LuSH-101

[Ingonator]

Cool. Just found this, looks like it was added in June this year:
http://www.synthmania.com/sh-101.htm

Looks like those sounds are based on patch sheets included in the manual.
The manual is available here, the patch sheets start at page 42:
ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/productsupport/S ... 101_OM.pdf


Ingo

I just tried to reprogram the "Funky Bass" patch sheet in LuSh-101. I tried to use the setting 1:1. The internal Arp was used and no FX are added:

LuSH-101_Funky Bass 1

Audio demo from Synthmania for comparison:
http://www.synthmania.com/Roland%20SH-1 ... 20BASS.mp3

UPDATE:
The Funky Bass preset reprogrammed with TAL Bassline, again i used the settings 1:1 from the patch sheet (internal Arp used, no FXs added):
TAL BassLine_Funky Bass 1


Ingo

[ruud07]

I've been playing with the demo and I found the filter to be very, very good!

I think the layer system is great, and it comes to its own when making very 'organic' pads. This is all to do with each oscillator having it's own filter and envelopes so that each can be subtly different, adding variation. This is akin to the way Oberheim Four Voice or Vermona Perforumer behave, for example and is a gateway to very lush analog-style pads. However CPU consumption can put a stop to how big a sound I could get.

I could play a two oscillator pad with 8 notes poly, high quality setting with no issues at all (using Quad Q9300 2.3Ghz PC). When I added the third oscillator (at 8 note poly) realtime playback was not possible due to the crackling noise, so I reduced the quality to normal and all was well, however there was a subtle change in sound. I was able to get a lovely sound using four oscillators, high quality setting and 4-note poly though. That's more like it. This is where LuSH works well on my system: a big, 'organic' sound and not much CPU use.

With the following settings the bass can be very tight and snappy indeed (provided the cutoff/env amount/env ADSR is set correctly):

Amp source ENV1
(OPTIONS) Env retriggier set to normal
Bothe ENV set to 'trigger'

I think the layered mono bass sounds are also LuSH-101's strong point. And again, it's all to do with having independent filters and envelopes. One layer can have a very tight bass thud, but the other layer can have a bright buzzy tone, and the third layer can add some sub bass. *thumbs up*

When compared to other VA synths in my synth folder, the tone is different (pretty much as all other VA synths are different) so it's a good thing as LuSH offers yet another take on the analog sound.

Some very nice hints to put the cpu usage down, thanks. I will try them out later on my quad Q6600 PC!

[twisted-space]

I'd like for some people to understand that you can criticize a product and still like it.

I couldn't agree more. I like the sound, as far as I can remember (it's been years), it's very close to the original.

I don't like the GUI, on my 24" 1080p display, it's bad enough but on my laptops 15.4" 1680x1050 it is close to un-useable.

I've already said I don't want or need the fx and layers and mixer, I can already do that and more inside my host.

I'm sure that the layers system contributes to the final downer, which is Lush uses a stupid amount of CPU.

In Live on my 2.5Ghz c2d laptop with the default patch loaded, doing nothing at all it's using 8% according to Lives CPU meter. 1 voice uses 14%.

Doing the same thing with Diva on the init june60 patch uses 1%, 1 voice in divine uses 9%.
Strobe uses 2% in idle and can play 4 voices @ 4x oversample for 10%.


It's a shame, 'cos it really does sound great.
(except for the steppy filter)

[dexterbella]

I (like quite a few others here) am quite bored and irritated by the fact that no discussion of a VA synth these days can go on without Diva trying to take over, so I'll be a total hypocrite and make my own comparison.

I'm currently playing around with a beautiful mellow electro sound tweaked from one of LuSH's berlin school presets. I have a kick, snare and hihat pattern, a pad, a lead and three arped synth lines all running at once. The mono lead is played with the right hand and everything else is triggered by playing chords with the left - pretty much a whole song's worth in one instance of LuSH.

