? )

There are others on here that do that just fine, in fact, the macbook pro was rated as the best notebook of the year for running vista by one PC magazine... I myself can't test it, as I don't own windows.

That still wouldn't help me use poly-ana though, since my setup is based around logic, so I need to be in OSX to get any work done.

Anyway, this is getting off topic, but pretty much everything I've said about drooling over poly-ana goes for SQ8L too. I used to own an SQ-80. Loved the sounds, hated the key action. The poly aftertouch on mine was pretty flakey too (way too sensitive on some keys, nearly impossible to trigger on others)

[Jake Jackson]

kreinberg:

I have a KS-32, too. So true--it would be great to control it as a vsti, if it had all of the controls, effects, modulations, etc.

[MarsHottentot]

I'm SHOCKING this thread back to the top!

PAGING DOCTOR SIGI

[maxmace]

RE Creative and the waveform ROM being copyright-able:

I am all in favor of paying for the software I use, but I cannot believe that Creative would be petty enough to ask for a hefty license fee for approximately 32k of waveform ROM that they acquired as a minuscule wedge of a late 90's merger.

Think about how legitimate soundware vendors sell their own Melotron and Fairlight samples. Do you think the licenseholders are compensated in those cases? Even though those multisamples are measured in megabytes as opposed to kilobytes (in the case of the SQ80 wave ROM)? (And yes, I know the 'Tron was tape loops.)

A draconian license fee might even kill the project. In that case it would be feasible to re-create the 8bit bandwidth limited waveforms using resynthesis and other techniques. Then the SQ8L would have absolutely no trace of Ensoniq-generated elements in it.

Similarly, if the wave ROM cycles were played, sampled and re-edited into OSC waves from the SQ80 (as opposed to ripped from the chip), would the resultant waveforms fall under the same use policy that the Melotron loops currently enjoy?

Creative has nothing to lose but the goodwill of the community. A better tact would be for E-mu to license and distribute the SQ8X from Siegfried. Hopefully they've already thought of that.

RE "I'm SHOCKING this thread back to the top"

Man, that is truly horrifying.

[MarsHottentot]

Do we have any indicator that Creative would react in a litigious manner? Have they done this before to other programmers / vendors? Jumping the gun and just betting on the worst is probably unnecessary unless they have a history of... douchebaggery.