StiX : MultiSynthesis Drum Machine (v1.6 Released + Flash sales)

[lalo]

Yes, only Eazy Edit page (Macro knobs, velocity macros, polystep assigns etc) and all Advanced Edit page parameters are chanellized (ie per drumsound)

All other parameters are global (effects, mixer, play/stop etc )

I think a tabbed will do better, -due to the number of parameters- but anyway it's interesting. Hope you'll consider sharing it with other users if you achieve this

When i'll have ready i'll do it for sure!
Another question, i can't finde a way to modulate Sample start via Velocity. This is very important to "soften" a little bit soft hits. And even a "Phase" parameter for the oscillators could be really useful for sound design.

No there's no way to modulate sample start by velocity (nor other parameter). If you want to soften the attack, I'd suggest just using the EVs attack segment parameter, it's calibrated so that you can very precisely shape the attack of the sound, and easily get rid of a clic in the beginning of a sample for example, while preserving it's 'punch'. Then modulate this segment by velo in the matrix. If you want to just soften only the 3rd oscillator as 'sample', you can use one of the macro mods, and control it's volume with one of the 3 EVs generators OR one LFO ( in the next version, LFOs we be present in all Matrixes ) LFO can be interesting to control the volume of oscillators, because not only do they offer a lot of different shapes, but they also have that Delay parameter that can make wonders for double attacks, slightly delayed attack etc.

Then, in the next version, you'll see that we have added a Duo of new features that will add a LOT to StiX.( and in certain cases, can be related to 'how to soften attacks' )

Thanks Laurent!
BTW a slow attack is not the same thing as a phase offset.
Phase/Sample start offset is particularly useful in snares fills, is a "traditional" sampling technique. I suggest you to investigate if its not so difficult to implement in StiX .
Maybe adding a "delay" parameter to the ADSR attack segment could be another way.

Could you pleas send me a txt file with the full association between ControlMIDI file and StiX parameters?
Something like..
PARAM0#-1# ADSR Attack
PARAM1#-1# Filter Frequency
PARAM2#-1# OSC 1 Frequency
PARAM3#-1# Filter Cutoff

I only need the first 109 because they repeat for every slot i guess.
Many thanks!

a.

[mikebenson]

Yes, only Eazy Edit page (Macro knobs, velocity macros, polystep assigns etc) and all Advanced Edit page parameters are chanellized (ie per drumsound)

All other parameters are global (effects, mixer, play/stop etc )

I think a tabbed will do better, -due to the number of parameters- but anyway it's interesting. Hope you'll consider sharing it with other users if you achieve this

When i'll have ready i'll do it for sure!
Another question, i can't finde a way to modulate Sample start via Velocity. This is very important to "soften" a little bit soft hits. And even a "Phase" parameter for the oscillators could be really useful for sound design.

No there's no way to modulate sample start by velocity (nor other parameter). If you want to soften the attack, I'd suggest just using the EVs attack segment parameter, it's calibrated so that you can very precisely shape the attack of the sound, and easily get rid of a clic in the beginning of a sample for example, while preserving it's 'punch'. Then modulate this segment by velo in the matrix. If you want to just soften only the 3rd oscillator as 'sample', you can use one of the macro mods, and control it's volume with one of the 3 EVs generators OR one LFO ( in the next version, LFOs we be present in all Matrixes ) LFO can be interesting to control the volume of oscillators, because not only do they offer a lot of different shapes, but they also have that Delay parameter that can make wonders for double attacks, slightly delayed attack etc.

Then, in the next version, you'll see that we have added a Duo of new features that will add a LOT to StiX.( and in certain cases, can be related to 'how to soften attacks' )

Thanks Laurent!
BTW a slow attack is not the same thing as a phase offset.
Phase/Sample start offset is particularly useful in snares fills, is a "traditional" sampling technique. I suggest you to investigate if its not so difficult to implement in StiX .
Maybe adding a "delay" parameter to the ADSR attack segment could be another way.

Could you pleas send me a txt file with the full association between ControlMIDI file and StiX parameters?
Something like..
PARAM0#-1# ADSR Attack
PARAM1#-1# Filter Frequency
PARAM2#-1# OSC 1 Frequency
PARAM3#-1# Filter Cutoff

I only need the first 109 because they repeat for every slot i guess.
Many thanks!

a.

Modulating the sample start, and other parameters, based on velocity was one of the main reasons I bought brunsandspork Grooove. See the Velocity Conditions section of the grooove manual.

BTW... Thanks for giving us MIDI out so quickly. Much appreciated.

