Cherry Audio Releases GX-80 Synthesizer

[trackbout]

vibe check passed.

[simmo75]

Exactly what we needed just after Arturia released their updated CS-80.

This is quite different from the Arturia. It's dual layer (so four ranks instead of two). It has a model of the GX-1 filter, which is different from the CS-80. Other things like inverse filter envelopes, stereo panning, etc.

And it doesn’t have MPE…
Seems Cherry are giving up on MPE.

[SHall1000]

What upgrade price from synth stack 2 to 3 are you seeing in your account? I am only the DC106 short of synth stack 2 and am seeing $133. Thanks.

[Teksonik]

I came to see how many pages before someone wrote "it doesn't sound anything like the hardware". Turns out it only took two posts.

Trying the demo and it's the usual Cherry Audio synth. Price is low, sounds good but not groundbreaking, GUI is fairly low quality and CPU demand is rather high for the sound returned.

All I can say to this and to the hardware CS80 as well is.........

[rsaintjohn]

Richard d James just called me telling it sounds nowhere close to his GX1.
Did Mark Barton got hold of a gx1 to analyse ?
I guess not .

“I've spent considerable time playing a GX-1 and a CS-80. You've captured the nature of GX-1.” - Michael Whalen

“I have used both the GX-1 and the CS-80 for many years and they do not sound or perform like anything else. GX-80 uncannily captures the essence of Yamaha’s polyphonic heyday in the mid-70s and the results are so powerful, expressive, and flexible.” - Vince Pupillo Jr (EMEAPP, whose GX-1 is featured in our video and on our site)

They've both played the GX-1, the CS-80, and now the GX-80. There may not be a lot of musicians who can speak to the GX-1 with hands-on experience, but there are two of them. Your mileage may vary.

And it doesn’t have MPE…
Seems Cherry are giving up on MPE.

Not at all. We recently released Sines, which does support MPE. GX-80 and Elka-X do not have MPE support because the dual layers do not work well with our implementation of MPE.

[Sinisterbr]

vibe check passed.

Hmm, no.

[wagtunes]

Let me start off by saying, I'm a HUGE Cherry Audio fan, so take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt.

The last synth I bought was back in 2021. Viper and Knifonium. I have bought no synths in 2022. Quite honestly, most stuff that comes out now bores me to tears.

Then I got the email about this synth and was excited about a synth for the first time in a long time. After hearing the demos, I was even more excited.

Then I read the reviews here about the interface not being clear. The first thing I thought was, "Oh great. A terrific sounding synth that I'm not going to get because I can't read the controls." So I downloaded the demo to check it out. Sure enough, unreadable. However, that being at the default size.

Now I have to regress a little.

Arturia, as most of you I'm sure know, came out with their CS80 a long time ago. The original was very small and unreadable. Then they came out with the CS80 V3 with the resizable interface and I was finally able to use this synth. Soundwise, it's good. Not great, but good. I'm pleased with it.

But then I looked at the GX80 and I was very disappointed. Then I saw, as with the CS80 V3, you could resize it, albeit not as elegantly as the CS80 V3. But I did and then did a comparison between the two, which you can see below

https://i.imgur.com/1qvte6h.png

https://i.imgur.com/JkX3gZB.png

As you can see, the GX80, resized, is actually sharper than the CS80 V3. While it's not my favorite solution, it will allow me to use the synth.

Having said all that, what do people actually expect from a synth with an interface the size of Texas? Everyone had to know that any emulation of this massive synth is not going to be as easy to read as a Minimoog. It's not happening. If you can't accept that, these massive interface synths simply aren't for you.

Bottom line for me:

I love the sound of this synth. For $59, it's a no brainer. I'm sorry I don't have a polyaftertouch keyboard. This synth might just push me to getting one. It is without a doubt one of my favorite sounding synths of the hundreds that I own.

Take that for whatever it's worth to you

[Reverend Rhythm]

Some interesting reviews over on Music Players Forum. They seem to like it. https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/18 ... dio-gx-80/

[Kross2]

the UI is poor and hard to see....

This is what the Focus zoom-in is for. It's designed to give you the best of both worlds, you can see all parameters at once with a quick glance (no menus or sub-panels) and then can use Focus to see the parameters you want to edit more clearly.

