FXpansion D-CAM: Synth Squad for sale now!

[vyralx]

The audio demos on the site are pretty lame and don't showcase what these babies are capable of.
thx for the links andy,I nearly jizzed in my pants while listening to that strobe arp.What's the release date btw?

[djanthonyw]

I wouldn't say the audio demos are bad, but I do agree, they don't showcase what they're really capable of.

[Plug]

These sound fantastic! Uuurgh there goes all my money.

[Angus_FX]

Thanks for the kind words all - more audio demos on the way.

Copy protection is our proprietary License Manager, essentially the same system as used on BFD2.

Jeremy_NSL - Fusor is somewhere between those two extremes. The synths can modulate each other, but only at control-source level.. so you can't FM one synth from another, but you can use the LFOs, envelopes etc. from one synth in another, plus Fusor itself gives you four additional LFOs (same as the Strobe onboard LFO), four envelope followers (hard wired to each synth's direct out and the master out) and four step sequencer mod sources (there's a fairly powerful hybrid step sequencer - arpeggiator in there that's a distant cousin of the GURU sequencer).

Where it gets extra fun is that the Fusor digital effects can also be hooked up to the same modulation system, and be driven from the Fusor mod sources or synth mod sources.

So in short - it's not a full modular synth environment with audio rate intermodulation, nor a full replacement for Kore or a performance oriented VSTi-host (Forte, etc.), but I think it's fair to say that it's a substantial step up from Legacy Cell and a fun and flexible way of making noises

To give you a bit of insight as to why we built things this way - the synths are pure D-CAM circuit modeling, which means absolutely no digital effects on-board.. also we were adamant that the three synths should have single-page 'what you see is what you hear' style UIs with none of the bank-switching that plagues a lot of synth UIs.. but equally, sometimes you want a patch that's layered up with effects, and we have some pretty nice digital fx algorithms as well as the D-CAM compressors from BFD2 and the Breverb license from our good friends at Overloud, so Fusor seemed like the best way to present 'bigger' patches that went a little way beyond what the synths could do on their own.

The other thing there is that a synth patch that sounds good WITHOUT effects will almost always still sound good with some effects added (if done tastefully, at least), but the same is by no means true in reverse.. the separation keeps standards high for ourselves and our patch designers. Again, by mandating a single page design for the synths, it forced us to think much longer and harder about exactly what controls each synth would have (in fact, a bit like in the old days with hardware when every additional knob added $$$) - if you have bank-switching there's a much greater chance of bloating the thing out with parameters that do progressively less useful things.

As you can probably tell, we're really proud of these synths - even though there's a bit of work still to be done, the musicality they offer is quite something.

Cheers,
Angus.

[grymmjack]

wicked marketing. love the silhouetted dudes with the red bits. f**king killer concept. kudos to your design team.

[koolkeys]

I got to see these synths today, with the included Fusor "wrapper", and let me say that this is a step forward in integration and sound design. The possibilities are extreme and yet so easy to use.

Seriously, these synths ROCK. On their own, they are great synths with a very cool modulation system(drop dead easy). However, in Fusor, they really do become a super synth.

One of the highlights of the day for me. Although I still have so much more to cover. But very cool stuff.

Brent

[koolkeys]

Angus, it was a pleasure to meet you today, btw. Thanks for the detailed demo. I think these synths make some cool strides in usability.

Brent

[Plug]

Heres some more audio examples.

These are just tracks of mine.

http://colourofsound.8088.org/Ferocious ... ter_EP.mp3

Quite a long listen but it showcases the synths well as apart from the obvious guitars/vocals and drums all the synth parts , basses , leads , pads , sound effects are the new synths.

This is a fantastic EP! Are you sure you want to give it away for free like this?

[ekwipt]

Hopefully Guru 2 will be released next, basically the synths guru and a host, wouldn't need much else

[pdxindy]

Heres some more audio examples.

