One-Synth-Challenge 54: XILS 3 Beat Edition - Gossip

[nitrowheels]

i would say that you are probably feeding an Osc to an Out directly while the amp itself is uncontrolled. This will have exactly the effect you described

Thank you so much Env1! For the pic too
I'll check what you describe in a few hours!

As said in my earlier post I'll keep the news posted here; in the meantime thanks again for your hints

Ciao!
-Enrico

[nitrowheels]

Hi again,

update: the problem has been solved and it was due to a particular routing that I made. So my fault.

I'm happy since I've been "forced" to look in a deeper way into the presets and this specific architecture. Really helpful and that's what I recommend too to solve similar problems (I mean that I don't have anything more specific to post here that could be useful to others as well in a similar case).

Many thanks again ENV1 + Lotuzia + V'ger!
I'm glad to have found this cool community (after having found the dsp one years ago when I was writing my thesis; now I wonder how could it be that I discovered the OSC just 2-3 months ago! Incredible or... I'm getting older, I suspect ).


-Enrico

[V'ger]

Nice (what thesis did you write?)

And agree with all the comments about the sound of XILS 3, very juicy indeed..

I hope the Mac'ers have woken up from sitting out the last OSC to the fact that there was actually one more cross-platform synth to be used..

[nitrowheels]

Nice (what thesis did you write?)

And agree with all the comments about the sound of XILS 3, very juicy indeed..

I hope the Mac'ers have woken up from sitting out the last OSC to the fact that there was actually one more cross-platform synth to be used..

@V'ger it was about some theory behind filters and then about designing 'em from scratch, so nothing too fancy (maths, Matlab, Visual Studio, etc.)

This evening (erm... night, since here in Italy now is 2AM!) was definitely productive'n'fun speaking about sound design / patch programming: so long live OSC! (and this modular synth is a cool beast too )


-Enrico

[RuediRena]

I am currently trying to make a punchier sounding kick drum from the C.D. KickSoft patch. Generally I do have the attack I was looking for but the filter or whatever module is drifting in cycles obviously. I have absolutely no clue what causes this behavior and systematic debugging didn't lead to any change. I suspect it might be a combination of parameters causing this. If so then possibilities are increased to higher powers.

So if anyone has some idea or short-cut for me to find the culprit I would be very glad to read it here.

I made a screen-shot of the patch and alternatively here is the patch as stored in Reaper. You can copy and paste the content into your XILS.ini file in Reaper's preset folder as just another patch with the right numbering or if there is no such file in the folder then you can paste it there as is.

You may as well click to download a minimal reaper project (Some Rea/JS FX added to enhance the patch/not necessary to reproduce the problem).

Click for bigger picture.



Edit: DAW is Reaper 4.30 running on a Linux machine (Ubuntu 11/04, ALSA sound system) via wine.

Cheers and TIA
Ruedi

[Davias]

Hello, I've tried to reproduce the preset following the picture and I got drift too, what I'm hearing is a changing attack while the body is more constant. Don't know if this is what you're hearing, to circumvent the problem I would bypass the filter. I didn't use the filter for my kick and the sound is constant.

Cheers.

[RuediRena]

Hello, I've tried to reproduce the preset following the picture and I got drift too, what I'm hearing is a changing attack while the body is more constant. Don't know if this is what you're hearing, to circumvent the problem I would bypass the filter. I didn't use the filter for my kick and the sound is constant.

Cheers.

Thanks for testing, Davias.

For my ears it is not only the attack that changes but also the body of the kick. Deleting the filter from the signal path leads to a more stable result but the effect is still there less prominent but I can hear it. Apart from that I would like to have the filter to shape the sound of the kick to my taste.

What I think I can also exclude is the influence of oscillator 2 which controls the frequency of oscillator 3. This was my first suspect.

Anyone else?

[e@rs]

Ruedi, I'm in the exact position as you and trying to find what's happening with the transient... If I solve it I will report back.

[bjporter]

I'll investigate too.... but so far sounds like I might not be spending 3 hours on a kick... somewhat of a relief.

Maybe we'll all be doing rather unconventional stuff this month?

[e@rs]

Maybe we'll all be doing rather unconventional stuff this month?

I sincerely hope.

[RuediRena]

Ruedi, I'm in the exact position as you and trying to find what's happening with the transient... If I solve it I will report back.

Thanks, e@rs, let's keep in touch via the forum and see what happens. This is one unconventional beast!

