FXpansion D-CAM: Synth Squad for sale now!

[ckatrun411]

I think I get it...

Absolutely awesome sounding distortion. A rarity for software indeed. I wont guess how awesome, till Synth Squad is released. The distortion might sound near Mesa quality, that is unbelievable to my ears.



Could it be possible? Are we about to see software synths, with guitar amplifier quality distortion? That would be a revolution indeed.

You can not currently distort the digital synthesizer hardware as well as a lowly solid/valve state Marshall or Crate, let alone a true tube Carvin or Mesa...

[MitchK1989]

Some of those leads just rip.

Are the same filter models in strobe and cypher, or are they different?

I'm mostly interested in cypher out of all the ones in the pack.

[mm_FX]

ckatrun411 - one of the coolest things is definitely the ability to drive the VCA like a real synth. As well as this Strobe has a nice drive stage in the filter that really varies the character of the filter. Cypher has dual waveshaper drive stages that work polyphonically. These can be placed before or after the filters. I think you'll like the analog noise parameter as well which introduces some pretty neat analog chaos into the circuit. These things can get very dirty and unstable if you want them to.

mitchk1989 - they are different. Cypher has ladder and SVF models, Andy will have to fill you in on the Strobe one. Strobe has a LOT of filter modes that let you make incredibly varied sounds.

[Angus_FX]

Morning gents,

Just to answer a few assorted questions from the thread...

When - spring 2009.

Price - hasn't been finally confirmed, will let you know as soon as I do.

Downloadable version - not initially, sorry. The packaging we're using for this is more environmentally friendly than BFD2, but right now the situation is that a) most people prefer to shop at brick-and-mortar stores, and b) those same stores hate downloads like poison. We would prefer to be able to offer both, but for the time being that's not possible - you'll notice on our web store that everything we do is either one or t'other, never both.

Demo version - should be possible once we figure out the details, probably not from from day one tho.

@fas1piano - can you clarify what you mean by 'sending vst data on scene changes'? Happy to test if we know what to look for. Not sure that the synths themselves have more than 127 learnable controls (genuine question - how many physical controllers do you work with live?) - of course, the modulation system is one-to-many with variable depth/polarity on each, so one physical knob or fader can make a lot happen musically.

@Mitch - there shouldn't be any import duty payable, you do however have to pay shipping (or order from a local brick-and-mortar who ship for free).

Hope that helps,
Angus.

[Kriminal]

most people prefer to shop at brick-and-mortar stores

for VST stuff? Really?

[Angus_FX]

@Kriminal - perhaps surprisingly.. very much yes. Experience shows that a lot of VSTi-users, especially those for whom soft synths are a means to an end rather than something they live and breathe, see brick-and-mortar presence as a greater validation of the product than (for example) good magazine reviews.

Cheers,
Angus.

[kritikon]

Strange. I can't remember the last time I went to a music store. The only reason nowadays would be to buy h/w. It's one of the benefits of s/w - no middleman hiking of prices - although I do prefer printed manuals. First time Cubase went to a CD manual, I felt cheated, must admit. TBH though - I can't think of that many places in NZ where I could buy something like these synths if they were boxed only. There's Rockshop, but as you can guess from the name - s/w and anything without strings is not their forte. If I had to go to Auckland to buy them, it's a deal-breaker. No way I'm driving 7-8 hours for s/w.

Where do you get your figures at FXpansion? Are you sure? I thought music shops were going tits up back in England like skittles at the moment?

[Kriminal]

@Kriminal - perhaps surprisingly.. very much yes. Experience shows that a lot of VSTi-users, especially those for whom soft synths are a means to an end rather than something they live and breathe, see brick-and-mortar presence as a greater validation of the product than (for example) good magazine reviews.

Cheers,
Angus.

are you sure you dont mean ppl buy boxed versions, from 'real' stores...but online?

its been a longtime since i went to a music house...especially to look at software, years infact (prob the original Korg Legacy, cos of the controller)

[Fr@nk]

As FXpansion's german distributor I can assure you that (at least here in "middle Europe") we sell a lot of boxes through the regular "traditional" sales channels. The same is true for MODARTT, Arturia etc ...