These are just tracks of mine.

http://colourofsound.8088.org/Ferocious ... ter_EP.mp3

Quite a long listen but it showcases the synths well as apart from the obvious guitars/vocals and drums all the synth parts , basses , leads , pads , sound effects are the new synths.

As an aside it also demonstrates the awesomeness imo of Guru which was used for all the drums/percussion.

This is a shorter track http://colourofsound.8088.org/outlander.mp3

and another http://colourofsound.8088.org/detective.mp3

and another http://colourofsound.8088.org/Inspector.mp3

Hopefully theres enough there!

Cheers

Gareth

Great stuff! I forgot I was listening as synth demos and was just enjoying the music. These synths sound excellent and so organic!

Okay, as soon as these are out, all my NI synths are off my machine...

Were all these synth sounds realtime? or offline processed? What is the CPU hit like?

[egbert]

Okay, as soon as these are out, all my NI synths are off my machine...

This was pretty much what I was thinking about. NI have done a great job of marketing some pretty grainy sounding stuff over the years - Aliasing? We have heard of it.

I remember reading a story about debate within NI on this - and a critic of the sound quality of their products was told that sure, it is less than it could be, but it was good enough for the punters. NI are wide open to competitors who deliver on quality sound.

[djsubject]

As you can probably tell, we're really proud of these synths - even though there's a bit of work still to be done, the musicality they offer is quite something.

+1

[SWAN808]

The other thing there is that a synth patch that sounds good WITHOUT effects will almost always still sound good with some effects added (if done tastefully, at least), but the same is by no means true in reverse.. the separation keeps standards high for ourselves and our patch designers.

[kritikon]

You can through zero freq mod and audio rate wave mod, it has a continuous osc from tri to saw to pulse like the voyager, and it also has sample and hold between the osc, so you can get gritty digital steps on your analog waveforms, but it's all haromonic. The exact beat detune means you can synth the beating to bpm, and you can adjust the start phase reset so you can position the beats precisely. Then you get to the waveshapers and twin filters

I was already moist, but now I need to put a towel down on my chair. So, I can modulate the phase of beating, free run it, and all other kinds of silliness? Ooooooh...

I can make MC202-ish bleeps and twangs and them f*ck them all up beyond redemption? Oooooooooh.....

Cypher is definitely my favourite. It's the one I built for me to use.

Now that's a recommendation in itself. When I use something like Surge - I know that it's been developed by someone who actually uses and patches synths for the joy of it. The way it's put together, the organised GUI, the parameters that are actually useful for making sounds rather than bloat. So when someone tells me they developed a synth so that they can themselves make nice sounds on it, rather than simply pandering to what they think the masses want - I wholeheartedly approve.

Now I'm at work, so I can't listen to those new MP3s, but I will when I get home this morning - thanks for posting them.


You know, when I buy them (which I inevitably will) I suspect the first thing I'm going to have to do is make another Dr. Who theme rehash. Can't do it with most VSTi (although one or two can).

[PAK]

I remember reading a story about debate within NI on this - and a critic of the sound quality of their products was told that sure, it is less than it could be, but it was good enough for the punters. NI are wide open to competitors who deliver on quality sound.

You're talking about John Bowen, who Native Instruments used as a consultant on their Prophet 5 emulation. He expressed surprise when NI told him the emulation was "done". When he said something like "but it's only about 70% of the way there" the response was "yes, and that's good enough for our target market". Fortunately, as you said, such an approach leaves them wide open for the few companies who decide to go for sonic quality.

The one big trend that irks me about VST's is that they often get caught up in having this or that feature, and seem to forget that being "musical" should be priority number one. Also, whilst good FX are nice, they're leaned on far too heavily by the majority of instruments out there, in terms of shaping the sound and making things sound good. So it's a breath of fresh air, to me, to see companies like FXPansion realizing this, and trying to do something about it. I'm really looking forward to these, and hope there's not too long to wait..