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

[mikebenson]

I'm having problems getting it to sound really big. Maybe I just need more time programming it...

Unless I'm doing something wrong it's not quite as beefy as I thought it would be. I hope I'm wrong.

What is holding it back from being beefier?

[Robmobius]

I'm having problems getting it to sound really big. Maybe I just need more time programming it...

Unless I'm doing something wrong it's not quite as beefy as I thought it would be. I hope I'm wrong.

What is holding it back from being beefier?

I'm not quite sure... I like the sounds it can make. And I also like the internal sequencer. I just seem to be able to get beefier sounds out of Heartbeat. But Heartbeat lacks a sequencer (and quite a bit else that Stix has).

[Lotuzia]

Are there powerful analog sounds on their own, or do you need samples?

Nooo... not all. They sound a little synthesized. Better you have at least 10000 Vengeance kick samples ready for layering

Sorry, couldn't resist. The sound engine is great. But that's always a matter of taste. Demo it, then live it or hate it.

I ended up buying it because after messing with the sound engine I was pretty impressed. I would prefer a sound engine that is more tailored to drum sounds but the one in StiX is pretty capable. the thing that sold me was to call up a good pattern and kit that didn't use samples at all and then use the SMART button to randomize the sounds. hitting SMART a number of times to listen to the different sounds created gave me a good sense of the sonic capability of StiX which is inline with what I like so I bought it. I hope the usability and workflow issues get sorted out however but I can live with that part of it as long as I am relaxed.

Yes it's very easy to generate totally new drumkits on the fly with the AI Smart Random randomizer. ( however each of the 60 drumkits is made made with different/unique drumpads, wich means that you wont find the same drumpads in other drumkits)

Smart random : What it actually does is that it tries to replace each drumsound with one of the drumsounds already saved as presets and that belong to the same category. And yes it's a good way to see quickly what StiX can offer.

Atm there are around 670 Drumpad presets in StiX, all properly taggued.

[Lotuzia]

Thanks for the update to 0.9.9a

Buuuut... I must say again that loading presets ends in heavy distortion. Tweaking sounds and the sequencer manually works.

Mavericks 10.9.5
Logic 10.2.2
Stix 0.9.9a

Since I'm right now installing El Capitan at home I can give it a try there too.

Yes, sometimes it clips. I think it's probably due to the 12db BP filter instanciation when changing presets, cos it seems to affect only presets that have at least one drumpad with this filter type. This might be because we wanted to make presets load instantaneously, and we might have been too far in that direction. This will be fixed anyway, meanwhile, putting a limiter on your main stereo output bus is a good idea. After such presets are loaded though, StiX behaves in a normal way.

It looks like it doesn't happen under El Capitan 10.11.3 and Logic 10.2.2
Loaded the plugin, opened the same presets, and they sound fine.

Looks like a Mavericks issue

Thanks for the report. Actually we found, and fixed, something regarding this ( will be there in the next RC version )

[Lotuzia]

I'm having problems getting it to sound really big. Maybe I just need more time programming it...

Unless I'm doing something wrong it's not quite as beefy as I thought it would be. I hope I'm wrong.

What is holding it back from being beefier?

I'm not quite sure... I like the sounds it can make. And I also like the internal sequencer. I just seem to be able to get beefier sounds out of Heartbeat. But Heartbeat lacks a sequencer (and quite a bit else that Stix has).

Heartbeat has the dyna-mite compressor. And different effects too. It doesn't have a sequencer, as you noticed, and is certainly much more less versatile than StiX, but it definitely has it's own sound. I can see both units complimenting each other very nicely.

So that .... I suggest using StiX separate outputs versions, and add a compressor (or dyna-mite itself for those who have it) to process the dynamics, once you have defined the patterns and the base drum sounds, and also possibly add different reverbs to see it it works better this way for you. Drum sounds, as they contain a lot of inharmonic freqs. are especially sensitive to the different reverbs characters you can wet them with. We could refer to the iconic gated reverb snares in the 80s to illustrate that, but it goes beyond that imho. Choosing the good verb is especially important for drums. StiX reverb is somewhat 'natural' sounding, and I fully enjoy it for room ambiances and medium spaces. For large spaces, it has it's own color, but different reverbs will have other colours, not mentioning special units like plates, etc etc. But yeah, to come back to the subject, I think you miss the compressors. We talked about adding some, and atm are torn between different options : Stereo comp on the master bus ? Or Individual compressors for each channel ....

