One-Synth-Challenge: General discussion thread

[V'ger]

Btw, Hispasonic put up their version of Free Alpha for download again, and they only had for Mac OS 9 so it's ruled out.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Btw, Hispasonic put up their version of Free Alpha for download again, and they only had for Mac OS 9 so it's ruled out.

but the linnplug is still an possibility, non ??

[V'ger]

Oui, should probably run it not to be 'platformist'..

Then when it's time for another cross platform after that, who knows, maybe TAL has still more to come.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Oui, should probably run it not to be 'platformist'..

Then when it's time for another cross platform after that, who knows, maybe TAL has still more to come.

hey man, don't do it just on my account, but if others view it as a viable choice then i'm in....i don't mind you being platformist

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Im all in favor of being as open as possible. I wish the Devs were a bit better about being cross-platform!

[V'ger]

don't do it just on my account, but if others view it as a viable choice then i'm in...

No the synth is as good, editable and stable with as good range as any and could be on the program in its own right, not just because it works on both platforms.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Have not had ZynAddSubFX up and running yet, hope we won't have problems, I understand that it's not really a VST, actually a stand alone synth running with a wrapper... Good luck to us all!

[V'ger]

Will not work or not installed yet?

Yes it will undoubtedly be a challenge for some, but it seems most synths will cause issues and this one generally running well once you know about the bug not to switch presets too fast in the preset browser. (just save the faves to your DAW's native presets)

I can run as many instances as any other synth and it uses less CPU than many others.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

I've had it running now, but I'm already pretty frustrated. I have an older xp box running Reaper 3.something and if I have more than one instance open it starts stuttering. no prob to render takes and keep moving, but there are all these annoying side effects of running the wrapper... menu items in reaper are hanging up, the space bar start-stop won't work anymore (even if reaper window is on top and active) and then the synth itself is a bit tweaky for my taste and experience level. Also I'm not diggin' all the separate windows. I know I'm whinin' but I may take this month off and tinker with other projects... If so have fun without me!

[V'ger]

First Zyn vicitim already? I knew there would be issues like this and know the frustration of buggy synths, but most are overcomeable and here the sound will make up for it.

I also run XP and Reaper and generally find Zyn uses much less resources than average, so don't know why yours would stutter. But remember it's multitimbral so you can run 16 channels with one instance. (no seperate audio out though..)

Make sure you have the latest Reaper as that seems to be better with zyn, and also try to load it in different ways like buggy mode or even as dedicated or separate process (option when you right-click the synth when selecting it from the list)


Spacebar not playing is annoying I agree, but put start, stop, rewind controls in the floating toolbar (press F) and place it handy.

As for it being tweaky, I think everyone is overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, but once you see that there are 3 synths inside Zyn and each with basically one window for filter + envelope and another for ocs's, you see it's no big deal.

The presets are anyway great and numerous. Have you got them going? Make sure they are in one of the paths set in options as they can't be changed.


Come on, give it one more go. Just try to load up a dual strings or the space choir patch or even double them on separate channels to see how huge this thing sounds.

[satYatunes]

I was playing with TranceDrive today, we can use that too. It's geared towards trance sounds but wouldn't be too difficult to get other genre sounds, almost like a twin brother of P8. Here is the link:

http://www.kvraudio.com/db/4336

Trancedrive is on my system only beaten by Cableguys Curve in terms of CPU usage. Some patches run at 35% CPU when normal VSTi's are at 2-5%. How is it for you? Looks like bound to cause trouble in an OSC if this is the same for everyone..

yeah, you're right. TranceDrive eats a lot of CPU so will be a bit of a problem for OSC. I was playing with Zyn as I saw it's been selected for the next OSC. It crashed twice on me already but I would try your options (in Reaper) mentioned in another post later and report back.

[V'ger]

Here's a Reaper track template for ZynAddSubFX with one instance w 16 midi channels (all active):

http://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/osc ... ects=0&d=1

Zyn will play 16 channels but only stereo audio out, but has insert and send effects with even a nice eq so it's possible to mix the whole thing there.

I found that when Zyn was loaded as 'buggy mode' it caused more hassle, but when loaded as 'dedicated' (or separate) gives a nice separate window that can just be alt-tabbed and won't interfere with any Reaper menus. Make a shortcut (action) of alt-tab and it's even easier.

With the Anvir task manager I'm running on windows, there's an option to have any window 'always on top' which is imo even nicer, then the main zyn GUI is always visible on top of Reaper.

Try the ready made drum kits presets. Some of the best drum sounds of all OSC synths imo, and the string sounds I can honestly say beats all of my other synths, commercial included.

[V'ger]

I was playing with Zyn as I saw it's been selected for the next OSC. It crashed twice on me already but I would try your options (in Reaper) mentioned in another post later and report back.

Yea like I said before, the common reason for crash is when changing too fast between presets in Zyn's preset browser. It's a GUI thing. Wait a second and let the sound completely die out before changing.

Best is to save your faves as a DAW's preset as changing between those is normally unproblematic.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Thanks much for the tips, I'll certainly keep trying. I'd hate to miss out on all the fun

[V'ger]

Well, synchronicity at work with new Zyn version released yesterday, now with multiple outs.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 94#4437394

To activate, go to the midi window in Zyn and click the box there.