Syntronik [update March 2018: New T-03 Bonus Content & 4-for-1 bass synth promo] available

[IncarnateX]

In my 30+ years as a synth nerd, a rompler has been a dynamic term covering everything from a rom/sample-player like Roland SC55 with fixed waveforms and very few controls to a full blown rom based synth engine on par with even modular synths, e.g. semi modular EMU Modules like Mophatt. Thus, the term is as good as useless to signify anything in particular. A distinction between a "Sample-player" and a "ROM based synth" would intuitively make more sense to me though the border between them would still be vague.

[ghettosynth]

In my 30+ years as a synth nerd, a rompler has been a dynamic term covering everything from a rom/sample-player like Roland SC55 with fixed waveforms and very few controls to a full blown rom based synth engine on par with even modular synths, e.g. semi modular EMU Modules like Mophatt. Thus, the term is s good as useless to signify anything in particular. A distinction between a "Sample-player" and a "ROM based synth" would intuitively make more sense to me though the border between
them would still be vague.

You know what it means and so does everyone else. It's a broad category of instruments, all of which, have fixed sample based playback as their primary means of sound generation.

That's EXACTLY what all of those things have in common. So there you go, you've explained how the term rompler makes sense for a wide variety of capabilities in an instrument.

[ghettosynth]

This is a very limited product from a synthesis point of view.

... because it's not a synth. It is what it is: a sample library taken from vintage synths in a framework that allows filtering, envelope and some other parameters, effetcs and layering.

Yes, that's exactly what a rompler is. Sorry, trying to mince words here is just silly. Why are people so offended by the phrase rompler? It means exactly that in terms of a virtual instrument.

It seems that a lot of you don't get that other people aren't going to stop using what is a useful phrase just because some people are offended by it. Rompler is descriptive.

That's what it is. "ROMpler" isn't accurate, nor is "synth". It's much like UVI's products for example.

UVI synths are romplers as well. No, the samples aren't loaded from ROM, but that's just more pedantry, they're fixed, like a ROM. From a functional point of view, that's what matters. Like a hardware rompler, you cannot change the samples, and like a hardware rompler, the fact that you are using samples and specifically not single cycle samples as a wavetable, severely limits synthesis.

They key is going to be in the quality of the sampling and the over-all usability which are unknown by most until it's released in 7 hours. Then you can go nuts tearing it apart.

My critique is based on what we've seen and heard so far. No matter how good the samples are, it will still be a rompler and all of the limitations that I've discussed will still hold.

You can call it whatever you like, I'm going to continue to call it what it is, a rompler.

[Teksonik]

thinking that what Syntronic offers comes remotely close to what we're talking about just conveys misunderstanding of what it actually offers and what it means to emulate existing analog instruments.

I don't care what you're talking about. The only misunderstanding comes from those who fail to recognize the potential for such an instrument.

This is a very limited product from a synthesis point of view.

Then your synthesis capability is also limited.

Anyway I plan on having a ton of fun with Syntronik. But then I can spot potential. It will fill a prefect niche among the dozens of other synth plugins I own. Of course it's too early to tell for sure how the final satisfaction will be....depends a lot on sample quality / selection etc.

syn·the·siz·er
ˈsinTHəˌsīzər/
noun
noun: synthesizer; plural noun: synthesizers; noun: synthesiser; plural noun: synthesisers

an electronic musical instrument, typically operated by a keyboard, producing a wide variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies.


Synthonik is a sample based Synth, End...of...Story. But call it what you will.......I'll call it fun.

[IncarnateX]

All this talk about romplers being limited is of course relative to what they are compared with. If you make a "Soundcanvas 55" version of a range of classical analogs synths your bias will be exactly these, e.g. filter will not behave the same way processing samples, PWM will be non existing, artifacts from stretching samples will be audible unless they are multisampled etc.

Romplers have been put forward as emulators from the outset and this has given them a bad reputation, because they are indeed limited as such, whether we are speaking of emulating analog synth sounds or acoustic instruments. However as instruments on their own terms (and here I think about full blown rompler synths, not simple players), their sonic scope goes way beyond what is possible with their analog and FM predesessors. Lacking PWM is a pretty fair trade off if you gain 1000+ waveforms in return instead of 3. It is just that people lack some imagination here, e.g. how often have we heard tunes with "bowed pianos" or "hammered strings" though such futuristic twistings are possible with rom based synths?

But suit yourself, I say. Such reputations have made wonder machines like MC909 and Fantom G6 available within my budget, so you will not hear many complaints from me

[Elektronisch]

Peter, can you answer the question regarding automation? is is it handled same way as in Sampletank 3?

