FXpansion D-CAM: Synth Squad for sale now!

[Ingonator]

One of my friends bought SynthSquad and I went to him to test this thing out.
I didn't spend an awful lot of time with it, but generally I was very disappointed. I associate analog with beautiful, smooth and at the same time, powerful sounds (for example: 1, 2, 3). SynthSquad sounds nothing like it. It's very raw and harsh, especially in the higher registers, and there is no "beauty" in its sound that I love so much in analog synths. It's possible to do okay basses and leads, but for pads SS is pretty much unusable because of that unpleasant high register harshness. Generally, all those things that I love about analog synth character are NOT PRESENT in SynthSquad.
Also, as with all the other modern synths, presets totally suck. There are maybe two or three normal bread'n'butter sounds for each synth, and the rest is weird distorted detuned noisy and absolutely unpleasant chaos, suitable only to torture enemies with it. And no classic analog sounds at all!
Now I'm very glad I didn't buy this thing based solely on hype around it. Everyone else, be warned: wait for a demo first, only then decide whether to buy it or not. SS might be not what you're expecting at all.

You could also do "bautiful" and "smooth" patches with Synth Squad, especially Strobe, you just have to know how to program it. Like with every synth. I found out that just playing with some factory sounds will not show you what Synth Squad is able to do.
BTW there are many more patches in official FXpansion user forum.

[Epiphany]

These sound good but "very hard" to reproduce? Maybe... but I'm still having a really hard time buying the "we're working on a demo." I can't even imagine releasing software with no demo. Urs Heckman somehow manages to release open betas that totally show off his software. We had months of Helix to play with before the release... Synth Squad? Just mountains of hyperbole and a handful of zealots chanting it's charms. Few of the demo sounds are exciting to me at all, but I thought the same thing about Largo until I gave it a test drive and ended up loving it so... we'll see.

+1

[Echoes in the Attic]

These sound good but "very hard" to reproduce? Maybe... but I'm still having a really hard time buying the "we're working on a demo." I can't even imagine releasing software with no demo. Urs Heckman somehow manages to release open betas that totally show off his software. We had months of Helix to play with before the release... Synth Squad? Just mountains of hyperbole and a handful of zealots chanting it's charms. Few of the demo sounds are exciting to me at all, but I thought the same thing about Largo until I gave it a test drive and ended up loving it so... we'll see.

I understand where you're coming from and I don't think the sound will be for everyone. I actually beta tested for a while but stopped because I didn't really like the sound! Even after playing with it for a week or two I just wasn't interested. I dunno, maybe it wasn't what I was after that week. I thought the layout was great and the features excellent but I didn't like the sound itself. I based that a lot on the presets at first though, or modifying them slightly.

It wasn't until I got a little more into it that I grew to appreciate the character as allowing for a type of sound quickly that I just couldn't get from other soft synths. By no means is synth squad the answer to all types of analog sounds. I'm not getting rid of my poly-ana, gforce or Arturia synths. But I couldn't be happier with the sound of the DCAM synths, now that I know what it fits best. (By the way, I use it pretty much only for Bass, leads, arps, FX - mono synth type stuff)

At the end of the day though, it's like anything, people will only know by trying it themselves. And if it's not suited to someone in particular, that definitely doesn't detract from the good work they've done.

[hakey]

I can't even imagine releasing software with no demo.

Isn't there a fairly sound commercial (which is to say cynical) reason for not releasing a demo immediately? Namely that some people will buy the software who, given the chance to demo it before hand, might otherwise discover it isn't to their taste and not part with their cash.

I do wonder just how difficult producing a demo programme is. Maybe it really is an involved process that costs many programming hours (/weeks/months)?

[rouge]

One of my friends bought SynthSquad and I went to him to test this thing out.
I didn't spend an awful lot of time with it, but generally I was very disappointed. I associate analog with beautiful, smooth and at the same time, powerful sounds (for example: 1, 2, 3). SynthSquad sounds nothing like it. It's very raw and harsh, especially in the higher registers, and there is no "beauty" in its sound that I love so much in analog synths. It's possible to do okay basses and leads, but for pads SS is pretty much unusable because of that unpleasant high register harshness. Generally, all those things that I love about analog synth character are NOT PRESENT in SynthSquad.
Also, as with all the other modern synths, presets totally suck. There are maybe two or three normal bread'n'butter sounds for each synth, and the rest is weird distorted detuned noisy and absolutely unpleasant chaos, suitable only to torture enemies with it. And no classic analog sounds at all!
Now I'm very glad I didn't buy this thing based solely on hype around it. Everyone else, be warned: wait for a demo first, only then decide whether to buy it or not. SS might be not what you're expecting at all.

