Xils 4 The Pin Matrix Modular Analog Synthesizer [V1.5 released + Intro Price offer]

[BlackWinny]

Hmmm... It's just a cosmetic detail, Laurent, but is it possible (in the options or anywhere else) to replace the red color of the monitor keyboard, of the leds and of all the LCD digits by a blue color? I have a very big problem called protanomaly which from birth prevents me to correctly distinguish the nuances in the longest wavelengths of the chromatic range (the red extremity). For me and all the persons having this problem (about 6 millions persons in Europe, almost all males because it is a genetical problem on the chromosome X) all the lights having a red color in little surfaces appear as dark and even sometimes totally black, driving to the total impossibility to tell if they are on or off. When reading red LCD digits for example... it means the very great difficulty to distinguish if this and that segment of the digit is on or off... so... a quasi-impossibility to read with reliability numbers and letters in LCD displays when they are twice red and small.

This physiological disease exist also for the other extremity of the spectra, the blue extremity, but much, much, much more rare. That's why to provide the same optimal ability for everybody it is greatly preferable to sell LCD displays in green or in blue. And nowadays (since the mid 90's) all the makers of electronic devices build less and less red displays and more and more blue and green displays (or provide the choice when they can do it without extra investment). The red displays will tend to almost disappear in the next years in reason of this very incapacitating problem which concerns about 6 millions of persons in the Europe (and the same percentage in the rest of the world), a problem which has been taken very, very seriously by the makers because it is a real perturbance not only for security but also for many things in the life (and for example here by a very great difficulty to distinguish correctly in these sets [0/2/5/8], [5/6], [1/7], etc. in the LCD display, and the same to monitor the keys in the LCD monitor keyboard and the same to tell if a red led (they are a lot in this GUI!) is on or off).

If it is not yet available in the options of the present release, could it be quite quickly abailable in a next release?

Imagine...

And the red leds like the "Hold" led and all the others (many!) of this GUI... I am totally unable to tell if they are on or off. Totally, totally unable. At a point that simply by talking about the leds this synth is totally impossible to use for persons having this serious problem of vision since absolutely none of the leds appear distinctly on or off.

I have made the picture above with the help of my wife of course...

The simple red elements and letters (the serigraphy) which never change their colors... put of course no problem at all. Only the luminous elements which change between their state on and off. Could it be possible to have an option in a next release to be able to choose between red and blue for all that? (blue is the other extremity of the spectra, a choice between both would resolve twice the problem of these persons concerned by the protanomaly as me... and the exact opposite disease called the tritanomaly which exist also but much more rare)

A heartfelt thanks in advance if you could do that, Laurent and Xavier!!!

[Lotuzia]

Hmmm... It's just a cosmetic detail, Laurent, but is it possible (in the options or anywhere else) to replace the red color of the monitor keyboard, of the leds and of all the LCD digits by a blue color? I have a very big problem called protanomaly which from birth prevents me to correctly distinguish the nuances in the longest wavelengths of the chromatic range (the red extremity). For me and all the persons having this problem (about 6 millions persons in Europe, almost all males because it is a genetical problem on the chromosome X) all the lights having a red color in little surfaces appear as dark and even sometimes totally black, driving to the total impossibility to tell if they are on or off. When reading red LCD digits for example... it means the very great difficulty to distinguish if this and that segment of the digit is on or off... so... a quasi-impossibility to read with reliability numbers and letters in LCD displays when they are twice red and small.

This physiological disease exist also for the other extremity of the spectra, the blue extremity, but much, much, much more rare. That's why to provide the same optimal ability for everybody it is greatly preferable to sell LCD displays in green or in blue. And nowadays (since the mid 90's) all the makers of electronic devices build less and less red displays and more and more blue and green displays (or provide the choice when they can do it without extra investment). The red displays will tend to almost disappear in the next years in reason of this very incapacitating problem which concerns about 6 millions of persons in the Europe (and the same percentage in the rest of the world), a problem which has been taken very, very seriously by the makers because it is a real perturbance not only for security but also for many things in the life (and for example here by a very great difficulty to distinguish correctly in these sets [0/2/5/8], [5/6], [1/7], etc. in the LCD display, and the same to monitor the keys in the LCD monitor keyboard and the same to tell if a red led (they are a lot in this GUI!) is on or off).

If it is not yet available in the options of the present release, could it be quite quickly abailable in a next release?

Imagine...

And the red leds like the "Hold" led and all the others (many!) of this GUI... I am totally unable to tell if they are on or off. Totally, totally unable. At a point that simply by talking about the leds this synth is totally impossible to use for persons having this serious problem of vision since absolutely none of the leds appear distinctly on or off.

I have made the picture above with the help of my wife of course...

The simple red elements and letters (the serigraphy) which never change their colors... put of course no problem at all. Only the luminous elements which change between their state on and off. Could it be possible to have an option in a next release to be able to choose between red and blue for all that? (blue is the other extremity of the spectra, a choice between both would resolve twice the problem of these persons concerned by the protanomaly as me... and the exact opposite disease called the tritanomaly which exist also but much more rare)

A heartfelt thanks in advance if you could do that, Laurent and Xavier!!!

Hi Mr J.

Yes the right place is the options menu with an additional item.

You already answered to one question that I thought of about people who would not be able to distinguish the blue, so if a toggle between red and blue would satisfy everyone, it could be the solution.

If some other people think that a choice between blue and red would not be optimal please feel free to post here ( or join us in private if you want this to remain private )

Another thing we'd like to implement, following the request of another user, is the lines of the matrixes. So do you see them clearly Jacques ? ( We thought of making an option with white lines instead of red on black, so the highest possible contrast, because this user cant see properly the red lines as they are )

Anyway we will try to propose your red/blue option ( or a better one if more people are posting about similar problems and we can come to a slightly different, but *universal solution*, if this exists )

L.