Also will there be a demo of this instrument?

[ghettosynth]

All this talk about romplers being limited is of course relative to what they are compared with.

Yes, go back and read the thread dude. I use lots of romplers, they're great for many kinds of instruments, however, modeled analogs are not one of those areas that I find they have much value. Moreover, this is a particularly limited rompler as has been discussed.

This a rehash of the conversation from pages back. Calling it a rompler isn't a pejorative, it's just a statement of fact that conveys the limitations of this instrument.

I really don't know why people are trying to deny the nature of this thing. It is what it is.

Here you go, the Wikipedia definition. I do find it a bit funny that an IK product is used as an example of a virtual instrument rompler.

A rompler is an electronic music instrument that plays pre fabricated sounds based on audio samples. In contrast to samplers, romplers do not record audio and have limited or no capability for generating original sounds. The term rompler is a portmanteau of the terms ROM and sampler. Both may have additional sound editing features, such as layering several waveforms and modulation with ADSR envelopes and LFOs.

The term rompler most often describes sample based software instruments such as VSTis. These do not have the ability to record new samples; instead, samples are replayed from computer RAM after they are loaded from disk. Popular[1] examples of software romplers are reFX Nexus and IK Multimedia Sampletank. In this context, a software instrument can only be considered a rompler if it restricts the user to certain bundled sounds, without allowing them to load their own samples.

Hardware synthesizers that use a sampled waveform are not regarded as Romplers and are known as PCM-based synthesizers because the sampled waveform is not such that would be used or captured with a sampler, a PCM waveform is usually only made of a single full cycle of the wave and would therefore be a fraction of a second in length where as a sampler or rompler would usually play samples of a much larger size of at least several cycles long such as a recorded drum hit or piano note.

[IncarnateX]

With the rompler concept explicitely stated, just with a few more controls than usual, I cannot see that that Syntronic promises more than what is already given with e.g. the Samplemoog and thus the general restrictions applying to this concept. I take that people are wise enough to know what that means if they are going for it. No surprises here I would say. Most importantly is what you want to do with it. If you know its limits, the rest is up to the user. I have no doubt that the skilled can get something nice from it, despite its obvious limitations.

[Elektronisch]

What I read from Peter on this thread about what it can do has largely been vague and trying to stay out of the weeds in the discussion.

After so many pages at first and from responses from Peter and his team (via Peter) it always has been so vague what this instrument can do. Its because how pieces of information has been portraied by various words "oscillators, modeled, HYBRID SYNTHESIZER" and with all the hocus pocus phrases to make it cool.

Jordan Rudess videos shown very well what is this instrument is, i like it, but i am so dissapointed that the developers and the spokesman for the company werent like very direct in explaining what this product is.

"Its a 4 layer sample based rompler (or rom synthesizer) with modeled filters and ability to Drift". Thats so simple and direct!

And now a quote from website about Syntronik

Syntronik is a cutting-edge virtual synthesizer that raises the bar in sound quality and flexibility thanks to the most advanced sampling techniques combined with a new hybrid sample and modeling synthesis engine. Syntronik includes 17 amazing instruments

And here is what you get from IKM

Since there seems to be a lot of oversimplification(as well as overcomplication)/assumption here, I hope this clears it up (in addition to the web site and my multiple descriptions of exactly what Syntronik is and is not):

We provide 4 LAYERS in Syntronik. This is where the user can combine the instruments (single presets) from any of our 17 synths. So if you want to do custom sound design with more control than you have within a single “instrument," you can think of Syntronik as a 4-oscillator synth with each LAYER as a single oscillator.

The added power here is that each LAYER (each “oscillator” in this example) has the ability to contain more than one oscillator of samples. For example, a single LAYER can contain an instrument that has a single sawtooth wave in Osc 1 and a second sawtooth wave in Osc 2 that you can detune. Or maybe Osc 1 has samples of 2 detuned oscillators, and Osc 2 has samples of a single square wave with a suboscillator to create a 4-oscillator sound out of just one “instrument” (just one LAYER). And for those that want total control, you can easily choose an instrument that has just a single oscillator sample in Osc 1, program that the way you want it, then use LAYER 2 for a second oscillator, LAYER 3 for a third oscillator, etc. This is no different than “Elements” in a Yamaha Motif or other rompler. And in fact, this structure goes all the way back to the famous Yamaha CS-80 which has just one oscillator going through the filters with dedicated envelopes. This was a deviation from the traditional idea of multiple oscillators through a single filter like the Minimoog, Oberheims, etc. did. But there is an analog synth precedent for it with the CS-80.
1. You would select the instrument you want to use (thus the oscillator(s)) and then go from there. For other instruments' oscillators you'd use another instrument on another layer.
2. Yes you can choose filters that are not normally associated with the synth you're working with in Syntronik
3. There is no master bus processing inside Syntronik. Think of it as 4 complete synths with their own effects.