To do this with Diva I would need 8 instances of the synth, half a dozen seperate arps/step sequencers and about the same number of additional fx and it would have taken about ten times longer to setup/route than the few minutes I spent tweaking LuSH. Would it sound better? Possibly. Would it have been as much fun to do? No. Would my CPU cope? Definitely not.

In short, two different synths doing different things. For me personally I'd take LuSH over Diva every time.

[twisted-space]

I (like quite a few others here) am quite bored and irritated by the fact that no discussion of a VA synth these days can go on without Diva trying to take over.

Really, where?

[dexterbella]

I (like quite a few others here) am quite bored and irritated by the fact that no discussion of a VA synth these days can go on without Diva trying to take over.

Really, where?

Perhaps not well phrased but it never takes long for the Diva posts hit any VA thread - boring for those of us who aren't big fans of it. More an observation that a criticism of any one post.

[twisted-space]

I (like quite a few others here) am quite bored and irritated by the fact that no discussion of a VA synth these days can go on without Diva trying to take over.

Really, where?

Perhaps not well phrased but it never takes long for the Diva posts hit any VA thread - boring for those of us who aren't big fans of it. More an observation that a criticism of any one post.

Seriously, I think you've made the longest "Diva post" in this thread yourself.



I take it you don't find Strobe posts boring?

[JimmiG]

To do this with Diva I would need 8 instances of the synth, half a dozen seperate arps/step sequencers and about the same number of additional fx and it would have taken about ten times longer to setup/route than the few minutes I spent tweaking LuSH. Would it sound better? Possibly. Would it have been as much fun to do? No. Would my CPU cope? Definitely not.

In short, two different synths doing different things. For me personally I'd take LuSH over Diva every time.

¨

The advantage of doing it the traditional way rather than the "two-finger song" way, is that once you've set it up, it's much easier to work with. You can have parts fade in and out, change effects (use third-party effects), swap out the synth in one of the tracks for a completely different one (or even send the MIDI to a hardware synth), set up different sends for different parts, slightly tweak the sequences as the song progresses etc.

I understand the "WOW-factor" of hitting a couple of notes and having a whole song come out, but personally, I prefer to build the song myself in the DAW. That's kind of the whole purpose of a sequencer/DAW. If I'm goiong to use the synth itself as the sequencer, mixer, master effects etc. I might as well skip the DAW and run it inside a simple VST host to save on CPU and RAM.

[Keef Baker]

Nice to see you here Keef! Always liked your music!

Thanks!

Well, playing around for an hour and trying to avoid presets (except looking at the drums and how they handled things there. Tsss... should have guessed it was the resonance on the filter being controlled by the envelope. Stoopid Keef) I made this.

http://soundcloud.com/keef-baker/lush-101

Clearly not the best track in the world, but there's nothing but the 101 on this.

IMO, it's a really good synth, and once you get round the business of the gui it's easy as pie.

Thing is... This is not really an SH-101 emulation. I suppose it is, but if you use it like that you're missing out on a lot.

What IMO this thing is strong on is pads. Especially with the layering aspect and each layer having its own inserts.

Also, with 8 layers, unison up to 16 and supersaw built in you can turn it into the biggest bastard hypersaw EVOR!11!

I like it. I'm glad I trusted d16 and punted for it and I can see myself using it a lot.

[dalor]

I (like quite a few others here) am quite bored and irritated by the fact that no discussion of a VA synth these days can go on without Diva trying to take over, so I'll be a total hypocrite and make my own comparison.

Cant agree more. It's a KVR thing I guess, Zebra and DIVA are the 'standards' that need to be mentioned everywhere I own and love DIVA, same as Saurus and many more synths in my VST folder, they all have their place. So does my latest baby LuSH

[Keef Baker]

Oh... One thing I don't like... Multiple notes of the same note with no break means it doesn't trigger the envelope.

That needs fixing, or at least being made optional.