[Lotuzia]

A very nice video introducing XILS 4 in Maschine 2...

Thanks

Maschine and Xils 4 altogether seem to work prefectly and indeed be a terrific combo Integration looks just like perfect ( Almost made me want to get Maschine at once )

[BlackWinny]

Hello Laurent!

Another thing we'd like to implement, following the request of another user, is the lines of the matrixes. So do you see them clearly Jacques ? ( We thought of making an option with white lines instead of red on black, so the highest possible contrast, because this user cant see properly the red lines as they are )

I see the matrix not very correctly, yes... because of the movement the brain makes a correction to allow a kind of "semblance of distinction", but if such red lines were static (or remaining the same for more that several seconds, they would slowly become more and more dark to finish almost as dark as the blacky background of the matrix). I agree that white lines (or pale grey or even goldish to keep an artistic look) would be certainly much better for all those having problems with the contrasts between two too close colors.


The problem is also very obvious in the sequencer...

It's my wife who said me that there were red points in the picture! I hadn't even see that there were points in it when we were reading this page together 15 days ago!


A very flashy white would be awesome at this place to see clearly the points!... and it would add an excellent artistic feeling to the grid.

[liquidsound]

Hi Mr J.

Yes the right place is the options menu with an additional item.

You already answered to one question that I thought of about people who would not be able to distinguish the blue, so if a toggle between red and blue would satisfy everyone, it could be the solution.

If some other people think that a choice between blue and red would not be optimal please feel free to post here ( or join us in private if you want this to remain private )

Another thing we'd like to implement, following the request of another user, is the lines of the matrixes. So do you see them clearly Jacques ? ( We thought of making an option with white lines instead of red on black, so the highest possible contrast, because this user cant see properly the red lines as they are )

Anyway we will try to propose your red/blue option ( or a better one if more people are posting about similar problems and we can come to a slightly different, but *universal solution*, if this exists )

L.

Why not the regular keyboard showing the key being in the down, pressed, position...
This red thing is more appropriate for the old Pulsar watch

[BlackWinny]

At the very end of this post the guy had made a very interesting remark about the system of coordinates in the way of the naval battles that was used by EMS...

For example it is very, very useful in the Synthi Educational Handbook (see starting at page 38-39 and followings...)


An opportunity by the way to strongly recommand this handbook. Because it explains a crowd of things on the architecture and the working of the VCS 3 and provides many experiments to do.

And for those who would be interested... I have it also in french.

The guy in the aforementioned thread is right (the system of coordinate is very, very useful), but I just add a nuance: there has been many successive editions of the VCS 3 and the Synthi, and some editions didn't have the system of coordinates in the serigraphy. But almost all had it indeed.

[BlackWinny]

Ehh...

Hehe...

Hehehe...

Laurent, look...

The original keyboard was... blue!!!

[BlackWinny]

And here is a little book of 27 patches for the EMS VCS 3. A book which was made by David Steven in the seventies and which is very rare:

• David Seven - EMS VCS Book of Sounds

You will see the great importance of the system of coordinates to have a clear vision of the matrix when we work on it.

This little book of examples is absolutely wonderful to learn how the EMS VCS 3 and the Synthi were working.

[BlackWinny]

Why not the regular keyboard showing the key being in the down, pressed, position...
This red thing is more appropriate for the old Pulsar watch

Because to stay in the spirit of an EMS VCS and Synthi emulation, it is important to reproduce the nice aspect of the original keyboard which was not a classic mechanical keyboard but a keyboard of sensitive keys. It was provided as an added option, not as a standard feature.

But it was in a color resolutely... electrical blue!

[Krakatau]

wow...i remember this one, soooo long ago !!!!!!

[Krakatau]

..!

[Krakatau]

double post

[liquidsound]

Why not the regular keyboard showing the key being in the down, pressed, position...
This red thing is more appropriate for the old Pulsar watch

Because to stay in the spirit of an EMS VCS and Synthi emulation, it is important to reproduce the nice aspect of the original keyboard which was not a classic mechanical keyboard but a keyboard of sensitive keys. It was provided as an added option, not as a standard feature.

But it was in a color resolutely... electrical blue!

In the same "Spirit" get rid of the added Dongle

[Lotuzia]

........

For example it is very, very useful in the Synthi Educational Handbook (see starting at page 38-39 and followings...)


An opportunity by the way to strongly recommand this handbook. Because it explains a crowd of things on the architecture and the working of the VCS 3 and provides many experiments to do.

And for those who would be interested... I have it also in french.

Thanks BlackWinny Indeed one of the mythical books of modular synthesis. When you read it it opens a lot of doors, and the guy who wrote it is very open minded, adventurous, and creative. And this represents well one the main aspects of the EMS synths imho.

[Lotuzia]

Why not the regular keyboard showing the key being in the down, pressed, position...
This red thing is more appropriate for the old Pulsar watch

Because to stay in the spirit of an EMS VCS and Synthi emulation, it is important to reproduce the nice aspect of the original keyboard which was not a classic mechanical keyboard but a keyboard of sensitive keys. It was provided as an added option, not as a standard feature.

But it was in a color resolutely... electrical blue!

In the same "Spirit" get rid of the added Dongle

Well I can understand those who are, and will remain, antidongle for philosophical, or whatever, reasons.

For the others, those who dont care about dongles, like me, or those who did not get one until now because of the price, availability, not wanting to try etc etc, let me just remind people that Xils offers them one Elicencer Dongle, shipped worldwide with no additionnal fees, if they buy the Xils 4 until June 17th ( And you'll also get a discount, additional preset bank etc etc)

So if one was ever tempted to take the dongle road without any additional price or effort, it might be the right time to take the plunge