[Lotuzia]

Yes, only Eazy Edit page (Macro knobs, velocity macros, polystep assigns etc) and all Advanced Edit page parameters are chanellized (ie per drumsound)

All other parameters are global (effects, mixer, play/stop etc )

I think a tabbed will do better, -due to the number of parameters- but anyway it's interesting. Hope you'll consider sharing it with other users if you achieve this

When i'll have ready i'll do it for sure!
Another question, i can't finde a way to modulate Sample start via Velocity. This is very important to "soften" a little bit soft hits. And even a "Phase" parameter for the oscillators could be really useful for sound design.

No there's no way to modulate sample start by velocity (nor other parameter). If you want to soften the attack, I'd suggest just using the EVs attack segment parameter, it's calibrated so that you can very precisely shape the attack of the sound, and easily get rid of a clic in the beginning of a sample for example, while preserving it's 'punch'. Then modulate this segment by velo in the matrix. If you want to just soften only the 3rd oscillator as 'sample', you can use one of the macro mods, and control it's volume with one of the 3 EVs generators OR one LFO ( in the next version, LFOs we be present in all Matrixes ) LFO can be interesting to control the volume of oscillators, because not only do they offer a lot of different shapes, but they also have that Delay parameter that can make wonders for double attacks, slightly delayed attack etc.

Then, in the next version, you'll see that we have added a Duo of new features that will add a LOT to StiX.( and in certain cases, can be related to 'how to soften attacks' )

Thanks Laurent!
BTW a slow attack is not the same thing as a phase offset.
Phase/Sample start offset is particularly useful in snares fills, is a "traditional" sampling technique. I suggest you to investigate if its not so difficult to implement in StiX .
Maybe adding a "delay" parameter to the ADSR attack segment could be another way.

Could you pleas send me a txt file with the full association between ControlMIDI file and StiX parameters?
Something like..
PARAM0#-1# ADSR Attack
PARAM1#-1# Filter Frequency
PARAM2#-1# OSC 1 Frequency
PARAM3#-1# Filter Cutoff

I only need the first 109 because they repeat for every slot i guess.
Many thanks!

a.

We'll try to provide you a list

Then, yes it not the same thing, but I was just refering to how you can soften attacks with Stix, given the various engines in it's current state. Then StiX use mainly samples as in vintage digital drum machines. It goes further because you can actually mix analog oscillators and samples, and also perform Cross Synthesis, and various things like that. But it's not a specialised Samples based drum machine ( there are already a lot of these Like Mike pointed out in his post above) Maybe some day there will be a StiX Digital Editon, with WT oscillators, granulations on board, more sampling functions etc. How about that ? In this case I'll promise you'll be able to modulate position, phase, start etc. Tempting, but we're not there.

Then, you'll see that the next set of StiX feature will surprise you. Never seen feature I think, and that will add a lot to *an anlog + multisynthesis drum machine*

[Lotuzia]

Finally time for some fresh news :



1/ Wave Alchemy Demo Kit Syncussion Minimal
Dry/Stereo out/No comps/eq etc. Just a few patterns organised in song mode.

Phat

And now the Vermona DRM MK II.

2/ StiX Wave Alchemy Demo Kit Vermona DRM MK II

3/ Time for .... the MFB Schlagzwerk
StiX Wave Alchemy MFB Schlagzwerk

[stardustmedia]

v0.9.8h doesn't allow to load any preset. It ends in a very loud noise as soon as I hit play. When I hit stop, the noise ends after 2-3 seconds, it decays !?! I can load presets when Logic is not playing, but as soon as I hit again play the noise burst comes.

Creating sounds from scratch, from the default init preset is possible.

Logic 10.2.1
Mavericks 10.9.5

[Lotuzia]

v0.9.8h doesn't allow to load any preset. It ends in a very loud noise as soon as I hit play. When I hit stop, the noise ends after 2-3 seconds, it decays !?! I can load presets when Logic is not playing, but as soon as I hit again play the noise burst comes.

Creating sounds from scratch, from the default init preset is possible.

Logic 10.2.1
Mavericks 10.9.5

Thanks for the report, Stardust.

V0.98J has just been released. Maybe you should try this one (or revert to the previous version version working for you). You might see some important changes in this one too.

[lalo]

We'll try to provide you a list

thanks a lot!

Then, yes it not the same thing, but I was just refering to how you can soften attacks with Stix, given the various engines in it's current state. Then StiX use mainly samples as in vintage digital drum machines. It goes further because you can actually mix analog oscillators and samples, and also perform Cross Synthesis, and various things like that. But it's not a specialised Samples based drum machine ( there are already a lot of these Like Mike pointed out in his post above) Maybe some day there will be a StiX Digital Editon, with WT oscillators, granulations on board, more sampling functions etc. How about that ? In this case I'll promise you'll be able to modulate position, phase, start etc. Tempting, but we're not there.

