XILS StiX - New drum machine coming?

[Lotuzia]

A very simple beat to show that StiX can actually make some sound. Only the analog engines were used for all drumpads. Only stereo output with a limiter on the daw main output (Separate outputs not used) . No use of compressors, eqs, no daw automation etc. Only StiX internal effects ( including the reverb) Then, I just changed the patterns live using my midi keyboard.

StiX Brazil Elektro

LtZ

Sounds terrific!

Thanks

[Lotuzia]

09/11/2015. Exploring Cross Synthesis ....

StiX CrossSynthesis Journey

[cranium]

Ooh, nice, will follow its progress!

[hivkorn]

the price will be .... ?

[Lotuzia]

the price will be .... ?

StiX has demanded really a lot of r&d and developpment time and efforts, and has no equivalent. It's price will simply reflect this.

I now understand why hi-end Drum Machines tend to be a bit more pricey than the average synth, be it of good, or less good quality. Drum Machines, when they are not strict and simple sample players -because some drum machines have also developped an art of sophisticated sample playing/mangling and management- is a synth for sure. A special multisynth. But it's also a myriad of other things at the same time (Especially StiX ) . That you have to master.

[Lotuzia]

Ooh, nice, will follow its progress!

Thank you.
More sound examples asap.

[Daags]

post some down tempo stuff please, some bare bones detroit techno, minimal...and... stuff that makes less of a racket.

[Lotuzia]

post some down tempo stuff please, some bare bones detroit techno, minimal...and... stuff that makes less of a racket.

Yes. Could you please just post a few examples (yt, mp3) , and I'll try to match them, or in the same spirit. I tend to produce quite populated/busy rythms atm it's true, though I'm also trying to expose different synthesis approachs, mixed with different musical genres.

On a side note, with StiX you can mute/demute any sequencer line with the Keyboard ( Octave C2 ), so you can streamline a busy pattern, and incorporate some of its elements on the fly gradually. Or violently. Or make interesting vaiations using a single pattern.

[ENV1]

So, in StiX, you can have/write the following pattern (...)

So, I'm not sure that Era could do this ?

Unless i misunderstood then yes, ERA2 can do this just fine since you generally have full control over the hits, i.e. how many there will be and when they will occur. Additionally, to offset any hits from the 'regular' pattern timing you can make use of the Delay row to literally 'beam hits into the future'. Check the animation below, i think it makes it pretty clear what exactly is possible and how it is achieved.

(Velocity in top-row, the lower 5 rows can additionally send MIDI CCs 0-127, Pitchbend, Program, Aftertouch.)

click to view

Anyway, StiX can do this kind of things. Of course, at 127 BPM it will just sound like a total mess, and many will find this totally useless, for good reasons, but at 40/60 Bpm, it can be *an extreme option*, and the most experimental people in the crowd might enjoy it : It's possible, easy to do, and intuitive.

Yeah, one thing thats very important to get useful results rather than just chaos is to use this stuff either sparingly or at slower pattern speeds. (Especially true for the speedup/slowdown functions, which only sound any good if programmed carefully in accordance with the other functions.) The audio demo i posted last time was made at 120BPM and i was just dragging sliders at random so most of it was pretty useless outside the purely demonstrational aspect.

This here is better. Besides the 'regular' hit timing it has what appears to be 2 different swing timings in the same pattern. (The snare obviously, the other drums instance is just to make the whole thing a little less bland.) Also to get a better feel for the actual gatetime ive sent the pattern that drives the snare to a synthesizer. (The hi-reso sound that comes in in the second half.) Its still not likely to enter the charts, but at least its not just random chaos like last time.

Whatever brilliant Era is/was, it's sold on a secret page, is for windows only ( wich windows ?), and if you click on the demo version link, you land on a page where there are demo versions of about every product sold by the company. Except Era.

Yeah, thats a bit odd. Probably should have kept it there with the rest rather than obscuring it the way they did, after all its still a top-grade sequencer/arpeggiator plugin. (In fact i know of none other that has all the features of ERA2.)

Anyway, i have the Demo Installer, and since there is no EULA or anything in the manual that says that the Demo cannot be shared i guess there wouldnt be any harm done if i sent it to you so you can check it out for yourself. Just let me know.

[Lotuzia]

Thanks for the animated Gif. Very usefull to see what did Era more in details.

Hmmm from what I can see, StiX unifies the two *Fills* and *Hits* tabs into a simple easy to use XoX editor.

Differences (as far as I can see) :

Stix : Each *drumstrike* of a fill can also receive its own gate, velocity setting, parameter automation etc ( not sure if was the case with Era )
Micro Position is different than Delay ( Delay is always positive I think, micro position allows you to play strikes in advance )
StiX adds another hierarchical objects level ( Each beat can receive a different number of steps, AND each step of this beat can now receive different divisions -called *fills* in Era- )
StiX has a sample accurate audio engine, and I think its important for beat making. A plug in controlling another plug in etc might add latency. Thats why I prefer to have everything under one hood.
Stix : You can define the number of beats etc and have asymetric rythms. (maybe era can do this too )

Then, yes, Era was very powerfull indeed, especially in the age it was produced.

[Lotuzia]

dbl post ....

[Lotuzia]

3rd double post really .....

[PALU]

The sequencing side of Stix sounds very interesting. Could it be the Breaktweaker done right?

I have to listen to the demos, but it's all very promising. Only the price part has me a little worried.

[Lotuzia]

The sequencing side of Stix sounds very interesting. Could it be the Breaktweaker done right?

I have to listen to the demos, but it's all very promising. Only the price part has me a little worried.

More demos to come.

As for the price, a lot of synths that gained attention lastly weren't that cheap. So maybe you'll have a good surprise

[Lotuzia]

3rd quick demo. A bit different. All Drumpads use the analog engines.

StiX Balinese