Sytrus, best 59$ I've spent in a while!

[Cosmic Bandito]

Despite a few minor kinks, Sytrus is a wonderful sounding synth - best $59 bucks I've spent in a while. Very "hardwareish" sound, and can do both simple and complicated stuff very well. Hopefully some patch programming tips will appear somewhere!

Also, I think I've noticed the missing portamento (I use Live5). Sometimes the velocity of a group of notes played next to eachother will jump slightly from note to note - so I've got to be extra careful when "jamming in parts" during midi recording (requiring a few more takes than on other synths to get it "just right"). So yes, this last bit would go a long way for Sytrus users not using FL.

Thanks

[woodie]

Between Sytrus, Rhino and Dimension Pro, I dont ever ever ever need a VST synth again. I cant imagine not being able to find a sound I want between any of the three.

SAP - you have Dimension Pro already? How are you getting along with it?

I'll be 2/3 in the boat with you on that as I now have Sytrus and working on trying to get my hands on Dimension Pro right now. I'm using Live, so am planning to get the VST version. Right now it's still nowhere to be seen eventhough CW said it started shipping (13 days ago).

[Stupid American Pig]

Dimension pro is the bees knees. Its really capable of amazing sounds, the sample content is pretty good through out. Its pretty easy to create huge sounding and very usable patches. since its kinda OT for this thread, I will keep it brief, but this thread I mentioned some other things.

[woodie]

oh i can't wait until I get my hands on it...
cheers!

[DrApostropheX]

Between Dimension (P5v2 edition) and Sytrus, for synth sounds, Sytrus just seems to have a much fuller, richer sounds. Of course, it's not fair to compare Dimension and Sytrus.

[gbles]

When I originally asked this question I was not really referring to scalability, but comparison to FM7. I understand that CPU can vary with the complexity of the patch, but that is also true with FM7. However, FM7 is one of the most CPU efficient VSTi's on the market. Rhino, another favorite synth, is very heavy on the CPU and I tend to only use it when only it can create the sound I want. So I'm just wondering, with similar patch construction and sound, how does Sytrus compare?
Robert

To Rhino and FM7? A like for like patch is probably going to be fairly similar. In another post where somebody said that Sytrus was a CPU hog, Daven said that he had done some comparisons between FM7 and Sytrus, which FM7 just shaded.

[tony tony chopper]

I believe that FM7, which is a pure 6-op FM synth, is made to always process all 6 operators, doing 4 at once through SSE. Meaning that Sytrus, that can't really do this because there's also RM, and that not every preset uses FM, should be faster for simpler or non-FM presets, and slower for FM presets that use all 6 operators.

[Radek]

Despite a few minor kinks, Sytrus is a wonderful sounding synth - best $59 bucks I've spent in a while. Very "hardwareish" sound, and can do both simple and complicated stuff very well.

Well... comparing to actuall hardware (the Fs1r) the Sytrus has warmer sound when the Fs1r is colder, more "technical" and "metallic" I would say. Both are great but the Fs1r has one obvious advantage as it doesn't use any cpu's cycles.

We have also Toxic, another excellent FM type synthesiser. It's a pity FM wasn't explored further as summing capabilities of the Fs1r (8op + 8op unvoiced + formant seqences) and Sytrus (modmatrix, envelopes) could bring something beyond imagination. But this would need a dedicated hardware and after Fs1r's market fiasco no one will risk making such synth again.

Hopefully some patch programming tips will appear somewhere!

Yep, programming FM isn't straightforward but there are great articles on this topic on the SoundOnSound website.

[bmanic]

Anybody who thinks Sytrus is mainly for FM is fooling themselves big time. It's quite simply everything, except true sample playback or physical modelling, in one. This is what I call a true General Purpose synth and I can recommend it for anybody as their "my first synth" just because of the sheer number of very usable presets and because it has enough depth to it that anybody who truly wants, can learn and become a synth programming wizard.

Read any of the "how to program a synthesizer" books and you could use Sytrus as the example synth for it all!

My dream has always been to build a truly deep synthesizer in Reaktor/Synth Edit/Synth Maker but it's becoming increasingly clear that others have already done a far better job in C+/assembler, than I ever could. I now own Fabfilter One, NW Synth, Symptohm:Melohman and Sytrus. This combination, together with all the freeware, completely satisfies my needs (FL Studio handles the samples, or EnergyXT's sampler). I will never need another synth again.. .. ehm, maybe.

Cheers!
bManic

[gbles]

Never had the opportunity to listen to an FS1R, but heard great stuff about them. What features does it have that could feasibly be added into future versions of Sytrus? That is, Gol, if you intended to develop major releases of Sytrus in the future. Hopefully so, as its already a very cool synth.

[Radek]

Never had the opportunity to listen to an FS1R, but heard great stuff about them. What features does it have that could feasibly be added into future versions

The Fs1r has 16 operators (8 voiced and 8 unvoiced), so called "formant seqences", 88 algorithms (it doesn't have a free matrix like in the Sytrus) and pretty good effects section (thought only one insert). The rest isn't that advanced but still... it has close to 3000 parameters and when it showed (in 1997!) it was most advanced digital synth probably. It still can compete with everything very well today.

Unfortunately the Fs1r flopped and Yamaha stopped any futher development of its kind...

Try the free editor to have a better view on the Fs1r:
http://www4.airnet.ne.jp/k_take/fs1r_ed ... glish.html
Here you will find some interesting info too:
http://www.sitepassenger.com/thomas/fs1r/

I got used Fs1r because of curiosity and wanted something I could play on in the morning (without turning on the pc).

I was suprised by some Fs1r's sounds - it can do believable choirs (thanks to fseqs), guitars, flutes, organs and even some somewhat fake but... (non electric) pianos too. Yep and there nothing is stopping anyone to use Fs1r as typical VA except with up to four oscillators (two operators are needed to give usual VA's waves) and very nice filters (thought using them halves polyphony from 32 to 16, strange).

[Rabid]

I think the marketing was all wrong for the FS1r. It was pushed as a formant synth above all else. While that was nice it was not enough to entice prospective buyers. It should have been marketed as the next generation better sounding DX7 with added effects and formant synthesis.

I had one for a while and finally sent it off to ebay. It is really nice as hardware FM, but it was just a lot easier to create stuff in FM7 or Reaktor.

Robert

[LiteOn]

What is the copy-protection mechanism?

Thanks,
liteon

[bmanic]

Umm.. none, well, a .reg file is sent to you when you login to the imageline web site with your personal login code. You just run the .reg file and sytrus will work on your computer. Simple as that.

- bManic

[LiteOn]

Hi bmanic,

thank you.
I'm going to order right know - will perfectly supplement Tera2 and saves me FM7

cheers,
LiteOn