[Crackbaby]

Well, playing around for an hour and trying to avoid presets (except looking at the drums and how they handled things there. Tsss... should have guessed it was the resonance on the filter being controlled by the envelope. Stoopid Keef) I made this.

http://soundcloud.com/keef-baker/lush-101

*snip for spacesaving*

From yoru soundcloud description:

There's been a lot of bad feeling about this synth, especially on the KVR forums. This is for two reasons in my opinion.

1) It's been in development since the ark sailed

2) Everything else they've done has been a faithful version of the synth in question.

Really. After reading in this thread, those are the two points you come up with ..? I have read since release and i haven't seen anyone complain on development time or that expectations were high because of it. Point two i don't get at all.

I suppose that my complaints are a part of the "bad feeling". In no way has my complaints been about your two points. It's "in your opinion" though and you're free to have yours of course.
I hope you don't think that we are ill-minded because we complain? At least i feel a frustration over them making a wonderful synth and then crumble it to pieces with weird decisions like the GUI and demo limitation.
Sorry for being harsh, but it felt a little like you put words in my mouth..

Nice kick btw! Was it from one or more layers? I like synth made kicks as each hit are a little different. Different enough to be heard (more acoustic so to speak) but not different enough to affect the mixing. Did you like the SH-101 mode (filter/env) or the .. "lush" mode best for drums?

[himalaya]

Ingo, please post MP3s rather than WAV files. WAV files just don't play properly in the KVR player. Lots of stuttering. MP3 files at 320kBps are good enough for such comparative listening.

[metrosonic]

For those who wanted some sort of 'acoustical reference point':



An extremely nice demo of the real 101 because it captures the analog 'rawness' of the real deal very well. The good filter stuff starts around 2:50, so keep at it.


PS: High volume strongly recommended.

Another great example of what a real 101 sounds like. I can't believe it's even being suggested that the LuSH-101 sounds even remotely close to this.

I think plugin developers really need to raise their game now that there are a plethora of affordable options out there with regards to analog hardware. From Moog's Minitaur & Arturia's Minibrute to Mutable Intruments kit based Shruthi-1 (and their forthcoming Ambika polysynth) not to mention the raft of other boutique options, some of which can be purchased for less than $200.

Given the choice between spending $200 on a piece of software (who's resale value diminishes by the month) or spending $600 on say a Moog Minitaur I know where my hard earned will always be heading. Don't get me wrong I love software instruments especially ones that are unashamedly digital in design & implementation. But if I'm going to spend $200 on a 'virtual analog' I want it to be able to match the timbres I can get out of my hardware. Sorry to mention Diva again, but U-He has proven it can be done (especially on the Korg & Moog emulations) and Cytomic are just about to release a filter plugin which looks to be to next step forward again in terms of circuit modeled organic goodness! I just don't believe that D16 have delivered the goods here in terms of being a good modern day analog emulation - forget whether of not it sounds like an SH-101 it just doesn't sound analog, at least not to my ears. I think the feature-set is ace, especially the layering system. But for me it fails completely to deliver believable analog timbres (even within the context of a busy mix).

That doesn't make the LuSH-101 a bad instrument, there are some cracking presets included (especially those designed by D16 themselves) that show of what the instrument is capable of, it's just that it fails to deliver on it's core promise - to be the best SH-101 emulation available.

I wish D16 every success with the LuSH-101, and I'll definitely revisit it at some point in the future, I just hope that they manage to nail the raw sound first before adding yet more features.

JM
------------
https://soundcloud.com/leftside-wobble

[K-Slash]

This synth sounds GREAT !!!

But I think Wavetraxx must be somehow deaf...

Some of his presets are way too loud, and pierce the ear. Oh my...

People at D16 should have reviewed all the presets and "calibrated" them to sound equal in loudness, and avoid them peaking way over 0dBFS for some...

Something that all synth developers should do in fact.