FXpansion D-CAM: Synth Squad for sale now!

[hakey]

Hey andy, from the links that you gave for those mp3's it's easy to work backwards into a parent directory containing a load of other stuff (I did so accidentally). Maybe there's nothing there that you wouldn't want other people to see, but I thought I'd let you know just in case.

...so Amber's chorus is based upon the Arp Omni's eh?

[afreshcupofjoe]

And it looks like strobe has taken some inspiration from the sh101?

[andy-cytomic]

Hey andy, from the links that you gave for those mp3's it's easy to work backwards into a parent directory containing a load of other stuff (I did so accidentally). Maybe there's nothing there that you wouldn't want other people to see, but I thought I'd let you know just in case.

...so Amber's chorus is based upon the Arp Omni's eh?

There are three modes to the Amber chorus, they are based on the Arp Omni, the Korg Poly 6 and the Roland Juno 106.

All the stuff at www.vellocet.com/dsp is public, help yourself!

Andrew Simper

[andy-cytomic]

And it looks like strobe has taken some inspiration from the sh101?

Yes, Strobe is inspired by the Moog Prodigy, Roland Sh-101, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, and the Oberheim OB-1, and other single osc, single lfo type mono synths. I made sure that most of the things that made such synths cool were in some form available in Strobe, but kept it stipped down so that you don't get lost in a sea of controls you don't need when you just want a fat bass or lead sound.

I like on the Sh-101 that you can never really screw it up even if you randomly move every fader you still get something useful. It's just so easy to use, and it has a great sounding filter using the Roland custom filter chip the IR3109. That and the diode clipper in the feedback really make it growl. Hats off to the Roland engineers that made it, it's such a fun synth to use and they are pretty cheap to pick up second hand - I definitely recommend getting one.

Amber is inspired by the ARP Quartet, Omni and Quadra, Moog Opus-3, Crumar Performer, Elka Synthex, Korg Lambda, Delta and Trident/Trident-II.

Cypher is inspired by the ARP 2600, Korg MS-20, Oberheim X-Pander, Roland Jupiter-6, and the Moog Voyager (but made poly).

Andrew Simper

[andy-cytomic]

Maybe there's nothing there that you wouldn't want other people to see, but I thought I'd let you know just in case.

Thanks! I did clean it up a little, there was quite a lot of junk there. I hope you enjoy exploring my random plots and c code!

Andrew Simper

[fjolle]

Maybe there's nothing there that you wouldn't want other people to see, but I thought I'd let you know just in case.

Thanks! I did clean it up a little, there was quite a lot of junk there. I hope you enjoy exploring my random plots and c code!

Andrew Simper

I was quick enough to look around before you cleaned up hehe (and saw something else than random plots and C code)

Anyway, i liked what i saw. Something else was interesting too, but i won't question it as it was likely not to be public.

[hakey]

I hope you enjoy exploring my random plots and c code!

Andrew Simper

Nah, bit boring actually

There was a couple of dll's there but, alas, not these synths, though that's probably a good thing too - I might have found it very hard to resist!

[pdxindy]

these synths sound great!

I am curious about the offline processing

[djanthonyw]

I'm curious about the release date.

[koolkeys]

I'm curious about the release date.

I was told a couple of months away.

Brent

[kritikon]

Actually strobe has more of an SH-101 style feel in it's filter, Orca was actually based on the Jupiter-6 SVF filter. The filter modes of Strobe ( http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/CascadedFilterResponse s/ ) and other features will hopefully make it a work horse synth. Here are some more geeky audio demos:
http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/strobe/ , in particular check out http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/strobe/VideoGame.mp3 , and http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/strobe/StrobePresets20 070129.mp3 .

I just got out of bed this evening (working nights) and finally had a listen to those demos: thanks indeed for posting those. Much more use for someone like me than a general tune containing multiple sounds etc.

I'm sure there are a few round here that'll have 101s and 202s etc, and for me, that immediately captured the essence of my 202. TBH, I haven't actually used the 202 for quite a while - it's still packed away at the moment, but you couldn't miss the character. I don't even want to dust it off and do any A/B comparisons - the whole character is there in spades for all to hear.

There were some other elements that occasionally came in that really sound exciting - the fact I can do 202 riffs and then veer it off into a different character tempts me no end. Initially the official demos (I thought) didn't sell Strobe that well, but your solo demos really do. It's one of the main differences (as already mentioned) - too many s/w synths don't often sound that amazing sans-FX. Get a sequence running on a 101 or 202 and you really don't need FX. And of course what was even more tempting was some of those arps where you can actually sound a note release while still arping. Can't do that on those old monos.