Did you try setting oversampling to 2x or more ? If not try it, it makes a really big diffrence to the sound.

[zerocrossing]

By no means is synth squad the answer to all types of analog sounds.

I'm all about that. I'm much more interested in idiosyncratic synths with lots of character than Swiss army knife solutions... though some of those, like Zebra (perhaps that's a German Army Knife? ), have become some of my favorite tools as well. I'm not looking to replace anything I already have but I am hoping that it's significantly different than what I have to warrant a purchase.

I really want to put this thing up against XILS and see which one tickles my analogbone the most.

[filtide]

I do wonder just how difficult producing a demo programme is. Maybe it really is an involved process that costs many programming hours (/weeks/months)?

they released it 1 month ago. since then most of the guys went to vacation as they deserved. they have other projects as well.

[Megakazbek]

You could also do "bautiful" and "smooth" patches with Synth Squad, especially Strobe, you just have to know how to program it. Like with every synth. I found out that just playing with some factory sounds will not show you what Synth Squad is able to do.

Well, Strobe seems to me like a pretty typical and simple VA synth, I can't imagine what should I additionally know to program it that I don't already know from programming dozens of other analog and VA synths.
Anyway, for example, on my Matrix 1000 it's hard NOT to come up with a pleasant sound. The same is usually true for most other good analog synths. For a product that is claimed to be the ultimate analog emulation, I expect it to have that beautiful analog sound without using any special programming methods.

Did you try setting oversampling to 2x or more ? If not try it, it makes a really big diffrence to the sound.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it, but the oversampling was set on 4x.

[hakey]

I do wonder just how difficult producing a demo programme is. Maybe it really is an involved process that costs many programming hours (/weeks/months)?

they released it 1 month ago. since then most of the guys went to vacation as they deserved. they have other projects as well.

Fair enough. I was only speculating and what you've said there might lead one to believe that a demo release, for whatever reason, is not a priority right now. If that reason is in part due to the kind of commercial considerations that I mentioned, well that is entirely understandable - they are in business to make money after all.

[Ingonator]

You could also do "bautiful" and "smooth" patches with Synth Squad, especially Strobe, you just have to know how to program it. Like with every synth. I found out that just playing with some factory sounds will not show you what Synth Squad is able to do.

Well, Strobe seems to me like a pretty typical and simple VA synth, I can't imagine what should I additionally know to program it that I don't already know from programming dozens of other analog and VA synths.
Anyway, for example, on my Matrix 1000 it's hard NOT to come up with a pleasant sound. The same is usually true for most other good analog synths. For a product that is claimed to be the ultimate analog emulation, I expect it to have that beautiful analog sound without using any special programming methods.

Did you try setting oversampling to 2x or more ? If not try it, it makes a really big diffrence to the sound.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it, but the oversampling was set on 4x.

With the "Stack" function in the OSC section of Strobe you could layer 5 OSCs and detune them which could lead to a supersaw sound. Additional you can mix two waveforms in the main OSC and 4 waveforms in the Sub-OSCs. You could do PWM for the main OSC and the Sub-Osc separately. The modulation system is very nice and powerful too, you just have to understand it. That's complex enough for me. If that's not enough you could still use Cypher and/or Amber. The last thing is to add more modulation, a step sequencer, or layer 3 patches in Fusor.
I must admit i haven't done all of that because i'm still exploring Strobe.

BTW i owned several analog synths including a Matrix 1000 and a Marion Pro Synth (by Tom Oberheim) and others (Jupiter 8, Minimoog D, Evolver Desktop, Roland MKS-80, MKS-50) in the past but i like Synth Squads sound more than the one of the Matrix 1000. My only hardware synths at the moment are a Yamaha Motif ES 7 (also used as masterkeyboard), a Virus TI desktop and a Wavestation EX. The last two synths are used only few in the last months.

[mm_FX]

Craig Anderton review on Harmony Central

http://www.harmony-central.com/articles ... ynthsquad/

[michu]

You could also do "bautiful" and "smooth" patches with Synth Squad, especially Strobe, you just have to know how to program it. Like with every synth. I found out that just playing with some factory sounds will not show you what Synth Squad is able to do.

