KVR Audio

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:35 am

Andy's just got the all the dubstep and D&B guys soiling themselves.

xx JPRacer xx · Post by **xx JPRacer xx** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:01 am

Captain wrote:
fridtjof wrote: Not sure what the Beat knob in Cypher does. Is it a lfo? The video on Cypher didnt really mention that knob much.
Now guys... why do you think there's a manual included? (Agreed, the beat parameter isn't that self-evident, but it's all explained very clearly in the manual.)

EDIT: Of course, I just realized you could've bought the boxed version, and didn't actually get the manual yet.

The manual is here: http://www.fxpansion1.com/resourceUploa ... Manual.pdf

fjolle · Post by **fjolle** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:46 pm

oh man i hope my retailer gets the boxes today, the waiting time is "#¤ me. Worse is that some of you people already have it!

ultramike · Post by **ultramike** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:44 pm

It's a bummer that so many are mentioning that the CPU load is so high. I read the Synth Squad FAQ's and it seemed as though their tests showed that if you have a modern computer than you should be able to get a few instances of each synth running without you system coming to a grinding halt. Some of the comments here seem to express that some real world experiences are not so optimistic. I would love to get this package but if its performance will be like using NI Massive then I think I may have to think again.

Naive Teen Idol · Post by **Naive Teen Idol** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:22 pm

I just watched the vids for Cypher and Strobe and have an honest question:

How does this compare to something like Reason's Thor? I imagine it would be in the modeling. But the reason I'm asking is that most of the modulation features featured in the videos are in Thor. Don't get me wrong -- I imagine the audio rate modulation on Synthsquad alone sets it apart. I'm just wondering the extent to which a Reason 4 owner would be doubling up on something he or she already has.

cwig · Post by **cwig** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:28 pm

And how does it compare to Sylenth?

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:30 pm

ultramike wrote:It's a bummer that so many are mentioning that the CPU load is so high. I read the Synth Squad FAQ's and it seemed as though their tests showed that if you have a modern computer than you should be able to get a few instances of each synth running without you system coming to a grinding halt. Some of the comments here seem to express that some real world experiences are not so optimistic. I would love to get this package but if its performance will be like using NI Massive then I think I may have to think again.

dont' care who tries to pretty it up for you.
I have some patches even in cypher that I load and without playing anything Nuendo's performance meter is at 50%....and nothing else is in the project.

But it does sound and do a lot..but it eats cpus for breakfast

what in particuliar I dont' like is that it eats/reserves cpu before you even play a note which I guess dont' matter too much if your whole song is comprised of only synth squad stuff but for others who use several vsti's in a project it makes it very hard to use, unless I guess if you freeze after every track..
For me it is much more cpu intensive than massive.. but I guess it is the price you pay to get that much closer to realism...
still enjoying it though, but haven't had the guts to put it in a project as yet.
rsp

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:24 pm

fjolle wrote:oh man i hope my retailer gets the boxes today, the waiting time is "#¤ me. Worse is that some of you people already have it!

Some people are already selling it!

dub3000 · Post by **dub3000** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:16 pm

ultramike wrote:I read the Synth Squad FAQ's and it seemed as though their tests showed that if you have a modern computer than you should be able to get a few instances of each synth running without you system coming to a grinding halt.

apart from fusor, the synths running at oversample = 1 aren't really too bad. i'm running a really old 2.1ghz core 2 duo. amber, which is the harshest one in there, uses 5%-8% cpu with oversample = 1 (and that's a full keyboard worth of voices). cypher uses about 3% per voice. you can always crank the 'render oversampling' setting anyway (they sound loads better with high oversampling, especially when you get into weird high speed modulation stuff).

to be honest, i'm not really that stressed about not using fusor - it looks really powerful, but i'm using reaper and a fair chunk of the layering and modulation can be done just in the fx panel there anyway (but not the arpeg or cross-modulation functions... oh well).

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:38 am

fridtjof wrote: A polyphonic (6) Cypher patched reached 164 % CPU in Live 7..

so if i upgrade to live i can use over 50% more cpu?

fjolle · Post by **fjolle** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:14 am

musikmachine wrote:
fjolle wrote:oh man i hope my retailer gets the boxes today, the waiting time is "#¤ me. Worse is that some of you people already have it!
Some people are already selling it!

I know, but already paid!

Tp3 · Post by **Tp3** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:22 am

fridtjof wrote:
Tp3 wrote:
fridtjof wrote:Just bought it! It definitly got its own sound. Insane CPU hog though. Best to keep these synths monophonic.

Not sure what the Beat knob in Cypher does. Is it a lfo? The video on Cypher didnt really mention that knob much.
What setup are you on ?

In what way its a "CPU Hog" ?
Well it sounds good, so I don't mind that it takes a bit of CPU.
A polyphonic (6) Cypher patched reached 164 % CPU in Live 7.
An monophonic Amber patch uses about 45% CPU with 2X oversampling.
I tested it on my 1 yo Macbook Pro with 4GB RAM. The heaviest soft synth I have ever had.

164% ?!

OK I'm not going to buy this thing until they manage to reduce the CPUU to 100% !!!

No, seriously... "monophonic Amber patch uses about 45% CPU with 2X oversampling"

I have a Q6600 (not OC).

I'm a little scared when I'm thinking about engaging the x8 oversampling (EVEN in offline mode...)

Steve_FX · Post by **Steve_FX** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:47 am

Just to reiterate Amber is a special case and has a different architecture to most synths - 1 voice in Amber allows you to play 96 notes at the same time. It doesn't really mean monophonic in the traditional sense of the word. More technical detail on Amber's architecture at:

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=62&tab=186#340

There's also some detailed information about the performance you can expect on different CPUs/platforms at:

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=62&tab=186#349

but when you throw 2x oversampling into the mix, it is always going to be twice as CPU expensive versus 1x oversampling. Remember you can set different oversampling for live playing versus offline rendering (if your host supports that).

fjolle · Post by **fjolle** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:16 pm

Have you shipped boxes to the american retailers yet?

Epiphany · Post by **Epiphany** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:54 pm

Kind of funny to see how all of this "vast" native processing power available from today's modern CPUs is immediately utilised by the next generation of software plugins - just like the last generation, in other words.

If SynthSquad is any guide to the future of software synths (and I think that's a reasonable suggestion) then I think I'll probably just stick to this "clunky" old external DSP (aka Virus TI) which, despite running on such retrograde architecture, still regularly manages to return 6 or 8 multi-oscillator, modulated, unisoned, polyphonic patches drenched in FX and all at 24/96 internal resolution.

Whilst I'm willing to countenance the idea that the analogue modelling employed in this "new wave" of softsynths is stratospherically superior to anything that has gone before, inc. my clunky old Virus, I'd still call into question the optimisation of any plugin that can significantly and prohibibitively drain CPUs featuring 4 or even 8 cores running at clock speeds of 2.4 GHz. Or perhaps, the suitability of ever more powerful general purpose parallel processing for dedicated, in-line DSP computation.

FXpansion D-CAM: Synth Squad for sale now!