Then, you'll see that the next set of StiX feature will surprise you. Never seen feature I think, and that will add a lot to *an anlog + multisynthesis drum machine*

gotcha
thanks

[liqih]

Hi Lotuzia,

I was very excited to try a new old school VA drum machine,
I have been making afro beats on a real TR-808 in the eighties,
but my heaven machine for music production is still on Windows XP, with lots of DAWs and audio tools.
StiX installed fine on that but the GUI crashes as soon as I try to open it, so I assume it's not XP compatible right?

[edit] later I was able to open it in the old Chainer host, it plays!
but many buttons of the toolbar still crashes the GUI

Hi Liqih,
Normally it is compatible with XP systems.(At least whe have some XP systems where it runs fine) It might be worth reinstalling StiX with different settings (Like : Did you install the 64b versions, or not, then try different hosts)

Hello,

thanks for confirming the XP support, also in the manual I found
"To install the StiX by Xils on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, launch the StiX by Xils installer file Please download the latest version from the XILS-lab website."

Good for the few of us who still run audio production on old but very optimized XP machines,
taking advantage of a plethora of legacy software along with the new ones, for instance
Ableton Live 9 runs very well on my dedicated PC.

Now I realized that some of the crashes I had with StiX 0.98H are related
to the 32000 SampleRate support, while I use 44100 and 48000 mostly,
often I switch 32000 for two possible reasons: to reduce CPU usage
in multitrack composing or to change the sound of a synth
(some synths do sound different or even better at 32000 if they don't handle
properly the 16000..20000 Hz range, not the case of StiX)
StiX does work at 32000 SampleRate too, but it's not stable, especially changing presets it can crash,
and in some hosts previously set at 32000 StiX doesn't open the GUI.
But at 44100 works mostly fine on my PC, just the CPU load it quite high.
Maybe a "draft" mode would be useful, if there are internal oversampling or interpolations
that could be temporarily disabled and turned on when higher quality is needed.
Of course that world be mostly welcome in multitrack composing when the DAW
is loaded with many other synths.

Other two things to report so far:
1) the Swing knob doesn't seem to change the shuffle of the beat (maybe not implemented yet?)
2) with the management of presets I have some problems: we have an "Export Preset"
but not an "Import Preset", there is instead "Export Bank" and "Import Bank".
So using "Import Bank" with a file saved via "Export Preset" does load the preset
but often duplicates the name of the preset in the listing by Author, that also seems to confuse
StiX, since clicking on one of those duplicated names in the menu makes it loads a different preset,
with another name, usually the one on the top of those. I think duplicated presets really shouldn't
be allowed anywhere.

So far I already produces several pads and patterns and enjoyed the modulation options.

Thanks.

[stardustmedia]

v0.9.8h doesn't allow to load any preset. It ends in a very loud noise as soon as I hit play. When I hit stop, the noise ends after 2-3 seconds, it decays !?! I can load presets when Logic is not playing, but as soon as I hit again play the noise burst comes.

Creating sounds from scratch, from the default init preset is possible.

Logic 10.2.1
Mavericks 10.9.5

Thanks for the report, Stardust.

V0.98J has just been released. Maybe you should try this one (or revert to the previous version version working for you). You might see some important changes in this one too.

I can confirm that the noise is gone when switching thru the presets, or loading them from the init state. Though the first time I tested that after installing 0.9.8j I first had the sound only on the left side.

Unloaded and reloaded the plugin again, then the presets worked fine. I couldn't yet reproduce the left sound issue. Maybe just a momentary "glitch". Will keep you informed if I can reproduce that.

[Lotuzia]

We'll try to provide you a list

thanks a lot!

Just install the v0.98J, and edit the midiconfig file in the notepad or an hexa editor ( found in StiX install directory). It might be what you asked

[Lotuzia]

Hi Lotuzia,

I was very excited to try a new old school VA drum machine,
I have been making afro beats on a real TR-808 in the eighties,
but my heaven machine for music production is still on Windows XP, with lots of DAWs and audio tools.
StiX installed fine on that but the GUI crashes as soon as I try to open it, so I assume it's not XP compatible right?

[edit] later I was able to open it in the old Chainer host, it plays!
but many buttons of the toolbar still crashes the GUI

Hi Liqih,
Normally it is compatible with XP systems.(At least whe have some XP systems where it runs fine) It might be worth reinstalling StiX with different settings (Like : Did you install the 64b versions, or not, then try different hosts)

Hello,

thanks for confirming the XP support, also in the manual I found
"To install the StiX by Xils on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, launch the StiX by Xils installer file Please download the latest version from the XILS-lab website."