Things might be different in other countries and different places arround the world though ...
And one should not forgett that not everybody does speak english. In most countries you need at least someone who does speak the local language and knows the local market.

And once a product gets a little more complex you need some sort of support. You would be surprised how much support is handled by dealers and distributors before a question finds it's way into a forum like KVR or others.

Of course I might be biased but, so this is just my 0,02 Euro.

Cheers

Frank

[Angus_FX]

kritikon - yes, I'm sure; do you think Ableton, NI, Arturia etc. would go to the hassle and expense of making boxes if they didn't need to? If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that people that post on KvR threads are a self selecting sample, not a random cross-section of VSTi-users as a whole. Without naming any names.. I know for a fact that products which get equal amounts of coverage and respect on KvR can differ in units sold by easily 10:1 and sometimes 50:1 out in the 'real world', and good retail partnerships make up the bulk of that.

We've lost one major music retail chain here in the UK, not because they weren't shifting units.. word is, they took out a large loan with one or both of the Scottish banks to grow market share aggressively by opening new stores and acquiring their competitors.. when the loan got called in, it was impossible to refinance thanks to the credit crunch, and the whole thing went belly up.

The very biggest developers (Ableton, NI...) can get away with selling downloads - the stores would have to be insane not to carry those, so they can do more-or-less as they please. FXpansion, as with other medium sized outfits like Arturia, Spectrasonics etc., do not have that luxury. Fr@nk's point about support for non-English speakers is very valid as well.

Cheers,
Angus.

[auricle]

Which retail chain is that, Angus?

[fas1piano]

@fas1piano - can you clarify what you mean by 'sending vst data on scene changes'? Happy to test if we know what to look for.

brainspawn forte stores the vst save state in "scenes" (a data "blob" containing all the vst data). upon scene change, forte will send the blobs to all vsts. you can update a scene when you have edited a vst at any time. it feels like a keyboard workstion this way, very cool for playing, especially with many vsts and quick changes.

for this to work, it is important, though, that vsts change patches quickly and glitch-free and that all relevant parameters are saved correctly.

Not sure that the synths themselves have more than 127 learnable controls (genuine question - how many physical controllers do you work with live?) -

i use various pages of a (actually two) bcr2000 to edit my synths. each page is programmed to contain about 110 midi CC (including the banking feature for the 8 encoders on top and using the push encoders) and a few Program Changes, each on its own midi channel. ideally, i won't need to look at the screen for most editing tasks. sometimes, not all controllers on a bcr page are used, i like the layout to stay somewhat logical.

while playing live, i use much less controls, but it sure is nice to grab a knob during rehearsal and adjust something quickly, especially with more simple subtractive synths, like strobe will be.


fab

[hakey]

Price - hasn't been finally confirmed, will let you know as soon as I do.

Software paid for in Euros or Dollars is suddenly becoming significantly, perhaps prohibitively, more expensive for us UK buyers (and I can see things getting much worse in the next 6 months) and I had been kind of assuming that FXpansion, being a British company, would at least offer reasonable value for us. So I really hope your not tempted, as sterling continues its downward trend, to hike the pound price up to match the dollar/euro price for comparable software.

[Angus_FX]

@auricle - that is, or rather was, Sound Control and Turnkey. If you google around, what happened there is fairly well documented.

@fas1piano - should be fine, yep, patch change is pretty quick on these.

@hakey - we try to be fair to buyers in all countries.. fwiw, I figure the GBP's total weakness against the Euro may be relatively short lived.. dunno how closely you follow these things, but the US$ went ultra weak against the pound and euro about 8 months ago (GBP1 = USD2.10 at one point.. it's now GBP1 = USD1.39), then the pound tanked as well as the crunch spread to here, and next it'll be the euro's turn as the ruined Brits and Americans stop buying all those nice German cars and sequencers - so don't expect to see GBP1 = EUR1 pricing from us, but nor GBP1 = EUR1.5 either. 'Course, I might be completely wrong on this

[Fr@nk]

You guys should just join the Euro and things would be much easier ...
But this discussion is way off topic ... sorry for that!

On topic:
One feature that I like and that has not been mentioned before:
the envelopes can be looped and synchronized to clock. The speed of the looped envelopes gets up to the audio range and you get some really nasty sounds just by using this loop mode ...

Frank