[jsp1979]

The top of the email said Wavesfactory had supplied samples. Oops..

StiX by Xils Release Candidate with Wavefactory Kits ....

[Robmobius]

Heartbeat has the dyna-mite compressor. And different effects too. It doesn't have a sequencer, as you noticed, and is certainly much more less versatile than StiX, but it definitely has it's own sound. I can see both units complimenting each other very nicely.

So that .... I suggest using StiX separate outputs versions, and add a compressor (or dyna-mite itself for those who have it) to process the dynamics, once you have defined the patterns and the base drum sounds, and also possibly add different reverbs to see it it works better this way for you. Drum sounds, as they contain a lot of inharmonic freqs. are especially sensitive to the different reverbs characters you can wet them with. We could refer to the iconic gated reverb snares in the 80s to illustrate that, but it goes beyond that imho. Choosing the good verb is especially important for drums. StiX reverb is somewhat 'natural' sounding, and I fully enjoy it for room ambiances and medium spaces. For large spaces, it has it's own color, but different reverbs will have other colours, not mentioning special units like plates, etc etc. But yeah, to come back to the subject, I think you miss the compressors. We talked about adding some, and atm are torn between different options : Stereo comp on the master bus ? Or Individual compressors for each channel ....

That's true... HB has lots of really good effects that will make it sound big inside the vst. To me Stix is similar to HB in the approach to synthesis and streamlined usage - except Stix can do A LOT more, in terms of sound design and I love its sequencer.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I only tried the demo a few days ago, but I didn't actually know it had a multi-out feature. I always read a manual weeks later (my bad). You're right about going the multi-out approach, then I can apply my usual stuff (compression, saturation, and more saturation, etc).

SOLD!

It would be rude not to buy it anyway as I have everything from Xils.

[Lotuzia]

Lotuzia...

Could you add a MIDI offset to each line of the sequencer? My claps using R-Clap envelopes are a little late, and I'd like to rein them in.

BTW... StiX is the best drum plugin I have ever used. I'm comparing to Maschine 2, BreakTweaker, Battery 4, Drumazon, and so many others.

Thanks

Claps : If the claps are late, you should use the MICRO POSITION parameter in the sequencer line. (Single line or 'advanced' view) With this parameter you can position the claps, or any other drum sound, exactly where you want. I really need to do a tutorial about this feature, because after,people will probably be sorry to use a drum machine sequencer that doesnt have it.

[Lotuzia]

Heartbeat has the dyna-mite compressor. And different effects too. It doesn't have a sequencer, as you noticed, and is certainly much more less versatile than StiX, but it definitely has it's own sound. I can see both units complimenting each other very nicely.

So that .... I suggest using StiX separate outputs versions, and add a compressor (or dyna-mite itself for those who have it) to process the dynamics, once you have defined the patterns and the base drum sounds, and also possibly add different reverbs to see it it works better this way for you. Drum sounds, as they contain a lot of inharmonic freqs. are especially sensitive to the different reverbs characters you can wet them with. We could refer to the iconic gated reverb snares in the 80s to illustrate that, but it goes beyond that imho. Choosing the good verb is especially important for drums. StiX reverb is somewhat 'natural' sounding, and I fully enjoy it for room ambiances and medium spaces. For large spaces, it has it's own color, but different reverbs will have other colours, not mentioning special units like plates, etc etc. But yeah, to come back to the subject, I think you miss the compressors. We talked about adding some, and atm are torn between different options : Stereo comp on the master bus ? Or Individual compressors for each channel ....

That's true... HB has lots of really good effects that will make it sound big inside the vst. To me Stix is similar to HB in the approach to synthesis and streamlined usage - except Stix can do A LOT more, in terms of sound design and I love its sequencer.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I only tried the demo a few days ago, but I didn't actually know it had a multi-out feature. I always read a manual weeks later (my bad). You're right about going the multi-out approach, then I can apply my usual stuff (compression, saturation, and more saturation, etc).

SOLD!

