XILS Lab CS-80!!!!!!

[teilo]

3 or 4 Split presets on a bi-timbral synth ? That's just weird they didn't release more split presets , when the entire point of the CS80 was it's bi-timbral options.

There were no bi-timbral options on the CS-80. There was only a mixer that blended both lines into a single layer. You could change the blend with the mixer, and set velocity or aftertouch response on each line's VCA level. There were no splits unless you made after-market modifications to it. The CS-80 was not bi-timbral in the modern sense.

[Digivolt]

Survey: Does anyone use the graphic keyboard on plugins? Are there people clicking on those keys? I can't imagine.

I do occassionally click the virtual keys yes but I also agree they're not important to functionality of the synth

[Vortifex]

Survey: Does anyone use the graphic keyboard on plugins? Are there people clicking on those keys? I can't imagine.

Nope. Completely pointless. I always hide them when given the option.

[zvenx]

When I create a new instance of a plugin in my DAW and there is no sound, I sometimes (like maybe 5 times in total in the entire year ) would click on a graphic keyboard to see if the issue is with the plugin or elsewhere.. that is the only time... and yep, I always hide them when given the option.
rsp

[machinesworking]

It’s hard to imagine why they'd be proud of the saw/filter/chorus comparisons on their website, they're so far from the hardware it almost stopped me from trying it out, almost.

I got about 10 minutes into demoing before buying. It has that super alive vibe that the PolyKB and V+ have, it’s just more animated and interesting than other emulations I’ve tried. Love the sound.

The preset browser is a disaster. No arrow key navigation is dumb, and why are some words always highlighted in green even when nothing is selected? Makes no sense. Also there are typos and dupes in the preset names and type names, hopefully Xils will clean that up as you can’t overwrite the factory presets to fix them yourself.

Btw, I was able to get it on Thomann for $68, not sure if that's some kind of glitch but it worked.

Ugh now I'm going to try the demo, and owning Syn'X, PolyKB, and XiLs4 I know just how ancient and slow their browser system is. I do like their synths, but the whole skeuomorphic over practical thing they do sometimes is annoying. I wonder what decade it will be before they fix their cumbersome browser? Syn'X got gui updates that improved it, so did PolyKB, now they have a new synth that will need to be updated to not slavishly follow the exact look of the hardware?

[bmanic]

Just installed the 15 day iLok demo and within the very first 10 seconds I had two extremely frustrating "nope, time to delete this plugin" experiences.

1) The GUI is even worse than I thought it would be. It's almost as bad as the Arturia (which is horrible). This is the kind of synth that really needs to be divided up into parts and to get rid of the keyboard that takes up so much unnecessary space.

2) The SUSTAIN PEDAL isn't registered on the first default preset.

EDIT2: You need to manually assign which polarity your sustain pedal is. The plugin can't detect it itself (unlike most other synths where you just press it and it gets flipped the correct way around). You can find it under settings/Misc tab. Still.. even trying both options the sustain pedal just isn't working unless I manually assign it to the sustain lever. This really should just work right out of the box as it does for Arturia, Softube, NI etc.

EDIT: Cleaned up some frustration.

[bmanic]

Also why on earth is the 'Factory/INIT Two lines PWM' preset so completely out of tune? Who on earth would want to start with a preset that is so out of whack? Stuff like this should be immediately caught in beta testing or quality control.

[vitocorleone123]

XILS synths sound great, and the UX inspires me to delete them.

[Examigan]

Also why on earth is the 'Factory/INIT Two lines PWM' preset so completely out of tune? Who on earth would want to start with a preset that is so out of whack? Stuff like this should be immediately caught in beta testing or quality control.

I mentioned it during beta testing but it wasn’t changed.

I adjusted that tuning, tweeked some other settings, and saved my own preset.

[bmanic]

Also why on earth is the 'Factory/INIT Two lines PWM' preset so completely out of tune? Who on earth would want to start with a preset that is so out of whack? Stuff like this should be immediately caught in beta testing or quality control.

I mentioned during beta testing but it wasn’t changed.

Then it's not on you beta guys. Well done for reporting it as it really should be fixed. It gives an immediate bad feel for the synth.

Do you have a working sustain pedal with the synth? I can't get mine to work with it and it works just fine with every other synth I have here (both hardware and software). Or is the only way truly to MIDI CC map it to the sustain lever??

[Examigan]

Also why on earth is the 'Factory/INIT Two lines PWM' preset so completely out of tune? Who on earth would want to start with a preset that is so out of whack? Stuff like this should be immediately caught in beta testing or quality control.

I mentioned during beta testing but it wasn’t changed.

Then it's not on you beta guys. Well done for reporting it as it really should be fixed. It gives an immediate bad feel for the synth.

Do you have a working sustain pedal with the synth? I can't get mine to work with it and it works just fine with every other synth I have here (both hardware and software). Or is the only way truly to MIDI CC map it to the sustain lever??

I don’t have one unfortunately so can’t test that part.

[hey212]

I mentioned it during beta testing but it wasn’t changed.

Did the subject of copy/pasting one synthesis lane to another ever come up? Seems like an obvious oversight, unless I've missed a trick.

[bmanic]

XILS CS-80 version is clearly emulating a much more "worn down/broken" unit than Arturia's emulation. Just set everything to INIT settings and mute all oscillators except osc 1 and now simply play a few notes in an octave and you can hear just how unstable it is, even if you reset everything to zero. There's no way to make this emulation "less worn", unlike the Arturia which sounds pretty pristine.. probably like an exceptionally well maintained CS-80 would sound or one from back in the day, straight from the factory. On the opposite end, with the advanced features of Arturias version you CAN simulate a very worn out CS-80 too (and I'm not talking about the voice dispersion panel).

[Examigan]

I mentioned it during beta testing but it wasn’t changed.

Did the subject of copy/pasting one synthesis lane to another ever come up? Seems like an obvious oversight, unless I've missed a trick.

Yep, I suggested that one and it was added. There are Copy buttons (CPY) in the presets section on the right side of the rows of buttons.

[hey212]

Oh nice, I was looking near the slider lanes, totally missed that. Thanks for getting it added!