Or this, where from the context Peter gives a hint its kind of emulation of Andromeda?

Mostly interested in A6 emu...cant wait to hear how it sounds. If it can do those wonderful moving pads A6 is famous for, than I am sold.

I think you will be dissapointed, its not really an emu. It appears that tweakability is quite limited.

I think he/she might be surprised, as the hybrid of seriously deep samples and the analog-modeled filters, DRIFT technology, and more will provide a great sound and experience.

I may not be very accurate saying marketing being bad, but scrolling thro pages IKM and Peter makes Syntronik sound so confusing for what it is. This is so wrong to do so IMO

Luckily in the end we all know what it is still -10 to the company for poor i dont know how to call marketing, explainining or whateva, for just confusing people

[spacekid]

It's up. It looks like you can buy what you like..like amplitude, and others. There is a 'free version' in your downloads

[spacekid]

^ oh and sampletank has been updated.

[db3]

I made a leap of faith yesterday without being 100% convinced...with the view I could always sell. Typically there's now a demo (free version), while the pre-order offer is still on.

[DarkStar]

From the User Guide (in your User Area / My Products / Syntronik Free):

The oscillator is the sound generating device in an analog synthesizer. Syntronik recreates analog and classic digital synth oscillators using samples of the actual hardware instruments. Multiple samples are taken across the keyboard as well as at different velocities when appropriate. In addition to that, Syntronik uses “round robin” samples which are multiple takes of the same note at the same velocity to provide additional animation, variation and liveliness and to avoid the digital repetition that can so often plague sampled sound sources. The sound of each oscillator is determined by the saved Instrument and cannot be edited within the Instrument.

(My underlining.)

And, automation is similar to that in ST3 - using MIDI CC messages (on any MIDI channel). They are stored with the Layer, not the Instrument.

[DarkStar]

One thing I am not clear about is the Disk Path for the Syntronik libraries - is it just a 'Syntronik' folder within the '.../IK Multimedia/SampleTank 3' folder? What threw me is the statement that 'This (a Rescan) may take several minutes if you have additional SampleTank 3 content and Instrument Collections installed.' Why would that slow things down?

[Elektronisch]

I made a leap of faith yesterday without being 100% convinced...with the view I could always sell. Typically there's now a demo (free version), while the pre-order offer is still on.

99 eu is attractive price and i thought maybe i should, but after demoing (still demoing tho) im happy i did not. Thank you IKM for providing the demo. Here are my thoughts, starting with positives.

- Great sound
- Simple and yet easy to use
- Browser is nice
- Effect section is really cool
- Resizable GUI
- Turn off and on OSC 2
- Its basicly Sampletank 3 in different coating

Now cons...

- Parameteres are not automatable in FL Studio
- DRIFT seem to dont really apply when you play only 1 osc, try playing TB303 patches, sound feels tacky and sterile. Only when OSC 2 is turned on you can hear the changes (tho its funny TB303 is a 1 osc synth).
- In the upper part where the preset is displayed, pressing X on it instantly suggest to delete the instrument. Its abi unexpected because in most scenarios it just empties the preset.
- Filter envelopes works kind of strange, id say backwards. lets say if i want to make a plucky sound i have to turn around 50 - 75 percent of velocity, put the depth amount up to - 9. Its so unusual, and the attack UP to 40 percent, yes to make a pluck sound you have to actually put the Filter envelope attack up wich is kind of not making sense.
EDIT: ok it seems filter envelope handling is straight from sampletank, because you have to look at numbers not the visual sliders, the envelopes can go as far as 60 seconds
- Some patches do not let you to play lower octaves (ex OXA PWM FAST, Sync Sweep Light)
- Its basicly Sampletank 3 in different coating (wich also can be a positive)

Overal i think its a cool product, but definatly a bit dissapointing, as i was expecting a little bit more out of it. But most i am dissapointed in the filter envelope behaviour wich feels broken as none of the envelopes i have used doesnt work the way it does in Syntronik. EDIT: once i got to understand that the envelopes are working in same way as sampletank, its alright, but definatly there is no need to have envelopes that can go as long as 1 minute