Sq8l by buchty

[yessongs]

I love using this old synth when I run through its presets I am reminded of a past era and if you want to use it in more modern contexts run it through diversion FX or other symth FX like those from tone 2 and I think synthmaster and z3ta also have synth FX that would add to the idea. daisy chain all of those together someone.

[codec_spurt]

I've followed the development of this synth pretty closely since its inception.

Bit slow on take up, but when people realised what they were dealing with. Deluge.


The guy that coded it - Siegfried Kullmann - has gone underground. He's the only person to do a bigger 'Greta Garbo' then Jorgen of XT fame. No one knows if he is still alive. All calls gone out to him or those that know him have been met with deaf ears from what I can tell. I have followed the story more than most, but there is only so much time a man has.

There was a theory that Siggy (was that his nick at KVR?) got the major arsehole about no one donating a penny to his project. Fair enough. That would have upset me too. I don't know if it is true. The guy might have died in a car crash for all we know.

One thing is for sure. This project is dead dead dead. And it was probably the greatest emulation project ever in the history of VST. Synth 1 by Ichiro Toda and the Clavia Nord being the other one.


I've given up trying to get information on this. I mailed Rainer Buchty but got no reply.

I am genuinely dumbfounded by this as the amount of effort and time and love these two put into the project is genuinely staggering. For them both to just abandon things like this seems dumb to an outsider. Maybe there is more that is going on. Such an amazing piece of software.

I would be happy to pay good money for a new version of this - say a 100 quid. Yup. And I'd also be happy to donate another 50 quid for my use of SQ8L over the years.

But no one knows anything. It has gone past the point of enigma now and is just bordering on f**king rudeness. No one knows if Siggy is alive or dead, and we have been asking for a number of years now. Many people are happy just to let us ponder I guess. Oh well, that's the price you pay for not donating.

I'm a massive Ensoniq fan. And even my best Ensoniq keyboard can't replicate that sound of the curtis chip kicking in. The SQ8L is a true analog/digital hybrid (unless someone would like to correct me). See my preset 'Modwheely' from the soundset I put up for it.

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/sq8l_sq ... /downloads

It's there in one of the original banks I put up. But there are many more sounds there too.

This plug uses nothing on cpu, like Synth1 and it is both fat and full and bright and bubbly at the same time. The original synth was a work of genius. To put it into a few lines of code and provide it for free - priceless.

I wish Siggy well. Or whatever his name was. He didn't post very much, so I might have got his name wrong.

Here is the main SQ8L thread - http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0

It sums up all the hopes and desires. I can't believe that anyone could ever be so passive aggressive about all this. I can only imagine that something bad has happened to Siggy. I hope that's not the case. But every few months this thread comes up. Maybe someone else could mail Rainer Buchty and they might get more luck than me.

[EvilDragon]

Last time I heard from Siegfried was in Feb 2009. Yup, that's right.

[codec_spurt]

Last time I heard from Siegfried was in Feb 2009. Yup, that's right.

I think it has been said more than once - we just want to know if Siggy is ok. He doesn't answer PMs so Rainer is our only other source and he doesn't answer mails.

I appreciate how busy either of them must be. But surely they understand the impact of this project they have started.

[Tronam]

This plugin is literally the only reason I power up my PC anymore. Perhaps I should send Siegfried some songs done entirely with instances of SQ8L to see if I can elicit a response of some kind.

[knowix]

So things don't sound at all hopeful then.

I also just read that Kickstarter software projects can only be run by the developer.

It sounds to me like some missteps were made in terms of what was available in the SQ8L and the proposed SQ8X. People aren't going to donate to a project they intend to buy anyway. And the additional features proposed for the SQ8X project were perhaps not sizeable enough to draw the enthusiasm of the casual user.

I was listening to the SQ8L one synth challenge again. Is there any OSC that sounds more genuinely retro than it?
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/osc-19-sq8l

[Tronam]

So things don't sound at all hopeful then.

I also just read that Kickstarter software projects can only be run by the developer.

It sounds to me like some missteps were made in terms of what was available in the SQ8L and the proposed SQ8X. People aren't going to donate to a project they intend to buy anyway. And the additional features proposed for the SQ8X project were perhaps not sizeable enough to draw the enthusiasm of the casual user.