It would be rude not to buy it anyway as I have everything from Xils.

Thanks for your kind words

Manual will be updated for v1.0. The Multi Out version wasnt there in the first beta version.

[Lotuzia]

Yes here's a video showcasing the 14 StiX Drumkits made with Wave Alchemy samples. In V0.99 RC1 we also added some all FM drumkits and a lot of new presets.

TR-909, TR-808; TR-606, KPR 77, LinnDrum, EMU SP12, System 100 Roland, MFB Schalgzwerg, Peavey Syncussion, SCI Drumtracks, TR-727, Vermona DRM MK II, JomoX Airbase, Drumfire : All in Stix now

[Lotuzia]

The top of the email said Wavesfactory had supplied samples. Oops..

StiX by Xils Release Candidate with Wavefactory Kits ....

ERRATUM : These 15 drumkits are provided by courtesy of our partner WAVE ALCHEMY of course

Sorry for the misleading subtitle in our newsletter

[Robmobius]

The top of the email said Wavesfactory had supplied samples. Oops..

StiX by Xils Release Candidate with Wavefactory Kits ....

ERRATUM : These 15 drumkits are provided by courtesy of our partner WAVE ALCHEMY of course

Sorry for the misleading subtitle in our newsletter

Sweet!! 15 drum kits by WA. It keeps getting better. Cheers man.

[SLiC]

I have just bought in- too good to resist.

Any chance of selectable midi controller prestet maps for different keyboards, drum controls- Beatstep Pro etc...

[someone called simon]

I've been interested in this, and downloaded a couple of demos, including the latest. There are a few things that have me a little confused, maybe its a bit of RTFM here.

First, I like to hear the variety of different sounds in the preset list, but I find the browser a bit baffling. I finally worked out if I set the first 2 parameters to "all", I can just arrow down through all the sounds available, but if I don't do that, by default only 3 presets show up, one called "init"

Second, I have been auditioning this with a normal keyboard, and I like to hit all the available 10 keys to find interesting sounds. I have noticed that many presets feature the same incongruous pitched sounds, often on the C# or D# key (but others too), where I'm used to finding maybe a rim shot or alternate snare on other software. I'm guessing these may be assigned to the perc 1 or 2, or misc sounds? But they sure sound like they don't belong, and the are exactly the same or nearly so in quite a lot of patches, which brings me to the 3rd point…

There doesn't seem to be an easy way to know which category of sound I'm triggering when I hit a key. The only thing that changes in the display is in the bottom right corner, which shows a graphic of which key I'm playing, which I already know, coz I played it … It would be pretty helpful if something lit up in the buttons at the top, so I know when I hit a C# it is maybe "perc 1" that's being triggered, or whatever. I had actually assumed they would be sequentially related to midi notes from C, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Even if it was, it would be really helpful to see some visual feedback on that.

But currently, as I bash out weird rythyms on my keyboard, I have to watch out for strange unrelated sounds that seem to blast out from some keys.

Ok here's a few examples… based on playing the sounds from a keyboard, starting on C
Square house II, both the Eb and A play a similar pitched sound
Technotron, the A plays a variation on it too
Tzadificator, C#, D# and A all play variations of the same pitched note. Its a C in all cases.
Am I just out of touch and this is a common note that featured in rhythym parts these days??

Oh, and also, if I arrow down through the presets, and then click on the name, there is a tick beside a different sound in the list, than one which was displayed. Eg, Tzadificator is displaying, if i click on it to show the list, drums of war is ticked.

[Lotuzia]

The top of the email said Wavesfactory had supplied samples. Oops..

StiX by Xils Release Candidate with Wavefactory Kits ....

ERRATUM : These 15 drumkits are provided by courtesy of our partner WAVE ALCHEMY of course

Sorry for the misleading subtitle in our newsletter

Sweet!! 15 drum kits by WA. It keeps getting better. Cheers man.

Yes, actually there are 14 WA Drumkits in the RC1 version. I still have to choose a last machine, and select coherent samples in it.

If some of you have some ideas, I'll see if it's on the list. (My favorite atm are the fabulous sounds they made with the Roland System 100, but I wonder if making a 2nd System 100 kit would be good, people might prefer another 'name' ...)