Well, Strobe seems to me like a pretty typical and simple VA synth, I can't imagine what should I additionally know to program it that I don't already know from programming dozens of other analog and VA synths.
Anyway, for example, on my Matrix 1000 it's hard NOT to come up with a pleasant sound. The same is usually true for most other good analog synths. For a product that is claimed to be the ultimate analog emulation, I expect it to have that beautiful analog sound without using any special programming methods.

Did you try setting oversampling to 2x or more ? If not try it, it makes a really big diffrence to the sound.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it, but the oversampling was set on 4x.

If you care to try it next time, could you try setting filter drive to like say -12 dB for a start, also (that's a shot in the dark) please try it with oversampling set to 1x...

[Epiphany]

With the "Stack" function in the OSC section of Strobe you could layer 5 OSCs and detune them which could lead to a supersaw sound. Additional you can mix two waveforms in the main OSC and 4 waveforms in the Sub-OSCs. You could do PWM for the main OSC and the Sub-Osc separately. The modulation system is very nice and powerful too, you just have to understand it. That's complex enough for me. If that's not enough you could still use Cypher and/or Amber. The last thing is to add more modulation, a step sequencer, or layer 3 patches in Fusor.
I must admit i haven't done all of that because i'm still exploring Strobe.

I think you mis-read Megakazbek's post. This is the exact opposite of what he said he wanted. We have an untold number of VST synths of dizzying complexity. Great, and useful, but what we don't have (he believes, FWIW I agree) are many VST synths that are actually difficult to make sound bad - right out of the box.

Maybe this is purely a function of the range of options and synthesis modes a synth has - too many ways of deviating from the solid foundations of VA sound, perhaps. That would explain the popularity of something like Sylenth, which IMO is one of the few that achieves the above. It doesn't even have genuine PWM, FFS, and the modulation options aren't particularly extensive. But boy, can you load it, get inspired and find a place in your track for it.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think you mis-read Megakazbek's post. This is the exact opposite of what he said he wanted. We have an untold number of VST synths of dizzying complexity. Great, and useful, but what we don't have (he believes, FWIW I agree) are many VST synths that are actually difficult to make sound bad - right out of the box.

Maybe this is purely a function of the range of options and synthesis modes a synth has - too many ways of deviating from the solid foundations of VA sound, perhaps. That would explain the popularity of something like Sylenth, which IMO is one of the few that achieves the above. It doesn't even have genuine PWM, FFS, and the modulation options aren't particularly extensive. But boy, can you load it, get inspired and find a place in your track for it.

I hear what you're saying and I agree totally. And I also think the synth squad synths are those kinds of synths that you can open up and get a sound you're very happy with in seconds of opening the INIT patch. They are the types of synths where the oscillators on their own sound great. Mix a couple oscillators or add some sub osc, add a snappy filter envelope and it's awesome. I often like to start with presets on those synths with a billion options because someone has often thought of something more clever than me as far as sound design on them. But strobe and cypher are the first synths where I don't even consider the presets. I've tried them, but don't care for them and see no need to use them.

I think developers try to no simply make good sounding presets, but try first and foremost to show of the range and in so doing sometimes don't include the very basics, which really sound great on synths like these.

Sylenth1 I have as well and enjoy designing patches on it as well. I find strobe and cypher similar as far sound designing. Very straight forward, every single knob or function is quite obvious how it works (a couple different things in Cypher like beat detune, and sample &hold osc, but easy to grasp still). It is a bit harder to make sylenth1 sound "bad" than synth squad, but that is simply because the sonic range is far greater in synth squad. But the important question is not how hard is it to make it sound bad, but how hard is it to make it sound good? And the answer for synth squad is 'quite easy'.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I just made an extremely pretty sounding square pad in Strobe. So not only can it can be done, it's not hard. What I did to get it: I used the LP12 filter and backed the drive off a bit (-13db), then I setup a single square osc, then I set Unison to 2 and used the "hidden oscillator" feature to create a different osc for that second voice, then I set the pitch to that 2nd voice up, added some triangle on it, and set the envelopes and master level. I then used the P1/P2 controls to add some S+H movement to the filter for when I need it and it sounds amazing.

If you can't get clean pretty VA style pads out of Strobe, it's not Strobe's fault. Next time you're at your friend's house, check out some of Ingonator's Shine On brass pad sounds, those are great and also fit your description of what Strobe can't do.

Seriously, even if you know how to program synths, these particular synths are very idiosyncratic and unique and you need to learn about them.