I now can't wait to demo the things properly to check out the other filter modes. Y'know - anyone familiar with those old 101/202s and synths of that ilk, you assume that the filters are so bog standard that they're easy to emulate. Nothing wildly characterful like in the MS, SEM filters etc...but so far, I've only heard 2 VSTi that do it properly. ABL Pro and Claw/Beast. And of course Strobe does it in spades and more, from the look of it. The fact that it appears to do so much more makes it unique IMO. I dunno why filters like that are so difficult to emulate, but most so-called emulations really don't stack up when you listen and compare closely. Of course, I won't be buying Strobe as a 202 replacement (it's still such a hugely fun piece of h/w to actually lay hands on), I'll be buying it for all the extra things it'll do. But for whatever reason, those filters obviously are tricky to do - seems to me you've all done it at FXpansion though. Playing blind - I don't think I could have said that wasn't some circuit-bent 101 in those MP3s. I never had the upgrade CV board in my 202 so I really can't play more than 1 octave over midi on it - for that, I have to rely on the sequencer and sync it up via Kenton. So being able to do straight 202 stuff on a plugin via midi is a bonus for me. And you say it'll do Pro One type noises too? Oh my oh my. Sorry to borrow from a competitor's phrase, but I have some trouser seepage now.

[kritikon]

Oh dear...I just looked at those filter response curves in http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/CascadedFilterResponse s/

So, we can choose those parallel notch filters as a filter type? We can have parallel BPFs as well? I'm sold already, but just for wank material for later...can we define the interval between notches etc, as in OSCar type formant-y stuff to make vocal type patches with a 202 flavour? I'm picturing Delay Lama singing 202 arps here...[/self abuse smiley]

[andy-cytomic]

Oh dear...I just looked at those filter response curves in http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/CascadedFilterResponse s/

So, we can choose those parallel notch filters as a filter type? We can have parallel BPFs as well? I'm sold already, but just for wank material for later...can we define the interval between notches etc, as in OSCar type formant-y stuff to make vocal type patches with a 202 flavour? I'm picturing Delay Lama singing 202 arps here...[/self abuse smiley]

* Warning, ultra techy post *

Hey Kritikon,

I'm glad you liked the demos, I'm putting some more together today to upload to the main www.synthsquad.com page so stay tuned.

The filter responses are fixed in Strobe to keep it easier to use. There is only one four pole filter in Strobe so there isn't any need for serial or parallel arrangements. I've also kept the filter responses fixed to make it easier to use. They are generated in the same way the Oberheim X-Pander does, but I went back to the original theory and generated my own responses. I listened to all the resoponses and picked the best sounding ones. Placing the notches at an octave above or below (or both above and below in the N2P2N2T) the main resonant peak gave the best results, but there may be future products in which I allow individual frequency sweeps of both notches, but like I said to Michu - not this product This method of generating the responses sounds quite different to using two filters cascaded to get the same thing because of how all the non-linearities contribute to the sound.

Cypher actually has two four pole filters, (switchable between SVF or Ladder) which you can arrange in 1->2, 2->1, 1+2, 1-2, and in 1+2 and 1-2 (parallel add and subtract) you can spread the filters in the stereo field.

But...

With the mod system for the synths you can still do this with the strobe filter too, you just dial in 2 unison voices, then from the mod system pick Unison1+- (bipolar) as the source, then every fader becomes a dual fader so you can move both the main value and the mod value at once. So you just adjust the mod depth on pan to spread the signal in the stereo field, then mod the fine tune to make the left and right signal a different pitch, you can even adjust the filter mode for each of the voices as well so you can have a low pass on the left and a high pass on the right. You can change every parameter like this, so envelope times, osc mix levels, resonance, cutoff, analog noise, lfo swing etc etc. Each synth has 8 mod slots which can adjust every parameter of the synth polyphonically. You can also load from a preset into a mod slot, and use velocity or mod wheel or poly aftertouch or any other mod source like an lfo or random sources to smoothly morph polyphonically between them.

One of my favorite sources is the per parameter note on random source, so you can have every note have random variation on every parameter with a completely controllable depth per parameter. So you can use the load to mod slot feature to morph between presets with a different morph amount per parameter for every note

There are plenty of other features as well, but I've already said too much and its better to watch the videos we are making for such visual and audible things. I'll put some of these things in the audio demos for you too.

Andrew Simper

[andy-cytomic]

I'm sure there are a few round here that'll have 101s and 202s etc, and for me, that immediately captured the essence of my 202. TBH, I haven't actually used the 202 for quite a while - it's still packed away at the moment, but you couldn't miss the character. I don't even want to dust it off and do any A/B comparisons - the whole character is there in spades for all to hear.

Well here is one I've done earlier: http://www.vellocet.com/dsp/analog/Self ... onics.html and scroll down to the SH101 example. This has a predecessor to the Strobe filter in the audio demo, but it still gives you a rough idea of how the Strobe filter stacks up to analog. One major improvement in Strobe over this demo is the "analog noise" parameter, where I insert noise into the audio and control path, including filtered mains hum, which gives the sound extra bite and character. This parameter is polyphonic, so you can have, for example, velocity trigger more analog noise in each voice differently.

Andrew Simper

[Sami]

Just like to add that even the 101 and 202 sound different. Owning both I'd say the 202 has more nasal sound midrangey sound... I like 101 better actually.