I'll investigate too.... but so far sounds like I might not be spending 3 hours on a kick... somewhat of a relief.

Maybe we'll all be doing rather unconventional stuff this month?

Maybe ... on the other hand, if you can find stuff like the following on the web we might be doing rather old stuff ...

...and the fabulous Delia Derbyshire, one of its pioneers.
You'll find a bunch of her synthi settings for some sounds and effects, all for unknown pieces of hers, under

http://wiki.delia-derbyshire.net/wiki/C ... dope_sheet

Let's see what we can find there. Mhmmm, how about some whales?



Click the picture for a higher resolution!

Exciting stuff! Will have to try it.

[ENV1]

Should we post bugs and things like that in here too? Im asking because after some deeper checking i have noticed quite a few things which seem to be broken or at least not entirely working as one would expect. (Voice handler is buggy, preset manager is a mess, envelope is wonky, etc.) I also have material ready to demonstrate the issues in case XO wants to check and comment.



As for the kick problem; obviously all that stripping down to the bare essentials didnt do the synth any good. On the contrary, almost all 'obvious' ways lead into a problem or other because of some issue that exists with what little is still there. On the positive side, i managed to patch one up that can at least serve as a starting point for further experimenting anyway. If you want to check it out; i have attached a bank with a few presets i saved during testing, the Kick is in there too. Import via X3s Import Bank function. Intended optimum playrange is usually around the lowest octave on X3s keyboard.

DOWNLOAD



EDIT: Forgot to mention; if you modify the Kick, do not remove the Trapezoid to Env plug in the matrix before you lowered the Trapezoid Signal knob to at least 40%. Otherwise it will get really really loud.

[Lotuzia]

Should we post bugs and things like that in here too? Im asking because after some deeper checking i have noticed quite a few things which seem to be broken or at least not entirely working as one would expect. (Voice handler is buggy, preset manager is a mess, envelope is wonky, etc.) I also have material ready to demonstrate the issues in case XO wants to check and comment.



As for the kick problem; obviously all that stripping down to the bare essentials didnt do the synth any good. On the contrary, almost all 'obvious' ways lead into a problem or other because of some issue that exists with what little is still there. On the positive side, i managed to patch one up that can at least serve as a starting point for further experimenting anyway. If you want to check it out; i have attached a bank with a few presets i saved during testing, the Kick is in there too. Import via X3s Import Bank function. Intended optimum playrange is usually around the lowest octave on X3s keyboard.

DOWNLOAD

Thats weird, because amore than 1000 people already got the Xils BE before this contest, and none has reported such things.

You can open a thread on Xils-Forum, or better, contact Xils thru the site contact utility, and report what you think are bugs, together with examples. Its the best way for Xils to keep track of everything.

The enveloppes -afaik- have not changed with this strip version of the Xils3 LE; that also have thousands of apparently very satisfied users. These are trapezoidal envelopes, and as such, they are well, different, and quite special, like the ones on the VCS3, and eventually I wonder if thats not the reason why you'd call them wonky.

So, well, I've programmed several hundred of patches for its big brother Xils 3, and did not find anything like you said, as in the preset browser, but as one cant have both Xils3 LE and Xils3 on the same machine ( Xils3 full version will always open if you have both to preserve compatibility of projects for those wo upgrade to full version, I cant guarantee 100% taht everything is OK )

Well, we'll see Please send us the examples of what you think are incorrect behaviour directly.

Thanks

[RuediRena]

envelope is wonky

For a deeper understanding of the envelope see the manual of the original EMS VCS3:

Here's a link to a manual for the hardware VCS3 for anyone looking to dive in more deeply:
http://www.thesynthi.de/index.php?/arch ... anual.html

Look up pages 18-20 in the manual to see how it works.

Be prepared to meditate a bit over it.

@Lotuzia: Thanks a lot for your clarifying words. I wouldn't say the big bad bug-word. I am quite aware that this is the most different synth I was using up to now. I am expecting to have some sonic adventures from a mixture of a lot of trial and error, some coincidence and a little bit of understanding.

I am still curious what might modulate the oscillators in my kick patch. Any advice to get me going, Lotuzia?

Cheers
Ruedi

[RuediRena]

If you want to check it out; i have attached a bank with a few presets i saved during testing, the Kick is in there too. Import via X3s Import Bank function.

I thought you can't save patches in the VSTi itself nor import patch banks into Xils BE. Are you using the full version?