The polyphonic aftertouch deserves some discussion:

"Support for both polyphonic and monophonic aftertouch, plus a unique "last-note priority" mode for simulated polyphonic aftertouch response"

Yes...the Focus feature is handy(but it shouldn't be a requirement, as a means of compensation for an overall blurry GUI.) I understand CA's production limitations in relation to their low pricing....but I would much prefer that Cherry Audio go with higher pricing, for more user-friendly GUI's and usable CPU levels.

[teilo]

[Kross2]

Then I read the reviews here about the interface not being clear. The first thing I thought was, "Oh great. A terrific sounding synth that I'm not going to get because I can't read the controls." So I downloaded the demo to check it out. Sure enough, unreadable. However, that being at the default size.

Now I have to regress a little.

Arturia, as most of you I'm sure know, came out with their CS80 a long time ago. The original was very small and unreadable. Then they came out with the CS80 V3 with the resizable interface and I was finally able to use this synth. Soundwise, it's good. Not great, but good. I'm pleased with it.

But then I looked at the GX80 and I was very disappointed. Then I saw, as with the CS80 V3, you could resize it, albeit not as elegantly as the CS80 V3. But I did and then did a comparison between the two, which you can see below

https://i.imgur.com/1qvte6h.png

https://i.imgur.com/JkX3gZB.png

As you can see, the GX80, resized, is actually sharper than the CS80 V3. While it's not my favorite solution, it will allow me to use the synth.

Having said all that, what do people actually expect from a synth with an interface the size of Texas? Everyone had to know that any emulation of this massive synth is not going to be as easy to read as a Minimoog. It's not happening. If you can't accept that, these massive interface synths simply aren't for you.

In my Reason 10 DAW, the GX-80's default size takes up my entire screen and it's blurry(that's bullsh*t.) So...going above 80% is pointless and I have no choice but to use the Focus feature, every time I want to make an adjustment.
Both Arturia and Cherry Audio made fantastic renderings, to be fair....however, there are a number of trade-offs that will force me to eventually buy both VST's. So in total, it's going to cost me $210 to have everything I want from Yamaha's classic keyboards(which is fine actually, since the original cost of the CS-80 was $107,642!)

[El°HYM]

Kind of pointless going on with the Aliasing thing, as we already know that Cherry Audio stuff usually runs at 48kHz internally.

I stand corrected (VM is still running at 48kHz).

Q Oversampling Quality - The Q button sets GX-80's internal oversampling rate; the higher the setting, the better audio fidelity will be, with the caveat that more computer processing power will be required.

Internal processing can be set to 1x (same rate as the current sample rate of the host DAW or in the Settings>Audio/MIDI window for the standalone version) or to 2x, 3x, or 4x the current sample rate. The sample rate is downsampled at the instrument output stage to match the current host sample rate.

For example, if the current DAW/instrument sample rate setting is 48 kHz, and oversampling is set to 2x, GX-80's internal processing runs at 96 kHz, and is then reduced back to 48kHz at the output stage. 

If the current DAW/instrument sample rate setting is 192 kHz and oversampling is set to 4x, GX-80's internal processing will run at 768 kHz, and you will very briefly hear the most ameeeezing synthesizer sound quality ever experienced by mankind before your computer instantaneously explodes in a fiery, white-hot supernova blaze. Ok, maybe not.

https://docs.cherryaudio.com/cherry-aud ... op-toolbar

[FotoxBr]

I already had most synths from CA except for Miniverse , Lowdown, Elka and this new one GX-80.
Now I bought Synthstack 3 for 89 Euro to make the series complete. So for 30 Euro more than GX-80 alone I got 3 other synths. So please check your synthstack 3 price if you already own some other CA synths.

btw
Although my eyes are certainly not the best , I wear multifocus spectacles, I have no readability issues with these synths on my mbp 13 inch , let alone on my 32 inch 4k screen.

[teilo]

I had Synthstack 2 and everything that came out after that. My price was $29.75.

[plexuss]

I already had most synths from CA except for Miniverse , Lowdown, Elka and this new one GX-80.
Now I bought Synthstack 3 for 89 Euro to make the series complete. So for 30 Euro more than GX-80 alone I got 3 other synths. So please check your synthstack 3 price if you already own some other CA synths.

btw
Although my eyes are certainly not the best , I wear multifocus spectacles, I have no readability issues with these synths on my mbp 13 inch , let alone on my 32 inch 4k screen.

FYI I have all the synths except GX80. My Synth Stack 3 price is $30. I confirmed with Cherry that if you migrate to the Synth Stack it should not affect the individual licenses you own in that you should still be able to transfer individual synth licenses if you want.