SWAY - a synth modeled after the Yamaha SY77

[ekwipt]

Urs also has a team of programmers and preset makers

[audiojunkie]

Zebra 3 has been in development for about 15 years and is shipped with some 300 presets.
If sheaf has worked on SWAY for 4 years, then 80 presets is a roughly proportionate ratio!
However, Urs has been in the game for a long time and has gathered a huge following with his legendary synths.
So, the Zebra 3 preset collection reads like a who's who of top notch patch creators. Consequently, there's a lot of variation that paints a wide panorama of different Zebra 3 styles and genres.
That may also be a factor to consider when building the SWAY factory preset collection.
/JHS

I think the biggest factor right now, is creating and mapping and looping the samples as small as they can be. <--I'm reading between the lines here, and can't say with certainty.

[Benjamin923]

If I were sheaf I’d either look into paying some of the comparatively smaller/more accessible preset designers (just look at the factory banks of some smaller synth releases and contact the factory authors), or do some sort of free open beta and allow people to submit presets and receive a free license or something if they get picked.

It’s possible 128 presets or something is enough, not totally sure honestly. Airwave kind of got away with that recently, but it is a bit small of a factory banks in today’s market.

[IvyBirds]

I don't think people who will buy SWAY upon release are looking for a massive preset library of thousands or even hundreds of presets. They want the actual synth engine to roll their own sounds, or import the thousands of SY77 presets easily available online

Making 128 isn't much different than having 80, and quite honestly hiring sound designers to make presets costs money which has to be recouped and that means the plugin would have to be more expensive

Once it's out users can feel free to make and share presets or even sell preset packs if you think there is a market for them

This plugin isn't being made by Spectrasonics, or U-he, or UVI, or Steinberg. It's a labor of love by teeny tiny operation

Let's not delay the release and up the cost just to make presets

[Uncle E]

Plus, doesn't this load SY77 sysex? There are thousands of presets out there, including 448 that are free:

https://bobbyblues.recup.ch/yamaha_sy77 ... banks.html

[Benjamin923]

Fair points. Do we know what pricing is targeted for this? That heavily influences how important or unimportant an extensive preset bank is

[audiojunkie]

Plus, doesn't this load SY77 sysex? There are thousands of presets out there, including 448 that are free:

https://bobbyblues.recup.ch/yamaha_sy77 ... banks.html

None of the presets will work correctly unless the PCM side of things is recreated to match the original soundbanks. I don't know if Sheaf has decided to do that or not. There was some hesitation at one point on that part. I know he's working on the PCM side of things right now, but I don't know if he's creating an original PCM soundset for this plugin (which would make all of the sysex presets not work), or if he is trying to recreate cleanly the PCM side of things.

[Examigan]

Maybe they can offer a free license in trade for a certain amount of presets. Then take only the best out of all that are submitted for when it’s released.

[audiojunkie]

I don't think people who will buy SWAY upon release are looking for a massive preset library of thousands or even hundreds of presets. They want the actual synth engine to roll their own sounds, or import the thousands of SY77 presets easily available online

Making 128 isn't much different than having 80, and quite honestly hiring sound designers to make presets costs money which has to be recouped and that means the plugin would have to be more expensive

Once it's out users can feel free to make and share presets or even sell preset packs if you think there is a market for them

This plugin isn't being made by Spectrasonics, or U-he, or UVI, or Steinberg. It's a labor of love by teeny tiny operation

Let's not delay the release and up the cost just to make presets

But if the PCM samples have not been completed, it serves no purpose to release the synth. You wouldn't be able to make presets of any uncompleted PCM sample sets.

[audiojunkie]

@Sheaf: What framework are you using to build this plugin? I'm curious, because right now there is a problem with JUCE 8 and Windows apps run through WINE on Linux. If you aren't using JUCE 8, then I'll most likely be in good shape for when this is released.

[beely]

None of the presets will work correctly unless the PCM side of things is recreated to match the original soundbanks. I don't know if Sheaf has decided to do that or not. There was some hesitation at one point on that part.

How this is implemented has been fairly well discussed previously. Those Yamaha sample ROMs from the hardware cannot be distributed with the plugin for obvious reasons, so Sheaf is making his own sample set, similar to the ROM contents, to ship with the plugin. So any presets will use that PCM data, and thus won't sound exactly like the Yamaha presets, but will be in the ballpark generally.

The plugin has the ability to load the actual Yamaha ROM data, so for those with the ROM content can use it if they choose, and in that way the plugin and presets etc should be accurate to the original.

[IvyBirds]

But if the PCM samples have not been completed, it serves no purpose to release the synth. You wouldn't be able to make presets of any uncompleted PCM sample sets.

Sure it does because many people myself included don't give two sh*ts about the sample content anyway

I just want the FM part, which is what many people used the SY77 for anyway. It was an enhanced DX7 with 6op FM and more waveforms and other enhancements. Yamaha gave it samples to compete with the D50 and M1 as pure FM Synths were no longer selling as good

And if you just want SY77 presets, there are multiple SY77 sample libraries available by sample pack vendors large and small

The road map for SWAY includes sample import, the entire SY77 sample library can be found online and you should be easily able to import that if you want

Then of course is the fact that many people myself included could not care less if it came with zero presets as we will never use them

[audiojunkie]

None of the presets will work correctly unless the PCM side of things is recreated to match the original soundbanks. I don't know if Sheaf has decided to do that or not. There was some hesitation at one point on that part.

How this is implemented has been fairly well discussed previously. Those Yamaha sample ROMs from the hardware cannot be distributed with the plugin for obvious reasons, so Sheaf is making his own sample set, similar to the ROM contents, to ship with the plugin. So any presets will use that PCM data, and thus won't sound exactly like the Yamaha presets, but will be in the ballpark generally.

The plugin has the ability to load the actual Yamaha ROM data, so for those with the ROM content can use it if they choose, and in that way the plugin and presets etc should be accurate to the original.

Exactly. That's what I believed to be the case. (I added the disclaimers to CYA myself from any flamers wanting to roast me).

[audiojunkie]

I don't think people who will buy SWAY upon release are looking for a massive preset library of thousands or even hundreds of presets. They want the actual synth engine to roll their own sounds, or import the thousands of SY77 presets easily available online

Making 128 isn't much different than having 80, and quite honestly hiring sound designers to make presets costs money which has to be recouped and that means the plugin would have to be more expensive

Once it's out users can feel free to make and share presets or even sell preset packs if you think there is a market for them

This plugin isn't being made by Spectrasonics, or U-he, or UVI, or Steinberg. It's a labor of love by teeny tiny operation

Let's not delay the release and up the cost just to make presets

But if the PCM samples have not been completed, it serves no purpose to release the synth. You wouldn't be able to make presets of any uncompleted PCM sample sets.

Sure it does because many people myself included don't give two sh*ts about the sample content anyway

I just want the FM part, which is what many people used the SY77 for anyway. It was an enhanced DX7 with 6op FM and more waveforms and other enhancements. Yamaha gave it samples to compete with the D50 and M1 as pure FM Synths were no longer selling as good

And if you just want SY77 presets, there are multiple SY77 sample libraries available by sample pack vendors large and small

The road map for SWAY includes sample import, the entire SY77 sample library can be found online and you should be easily able to import that if you want

Then of course is the fact that many people myself included could not care less if it came with zero presets as we will never use them

My point is that without the PCM components, the plugin is not completely ready to be sold. I'm pretty sure Sheaf wants to complete the plugin before selling it. That was my point--not the presets.

[Uncle E]

It would be awesome if we could load our own sample banks, then the presets would reference whatever samples are in those positions.