I was listening to the SQ8L one synth challenge again. Is there any OSC that sounds more genuinely retro than it?
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/osc-19-sq8l

It is still the most impressively flawless retro 80s synth emulation I've ever heard (although TAL-U-NO-LX comes close). Every time I load it up it's like I've stepped into a time machine. Reproducing that kind of vibe in a digital simulation is one of the trickier things to pull off.

[knowix]

Ok. I read through the entire 71 page thread.

I kind of think that Siegfried Kullman was snowed under a bit by the more troublesome stuff associated with plugins. Having to cater for half a dozen different DAWS etc. I wonder if he felt like he was rolling that rock up a mountain and never reached any real reward other than lots of kudos.

Also the promise of there being a payware version may have made users of a free synth a little more demanding than would usually be the case.

On the bright side, Rainer Buchty is much more well versed on the subject than I expected. He has enormous knowledge of the SQ80's architecture.

It may also be the case that he effectively has an annotated source code, due to his considerable correspondences with Kullman about the synth. I also wonder how useful the original source code would be to build on, since it's written in Delphi?

So maybe the best we can do is encourage Rainer Buchty and an active plugin dev to get together to make a new synth, based on the previous work?

The two devs that immediately spring to mind are TAL, because of his past experience with emulations, turning freeware to payware, and since he probably speaks German; and Plogue, because one of the founders of Ensoniq was the designer of the SID chip.

Now whether either of those two would have any interest is another question entirely.

[codec_spurt]

Is there any OSC that sounds more genuinely retro than it?
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/osc-19-sq8l

Not sure about the OSCs but the filter is something else. It is seriously analog. It's not really possible to tell the difference between it and any analog synth on a blind test.

Ok, Ok...

For such a digital sounding synth, it is quite exceptional.

In fact, I have the pinnacle of Ensoniq technology, but no way does that sound as warm and analog as the SQ8L. It was the first in a very important line of technology. And it was the last. It has never been bettered. And it has never been better emulated than what Siggy did.
A true emulation. Even down to the bugs.

I don't think Siggy is being 'emotional'. I think he has moved on for whatever reason. I just wish him well. And if it were down to me, which it isn't, I would say 'the door is always open'.

I really wouldn't have a problem with paying a 100 bucks for SQ8X. A dream.

[olepro]

I think he is fine and alive

https://www.facebook.com/siegfried.kullmann?fref=ts

[kingtubby]

Is there any OSC that sounds more genuinely retro than it?
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/osc-19-sq8l

Not sure about the OSCs but the filter is something else. It is seriously analog. It's not really possible to tell the difference between it and any analog synth on a blind test.

I think by OSC he meant One Synth Challenge

[codec_spurt]

I think he is fine and alive

https://www.facebook.com/siegfried.kullmann?fref=ts

Thanks for the heads up.
I don't use facebook or even visit pages of people that do.

I'm glad he's ok.

Does he mention SQ8L at all?


I've kind of gone past caring. And it sounds like he feels the same too.

There is more to life than music and vsts and sq8l.


It was more common courtesy I was talking about.

I'm sure he doesn't know what a fuss he caused. He just knocked it up in an afternoon on an afterthought, without knowing who would ever find it interesting.

Something upset him. This is his way of showing it. No worries.

[knowix]

I'm sure he doesn't know what a fuss he caused. He just knocked it up in an afternoon on an afterthought, without knowing who would ever find it interesting.

Something upset him. This is his way of showing it. No worries.

It was for a big college project and he spent a lot of time trying to get it right.

Most likely he realised that being a plugin developer didn't suit him and he got tired of being pestered about a project that wasn't going to make him any money. Even if he had put out the SQ8X, any resulting cashflow probably wouldn't have made up for the huge amount of work he put into it.

I'm considering emailing Rainer Buchty myself and asking him if he ever considered approaching another developer to continue the work (with Kullman's blessing). Would rather that someone else do it though, as I'm a pretty cold and distant person.

[knowix]

Well I got in contact with Rainer Buchty. He said the source code is never likely to be available to him or others. Also, though he had considered working with other developers, he didn't seem interested in spear-heading a new emulation himself.

Seems like there's definitely not going to be any more development done on SQ8L.

So the only other option is leaving an SQ80 on Patrick Kunz's doorstep in the hope he'll emulate it out of curiousity

[MRT]

Truly a great synth and one of a handful I'd love to see as 64bit. At this point it seems the only thing left is to generate an elaborate conspiracy theory and hope it's picked up for a movie?