Good for the few of us who still run audio production on old but very optimized XP machines,
taking advantage of a plethora of legacy software along with the new ones, for instance
Ableton Live 9 runs very well on my dedicated PC.

Now I realized that some of the crashes I had with StiX 0.98H are related
to the 32000 SampleRate support, while I use 44100 and 48000 mostly,
often I switch 32000 for two possible reasons: to reduce CPU usage
in multitrack composing or to change the sound of a synth
(some synths do sound different or even better at 32000 if they don't handle
properly the 16000..20000 Hz range, not the case of StiX)
StiX does work at 32000 SampleRate too, but it's not stable, especially changing presets it can crash,
and in some hosts previously set at 32000 StiX doesn't open the GUI.
But at 44100 works mostly fine on my PC, just the CPU load it quite high.
Maybe a "draft" mode would be useful, if there are internal oversampling or interpolations
that could be temporarily disabled and turned on when higher quality is needed.
Of course that world be mostly welcome in multitrack composing when the DAW
is loaded with many other synths.

Other two things to report so far:
1) the Swing knob doesn't seem to change the shuffle of the beat (maybe not implemented yet?)
2) with the management of presets I have some problems: we have an "Export Preset"
but not an "Import Preset", there is instead "Export Bank" and "Import Bank".
So using "Import Bank" with a file saved via "Export Preset" does load the preset
but often duplicates the name of the preset in the listing by Author, that also seems to confuse
StiX, since clicking on one of those duplicated names in the menu makes it loads a different preset,
with another name, usually the one on the top of those. I think duplicated presets really shouldn't
be allowed anywhere.

So far I already produces several pads and patterns and enjoyed the modulation options.

Thanks.

32khz : We'll have a look at that. Working at 32khz is rather unusual, but it's possible, so we'll see.
Draft mode : Xils musical instruments always run at full quality with zero compromise. If you then compare the cpu hit with other instruments in their *best modes*, whetever the name they give to it, you might agree that the cpu charge is an advantage, and shows a good optimisation work. Now, with Stix you can run up to ten full featured synthesizers simultaneously, so yes the CPU charge can be a bit heavy for old computers. This said, my own test computer is now 5 y.o, and StiX isn't a problem for it. So it should not be a problem at all for any machines with modern cpu.
Swing / maybe a regressive bug, we'll take a look at that. It worked ok in previous versions. (Edit / confirmed / It will be back in the next version )
Presets : In Stix you have global presets, drumkit presets, drumpad presets, sample presets, sequence presets, song presets. It's a very complex system, a bit like russian puppets. So I would need more precisions about the kind of presets you mention. But you're right, if duplicates are found, the should load the right data ( unless you saved 'something different' under an 'already existing name' wich is a possibility. If you can give us a precise order fo actions, so that we can replicate the possible bug, it would really help.

And finally, glad you enjoy StiX ( Btw : dont forget to participate in the contest -the end date will be delayed as announced in the next newsletter- if you make kits, dumpads, patterns etc. You only risk to win StiX as the 1rst prize )

[stardustmedia]

I hate it when I don't have enough time to participate such contests by diving into the synth depths, which is a lot of fun to me.

[Lotuzia]

The R-Clap envelopes :

With V0.98J, you'll be able to switch between the traditional ADSR analog envelopes, and the R-Clap envelopes.

Since the very beginning of StiX development, we hesitated to have different kind of additional envelopes. The choice included simple ADR EVs, Trapezoidal EVs ( like on the EMS systems, also present in XIls 3/4), etc. We finally decided to develop another StiX exclusive feature : The R-Clap envelopes, because they are especially well suited for percussive sounds, drums rudiments, and articulations.

They are inspired by the iconic Clap sound of a legendary Drum Machine, but we took them to the next level, to make them much more versatile than just 'produce this or that Clap sound'. So, with these envelopes, you'll be able to make Ruffs, Rolls, fills, breaks, micro rythm, double/triple stokes and a lot of other sound effects.

Every R-Clap EV parameter can be controlled via the Sequencer per step modulations, the polystep, the macro knobs, or just simply via midi Ccs. (Btw R- stands for Repeats, and Rythm)

Here's a short YT video showcasing some sounds made with the R-Clap envelopes, and explaining their structure.



LtZ

[CinningBao]

Yyyyeeeeeeesssssss. THIS is what I've been waiting for

I've had some wonderful adventures trying to get something similar with the normal modulations, so I thank you for this!
Thanks on behalf of the silent users as well

[stardustmedia]

sh1t, overwhelming stuff